The field and plunder to the conquering band
Were left; nor guard, nor muleteer remain❜d.
There fled Maganza's force, here fled the Moor,
Those left the prisoners, these their wealthy store.
With joyful looks, and with exulting mind,
The noble kinsmen hasten'd to unbind
Vivian and Malagigi, whilst a train

Bore heaps of treasure from the loaded wain;
Vases of silver wrought, (the victor's prize)
And female vests that flam'd with costly dyes;
Viands, on which their hunger might be fed,
With generous wines, and all-sustaining bread.
Each helm unlac'd, the noble warrior-maid
Appear'd confest: her golden locks display'd
Her hidden sex, and on her lovely face

195

200

205

Bright shone the charms that female features, grace. 210
With rapture, all the generous virgin view'd,

And now to learn her glorious name they su':
She, with her friends, to mild deportment us'd,
Complacent heard, nor what they wish'd refus'd.
On her, whose deeds so late their wonder rais'd,
Each ardent knight with eye insatiate gaz'd:
She on Rogero; him alone she heard,
With him alone she stood, with him conferr'd.

215

With that her glittering helmet she unlac'd,
Which doft her golden locks that were upbound
Still in a knot, unto her heels down trac’d.

Fairy Queen, Book III. C. iv. St. 13.

Foth poets compare their respective heroines to Bellona.

But now the pages call'd her to repair
Where, by a fountain's side, the feast to share,
In the cool shelter which a hill display'd,
Her friends repos'd beneath the grateful shade.
This fountain, rais'd with art, was one of four
Which Merlin made in France by magic lore;
Of purest marble was the structure bright,
With dazzling polish smooth, and milky white;
Here Merlin, by his skill divine, had brought
Expressive forms in rising sculpture wrought.
Thou would'st have said they seem'd in act to strive,
And breathe, and move--- in all but speech alive!

There, sculptur'd, from the woods a monster came,
Of fearful aspect, and of mingled frame:

220

225

230

Ver. 231. There, sculptur'd, from the woods a monster came,--Most of the commentators have explained this monster to mean Avarice, which had over-run all the Christian world, and brought scandal on the professors of the faith. Sir John Harington, who lived in an age of allegory, says, that Ariosto describes this vice very significantly; he makes "her ugly, because of all vices it is most hateful; ears of an ass, being for the most part ignorant, or at least careless of other men's good opinions; a wolf in head and breast, namely, ravenous and never satisfied; a lion's grisly jaw, terrible and devouring; a fox in all the rest, wily and crafty." See notes to Sir John Harington's translation of this book.

Lavezuola, a commentator, extols this description of Ariosto, as far superior to Dante, who simply represents Avarice in the form of a lean and hungry.wolf.

E una lupa, che di tutta brame,

Scontra carca con la sua magrezza,

E molte genti fè gia viver grame.

Inferno, Cant. I.

......Inflam'd with every fierce desire,

A famish'd she-wolf like a spectre came,

Beneath whose gripe shall many a wretch expire.

Hayley.

An ass's ears, a wolf's stern front he wore,

With ravening teeth as long undrench'd with gore;
A lion's rending paws: in all the rest

His shape and hue the wily fox express'd.

With rage untam'd he travers'd Gallia's land,
Spain, Italy, and England's distant strand:

Europe and Asia had his force o’er-run,

235

And every clime beneath the rolling sun.

Where'er he pass'd the wounds or deaths he dealt,
The low, the proud, and every station felt:
But most the last--his fellest wrath he pour'd
On king, on prince, on potentate, and lord.
The Roman court his worst of furies knew,
There popes and mitred cardinals he slew.
This beast the hallow'd seat of Peter soil'd,
And with lewd scandals the pure faith defil'd.
Before the monster's rage in ruins fall,
Each strong-built fort, and well-defended wall.
To honours e'en divine he dares pretend;
He makes th' insensate crowd in homage bend;
Bids servile tongues his impious glories swell,
And boasts to keep the keys of heaven and hell.

240

245

250

Mr. Upton thinks, that by this monster is characterised Superstition, as ignorant, ravenous, cruel, and cunning. See his note to Fairy Queen, Book I. C. viii. St. 48.

The different explanations prove the uncertainty that often attends allegorical description, though I cannot but think, from many circumstances, that Ariosto means to represent Avarice. Spenser, whose work is one continued allegory, would sometimes be totally unintelligible, but that he generally gives the names to his personified characters.

Ver. 254. And boasts to keep the keys, &c.] It is not easy to say how far Ariosto meant to carry his satire, but a Protestant commen

Behold a warrior near, who round his hairs
The sacred wreath of regal laurel wears:

Three youths beside, whose kingly vestments hold,
Inwrought with silk, the fleur-de-lis of gold:

255

With these a lion the like signal shows;

And all combin'd the raging beast oppose.

260

Of one the name is graven o'er his head,
The name of one is in his garment read.
Behold the chief, who to the hilt has gor'd
The monster's bowels with his crimson'd sword:
Francis the first of France---and near him stands
Great Maximilian, lord of Austria's lands;

265

The emp'ror Charles (the fifth that bears the name)
Has pierc'd his ravenous throat with deadly aim.
Henry the Eighth of England next succeeds,
Pierc'd by whose shaft in front the savage bleeds:
Leo the Tenth, the name yon lion bears,

Who fastening on his ears the monster tears:

Close and more close these four the foe invade,
And others now advancing join in aid.

270

Pale terror seems to fly from every place,

275

While, ready to retrieve each past disgrace,

The nobles, though but few, united strive,
And the dire pest at length of life deprive.

Marphisa with the knights impatient sought

To know the chiefs at full, whose arms had wrought 280

tator might very easily deduce from this passage a severe reflection on the sale of pardons and indulgences, in order to feed the avarice of the Romish clergy.

Ver. 271. Leo the Tenth, Pope Leo X. here figured under the similitude of a lion, in which manner the poet often speaks of him; a kind of punning allusion to his name.

A deed so brave, by whom the beast lay dead,
That far and wide such desolation spread;
Since the fair fount, with figures sculptur'd o'er,
The names discover'd, but reveal'd no more.
On Malagigi Vivian turns his eyes,

Who near in silence sat, and thus he cries:

'Tis thou must speak what all request to learn, For in thy looks thy knowledge I discern :

Say, what are those, whose weapons, well employ'd,
Have, with yon lion's aid, the beast destroy'd.

290

Then Malagigi---Think not you behold

A past event in story'd annals told;

Know first, the chiefs you see are yet unborn,

The chiefs whose deeds the marble fount adorn.

Seven hundred years elaps'd, their matchless worth 295
Shall gladden, in their age, the wondering earth:
Merlin, the magic sage, this fountain made,

What time the British realm king Arthur sway'd.
From hell this monster came to plague mankind,
When lands were first by stated bounds confin'd;
When commerce, weights, and measures first began,
When written laws were fram'd 'twixt man and man.
As
yet his power no distant realm attain'd,
But various countries long unhurt remain'd:
He troubles, in our age, full many a place,
And spreads his mischiefs through the human race,
Since first on earth appear'd th' infernal beast,
We see, and still shall see, his bulk increas'd

300

305

Beyond the worst of plagues; not that so fam'd
In ancient page, terrific Python nam'd,

310

Ver. 310.------ -terrific Python---] Python was a monstrous serpent, said by the ancient poets to have been engendered from the slime

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