CXXI "Yet be not therefore proud and full of scorn Women, because man issues from your seed; For roses also blossom on the thorn, And the fair lily springs from loathsome weed.

Despiteous, proud, importunate, and lorn Of love, of faith, of counsel, rash in deed, With that, ungrateful, cruel and perverse, And born to be the world's eternal curse!"

CXXII These plaints and countless others to the wind Poured forth the paynim knight, to fury stirred; Now easing in low tone his troubled mind, And now in sounds which were at distance heard, In shame and in reproach of womankind; Yet certes he from sober reason erred: For we may deem a hundred good abound, Where one or two perchance are evil found.

CXXIII Though none for whom I hitherto have sighed -- Of those so many -- have kept faith with me, All with ingrat.i.tude, or falsehood dyed I deem not, I accuse my destiny.

Many there are, and have been more beside Unmeriting reproach: but if there be, 'Mid hundreds, one or two of evil way, My fortune wills that I should be their prey.

CXXIV Yet will I make such search before I die, Rather before my hair shall wax more white, That haply on some future day, even I Shall say, "That one has kept her promise plight."

And should not the event my trust belie, (Nor am I hopeless) I with all my might Will with unwearied pain her praise rehea.r.s.e With pen and ink and voice, in prose and verse.

CXXV The Saracen, whom rage no less profound Against his sovereign lord than lady swayed, And who of reason thus o'erpast the bound, And ill of one and of the other said, Would fain behold that monarch's kingdom drowned With such a tempest, with such scathe o'erlaid, As should in Africk every house aggrieve, Nor one stone standing on another leave.

CXXVI And would that from his realm, in want and woe, King Agramant a mendicant should wend; That through his means the monarch, brought thus low, His fathers' ancient seat might reascend: And thus he might the fruit of fealty show, And make his sovereign see, a real friend Was aye to be preferred in wrong or right, Although the world against him should unite;

CXXVII And thus the Saracen pours forth his moan, With rage against his liege and love possest; And on his way is by long journeys gone, Giving himself and courser little rest.

The following day or next, upon the Saone He finds himself, who has his course addrest Towards the coast of Provence, with design To his African domain to cross the brine.

CXXVIII From bank to bank the stream was covered o'er With boat of little burden, which conveyed, For the supply of the invading Moor, Victual, from many places round purveyed: Since even from Paris to the pleasant sh.o.r.e Of Acquamorta, all his rule obeyed; And -- fronting Spain -- whate'er of level land Was seen, extending on the better hand.

CXXIX The victual, disembarked from loaded barge, Was laid on sumpter-horse or ready wain; And sent, with escort to protect the charge, Where barges could not come; about the plain, Fat herds were feeding on the double marge, Brought thither from the march of either reign; And, by the river-side, at close of day, In different homesteads lodged, the drovers lay.

Cx.x.x The king of Argier (for the dusky air Of night began upon the world to close) Here listened to a village-landlord's prayer, That in his inn besought him to repose.

-- His courser stalled -- the board with plenteous fare Is heaped, and Corsic wine and Grecian flows; For, in all else a Moor, the Sarzan drank Of the forbidden vintage like a Frank.

Cx.x.xI To warlike Rodomont, with goodly cheer And kindlier mien, the landlord honour paid; For he the port of an ill.u.s.trious peer In his guest's lofty presence saw pourtrayed.

But, sore beside himself, the cavalier Had scarce his heart within him, which had strayed To her -- whilere his own -- in his despite; Nor word escaped the melancholy knight.

Cx.x.xII Mine host, most diligent in his vocation Of all the trade who throughout France were known, (In that he had, 'mid strange and hostile nation, And every chance of warfare, kept his own) -- Prompt to a.s.sist him in his occupation, Some of his kin had called; whereof was none Who dared before the warrior speak of aught, Seeing that paynim mute and lost in thought.

