Orlando Furioso Canto 10

Such is the practise of these striplings who,

What time you treat them with austerity,

Love and revere you, and such homage do,

As those who pay their service faithfully...

 

 

 

by Ludovico Ariosto

 

 

 

Another love assails Bireno's breast,

Who leaves one night Olympia on the shore.

To Logistilla's holy realm addressed,

Rogero goes, nor heeds Alcina more:

Him, of that flying courser repossest,

The hippogryph on airy voyage bore:

Whence he the good Rinaldo's levy sees,

And next Angelica beholds and frees.

 

I

Of all the loves, of all fidelity

Yet proved, of all the constant hearts and true,

Of all the lovers, in felicity

Or sorrow faithful found, a famous crew,

To Olympia I would give the first degree

Rather than second: if this be not due,

I well may say that hers no tale is told

Of truer love, in present times or old.

 

II

And this she by so many proofs and clear,

Had made apparent to the Zealand lord,

No woman's faith more certain could appear

To man, though he her open heart explored:

And if fair truth such spirits should endear,

And they in mutual love deserve reward,

Bireno as himself, nay, he above

Himself, I say, should kind Olympia love.

 

III

Not only should he nevermore deceive

Her for another, were that woman she

Who so made Europe and wide Asia grieve,

Or fairer yet, if one more fair there be;

But rather that quit her the light should leave,

And what is sweet to taste, touch, hear, and see,

And life and fame, and all beside; if aught

More precious can in truth be styled, or thought.

 

IV

If her Bireno loved, as she had loved

Bireno, if her love he did repay

With faith like hers, and still with truth unmoved,

Veered not his shifting sail another way;

Or ingrate for such service - cruel proved

For such fair love and faith, I now will say;

And you with lips comprest and eye-brows bent,

Shall listen to the tale for wonderment;

 

V

And when you shall have heard the impiety,

Which of such passing goodness was the meed,

Woman take warning from this perfidy,

And let none make a lover's word her creed.

Mindless that God does all things hear and see,

The lover, eager his desires to speed,

Heaps promises and vows, aye prompt to swear,

Which afterwards all winds disperse in air.

 

VI

The promises and empty vows dispersed

In air, by winds all dissipated go,

After these lovers have the greedy thirst

Appeased, with which their fevered palates glow.

In this example which I offer, versed,

Their prayers and tears to credit be more slow.

Cheaply, dear ladies mine, is wisdom bought

By those who wit at other's cost are taught.

 

VII

Of those in the first flower of youth beware,

Whose visage is so soft and smooth to sight:

For past, as soon as bred, their fancies are;

Like a straw fire their every appetite.

So the keen hunter follows up the hare

In heat and cold, on shore, or mountain-height;

Nor, when 'tis taken, more esteems the prize;

And only hurries after that which flies.

 

VIII

Such is the practise of these striplings who,

What time you treat them with austerity,

Love and revere you, and such homage do,

As those who pay their service faithfully;

But vaunt no sooner victory, than you

From mistresses shall servants grieve to be;

And mourn to see the fickle love they owed,

From you diverted, and elsewhere bestowed.

 

IX

I not for this (for that were wrong) opine

That you should cease to love; for you, without

A lover, like uncultivated vine,

Would be, that has no prop to wind about.

But the first down I pray you to decline,

To fly the volatile, inconstant rout;

To make your choice the riper fruits among,

Nor yet to gather what too long has hung.

 

X

A daughter they have found (above was said)

Of the proud king who ruled the Friesland state;

That with Bireno's brother was to wed,

As far as rumour tells; but to relate

The truth, a longing in Bireno bred

The sight of food so passing delicate;

And he to talk his palate deemed would be,

For other's sake, a foolish courtesy.

 

XI

The gentle damsel had not past fourteen,

Was beautiful and fresh, and like a rose,

When this first opening from its bud is seen,

And with the vernal sun expands and grows.

To say Bireno loved the youthful queen

Were little; with less blaze lit tinder glows,

Or ripened corn, wherever envious hand

Of foe amid the grain has cast a brand,

 

XII

Than that which on Bireno's bosom fed,

And to his marrow burned; when, weeping sore

The fate of her unhappy father dead,

He saw her bathed in ceaseless tears deplore:

And, as cold water, on the cauldron shed,

Shops short the bubbling wave, which boiled before;

So was the raging rife Olympia blew

Within his breast, extinguished by a new.

