Orlando Furioso Canto 19 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBBCBCBB DBDBDBBB EFEFEFBB CGCGCGHH IBIBIBI JFJFKFLL BMBMBMBB INININII O D O PP MBBBBBBBB MIPI IP MI I I BPB BPBB BBBBBBBB Q Q Q BB BIBIBIBB IPIPIPBB I I IPP PBPBPBBB BIBIBIBB I I IBB BIBMBM BPBPBPBR| ARGUMENT | A |
| Medoro by Angelica's quaint hand | B |
| Is healed and weds and bears her to Catay | B |
| At length Marphisa with the chosen band | B |
| After long suffering makes Laiazzi's bay | C |
| Guido the savage bondsman in the land | B |
| Which impious women rule with civil sway | C |
| With Marphisa strives in single fight | B |
| And lodges her and hers at full of night | B |
| - | |
| I | - |
| By whom he is beloved can no one know | D |
| Who on the top of Fortune's wheel is seated | B |
| Since he by true and faithless friends with show | D |
| Of equal faith in glad estate is greeted | B |
| But should felicity be changed to woe | D |
| The flattering multitude is turned and fleeted | B |
| While he who loves his master from his heart | B |
| Even after death performs his faithful part | B |
| - | |
| II | - |
| Were the heart seen as is the outward cheer | E |
| He who at court is held in sovereign grace | F |
| And he that to his lord is little dear | E |
| With parts reversed would fill each other's place | F |
| The humble man the greater would appear | E |
| And he now first be hindmost in the race | F |
| But be Medoro's faithful story said | B |
| The youth who loved his lord alive or dead | B |
| - | |
| III | - |
| The closest path amid the forest gray | C |
| To save himself pursued the youth forlorn | G |
| But all his schemes were marred by the delay | C |
| Of that sore weight upon his shoulders born | G |
| The place he knew not and mistook the way | C |
| And hid himself again in sheltering thorn | G |
| Secure and distant was his mate that through | H |
| The greenwood shade with lighter shoulders flew | H |
| - | |
| IV | - |
| So far was Cloridan advanced before | I |
| He heard the boy no longer in the wind | B |
| But when he marked the absence of Medore | I |
| It seemed as if his heart was left behind | B |
| 'Ah how was I so negligent ' the Moor | I |
| Exclaimed 'so far beside myself and blind | B |
| That I Medoro should without thee fare | I |
| Nor know when I deserted thee or where ' | - |
| - | |
| V | - |
| So saying in the wood he disappears | J |
| Plunging into the maze with hurried pace | F |
| And thither whence he lately issued steers | J |
| And desperate of death returns in trace | F |
| Cries and the tread of steeds this while he hears | K |
| And word and the tread of foemen as in chase | F |
| Lastly Medoro by his voice is known | L |
| Disarmed on foot 'mid many horse alone | L |
| - | |
| VI | - |
| A hundred horsemen who the youth surround | B |
| Zerbino leads and bids his followers seize | M |
| The stripling like a top the boy turns round | B |
| And keeps him as he can among the trees | M |
| Behind oak elm beech ash he takes his ground | B |
| Nor from the cherished load his shoulders frees | M |
| Wearied at length the burden he bestowed | B |
| Upon the grass and stalked about his load | B |
| - | |
| VII | - |
| As in her rocky cavern the she bear | I |
| With whom close warfare Alpine hunters wage | N |
| Uncertain hangs about her shaggy care | I |
| And growls in mingled sound of love and rage | N |
| To unsheath her claws and blood her tushes bare | I |
| Would natural hate and wrath the beast engage | N |
| Love softens her and bids from strife retire | I |
| And for her offspring watch amid her ire | I |
| - | |
| VIII | - |
| Cloridan who to aid him knows not how | O |
| And with Medoro willingly would die | - |
| But who would not for death this being forego | D |
| Until more foes than one should lifeless lie | - |
| Ambushed his sharpest arrow to his bow | O |
| Fits and directs it with so true an eye | - |
| The feathered weapon bores a Scotchman's brain | P |
| And lays the warrior dead upon the plain | P |
| - | |
| IX | M |
| Together all the others of the band | B |
| Turned thither whence was shot the murderous reed | B |
| Meanwhile he launched another from his stand | B |
| That a new foe might by the weapon bleed | B |
| Whom while he made of this and that demand | B |
| And loudly questioned who had done the deed | B |
| The arrow reached transfixed the wretch's throat | B |
| And cut his question short in middle note | B |
| - | |
| X | M |
| Zerbino captain of those horse no more | I |
| Can at the piteous sight his wrath refrain | P |
| In furious heat he springs upon Medore | I |
| Exclaiming 'Thou of this shalt bear the pain ' | - |
| One hand he in his locks of golden ore | I |
| Enwreaths and drags him to himself amain | P |
| But as his eyes that beauteous face survey | - |
| Takes pity on the boy and does not slay | - |
| - | |
| XI | M |
| To him the stripling turns with suppliant cry | I |
| And 'By thy God sir knight ' exclaims 'I pray | - |