Cx.x.xIII From thought to thought the Sarzan's fancy flies, Himself removed from thence a mighty s.p.a.ce, Who sits so bent, and with such downcast eyes, He never once looks any in the face.

Next, after silence long, and many sighs, As if deep slumber had but then given place, His spirits he recalls, his eyelids raises, And on the family and landlord gazes.

Cx.x.xIV Then silence broke, and with a milder air, And visage somewhat less disturbed, applied To him, the host, and those by-standers there, To know if any to a wife were tied; And landlord and attendants, -- that all were, To Sarza's moody cavalier replied: He asked what each conceited of his spouse, And if he deemed her faithful to her vows.

Cx.x.xV Except mine host, those others were agreed That chaste and good their consorts they believed.

-- "Think each man as he will, but well I read,"

(The landlord said,) "You fondly are deceived: Your rash replies to one conclusion lead, That you are all of common sense bereaved; And so too must believe this n.o.ble knight, Unless he would persuade us black is white.

Cx.x.xVI "Because, as single is that precious bird The phoenix, and on earth there is but one, So, in this ample world, it is averred, One only can a woman's treason shun.

Each hopes alike to be that wight preferred, The victor who that single palm has won.

-- How is it possible that what can fall To one alone, should be the lot of all?

Cx.x.xVII "Erewhile I made the same mistake as you, And that more dames than one were virtuous thought, Until a gentleman of Venice, who, For my good fortune, to this inn was brought, My ignorance by his examples true So ably schooled, he better wisdom taught.

Valerio was the name that stranger bore; A name I shall remember evermore.

Cx.x.xVIII "Of wives and mistresses the treachery Was known to him, with all their cunning lore.

He, both from old and modern history, And from his own, was ready with such store, As plainly showed that none to modesty Could make pretension, whether rich or poor; And that, if one appeared of purer strain, 'Twas that she better hid her wanton vein.

Cx.x.xIX "He of his many tales, among the rest, (Whereof a third is from my memory gone) So well one story in my head imprest, It could not be more firmly graved in stone: And what I thought and think, would be professed For that ill s.e.x, I ween by every one Who heard; and, Sir -- if pleased to lend an ear -- To their confusion yon that tale shall hear."

CXL "What could'st thou offer which could better please At present" (made reply the paynim knight) "Than sample, chosen from thine histories, Which hits the opinion that I hold, aright?

That I may hear thee speak with better ease Sit so, that I may have thee in my sight."

But in the following canto I unfold What to King Rodomont the landlord told.

CANTO 28

ARGUMENT To whatsoever evil tongue can tell Of womankind King Rodomont gives ear; Then journeys homeward; but that infidel Finds by the way a place he holds more dear.

Here him new love inflames for Isabel; But so the wishes of the cavalier A friar impedes, who with that damsel wends, Him by a cruel death the felon ends.

I Ladies, and all of you that ladies prize, Afford not, for the love of heaven, an ear To this, the landlord's tale, replete with lies, In shame and scorn of womankind; though ne'er Was praise or fame conveyed in that which flies From such a caitiff's tongue; and still we hear The sottish rabble all things rashly brand, And question most what least they understand.

II Omit this canto, and -- the tale untold -- My story will as clear and perfect be; I tell it, since by Turpin it is told, And not in malice or in rivalry: Besides, that never did my tongue withhold Your praises, how you are beloved by me To you I by a thousand proofs have shown, Vouching I am, and can but be, your own.

III Let him who will, three leaves or four pa.s.s-by, Nor read a line; or let him, who will read, As little of that landlord's history, As of a tale or fiction, make his creed.

But to my story: -- When his auditory He saw were waiting for him to proceed, And that a place was yielded him, o'eright The cavalier, he 'gan his tale recite:

IV "Astolpho that the Lombard sceptre swayed, Who was King Monacho, his brother's heir, By nature with such graces was purveyed, Few e'er with him in beauty could compare: Such scarce Apelles' pencil had pourtrayed, Zeuxis', or worthier yet, if worthier were: Beauteous he was, and so by all was deemed, But far more beauteous he himself esteemed.