 

XIII

Nor feels Bireno mere satiety;

He loathes her so, he ill endures her sight;

And, if his hope he long deferred, will die:

For other such his fickle appetite!

Yet till the day prefixed to satisfy

His fond desire, so feigns the wary knight,

Olympia less to love than to adore

He seems, and but her pleasure to explore.

 

XIV

And if the other he too much caress,

Who cannot but caress her, there are none

See evil in the deed, but rather guess

It is in pity, is in goodness done:

Since to raise up and comfort in distress

Whom Fortune's wheel beats down in changeful run,

Was never blamed; with glory oftener paid;

- So much the more, a young - a harmless maid.

 

XV

Almighty God! how fallible and vain

Is human judgment, dimmed by clouds obscure!

Bireno's actions, impious and profane,

By others are reputed just and pure.

Already stooping to their oars, the train

Have loosed his vessel from the port secure,

And with the duke and his companions steer

For Zealand through the deep, with meery cheer.

 

XVI

Already Holland and its headlands all

Are left astern, and now descried no more;

Since to shun Friesland they to larboard hawl.

And keep their course more nigh the Scottish shore:

When they are overtaken by a squall,

And drive three days the open sea before:

Upon the third, when now, near eventide,

A barren and unpeopled isle is spied.

 

XVII

As soon as they were harboured in a hight,

Olympia landed and the board was spread;

She there contented, with the faithless knight,

Supt, unsuspecting any cause for dread.

Thence, with Bireno, where a tent was pight

In pleasant place, repaired, and went to bed.

The others of their train returned abroad,

And rested in their ship, in haven moored.

 

XVIII

The fear and late sea sorrow, which had weighed

So long upon the dame and broke her rest,

The finding herself safe in greenwood shade

Removed from noise, and, for her tranquil breast

(Knowing her lover was beside her laid)

No further thoughts, no further cares molest,

Olympia lap in slumber so profound,

No sheltered bear or dormouse sleeps more sound.

 

XIX

The lover false, who, hatching treason lies,

Stole from his bed in silence, when he knew

She slept: his clothes he in a bundle ties,

Nor other raiment on his body threw.

Then issuing forth from the pavilion hies,

As if on new-born wings, towards his crew;

Who, roused, unmoor without a cry, as he

Commands, and loosen thence and put to sea.

 

XX

Behind the land was left; and there to pine

Olympia, who yet slept the woods among;

Till from her gilded wheels the frosty rhine

Aurora upon earth beneath had flung;

And the old woe, beside the tumbling brine,

Lamenting, halcyons mournful descant sung;

When she, 'twixt sleep and waking, made a strain

To reach her loved Bireno, but in vain.

 

XXI

She no one found: the dame her arm withdrew;

She tried again, yet no one found; she spread

Both arms, now here, now there, and sought anew;

Now either leg; but yet no better sped.

Fear banished sleep; she oped her eyes: in view

Was nothing: she no more her widowed bed

Would keep, but from the couch in fury sprung,

And headlong forth from the pavilion flung.

 

XXII

And seaward ran, her visage tearing sore,

Presaging, and now certain of her plight:

She beat her bosom, and her tresses tore,

And looked (the moon was shining) if she might

Discover any thing beside the shore;

Nor, save the shore, was any thing in sight.

She calls Bireno, and the caverns round,

Pitying her grief, Bireno's name rebound.

 

XXIII

On the far shore there rose a rock; below

Scooped by the breaker's beating frequently:

The cliff was hollowed underneath, in show

Of arch, and overhung the foaming sea.

Olympia (MIND such vigour did bestow)

Sprang up the frowning crest impetuously,

And, at a distance, stretched by favouring gale,

Thence saw her cruel lord's departing sail.

 

XXIV

Saw it, or seemed to see: for ill her eyes,

Things through the air, yet dim and hazy, view.

She falls, all-trembling, on the ground, and lies

With face than snow more cold and white in hue:

But when she has again found strength to rise,

Guiding her voice towards the bark which flew,

Calling with all her might, the unhappy dame

Calls often on her cruel consort's name.

 

XXV

Where unavailing was the feeble note,

She wept and clapt her hands in agony.

'Without its freight,' she cried, 'thy ship does float.

- Where, cruel, dost thou fly so swiftly? - Me

Receive as well: - small hinderance to thy boat,

Which bears my spirit, would my body be.'

And she her raiment waving in her hand,

Signed to the frigate to return to land.