| Be not so passing cruel nor deny | I |
| That I in earth my honoured king may lay | - |
| No other grace I supplicate nor I | I |
| This for the love of life believe me say | - |
| So much no longer space of life I crave | - |
| As may suffice to give my lord a grave | - |
| - | |
| XII | - |
| 'And if you needs must feed the beast and bird | B |
| Like Theban Creon let their worst be done | P |
| Upon these limbs so that by me interred | B |
| In earth be those of good Almontes' son ' | - |
| Medoro thus his suit with grace preferred | B |
| And words to move a mountain and so won | P |
| Upon Zerbino's mood to kindness turned | B |
| With love and pity he all over burned | B |
| - | |
| XIII | - |
| This while a churlish horseman of the band | B |
| Who little deference for his lord confest | B |
| His lance uplifting wounded overhand | B |
| The unhappy suppliant in his dainty breast | B |
| Zerbino who the cruel action scanned | B |
| Was deeply stirred the rather that opprest | B |
| And livid with the blow the churl had sped | B |
| Medoro fell as he was wholly dead | B |
| - | |
| XIV | - |
| So grieved Zerbino with such wrath was stung | Q |
| 'Not unavenged shalt thou remain ' he cries | - |
| Then full of evil will in fury sprung | Q |
| Upon the author of the foul emprize | - |
| But he his vantage marks and from among | Q |
| The warriors in a moment slips and flies | - |
| Cloridan who beholds the deed at sight | B |
| Of young Medoro's fall springs forth to fight | B |
| - | |
| XV | - |
| And casts away his bow and 'mid the band | B |
| Of foemen whirls his falchion in desire | I |
| Rather of death than hoping that his hand | B |
| May snatch a vengeance equal to his ire | I |
| Amid so many blades he views the sand | B |
| Tinged with his blood and ready to expire | I |
| And feeling he the sword no more can guide | B |
| Lets himself drop by his Medoro's side | B |
| - | |
| XVI | - |
| The Scots pursue their chief who pricks before | I |
| Through the deep wood inspired by high disdain | P |
| When he has left the one and the other Moor | I |
| This dead that scarce alive upon the plain | P |
| There for a mighty space lay young Medore | I |
| Spouting his life blood from so large a vein | P |
| He would have perished but that thither made | B |
| A stranger as it chanced who lent him aid | B |
| - | |
| XVII | - |
| By chance arrived a damsel at the place | - |
| Who was though mean and rustic was her wear | I |
| Of royal presence and of beauteous face | - |
| And lofty manners sagely debonair | I |
| Her have I left unsung so long a space | - |
| That you will hardly recognise the fair | I |
| Angelica in her if known not scan | P |
| The lofty daughter of Catay's great khan | P |
| - | |
| XVIII | - |
| Angelica when she had won again | P |
| The ring Brunello had from her conveyed | B |
| So waxed in stubborn pride and haught disdain | P |
| She seemed to scorn this ample world and strayed | B |
| Alone and held as cheap each living swain | P |
| Although amid the best by Fame arrayed | B |
| Nor brooked she to remember a galant | B |
| In Count Orlando or king Sacripant | B |
| - | |
| XIX | - |
| And above every other deed repented | B |
| That good Rinaldo she had loved of yore | I |
| And that to look so low she had consented | B |
| As by such choice dishonoured grieved her sore | I |
| Love hearing this such arrogance resented | B |
| And would the damsel's pride endure no more | I |
| Where young Medoro lay he took his stand | B |
| And waited her with bow and shaft in hand | B |
| - | |
| XX | - |
| When fair Angelica the stripling spies | - |
| Nigh hurt to death in that disastrous fray | I |
| Who for his king that there unsheltered lies | - |
| More sad than for his own misfortune lay | I |
| She feels new pity in her bosom rise | - |
| Which makes its entry in unwonted way | I |
| Touched was her haughty heart once hard and curst | B |
| And more when he his piteous tale rehearsed | B |
| - | |
| XXI | - |
| And calling back to memory her art | B |
| For she in Ind had learned chirurgery | I |
| Since it appears such studies in that part | B |
| Worthy of praise and fame are held to be | M |
| And as an heir loom sires to sons impart | B |
| With little aid of books the mystery | M |
| Disposed herself to work with simples' juice | - |
| Till she in him should healthier life produce | - |
| - | |
| XXII | - |
| And recollects a herb had caught her sight | B |
| In passing hither on a pleasant plain | P |
| What whether dittany or pancy hight | B |
| I know not fraught with virtue to restrain | P |
| The crimson blood forth welling and of might | B |
| To sheathe each perilous and piercing pain | P |
| She found it near and having pulled the weed | B |
| Returned to seek | R |
Ludovico Ariosto
(1)
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Orlando Furioso Canto 19 is a poem by Ludovico Ariosto. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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