Jerusalem Delivered
Page 186
For still my thoughts to do him grace are framed;
But if our power he haply shall disdain,
As well I know his courage yet untamed,
To bring him by persuasion take some pain:
Else, if I prove severe, both you be blamed,
That forced my gentle nature gainst my thought
To rigor, lest our laws return to naught.”
LVI.
‘Let him come freely, nor this grace abuse,
Which to his worth I am content to show;
But should he prove rebellious and refuse —
For well his fiery temperament I know —
Be it thine to bring, and see the cavalier
Forces not one most merciful, to be
Avenger, when by duty forced, severe
Of outraged justice and authority.’
LVII.
Così disse egli; e Guelfo a lui rispose:
Anima non potea, d’infamia schiva,
Voci sentir di scorno ingiuriose,
452 E non farne repulsa ove l’udiva.
E se l’oltraggiatore a morte ei pose,
Chi è che meta a giust’ira prescriva?
Chi conta i colpi, o la dovuta offesa,
456 Mentre arde la tenzon, misura e pesa?
LVII
Lord Guelpho answered thus: “What heart can bear
Such slanders false, devised by hate and spite?
Or with stayed patience, reproaches hear,
And not revenge by battle or by fight?
The Norway Prince hath bought his folly dear,
But who with words could stay the angry knight?
A fool is he that comes to preach or prate
When men with swords their right and wrong debate.
LVII.
Thus spake Prince Godfred, and thus Guelph replied:
‘The soul that shrinks from infamy could not
Hear words so false and wounding to its pride,
And not revenge the insult on the spot.
If the bold youth the foul-mouthed slanderer slew,
Who can set bounds to justifiable ire?
Who count the blows and weigh the sentence due,
When burns the contest and the soul’s on fire?
LVIII.
Ma quel che chiedi tu, ch’al tuo soprano
Arbitrio il garzon venga a sottoporse,
Duolmi ch’esser non può; ch’egli lontano
460 Dall’oste immantinente il passo torse.
Ben m’offro io di provar con questa mano
A lui, ch’a torto in falsa accusa il morse,
O s’altri v’è di sì maligno dente,
464 Ch’ei punì l’onta ingiusta giustamente.
LVIII
“And where you wish he should himself submit
To hear the censure of your upright laws;
Alas, that cannot be, for he is flit
Out if this camp, withouten stay or pause,
There take my gage, behold I offer it
To him that first accused him in this cause,
Or any else that dare, and will maintain
That for his pride the prince was justly slain.
LVIII.
‘But what thou askest, that the cavalier
Should to thy sovran judgment bow his head,
It grieves me, cannot be; since far from here
In dudgeon hath the froward stripling fled.
But I will prove, in absence of the youth,
Should any bring false charge behind his back,
Or wound his honour with malignant tooth,
He justly punished an unjust attack.
LIX.
A ragion, dico, al tumido Gernando
Fiaccò le corna del superbo orgoglio.
Sol, s’egli errò, fu nell’oblio del bando:
468 Ciò ben mi pesa, ed a lodar nol toglio.
Tacque, e disse Goffredo: Or vada errando,
E porti risse altrove: io quì non voglio
Che sparga seme tu di nuove liti:
472 Deh, per Dio, sian gli sdegni anco finiti.
LIX
“I say with reason Lord Gernando’s pride
He hath abated, if he have offended
Gainst your commands, who are his lord and guide,
Oh pardon him, that fault shall be amended.”
“If he be gone,” quoth Godfrey, “let him ride
And brawl elsewhere, here let all strife be ended:
And you, Lord Guelpho, for your nephew’s sake,
Breed us no new, nor quarrels old awake.”
LIX.
‘Rightly from that vain vapourer, I say,
He shore the horns of his presumptuous pride;
But wrong he was thy ban to disobey:
In that alone he was not justified.’
He ceased, and Godfred said: ‘Well, let him go
And brawl elsewhere, but here we must have peace;
Nor must thou seed of farther quarrels sow:
j
For God’s sake, now, let all dissensions cease!’
LX.
Di procurare il suo soccorso intanto
Non cessò mai l’ingannatrice rea.
Pregava il giorno, e ponea in uso quanto
476 L’arte, e l’ingegno, e la beltà potea.
Ma poi, quando stendendo il fosco manto
La notte in Occidente il dì chiudea,
Fra duo suoi cavalieri e due matrone,
480 Ricovrava in disparte al padiglione.
LX
This while, the fair and false Armida strived
To get her promised aid in sure possession,
The day to end, with endless plaint she derived;
Wit, beauty, craft for her made intercession:
But when the earth was once of light deprived,
And western seas felt Titan’s hot impression,
‘Twixt two old knights, and matrons twain she went,
Where pitched was her fair and curious tent.
LX.
