CIV High prized withal, albeit it so abound, Is that best metal; lodges built in air Which on all sides the wealthy pile surround, Clear colonnades with crystal shafts upbear.

Of green, white, crimson, blue and yellow ground, A frieze extends below those galleries fair.

Here at due intervals rich gems combine, And topaz, sapphire, emerald, ruby shine.

CV In wall and roof and pavement scattered are Full many a pearl, full many a costly stone.

Here thrives the balm; the plants were ever rare, Compared with these, which were in Jewry grown, The musk which we possess from thence we bear, In fine those products from this clime are brought, Which in our regions are so prized and sought.

CVI The soldan, king of the Egyptian land, Pays tribute to this sovereign, as his head, They say, since having Nile at his command He may divert the stream to other bed.

Hence, with its district upon either hand, Forthwith might Cairo lack its daily bread.

Senapus him his Nubian tribes proclaim; We Priest and Prester John the sovereign name.

CVII Of all those Aethiop monarchs, beyond measure, The first was this, for riches and for might; But he with all his puissance, all his treasure, Alas! had miserably lost his sight.

And yet was this the monarch's least displeasure; Vexed by a direr and a worse despite; Hara.s.sed, though richest of those Nubian kings, By a perpetual hunger's cruel stings.

CVIII Whene'er to eat or drink the wretched man Prepared, by that resistless need pursued, Forthwith -- infernal and avenging clan -- Appeared the monstrous Harpies' craving brood; Which, armed with beak and talons, overran Vessel and board, and preyed upon the food; And what their wombs suffice not to receive Foul and defiled the loathsome monsters leave.

CIX And this, because upborn by such a tide Of full blown honours, in his unripe age, For he excelled in heart and nerve, beside The riches of his royal heritage, Like Lucifer, the monarch waxed in pride, And war upon his maker thought to wage.

He with his host against the mountain went, Where Egypt's mighty river finds a vent.

CX Upon this hill which well-nigh kissed the skies, Piercing the clouds, the king had heard recite, Was seated the terrestrial paradise, Where our first parents flourished in delight.

With camels, elephants, and footmen hies Thither that king, confiding in his might; With huge desire if peopled be the land To bring its nations under his command.

CXI G.o.d marred the rash emprise, and from on high Sent down an angel, whose destroying sword A hundred thousand of that chivalry Slew, and to endless night condemned their lord.

Emerging, next, from h.e.l.lish caverns, fly These horrid harpies and a.s.sault his board; Which still pollute or waste the royal meat, Nor leave the monarch aught to drink or eat.

CXII And him had plunged in uttermost despair One that to him erewhile had prophesied The loathsome Harpies should his daily fare Leave unpolluted only, when astride Of winged horse, arriving through the air, An armed cavalier should be descried.

And, for impossible appears the thing, Devoid of hope remains the mournful king.

CXIII Now that with wonderment his followers spy The English cavalier so make his way, O'er every wall, o'er every turret high, Some swiftly to the king the news convey.

Who calls to mind that ancient prophecy, And heedless of the staff, his wonted stay, Through joy, with outstretched arms and tottering feet, Comes forth, the flying cavalier to meet.

CXIV Within the castle court Astolpho flew, And there, with s.p.a.cious wheels, on earth descended; The king, conducted by his courtly crew, Before the warrior knelt, with arms extended, And cried: "Thou angel send of G.o.d, thou new Messiah, if too sore I have offended, For mercy, yet, bethink thee, 'tis our bent To sin, and thine to pardon who repent.

CXV "Knowing my sin, I ask not, I, to be -- Such grace I dare not ask -- restored to light; For well I ween such power resides in thee, As Being accepted in thy Maker's sight.

Let it suffice, that I no longer see, Nor let me with perpetual hunger fight.

At least, expel the harpies' loathsome horde, Nor let them more pollute my ravaged board;

CXVI "And I to build thee, in my royal hold, A holy temple, made of marble, swear, With all its portals and its roof of gold, And decked, within and out, with jewels rare.

Here shall thy mighty miracle be told In sculpture, and thy name the dome shall bear."

So spake the sightless king of Nubia's reign, And sought to kiss the stranger's feet in vain.

CXVII "Nor angel" -- good Astolpho made reply -- "Nor new Messiah, I from heaven descend; No less a mortal and a sinner I, To such high grace unworthy to pretend.

To slay the monsters I all means will try, Or drive them from the realm which they offend.

If I shall prosper, be thy praises paid To G.o.d alone, who sent me to thine aid.

CXVIII "Offer these vows to G.o.d, to him well due; To him thy churches build, thine altars rear."

Discoursing so, together wend the two, 'Mid barons bold, that king and cavalier.

