Orlando Furioso Canto 16 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBCBCDD BEFEFEF G BHIHIHIC BFJFJFJKK BLGLGLGMM BHNONHNPP BQPQPQPLL BOPOPOPPP BCKCKCKRR LIOIOIOLL LPPBPBPPP BPPPPPPPP BBPBPBPP BBBBBBBII POPOPOPBB POBOBOBBB PBOBOBOBB PBIBIBIOO POSOSOSBB BOTOTOTII BBCBCBCBB BUBVBUBPP BPBPPARGUMENT | A |
Gryphon finds traitorous Origilla nigh | B |
Damascus city with Martano vile | C |
Slaughtered the Saracens and Christians lie | B |
By thousands and by thousands heaped this while | C |
And if the Moor outside of Paris die | B |
Within the Sarzan so destroys each pile | C |
Such slaughter deals that greater ill than this | D |
Never before has been exprest I wiss | D |
- | |
I | B |
Love's penalties are manifold and dread | E |
Of which I have endured the greater part | F |
And to my cost in these so well am read | E |
That I can speak of them as 'twere my art | F |
Hence if I say or if I ever said | E |
Did speech or living page my thoughts impart | F |
'One ill is grievous and another light ' | - |
Yield me belief and deem my judgment right | G |
- | |
II | B |
I say I said and while I live will say | H |
'He who is fettered by a worthy chain | I |
Though his desire his lady should gainsay | H |
And every way averse his suit disdain | I |
Though Love deprive him of all praised pay | H |
After long time and trouble spent in vain | I |
He if his heart be placed well worthily | C |
Needs not lament though he should waste and die ' | - |
- | |
III | B |
Let him lament who plays a slavish part | F |
Whom two bright eyes and lovely tresses please | J |
Beneath which beauties lurks a wanton heart | F |
With little that is pure and much of lees | J |
The wretch would fly but bears in him a dart | F |
Like wounded stag whichever way he flees | J |
Dares not confess yet cannot quench his flame | K |
And of himself and worthless love has shame | K |
- | |
IV | B |
The youthful Gryphon finds him in this case | L |
Who sees the error which he cannot right | G |
He sees how vilely he his heart does place | L |
On faithless Origille his vain delight | G |
Yet evil use doth sovereign reason chase | L |
And free will is subdued by appetite | G |
Though a foul mind the lady's actions speak | M |
Her wheresoe'er she is must Gryphon seek | M |
- | |
V | B |
Resuming the fair history I say | H |
Out of the city he in secret rode | N |
Nor to his brother would his plan bewray | O |
Who oft on him had vain reproof bestowed | N |
But to the left t'wards Ramah shaped his way | H |
By the most level and most easy road | N |
Him six days' journey to Damascus brought | P |
Whence setting out anew he Antioch sought | P |
- | |
VI | B |
He nigh Damascus met the lover who | Q |
Perfidious Origilla's heart possest | P |
And matched in evil customs were the two | Q |
Like stalk and flower for that in either's breast | P |
Was lodged a fickle heart the dame untrue | Q |
And he a traitor whom she loved the best | P |
While both the lovers hid their nature base | L |
To others' cost beneath a courteous face | L |
- | |
VII | B |
As I relate to you the cavalier | O |
Came on huge courser trapped with mickle pride | P |
With faithless Origille in gorgeous gear | O |
With gold embroidered and with azure dyed | P |
Two ready knaves who serve the warrior rear | O |
The knightly helm and buckler at his side | P |
As one who with fair pomp and semblance went | P |
Towards Damascus to a tournament | P |
- | |
VIII | B |
Damascus' king a splendid festival | C |
Had in these days bid solemnly proclaim | K |
And with what pomp they could upon his call | C |
Thither in shining arms the champions came | K |
At Gryphon's sight the harlot's spirits fall | C |
Who fears that he will work her scathe and shame | K |
And knows her lover has not force and breath | R |
To save her from Sir Gryphon threatening death | R |
- | |
IX | L |
But like most cunning and audacious quean | I |
Although she quakes from head to foot with fear | O |
Her voice so strengthens and so shapes her mien | I |
That in her face no signs of dread appear | O |
Having already made her leman ween | I |
The trick devised she feigns a joyous cheer | O |
Towards Sir Gryphon goes and for long space | L |
Hangs on his neck fast locked in her embrace | L |
- | |
X | L |
She after suiting with much suavity | P |
The action to the word sore weeping cried | P |
'Dear lord is this the guerdon due to me | B |
For love and worship that I should abide | P |
Alone one live long year deprived of thee | B |
A second near and yet upon thy side | P |
No grief and had I borne for thee to stay | P |
