Orlando Furioso Canto 20 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDCBCEE FGFHIGJJ FKFKFLMM NFNFNFOO PJPJPJQQ GRGRHRSS MJMJMJTT TDTDTD TTTTTTT IIIIIIITT IT M M M JJ R R ROO C C CNN GG M M M M R R R M RORUROVW J J J RARGUMENT | A |
Guido and his from that foul haunt retire | B |
While all Astolpho chases with his horn | C |
Who to all quarters of the town sets fire | D |
Then roving singly round the world is borne | C |
Marphisa for Gabrina's cause in ire | B |
Puts upon young Zerbino scathe and scorn | C |
And makes him guardian of Gabrina fell | E |
From whom he first learns news of Isabel | E |
- | |
I | - |
Great fears the women of antiquity | F |
In arms and hallowed arts as well have done | G |
And of their worthy works the memory | F |
And lustre through this ample world has shone | H |
Praised is Camilla with Harpalice | I |
For the fair course which they in battle run | G |
Corinna and Sappho famous for their lore | J |
Shine two illustrious light to set no more | J |
- | |
II | - |
Women have reached the pinnacle of glory | F |
In every art by them professed well seen | K |
And whosoever turns the leaf of story | F |
Finds record of them neither dim nor mean | K |
The evil influence will be transitory | F |
If long deprived of such the world had been | L |
And envious men and those that never knew | M |
Their worth have haply hid their honours due | M |
- | |
III | - |
To me it plainly seems in this our age | N |
Of women such is the celebrity | F |
That it may furnish matter to the page | N |
Whence this dispersed to future years shall be | F |
And you ye evil tongues which foully rage | N |
Be tied to your eternal infamy | F |
And women's praises so resplendent show | O |
They shall by much Marphisa's worth outgo | O |
- | |
IV | - |
To her returning yet again the dame | P |
To him who showed to her such courteous lore | J |
Refused not to disclose her martial name | P |
Since he agreed to tell the style be bore | J |
She quickly satisfied the warrior's claim | P |
To learn his title she desired so sore | J |
'I am Marphisa ' the virago cried | Q |
All else was known as bruited far and wide | Q |
- | |
V | - |
The other since 'twas his to speak begun | G |
With longer preamble 'Amid your train | R |
Sirs it is my belief that there is none | G |
But has heard mention of my race and strain | R |
Not Pontus Aethiopia Ind alone | H |
With all their neighbouring realms but France and Spain | R |
Wot well of Clermont from whose loins the knight | S |
Issued who killed Almontes bold in fight | S |
- | |
VI | - |
'And Chiareillo and Mambrino slew | M |
And sacked the realm whose royal crown they wore | J |
Come of this blood where Danube's waters through | M |
Eight horns or ten to meet the Euxine pour | J |
Me to the far renowned Duke Aymon who | M |
Thither a stranger roved my mother bore | J |
And 'tis a twelvemonth now since her in quest | T |
Of my French kin I left with grief opprest | T |
- | |
VII | - |
'But reached not France for southern tempest's spite | T |
Impelled me hither lodged in royal bower | D |
Ten months or more for miserable wight | T |
I reckon every day and every hour | D |
Guido the Savage I by name am hight | T |
Ill known and scarcely proved in warlike stower | D |
Here Argilon of Meliboea I | - |
Slew with ten warriors in his company | - |
- | |
VIII | - |
'Conqueror as well in other field confessed | T |
Ten ladies are the partners of my bed | T |
Selected at my choice who are the best | T |
And fairest damsels in this kingdom bred | T |
These I command as well as all the rest | T |
Who of their female band have made me head | T |
And so would make another who in fight | T |
Like me ten opposites to death would smite ' | - |
- | |
IX | I |
Sir Guido is besought of them to say | I |
Why there appear so few of the male race | I |
And to declare if women there bear sway | I |
O'er men as men o'er them in other place | I |
He 'Since my fortune has been here to stay | I |
I oftentimes have heard relate the case | I |
And now according to the story told | T |
Will since it pleases you the cause unfold | T |
- | |
X | I |
'When after twenty years the Grecian host | T |
Returned from Troy ten years hostility | - |
The town endured ten weary years were tost | - |
The Greeks detained by adverse winds at sea | - |
They found their women had for comforts lost | - |
And pangs of absence learned a remedy | - |
And that they might not freeze alone in bed | - |
Chosen young lovers in their husbands' stead | - |
- | |
XI | - |
'With others' children filled the Grecian crew | M |
Their houses found and by consent was past | - |
A pardon to their women for they knew | M |
How ill they could endure so long a fast | - |
