Yet could you not possess the beauteous prize, 145 This wisdom bids---be first secur'd the fair, 150 Ferrau with pleasure heard the Christian knight, Then both agreed t' adjourn the bloody fight; And now so firmly were they bound to peace, That, in no wise, the Pagan prince would view 155 O noble minds, by knights of old possess❜d ! Two faiths they knew, one love their hearts profess'd; 160 And still their limbs the smarting anguish feel, Of strokes inflicted by the hostile steel. 165 At length the horse, with double spurring, drew The place again thé wandering warrior view'd, Ver. 162. -- the smarting anguish feel,] See note to Book xii ver. 312. Since all his hopes to find his love were vain, A tall young poplar on the banks arose ; From this a branch he hew'd, and lopt the boughs: 175 180 185 When, rising from the troubled brook was seen In me her brother, whom thy weapon slew. 190 195 Seek one perchance of stronger temper'd charms; 200 Ver. 202. Mambrino, this; Almontes, that possess'd;] I do not find these actions recorded in Boyardo, but like many others mentioned But what I claim by sacred faith for mine, The Saracen beheld, with wild affright, The strange appearance of the phantom-knight; 205 in the work, Ariosto alludes to them as well-known incidents in the romance writers. In an old romance, in ottava rima, intituled Innamoramento di Rinaldo, apparently much prior to Ariosto, is a long account of a Pagan king, named Mambrino, who comes against Charlemain and the Christians with a vast army. He is at last killed by Rinaldo, but no particular mention is made of his helmet. This helmit of Mambrino, said by Ariosto to be won by Rinaldo, is the same which the reader must recollect to have seen so frequently mentioned in Don Quixote, and for which the knight of la Mancha took possession of a barber's bason. See Jarvis's Don Quixote, Vol. I. B. iii. C. vij. With respect to the death of Almontes, the following account is given in the romance poem of Aspramonte. Almontes, son of Agolant, and brother to Troyano, having embarked from Africa to revenge the death of Garnieri king of Carthage, his grandfather, killed by Milo, father of Orlando, had performed many great actions and slain Milo. He one day came to a fountain called Sylvestra, which was said to be made by St. Silvester, and that by tasting these waters Constantine was converted. Almontes here fell asleep, and was soon after surprised by Charle main. These two warriors then engaged in a dreadful combat, and Charlemain was very near being defeated, when Orlando, seeking Almontes, in order to revenge the death of his father, was met by a hermit, who incited him to go to the assistance of Charlemain. Orlando, having lost his sword, took an enormous mace or club from a dead Turk, and soon reached the fountain, where he attacked Almontes, who had just overpowered the emperor. Orlando, after an obstinate battle, killed Almontes, who, before his death, recollected the prophecy of his sister Galicella, that he should die by a fountain. Orlando then took possession of the armour of Almontes, which was inchanted, and of his horn, together with his horse Brigliadoro, and his sword Durindana, both so celebrated in Ariosto. See Aspramonte, Cant. xix. But when he heard Argalia, whom he slew, He made, to wear no head-piece o'er his brow, 210 215 Thence with sad steps in pensive mood he went, 220 And long remain'd in sullen discontent. Now here, now there he seeks the Christian knight, Rinaldo, who a different path had try'd, 225 Ver. 210.---Argalia,--] For an account of the death of Argalia, sce General View of Boyardo's Story. 'Ver. 214.--Lanfusa's life, a sacred vow--] Lanfusa was the mother of Ferrau. Such kind of vows were common with the knights in romance: thus Don Quixote,' in imitation of these, swears he will not rest till he has won a helmet by conquest. Don Quix. Part i, B. ii. C. ii. Ver. 223-hopes the fight.] We hear no more of Ferrau till the xiith book, ver. 169, where he is introduced as one of the knights confined in the enchanted palace of Atlantes, Through the thick forest fled with speed renew'd, Now turn we to Angelica, who speeds 230 235 Ver. 232.-Angelica, who speeds] Tasso seems to have had a reference to this, and the former passage, ver. 95, in describing the flight of Erminia. Mean while Erminia's rapid courser stray'd Through the thick covert of the woodland shade; Jerus. Del. B. vii, ver. 1. Still flies the damsel to her fears resign'd, Ver. 13. But our countryman Spenser more immediately follows Ariosto, in his account of Florimel, on a like occasion, in his Fairy Queen. Like as an hind forth singled from the herd, Each shade she saw, and each noise she did hear, All that same evening she in flying spent, B. iii. C. vii. |