Meanwhile the guilty traitress never ceased
For the assistance promised her to sue;
All day she entreated, and in practice placed
All that her beauty, wit, or art could do.
But when, extending her dusk livery,
Night in the west had curtained day from view,
Between two matrons and two esquires she
To her pavilion secretly withdrew.
LXI.
Ma benchè sia mastra d’inganni, e i suoi
Modi gentili, e le parole accorte,
E bella sì, che ‘l ciel prima nè poi
484 Altrui non diè maggior bellezza in sorte;
Talchè del campo i più famosi eroi
Ha presi d’un piacer tenace e forte;
Non è però, ch’all’esca de’ diletti
488 Il pio Goffredo lusingando alletti.
LXI
But this false queen of craft and sly invention, —
Whose looks, love’s arrows were; whose eyes his quivers;
Whose beauty matchless, free from reprehension,
A wonder left by Heaven to after-livers, —
Among the Christian lord had bred contention
Who first should quench his flames in Cupid’s rivers,
While all her weapons and her darts rehearsed,
Had not Godfredo’s constant bosom pierced.
LXI.
But although mistress of deceit, and though
Of winning manners and refined address,
And though so fair that Heaven did ne’er bestow
On mortal such exceeding loveliness,
So that the army’s most illustrious knights
She held by tie most strong and most secure;
Still, all her lures inviting to delights
Unable were the pious chief to lure.
LXII.
Invan cerca invaghirlo, e con mortali
Dolcezze attrarlo all’amorosa vita:
/> Chè qual satúro augel, che non si cali
492 Ove, il cibo mostrando, altri l’invita;
Tal ei, sazio del mondo, i piacer frali
Sprezza, e sen poggia al ciel per via romita;
E quante insidie al suo bel volo tende
496 L’infido Amor, tutte fallaci rende.
LXII
To change his modest thought the dame procureth,
And proffereth heaps of love’s enticing treasure:
But as the falcon newly gorged endureth
Her keeper lure her oft, but comes at leisure;
So he, whom fulness of delight assureth
What long repentance comes of love’s short pleasure,
Her crafts, her arts, herself and all despiseth,
So base affections fall, when virtue riseth.
LXII.
Vainly she tried his rigid heart to bend
To life of love by suicidal sweets;
For, as a bird when cloyed will not descend
To where the fowler offering food entreats;
World-sated, so, its pleasures frail the knight
Spurned, as by lonely path to heaven he toiled,
And all the snares that ‘gainst his upward flight
False Cupid set, his saint-like virtue foiled.
LXIII.
Nè impedimento alcun torcer dall’orme
Puote, che Dio ne segna, i pensier santi.
Tentò ella mill’arti, e in mille forme,
500 Quasi Proteo novel, gli apparve innanti:
E desto Amor, dove più freddo ei dorme,
Avrian gli atti dolcissimi, e i sembianti;
Ma quì (grazie divine) ogni sua prova
504 Vana riesce, e ritentar non giova.
LXIII
And not one foot his steadfast foot was moved
Out of that heavenly path, wherein he paced,
Yet thousand wiles and thousand ways she proved,
To have that castle fair of goodness raised:
She used those looks and smiles that most behoved
To melt the frost which his hard heart embraced,
And gainst his breast a thousand shot she ventured,
Yet was the fort so strong it was not entered.
LXIII.
No obstacles could turn his thoughts aside
From the one path prescribed by God: still she
Countless new forms, countless devices tried,
A very Proteus she appeared to be;
Her witching manner and provocative smiles
Had wakened love within the coldest hearts,
But lost were here by grace Divine her wiles,
And more than useless her most artful arts.
LXIV.
La bella donna, ch’ogni cor più casto
Arder credeva ad un girar di ciglia,
Oh come perde or l’alterezza e ‘l fasto,
508 E quale ha di ciò sdegno, e maraviglia!
Rivolger le sue forze ove contrasto
Men duro trovi, alfin si riconsiglia:
Qual capitan ch’inespugnabil terra
512 Stanco abbandoni, e porti altrove guerra.
LXIV
The dame who thought that one blink of her eye
Could make the chastest heart feel love’s sweet pain,
Oh, how her pride abated was hereby!
When all her sleights were void, her crafts were vain,
Some other where she would her forces try,
Where at more ease she might more vantage gain,
As tired soldiers whom some fort keeps out,
Thence raise their siege, and spoil the towns about.
LXIV.
The lovely maid who thought she could inflame
The chastest heart by twinkle of her eyes —
How mortified and crest-fallen she became,
And how o’ercome by spite and by surprise! —
Resolves her forces to direct at length
Where she may find resistance less severe:
E’en so abandons walls of too great strength
A baffled chief, and turns his arms elsewhere.
LXV.
