Orlando Furioso Canto 5 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBCBCDD EFEFEFGG HCHCHCII FJFJFJKK LMLMLMFF GNODGLL P Q Q KK RSRSRSKK C C CTT FFJFJFJUU FCVCVCVKK FWXWXWXYY FFFFFFF FYYYYYYZZ FTFJFJYY YA2YA2YA2B2B2 YFYFYFC2C2 YA2A2A2YA2YY A2YA2YA2YYY A2YYYYYYC2C2 A2YYYYYYYY A2YXYXYXYY A2YYYYYY A2Y D2ARGUMENT | A |
Lurcanio by a false report abused | B |
Deemed by Geneura's fault his brother dead | C |
Weening the faithless duke whom she refused | B |
Was taken by the damsel to her bed | C |
And her before the king and peers accused | B |
But to the session Ariodantes led | C |
Strives with his brother in disguise In season | D |
Rinaldo comes to venge the secret treason | D |
- | |
I | - |
Among all other animals who prey | E |
On earth or who unite in friendly wise | F |
Whether they mix in peace or moody fray | E |
No male offends his mate In safety hies | F |
The she bear matched with hers through forest gray | E |
The lioness beside the lion lies | F |
Wolves male and female live in loving cheer | G |
Nor gentle heifer dreads the wilful steer | G |
- | |
II | - |
What Fury what abominable Pest | H |
Such poison in the human heart has shed | C |
That still 'twixt man and wife with rage possessed | H |
Injurious words and foul reproach are said | C |
And blows and outrage hase their peace molest | H |
And bitter tears still wash the genial bed | C |
Not only watered by the tearful flood | I |
But often bathed by senseless ire with blood | I |
- | |
III | - |
Not simply a rank sinner he appears | F |
To outrage nature and his God to dare | J |
Who his foul hand against a woman rears | F |
Or of her head would harm a single hair | J |
But who what drug the burning entrail sears | F |
Or who for her would knife or noose prepare | J |
No man appears to me though such to sight | K |
He seem but rather some infernal sprite | K |
- | |
IV | - |
Such and no other were those ruffians two | L |
Whom good Rinaldo from the damsel scared | M |
Conducted to these valleys out of view | L |
That none might wot of her so foully snared | M |
I ended where the damsel fair of hue | L |
To tell the occasion of her scathe prepared | M |
To the good Paladin who brought release | F |
And in conclusion thus my story piece | F |
- | |
V | - |
'Of direr deed than ever yet was done ' | - |
The gentle dame began 'Sir cavalier | G |
In Thebes Mycene Argos or upon | N |
Other more savage soil prepare to hear | O |
And I believe that if the circling sun | D |
To these our Scottish shores approach less near | G |
Than other land 'tis that he would eschew | L |
A foul ferocious race that shocks his view | L |
- | |
VI | - |
'All times have shown that man has still pursued | P |
With hair in every clime his natural foe | - |
But to deal death to those who seek our good | Q |
Does from too ill and foul a nature flow | - |
Now that the truth be better understood | Q |
I shall from first to last the occasion show | - |
Why in my tender years against all right | K |
Those caitiffs would have dome me foul despite | K |
- | |
VII | - |
' 'Tis fitting you should know that in the spring | R |
Of life I to the palace made resort | S |
There served long time the daughter of the king | R |
And grew with her in growth well placed in court | S |
When cruel love my fortune envying | R |
Willed I should be his follower and his sport | S |
And made beyond each Scottish lord and knight | K |
Albany's duke find favour in my sight | K |
- | |
VIII | - |
'And for he seemed to cherish me above | - |
All mean his love a love as ardent bred | C |
We hear indeed and see but do not prove | - |
Man's faith nor is his bosom's purpose read | C |
Believing still and yielding to my love | - |
I ceased not till I took him to my bed | C |
Nor of all chambers in that evil hour | T |
Marked I was in Geneura's priviest bower | T |
- | |
IX | F |
'Where hoarded she with careful privacy | F |
Preserved whatever she esteemed most rare | J |
There many times she slept A gallery | F |
From thence projected into the open air | J |
Here oft I made my lover climb to me | F |
And what he was to mount a hempen stair | J |
When him I to my longing arms would call | U |
From the projecting balcony let fall | U |
- | |
X | F |
'For here my passion I as often fed | C |
As good Geneura's absence made me bold | V |
Who with the varying season changed her bed | C |
To shun the burning heat or pinching cold | V |
And Albany unseen and safely sped | C |
For fronting a dismantled street and old | V |
Was built that portion of the palace bright | K |
Nor any went that way by day or night | K |
- | |
XI | F |
'So was for many days and months maintained | W |
By us in secrecy the amorous game | X |
Still grew by love and such new vigour gained | W |