But the adulterous issue as their due | M |
To seek their fortunes on the world were cast | - |
Because the husbands would not suffer more | J |
The striplings should be nourished from their store | J |
- | |
XII | - |
'Some are exposed and others underhand | - |
Their kindly mothers shelter and maintain | R |
While the adults in many a various band | - |
Some here some there dispersed their living gain | R |
Arms are the trade of some by some are scanned | - |
Letters and arts another tills the plain | R |
One serves in court by other guided go | O |
The herd as pleases her who rules below | O |
- | |
XIII | - |
'A boy departed with they youthful peers | - |
Who was of cruel Clytemnestra born | C |
Like lily fresh he numbered eighteen years | - |
Or blooming rose new gathered from the thorn | C |
He having armed a bark his pinnace steers | - |
In search of plunder o'er the billows borne | C |
With him a hundred other youths engage | N |
Picked from all Greece and of their leader's age | N |
- | |
XIV | - |
'The Cretans who had banished in that day | - |
Idomeneus the tyrant of their land | - |
And their new state to strengthen and upstay | - |
Were gathering arms and levying martial band | - |
Phalantus' service by their goodly pay | - |
Purchased so hight the youth who sought that strand | - |
And all those others that his fortune run | G |
Who the Dictaean city garrison | G |
- | |
XV | - |
'Amid the hundred cities of old Crete | - |
Was the Dictaean the most rich and bright | - |
Of fair and amorous dames the joyous seat | - |
Joyous with festive sports from morn to night | - |
And as her townsmen aye were wont to greet | - |
The stranger with such hospitable rite | - |
They welcomed these it little lacked but they | - |
Granted them o'er their households sovereign sway | - |
- | |
XVI | - |
'Youthful and passing fair were all the crew | M |
The flower of Greece who bold Phalantus led | - |
So that with those fair ladies at first view | M |
Stealing their hearts full well the striplings sped | - |
Since fair in deed as show they good and true | M |
Lovers evinced themselves and bold in bed | - |
And in few days to them so grateful proved | - |
Above all dearest things they were beloved | - |
- | |
XVII | M |
'After the war was ended on accord | - |
For which were hired Phalantus and his train | R |
And pay withdrawn nor longer by the sword | - |
Was aught which the adventurous youth can gain | R |
And they for this anew would go aboard | - |
The unhappy Cretan women more complain | R |
And fuller tears on this occasion shed | - |
That if their fathers lay before them dead | - |
- | |
XVIII | M |
'Long time and sorely all the striplings bold | - |
Were each apart by them implored to stay | - |
Who since the fleeting youths they cannot hold | - |
Leave brother sire and son with these to stray | - |
Of jewels and of weighty sums of gold | - |
Spoiling their households ere they wend their way | - |
For so well was the plot concealed no wight | - |
Throughout all Crete was privy to their flight | - |
- | |
XIX | - |
'So happy was the hour so fair the wind | - |
When young Phalantus chose his time to flee | - |
They many miles had left the isle behind | - |
Ere Crete lamented her calamity | - |
Next uninhabited by human kind | - |
This shore received them wandering o'er the sea | - |
'Twas here they settled with the plunder reft | - |
And better weighed the issue of their theft | - |
- | |
XX | - |
'With amorous pleasures teemed this place of rest | - |
For ten days to that roving company | - |
But as oft happens that in youthful breast | - |
Abundance brings with it satiety | - |
To quit their women with one wish possest | - |
The band resolved to win their liberty | - |
For never burden does so sore oppress | - |
As woman when her love breeds weariness | - |
- | |
XXI | - |
'They who are covetous of spoil and gain | R |
And ill bested withal in stipend know | O |
That better means are wanted to maintain | R |
So many paramours than shaft and bow | U |
And leaving thus alone the wretched train | R |
Thence with their riches charged the adventurers go | O |
For Puglia's pleasant land there founded near | V |
The sea Tarentum's city as I hear | W |
- | |
XXII | - |
'The women when they find themselves betrayed | - |
Of lovers by whose faith they set most store | J |
For many days remain so sore dismayed | - |
That they seem lifeless statues on the shore | J |
But seeing lamentations nothing aid | - |
And fruitless are the many tears they pour | J |
Begin to meditate amid their pains | - |
What remedy for such an ill remain | R |
Ludovico Ariosto
(1)
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