The Nubian prince commands the menial crew Forthwith to bring the hospitable cheer; And hopes that now the foul, rapacious band, Will not dare s.n.a.t.c.h the victual from his hand.

CXIX Forthwith a solemn banquet they prepare Within the gorgeous palace of the king.

Seated alone here guest and sovereign are, And the attendant troop the viands bring.

Behold! a whizzing sound is heard in air, Which echoes with the beat of savage wing.

Behold! the band of harpies thither flies, Lured by the scent of victual from the skies.

CXX All bear a female face of pallid dye, And seven in number are the horrid band; Emaciated with hunger, lean, and dry; Fouler than death; the pinions they expand Ragged, and huge, and shapeless to the eye; The talon crook'd; rapacious is the hand; Fetid and large the paunch; in many a fold, Like snake's, their long and knotted tails are rolled.

CXXI The fowls are heard in air; then swoops amain The covey well nigh in that instant, rends The food, o'erturns the vessels, and a rain Of noisome ordure on the board descends.

To stop their nostrils king and duke are fain; Such an insufferable stench offends.

Against the greedy birds, as wrath excites, Astolpho with his brandished faulchion smites.

CXXII At croup or collar now he aims his blow, Now strikes at neck or pinion; but on all, As if he smote upon a bag of tow, The strokes without effect and languid fall.

This while nor dish nor goblet they forego; Nor void those ravening fowls the regal hall, Till they have feasted full, and left the food Waste or polluted by their rapine rude.

CXXIII That king had firmly hoped the cavalier Would from his royal seat the harpies scare.

He now, that hope foregone, with nought to cheer, Laments, and sighs, and groans in his despair.

Of his good horn remembers him the peer, Whose clangours helpful aye in peril are, And deems his bugle were the fittest mean To free the monarch from those birds unclean;

CXXIV And first to fill their ears, to king and train, With melted wax, Astolpho gives command; That every one who hears the deafening strain May not in panic terror fly the land.

He takes the reins, his courser backs again, Grasps the enchanted bugle in his hand; And to the sewer next signs to have the board Anew with hospitable victual stored.

CXXV The meats he to an open galley bears, And other banquet spreads on other ground.

Behold, as wont, the harpy-squad appears; Astolpho quickly lifts the bugle's round; And (for unguarded are their hara.s.sed ears) The harpies are not proof against the sound; In terror form the royal dome they speed, Nor meat nor aught beside the monsters heed.

CXXVI After them spurs in haste the valiant peer: And on the winged courser forth is flown, Leaving beneath him, in his swift career, The royal castle and the crowded town; The bugle ever pealing, far and near.

The harpies fly toward the torrid zone; Nor light until they reach that loftiest mountain Where springs, if anywhere, Nile's secret fountain.

CXXVII Almost at that aerial mountain's feet, Deep under earth, extends a gloomy cell.

The surest pa.s.s for him, as they repeat, That would at any time descend to h.e.l.l.

Hither the predatory troop retreat, As a safe refuge from the deafening yell.

As far, and farther than Cocytus' sh.o.r.e Descending, till that horn is heard no more.

CXXVIII At that dark h.e.l.lish inlet, which a way Opens to him who would abandon light, The terrifying bugle ceased to bray; -- The courser furled his wings and stopt his flight.

But, ere Astolpho further I convey, -- Not to depart from my accustomed rite -- Since on all sides the paper overflows, I shall conclude my canto and repose.

CANTO 34

ARGUMENT In the infernal pit Astolpho hears Of Lydia's woe, by smoke well-nigh opprest.

He mounts anew, and him his courser bears To the terrestrial paradise addrest.

By John advised in all, to heaven he steers; Of some of his lost sense here repossest, Orlando's wasted wit as well he takes, Sees the Fates spin their threads, and earthward makes.

I O fierce and hungry harpies, that on blind And erring Italy so full have fed!

Whom, for the scourge of ancient sins designed, Haply just Heaven to every board has sped.

Innocent children, pious mothers, pined With hunger, die, and see their daily bread, -- The orphan's and the widow's scanty food -- Feed for a single feast that filthy brood.

II Too foul a fault was his, who did unclose That cave long shut, and made the pa.s.sage free, From whence that greediness, that filth arose, Our Italy's infection doomed to be.

Then was good life extinguished, and repose So banished, that with strife and poverty, With fear and trouble, is she still perplext, And shall for many a future year be vext:

III Till she her sons has shaken by the hair, And from Lethaean sloth to life restored; Exclaiming, "Will none imitate that pair, Zethes and Calais, with avenging sword Rescue from claws and stench our goodly fare, And cleanse and glad anew the genial board.