I in my inmost bosom felt the flame | X |
And that he little loved and deeply feigned | W |
Weened not so was I blinded to my shame | X |
Though in a thousand certain signs betrayed | Y |
The faithless knight his base deceit bewrayed | Y |
- | |
XII | F |
'After some days of fair Geneura he | F |
A suitor showed himself I cannot say | F |
If this began before he sighed for me | F |
Or after of this love he made assay | F |
But judge alas with what supremacy | F |
He ruled my heart how absolute his sway | F |
Since this he owned and thought no shame to move | - |
Me to assist him in his second love | - |
- | |
XIII | F |
'Unlike what he bore me he said indeed | Y |
That was not true which he for her displayed | Y |
But so pretending love he hoped to speed | Y |
And celebrate due spousals with the maid | Y |
He with her royal sire might well succeed | Y |
Were she consenting to the boon he prayed | Y |
For after our good king for wealth and birth | Z |
In all the realm was none of equal worth | Z |
- | |
XIV | - |
'Me he persuades if through my ministry | F |
He the king's son in law elected were | T |
For I must know he next the king would be | F |
Advanced as high as subject could repair | J |
The merit should be mine and ever he | F |
So great a benefit in mind would bear | J |
And he would cherish me above his bride | Y |
And more than every other dame beside | Y |
- | |
XV | - |
'I who to please him was entirely bent | Y |
Who never could or would gainsay his will | A2 |
Upon those days alone enjoy content | Y |
When I find means his wishes to fulfil | A2 |
And snatch at all occasions which present | Y |
A mode his praise and merits to instil | A2 |
And for my lover with all labour strain | B2 |
And industry Geneura's love to gain | B2 |
- | |
XVI | - |
'With all my heart in furtherance of his suit | Y |
I wrought what could be done God truly knows | F |
But with Geneura this produced no friut | Y |
Nor her to grace my duke could I dispose | F |
For that another love had taken root | Y |
In her whose every fond affection flows | F |
Towards a gentle knight of courteous lore | C2 |
Who sought our Scotland from a distant shore | C2 |
- | |
XVII | - |
'And with a brother then right young to stay | Y |
In our king's court came out of Italy | A2 |
And there of knightly arms made such assay | A2 |
Was none in Britain more approved than he | A2 |
Prized by the king who no ignoble pay | Y |
Rewarding him like his nobility | A2 |
Bestowed upon the youth with liberal hand | Y |
Burghs baronies and castles woods and land | Y |
- | |
XVIII | - |
'Dear to the monarch to the daughter still | A2 |
This lord was dearer Ariodantes hight | Y |
Her with affection might his valour fill | A2 |
But knowledge of his love brought more delight | Y |
Nor old Vesuvius nor Sicilia's hill | A2 |
Nor Troy town ever with a blaze so bright | Y |
Flamed as with all his heart the damsel learned | Y |
For love of her young Ariodantes burned | Y |
- | |
XIX | A2 |
'The passion which she bore the lord preferred | Y |
And loved with perfect truth and all her heart | Y |
Was the occassion I was still unheard | Y |
Nor hopeful answer would she e'er impart | Y |
And still the more my lover's suit I stirred | Y |
And to obtain his guerdon strove with art | Y |
Him she would censure still and ever more | C2 |
Was strengthened in the hate she nursed before | C2 |
- | |
XX | A2 |
'My wayward lover often I excite | Y |
So vain and bootless an emprize to quit | Y |
Nor idly hope to turn her stedfast sprite | Y |
Too deeply with another passion smit | Y |
And make apparent to the Scottish knight | Y |
Ariodantes such a flame had lit | Y |
In the young damsel's breast that seas in flood | Y |
Would not have cooled one whit her boiling blood | Y |
- | |
XXI | A2 |
'This Polinesso many times had heard | Y |
From me for such the Scottish baron's name | X |
Well warranted by sight as well as word | Y |
How ill his love was cherished by the dame | X |
To see another to himself preferred | Y |
Not only quenched the haughty warrior's flame | X |
But the fond love which in his bosom burned | Y |
Into despiteful rage and hatred turned | Y |
- | |
XXII | A2 |
'Between Geneura and her faithful knight | Y |
Such discord and ill will he schemed to shed | Y |
And put betwixt the pair such foul despite | Y |
No time should heal the quarrel he had bred | Y |
Bringing such scandal on that damsel bright | Y |
The stain should cleave to her alive or dead | Y |
Nor bent to wreck her on this fatal shelf | - |
Counselled with me or other but himself | - |
- | |
XXIII | A2 |
' Dalinda mine ' he said his project brewed | Y |
Dalinda is my name you needs must know | - |
That from | D2 |
Ludovico Ariosto
(1)
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