Orlando Furioso | Page 9

'tis
Bayardo's self I recognize.
How well the courser understands our
need!
Two riders ill a foundered jade would bear,
But hither speeds
the horse to end that care."
LXXIV
The bold Circassian lighted, and applied
His hand to seize
him by the flowing rein,
Who, swiftly turning, with his heels replied,

For he like lightning wheeled upon the plain.
Woe to the king! but
that he leaps aside,
For should he smite, he would not lash in vain.

Such are his bone and sinew, that the shock
Of his good heels had
split a metal rock.
LXXV
Then to the maid he goes submissively,
With gentle
blandishment and humble mood;
As the dog greets his lord with
frolic glee,
Whom, some short season past, he had not viewed.
For
good Bayardo had in memory
Albracca, where her hands prepared his
food,
What time the damsel loved Rinaldo bold;
Rinaldo, then
ungrateful, stern, and cold.
LXXVI
With her left hand she takes him by the bit,
And with the
other pats his sides and chest:
While the good steed (so marvellous
his wit),
Lamb-like, obeyed the damsel and caressed.
Meantime the
king, who sees the moment fit,
Leapt up, and with his knees the
courser pressed.
While on the palfrey, eased of half his weight,
The
lady left the croup, and gained the seat.

LXXVII
Then, as at hazard, she directs her sight,
Sounding in arms
a man on foot espies,
And glows with sudden anger and despite;

For she in him the son of Aymon eyes.
Her more than life esteems the
youthful knight,
While she from him, like crane from falcon, flies.

Time was the lady sighed, her passion slighted;
'Tis now Rinaldo
loves, as ill requited.
LXXVIII
And this effect two different fountains wrought,
Whose
wonderous waters different moods inspire.
Both spring in Arden,
with rare virtue fraught:
This fills the heart with amorous desire:

Who taste that other fountain are untaught
Their love, and change for
ice their former fire.
Rinaldo drank the first, and vainly sighs;

Angelica the last, and hates and flies.
LXXIX
Mixed with such secret bane the waters glide,
Which
amorous care convert to sudden hate;
The maid no sooner had
Rinaldo spied,
Than on her laughing eyes deep darkness sate:
And
with sad mien and trembling voice she cried
To Sacripant, and prayed
him not to wait
The near approach of the detested knight,
But
through the wood with her pursue his flight.
LXXX
To her the Saracen, with anger hot:
"Is knightly worship
sunk so low in me,
That thou should'st hold my valour cheap, and not

Sufficient to make yonder champion flee?
Already are Albracca's
fights forgot,
And that dread night I singly stood for thee?
That
night when I, though naked, was thy shield
Against King Agrican and
all his field?"
LXXXI
She answers not, and knows not in her fear
What 'tis she
does; Rinaldo is too nigh:
And from afar that furious cavalier

Threats the bold Saracen with angry cry,
As soon as the known steed
and damsel dear,
Whose charms such flame had kindled, meet his eye.

But what ensued between the haughty pair

I in another canto shall
declare.

CANTO 2
ARGUMENT
A hermit parts, by means of hollow sprite,
The two
redoubted rivals' dangerous play;
Rinaldo goes where Love and Hope
invite,
But is dispatched by Charles another way;
Bradamont,
seeking her devoted knight,
The good Rogero, nigh becomes the prey

Of Pinabel, who drops the damsel brave
Into the dungeon of a
living grave.
I
Injurious love, why still to mar accord
Between desires has been
thy favourite feat?
Why does it please thee so, perfidious lord,
Two
hearts should with a different measure beat?
Thou wilt not let me take
the certain ford,
Dragging me where the stream is deep and fleet.

Her I abandon who my love desires,
While she who hates, respect and
love inspires.
II
Thou to Rinaldo show'st the damsel fair,
While he seems hideous
to that gentle dame;
And he, who when the lady's pride and care,

Paid back with deepest hate her amorous flame,
Now pines, himself,
the victim of despair,
Scorned in his turn, and his reward the same.

By the changed damsel in such sort abhorred,
She would choose
death before that hated lord.
III
He to the Pagan cries: "Forego thy theft,
And down, false felon,
from that pilfer'd steed;
I am not wont to let my own be reft.
And he
who seeks it dearly pays the deed.
More -- I shall take from thee yon
lovely weft;
To leave thee such a prize were foul misdeed;
And
horse and maid, whose worth outstrips belief,
Were ill, methinks,
relinquished to a thief."
IV
"Thou liest," the haughty Saracen retorts,
As proud, and burning
with as fierce a flame,
"A thief thyself, if Fame the truth reports:

But let good deeds decide our dubious claim,
With whom the steed or
damsel fair assorts:
Best proved by valiant deeds: though, for the

dame,
That nothing is so precious, I with thee
(Search the wide
world throughout) may well agree."
V
As two fierce dogs will somtimes stand at gaze,
Whom hate or
other springs of strife inspire,
And grind their teeth, while each his
foe surveys
With sidelong glance and eyes more red than fire,
Then
either falls to bites, and hoarsely bays,
While their stiff bristles stand
on end with ire:
So from reproach and menace to the sword
Pass