V "He not so much rejoiced that he in height Of grandeur was exalted o'er the rest, And that, for riches, subjects, and for might, Of all the neighbouring kings he was the best, As that, superior to each other wight, He beauty was throughout the world confest.

This pleased the monarch, who the praise conferred, As that wherein he most delighted, heard.

VI "Faustus Latinus, one of his array, Who pleased the king, a Roman cavalier, Hearing ofttimes Astolpho now display The beauties of his hand, now of his cheer, And, questioned by that monarch, on a day, If ever in his lifetime, far or near, He any of such beauty had espied, To him thus unexpectedly replied:

VII "Faustus to him replied: 'By what I see, And what I hear, is said by every one, Few are there that in beauty rival thee; And rather I those few confine to one: Jocundo is that one, my brother he; And well I ween that, saving him alone, Thou leavest all in beauty far behind; But I in him thy peer and better find.'

VIII "Impossible Astolpho deemed the thing, Who hitherto had thought the palm his own; And such a longing seized the Lombard king To know that youth whose praises so were blown, He prest, till Faustus promised him to bring The brother praised by him, before his throne, Though 'twould be much if thither he repaired, (The courier added) and the cause declared:

IX "Because the youth had ne'er been known to measure, In all his life, a single pace from Rome; But, on what Fortune gave him, lived at leisure, Contented in his own paternal dome; Nor had diminished nor encreased the treasure, Wherewith his father had endowed that home; And he more distant would Paris deem Than Tanais another would esteem;

X "And that a greater difficulty were To tear Jocundo from his consort; who Was by such love united to that fair, No other will but hers the husband knew: Yet at his sovereign's hest he would repair To seek the stripling, and his utmost do.

The suit with offers and with gifts was crowned, Which for that youth's refusal left no ground.

XI "Faustus set forth, and, after few days' ride, Reached Rome, and his paternal mansion gained: There with entreaties so the brother plied, He to that journey his consent obtained; And wrought so well (though difficult to guide) Silent even young Jocundo's wife remained; He showing her what good would thence ensue, Besides what grat.i.tude would be her due.

XII "Jocundo names a time to wend his way, And servingmen meanwhile purveys and steeds; And a provision makes of fair array; For beauty borrows grace from glorious weeds.

Beside him or about him, night and day, Aye weeping, to her lord the lady reads; She knows not how she ever can sustain So long an absence, and not die with pain.

XIII "For the mere thought produced such misery, It seemed from her was ravished her heart's core.

-- 'Alas! my love (Jocundo cried) let be Thy sorrows' -- weeping with her evermore -- 'So may this journey prosper! as to thee Will I return ere yet two months are o'er; Nor by a day o'erpa.s.s the term prescribed, Though me the king with half his kingdom bribed.'

XIV "This brought his troubled consort small content: She that the period was too distant said, And that 'twould be a mighty wonderment, If her, at his return, he found not dead.

The grief which, day and night, her bosom rent, Was such, that lady neither slept nor fed: So that for pity oft the youth repented He to his brother's wishes had consented.

XV "She from her neck unloosed a costly chain That a gemmed cross and holy reliques bore; Which one, a pilgrim of Bohemia's reign, Had gathered upon many a distant sh.o.r.e; Him did her sire in sickness entertain, Returning from Jerusalem of yore; And hence was made that dying pilgrim's heir: This she undoes, and gives her lord to wear;

XVI "And round his neck entreats him, for her sake, That chain in memory of herself to wind: Her gift the husband is well pleased to take; Not that a token needs his love to bind: For neither time, nor absence, e'er will shake, Nor whatsoever fortune is behind, Her memory, which, rooted fast and deep, He still has kept, and after death will keep.