Orlando Furioso | Page 4

will I tell?Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme,?On whom strange madness and rank fury fell,?A man esteemed so wise in former time;?If she, who to like cruel pass has well?Nigh brought my feeble wit which fain would climb?And hourly wastes my sense, concede me skill?And strength my daring promise to fulfil.
III?Good seed of Hercules, give ear and deign,?Thou that this age's grace and splendour art,?Hippolitus, to smile upon his pain?Who tenders what he has with humble heart.?For though all hope to quit the score were vain,?My pen and pages may pay the debt in part;?Then, with no jealous eye my offering scan,?Nor scorn my gifts who give thee all I can.
IV?And me, amid the worthiest shalt thou hear,?Whom I with fitting praise prepare to grace,?Record the good Rogero, valiant peer,?The ancient root of thine illustrious race.?Of him, if thou wilt lend a willing ear,?The worth and warlike feats I shall retrace;?So thou thy graver cares some little time?Postponing, lend thy leisure to my rhyme.
V?Roland, who long the lady of Catay,?Angelica, had loved, and with his brand?Raised countless trophies to that damsel gay,?In India, Median, and Tartarian land,?Westward with her had measured back his way;?Where, nigh the Pyrenees, with many a band?Of Germany and France, King Charlemagne?Had camped his faithful host upon the plain.
VI?To make King Agramant, for penance, smite?His cheek, and rash Marsilius rue the hour;?This, when all trained with lance and sword to fight,?He led from Africa to swell his power;?That other when he pushed, in fell despite,?Against the realm of France Spain's martial flower.?'Twas thus Orlando came where Charles was tented?In evil hour, and soon the deed repented.
VII?For here was seized his dame of peerless charms,?(How often human judgment wanders wide)!?Whom in long warfare he had kept from harms,?From western climes to eastern shores her guide?In his own land, 'mid friends and kindred arms,?Now without contest severed from his side.?Fearing the mischief kindled by her eyes,?From him the prudent emperor reft the prize.
VIII?For bold Orlando and his cousin, free?Rinaldo, late contended for the maid,?Enamored of that beauty rare; since she?Alike the glowing breast of either swayed.?But Charles, who little liked such rivalry,?And drew an omen thence of feebler aid,?To abate the cause of quarrel, seized the fair,?And placed her in Bavarian Namus' care.
IX?Vowing with her the warrior to content,?Who in that conflict, on that fatal day,?With his good hand most gainful succour lent,?And slew most paynims in the martial fray.?But counter to his hopes the battle went,?And his thinned squadrons fled in disarray;?Namus, with other Christian captains taken,?And his pavilion in the rout forsaken.
X?There, lodged by Charles, that gentle bonnibel,?Ordained to be the valiant victor's meed,?Before the event had sprung into her sell,?And from the combat turned in time of need;?Presaging wisely Fortune would rebel?That fatal day against the Christian creed:?And, entering a thick wood, discovered near,?In a close path, a horseless cavalier.
XI?With shield upon his arm, in knightly wise,?Belted and mailed, his helmet on his head;?The knight more lightly through the forest hies?Than half-clothed churl to win the cloth of red.?But not from cruel snake more swiftly flies?The timid shepherdess, with startled tread,?Than poor Angelica the bridle turns?When she the approaching knight on foot discerns.
XII?This was that Paladin, good Aymon's seed,?Who Mount Albano had in his command;?And late Baiardo lost, his gallant steed,?Escaped by strange adventure from his hand.?As soon as seen, the maid who rode at speed?The warrior knew, and, while yet distant, scanned?The angelic features and the gentle air?Which long had held him fast in Cupid's snare.
XIII?The affrighted damsel turns her palfrey round,?And shakes the floating bridle in the wind;?Nor in her panic seeks to choose her ground,?Nor open grove prefers to thicket blind.?But reckless, pale and trembling, and astound,?Leaves to her horse the devious way to find.?He up and down the forest bore the dame,?Till to a sylvan river's bank he came.
XIV?Here stood the fierce Ferrau in grisly plight,?Begrimed with dust, and bathed with sweat and blood?Who lately had withdrawn him from the fight,?To rest and drink at that refreshing flood:?But there had tarried in his own despite,?Since bending from the bank, in hasty mood,?He dropped his helmet in the crystal tide,?And vainly to regain the treasure tried.
XV?Thither at speed she drives, and evermore?In her wild panic utters fearful cries;?And at the voice, upleaping on the shore,?The Saracen her lovely visage spies.?And, pale as is her cheek, and troubled sore,?Arriving, quickly to the warrior's eyes?(Though many days no news of her had shown)?The beautiful Angelica is known.
XVI?Courteous, and haply gifted with a breast?As warm as either of the cousins two;?As bold, as if his brows in steel were dressed,?The succour which she sought he lent, and drew?His faulchion, and against Rinaldo pressed,?Who saw with little fear the champion true.?Not only each to each was known by sight,?But each had proved in arms his