Then from the shield the crimson covering rais'd;
In every eye the flashing splendor blaz'd:
The falc'ner tumbles senseless on the plain;
The dog and palfrey fall; the wings sustain
The bird no longer in his airy way;
Rogero leaves them all to sleep a prey.

The fatal tidings soon Alcina heard,
Rogero had escap'd and forc'd the guard;
At this such grief was o'er her senses spread,
That, for a time, her very soul was dead:

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80

She tore her garments, and her face she bruis'd,
And oft of mad neglect herself accus'd.
Then swift to arms she summon'd all her crew,

When soon around her gather'd forces drew :

Of these two bands she fram'd, while one she sent

85

T'explore the path her lov'd Rogero went;

The other to the harbour took their way,

And there, with speed embarking, put to sea:

Their sails, unnumber'd, all the stream o'ercast:

With these the desolate Alcina pass'd;

90

And, so Rogero had possess'd her mind,

Her palace left without a guard behind.
This gave Melissa, plac'd in secret there,
An ample time her mischiefs to repair;
To free the wretches who had long remain'd
In hapless state, in cruel thraldom chain'd.
Around the palace, searching every part,
She saw the spells of her malicious art;
The magic seals from many a place she took;
A thousand mystic forms and figures broke.

Then o'er each field she pass'd, each mead or grove;
Where the sad victims of Alcina's love,

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100

That, hid in fountains, trees, or beasts, deplor'd

Their hopeless change, she to their shapes restor❜d:

These, when they once their forms recover'd, view'd, 105 The brave Rogero's steps in haste pursu'd

To Logistilla, parting thence in peace

To Scythia, Persia, India, and to Greece,

With grateful hearts: but foremost of the train

The English duke resum❜d his form again:
The duke, to beauteous Bradamant ally'd;
For him the good Rogero first employ'd

His influence with the wise enchantress-maid;
And gave his wondrous ring the knight to aid.
Astolpho thus each manly grace regain'd,
And, by Melissa's means, his arms obtain❜d,

With that fam'd lance of gold, which forc'd to yield
The strongest warrior in the listed field.
Argalia first, Astolpho next the lance

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115

Possess'd; by this they both acquir'd in France 120

Ver. 117.--lance of gold,] This was the lance which Argalia brought with him into France, (see General View of Boyardo's Story) which after his death came into the possession of Astolpho, who at the tournament, made by Charlemain, overthrew with this all opponents. Boyardo, in Orlando Innam. calls it, una lanza dorata. So the unerring spear of Cephalus, cujus fuit aurea cuspis.

Ovid Met. B. vii.

Britomartis, in Spenser, has a lance of the same kind:

......... a mighty spear,

Which Bladud made, by magic art of yore,
And us'd the same in battle ay to bear,

Sith which it had been here preserv'd in store,
For his great virtues proved long afore:
For never wight, so fast in sell could sit,

But him perforce unto the ground it bore.

A mighty name: the lance Melissa found,

Kept in the palace of th' enchanted ground,

With all his other arms, which from the duke,

At his arrival there, Alcina took.

This done, she mounts the horse that cuts the wind, 125

Then seats Astolpho on the steed behind;

And then to Logistilla they repair,

Arriv'd an hour before Rogero there.

Meanwhile through rugged ways, with steep ascent,

Rogero to sage Logistilla went;

Till, numerous toils o'erpast, at noon of day

Beside the seas he held his weary way;

Slow pacing o'er the dry and barren strand,
The flood on one, the hills on t'other hand :
From the steep hills the beams reflected came;
The earth was parch'd, the air was all on flame!
The silent birds were hid in groves profound;
The grass-hopper alone with tedious sound,
While in the leafy shades conceal'd he lies,

130

135

Deafens the hills, the vales, the seas and skies!

140

Ver. 140. Deafens the hills, the vales-] In this hyperbole Ariosto seems to allude to the following line of Virgil:

Sole sub ardenti resonant arbusta cicadis!

To this passage in the edition of Virgil by Dr. Warton, is subjoined the following note, which is well worth transcribing, as it may be thought in some sort to apologize for the strength of Ariosto's ex. pression.

"I don't know how every body almost in England came to imagine that the cicada in the Roman writers was the same with our grasshopper, for their characters are different enough to have prevented any such mistake. The cicada is what the Italians now call cicala, and the French cigale. They make one constant uniform noise all day long in summer time, which is extremely disagreeable and tire

There heat, and thirst, and toil (an irksome crew!)
'The warrior's steps along the sand pursue.

But since my muse must various tales rehearse,
Nor one alone can claim my partial verse,

I leave Rogero here, and hasten o'cr

To seek Rinaldo on the Scottish shore.

The king, his daughter fair, and all the land, With great regard Rinaldo entertain'd:

145

At length the knight his embassy display'd
To beg from Scotland and from England aid;
He shew'd, beside his monarch's earnest prayer,

150

How glory call'd them to support the war.
To this the king reply'd without delay,
That to the furthest limits of his sway,
His soul was ever ready to maintain

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The empire's rights, and weal of Charlemain;
With promise to prepare, ere many days,
Whatever force his utmost power could raise,

some, particularly in the great heats. Their note is sharp and shrill in the beginning of summer, but hoarse and harsh towards the latter part of it. They are supposed to feed on the morning dew, and then fix on some sunny branch of a tree and sing all day long. It is hence that this insect is opposed to an ant in the old Æsopian fables, which is as industrious and inoffensive as the other is idle and troublesome. Virgil calls the cicada querule and rauce. Martial argute and inhumana. Their note is the more troublesome, because, in the great heats, they sing alone. Any one who has passed a summer in Italy, or in the south of France, will not think the epithet inhumanæ too severe for them." Spence.

See Dr. Warton's Eclog. II. ver. 16.

Ver. 145. I leave Rogero---] He returns to Rogero, Book x. ver. 231. Rinaldo was last spoken of in the vith book.

And had not years deprest his strength (he said)
Himself would combat at his army's head.
Yet should not age so damp his martial flame,
To keep him from the dangerous field of fame,
But that his son, his absence well supply'd,
With prudent counsel, and with courage try'd.
Though distant now from his paternal reign,
He hop'd to see him soon return again;
While he th' auxiliar troops assembled drew,

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165

For England's realm, the king with grateful heart
To Berwick's town convey'd the valiant peer,

175

There, parting, shed for grief a tender tear.

Soon in the poop the prosperous breezes blew;
Rinaldo went on board, and bade adieu.
The busy mariners their anchors ship,

And plough securely through the foamy deep

180

With rapid course: the silver Thames they gain,
Where first he mingles with the briny main:
Along the stream with oars and sails they fly,
Till London's stately towers salute their eye.
Rinaldo did from Charles and Otho bring
(Otho besieg'd in Paris with the king)
Commission to the prince, whose honour'd hand
By deputation rul'd the English land,

185

To raise supplies; and from fair Albion's coast.
Embark for Calais' shore the friendly host,

190