I know not if I should have seen that day | P |
- | |
XI | B |
'When I from Nicosia thee expected | P |
When thou wast journeying to the plenar court | P |
To cheer me left with fever sore infected | P |
And in the dread of death I heard report | P |
That thou wast gone to Syria and dejected | P |
By that ill tiding suffered in such sort | P |
I all unable to pursue thy quest | P |
Had nigh with this right hand transfixt my breast | P |
- | |
XII | B |
'But fortune by her double bounty shows | B |
She guards me more than thou me to convey | P |
She sent my brother here who with me goes | B |
My honour safe in his protecting stay | P |
And this encounter with thee now bestows | B |
Which I above all other blessings weigh | P |
And in good time for hadst thou longer stayed | P |
My lord I should have died of hope delayed ' | - |
- | |
XIII | B |
The wicked woman full of subtlety | B |
Worse than a fox in crafty hardihood | B |
Pursues and so well shapes her history | B |
She wholly throws the blame on Gryphon good | B |
Makes him believe that other not to be | B |
Her kin alone but of her flesh and blood | B |
Got by one father and so puts upon | I |
The knight that he less credits Luke and John | I |
- | |
XIV | P |
Nor he the fraud of her more false than fair | O |
Only forbore with just reproach to pay | P |
Nor only did the threatened stranger spare | O |
Who was the lover of that lady gay | P |
But deemed to excuse himself sufficient were | O |
Turning some portion of the blame away | P |
And as the real brother she profest | B |
Unceasingly the lady's knight carest | B |
- | |
XV | P |
And to Damascus with the cavalier | O |
Returned who to Sir Gryphon made report | B |
That Syria's wealthy king with sumptuous cheer | O |
Within that place would hold a splendid court | B |
And who baptized or infidel appear | O |
There at his tourney of whatever sort | B |
Within the city and without assures | B |
From wrong for all the time the feast endures | B |
- | |
XVI | P |
Yet I of Origilla's treachery | B |
Shall not so steadfastly pursue the lore | O |
Who famed not for one single perfidy | B |
Thousands and thousands had betrayed before | O |
But that I will return again to see | B |
Two hundred thousand wretched men or more | O |
Burnt by the raging wild fire where they spread | B |
About the walls of Paris scathe and dread | B |
- | |
XVII | P |
I left you where king Agramant prepared | B |
To storm a gate and to the assault was gone | I |
This he had hoped to find without a guard | B |
And work elsewhere to bar the way was none | I |
For there in person Charles kept watch and ward | B |
With many practised warriors every one | I |
Two Angelines two Guidos Angelier | O |
Avino Avolio Otho and Berlinghier | O |
- | |
XVIII | P |
One and the other host its worth before | O |
Charles and king Agramant desire to show | S |
Where praise where riches are they think in store | O |
For those that do their duty on the foe | S |
But such were not the atchievements of the Moor | O |
As to repair the loss for to his woe | S |
Full many a Saracen the champaign prest | B |
Whose folly was a beacon to the rest | B |
- | |
XIX | B |
The frequent darts a storm of hail appear | O |
Which from the city wall the Christians fling | T |
The deafening clamours put the heavens in fear | O |
Which from our part and from that other ring | T |
But Charles and Agramant must wait for here | O |
I of the Mars of Africa will sing | T |
King Rodomont that fierce and fearful man | I |
That through the middle of the city ran | I |
- | |
XX | B |
I know not sir if you the adventure dread | B |
Of that so daring Moor to mind recall | C |
The leader who had left his people dead | B |
Between the second work and outer wall | C |
Upon those limbs the ravening fire so fed | B |
Was never sight more sad I told withal | C |
How vaulting o'er that hindrance at a bound | B |
He cleared the moat which girt the city round | B |
- | |
XXI | B |
When he was known the thickening crowd among | U |
By the strange arms he wore and scaly hide | B |
There where the aged sires and feebler throng | V |
Listened to each new tale on every side | B |
Heaven high groan moan and lamentation rung | U |
And loud they beat their lifted palms and cried | B |
While those who had the strength to fly aloof | P |
Sought safety not from house or temple's roof | P |
- | |
XXII | B |
But this the cruel sword concedes to few | P |
So brandished by that Saracen robust | B |
And here with half a leg dissevered flew | P |
A fo | P |
Ludovico Ariosto
(1)
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