Ma contra l’arme di costei, non meno,
Si mostrò di Tancredi invitto il core;
Peroch’altro desio gl’ingombra il seno,
516 Nè vi può loco aver novello ardore:
Chè siccome dall’un l’altro veleno
Guardar ne suol, tal l’un dall’altro amore.
Questi soli non vinse: o molto, o poco
520 Avvampò ciascun altro al suo bel foco.
LXV
But yet all ways the wily witch could find
Could not Tancredi’s heart to loveward move,
His sails were filled with another wind,
He list no blast of new affection prove;
For, as one poison doth exclude by kind
Another’s force, so love excludeth love:
These two alone nor more nor less the dame
Could win, the rest all burnt in her sweet flame.
LXV.
But not less ‘gainst the enchantress’ arms and art
Tancredi did invulnerable prove:
Since other passion occupied his heart,
In it no place was for another love.
As poison poison neutralises, so
Did his old flame oppose all new desire:
These two alone succumbed not to the foe,
But more or less all others felt her fire.
LXVI.
Ella, sebben si duol che non succeda
Sì pienamente il suo disegno e l’arte,
Pur, fatto avendo così nobil preda
524 Di tanti eroi, si riconsola in parte.
E pria che di sue frodi altri s’avveda,
Pensa condurgli in più sicura parte,
Ove gli stringa poi d’altre catene,
528 Che non son queste ond’or presi gli tiene.
LXVI
The princess, though her purpose would not frame,
As late she hoped, and as still she would,
Yet, for the lords and knights of greatest name
Became her prey, as erst you heard it told,
She thought, ere truth-revealing time or frame
Bewrayed her act, to lead them to some hold,
Where chains and band she meant to make them prove,
Composed by Vulcan not by gentle love.
LXVI.
Although lamenting that complete success
Had not attended her designs and art,
Still, as she did such noble spoil possess
Of famous heroes, she’s consoled in part,
And plans, ere knowledge of her frauds they gain,
Them to transport to safer regions, where
She may secure them with another chain
Than those soft silken ones that now they wear.
LXVII.
E, sendo giunto il termine che fisse
Il Capitano a darle alcun soccorso,
A lui sen venne riverente, e disse:
532 Sire, il dì stabilito è già trascorso:
E se per sorte il reo tiranno udisse
Ch’i’ abbia fatto all’arme tue ricorso,
Prepareria sue forze alla difesa:
536 Nè così agevol poi fora l’impresa.
LXVII
The time prefixed at length was come and past,
Which Godfrey had set down to lend her aid,
When at his feet herself to earth she cast,
“The hour is come, my Lord,” she humbly said,
“And if the tyrant haply hear at last,
His banished niece hath your assistance prayed,
He will in arms to save his kingdom rise,
So shall we harder make this enterprise.
LXVII.
And as the period which the captain had
Fixed to assist her had arrived at last,
To him she reverently came and said:
‘Th
e appointed day, sire, is already past,
And if the guilty tyrant heard by chance
I to thy arms had flown for succour, he
Would straight prepare his forces for defence,
Nor then so easy would the emprise be,
LXVIII.
Dunque, prima ch’a lui tal nova apporti
Voce incerta di fama o certa spia,
Scelga la tua pietà fra’ tuoi più forti,
540 Alcuni pochi, e meco or or gl’invia:
Chè, se non mira il Ciel con occhj torti
L’opre mortali, o l’innocenza oblia,
Sarò riposta in regno, e la mia terra
544 Sempre avrai tributaria in pace, e in guerra.
LXVIII
“Before report can bring the tyrant news,
Or his espials certify their king,
Oh let thy goodness these few champions choose,
That to her kingdom should thy handmaid bring;
Who, except Heaven to aid the right refuse,
Recover shall her crown, from whence shall spring
Thy profit; for betide thee peace or war,
Thine all her cities, all her subjects are.”
LXVIII.
‘Then, ere he heareth such important news
From Fame’s uncertain voice or certain spies,
From out thy bravest, let thy pity choose
Some few to aid me in this enterprise;
Since if just Heaven forget not innocence,
Nor with distorted eye man’s actions see,
I shall regain my kingdom, which will thence
In peace and war thy tributary be.’
LXIX.
Così diceva; e ‘l Capitano ai detti
Quel che negar non si potea, concede:
Sebben, ov’ella il suo partir affretti,
548 In se tornar l’elezion ne vede:
Ma nel numero ognun de’ dieci eletti
Con insolita instanza esser richiede:
E l’emulazion che ‘n lor si desta,
552 Più importuni gli fa nella richiesta.
LXIX
The captain sage the damsel fair assured,
His word was passed and should not be recanted,
And she with sweet and humble grace endured
To let him point those ten, which late he granted:
But to be one, each one fought and procured,
No suit, no entreaty, intercession wanted;
There envy each at others’ love exceeded,
And all importunate made, more than needed.
LXIX.