Jerusalem Delivered

by Torquato Tasso

  XI

  Thus said the one, the other bended down

  His looks to ground, and half in scorn he smiled,

  He saw at once earth, sea, flood, castle, town,

  Strangely divided, strangely all compiled,

  And wondered folly man so far should drown,

  To set his heart on things so base and vild,

  That servile empire searcheth and dumb fame,

  And scorns heaven’s bliss, yet proffereth heaven the same.

  XII

  Wherefore he answered, “Since the Lord not yet

  Will free my spirit from this cage of clay,

  Lest worldly error vain my voyage let,

  Teach me to heaven the best and surest way:”

  Hugo replied, “Thy happy foot is set

  In the true path, nor from this passage stray,

  Only from exile young Rinaldo call,

  This give I thee in charge, else naught at all.

  XIII

  “For as the Lord of hosts, the King of bliss,

  Hath chosen thee to rule the faithful band;

  So he thy stratagems appointed is

  To execute, so both shall win this land:

  The first is thine, the second place is his,

  Thou art this army’s head, and he the hand,

  No other champion can his place supply,

  And that thou do it doth thy state deny.

  XIV

  “The enchanted forest, and her charmed treen,

  With cutting steel shall he to earth down hew,

  And thy weak armies which too feeble been

  To scale again these walls reinforced new,

  And fainting lie dispersed on the green,

  Shall take new strength new courage at his view,

  The high-built towers, the eastern squadrons all,

  Shall conquered be, shall fly, shall die, shall fall.”

  XV

  He held his peace; and Godfrey answered so:

  “Oh, how his presence would recomfort me!

  You that man’s hidden thoughts perceive and know:

  If I say truth, or if I love him, see.

  But say, what messengers shall for him go?

  What shall their speeches, what their errand be?

  Shall I entreat, or else command the man?

  With credit neither well perform I can.”

  XVI

  “The eternal Lord,” the other knight replied,

  “That with so many graces hath thee blest,

  Will, that among the troops thou hast to guide,

  Thou honored be and feared of most and least:

  Then speak not thou lest blemish some betide

  Thy sacred empire if thou make request;

  But when by suit thou moved art to ruth,

  Then yield, forgive, and home recall the youth.

  XVII

  “Guelpho shall pray thee, God shall him inspire,

  To pardon this offence, this fault commit

  By hasty wrath, by rash and headstrong ire,

  To call the knight again; yield thou to it:

  And though the youth, enwrapped in fond desire,

  Far hence in love and looseness idle sit,

  Year fear it not, he shall return with speed,

  When most you wish him and when most you need.

  XVIII

  “Your hermit Peter, to whose sapient heart

  High Heaven his secrets opens, tells and shews,

  Your messengers direct can to that part,

  Where of the prince they shall hear certain news,

  And learn the way, the manner, and the art

  To bring him back to these thy warlike crews,

  That all thy soldiers, wandered and misgone,

  Heaven may unite again and join in one.

  XIX

  “But this conclusion shall my speeches end:

  Know that his blood shall mixed be with thine,

  Whence barons bold and worthies shall descend,

  That many great exploits shall bring to fine.”

  This said, he vanished from his sleeping friend,

  Like smoke in wind, or mist in Titan’s shine;

  Sleep fled likewise, and in his troubled thought,

  With wonder, pleasure; joy, with marvel fought.

  XX

  The duke looked up, and saw the azure sky

  With argent beams of silver morning spread,

  And started up, for praise axed virtue lie

  In toil and travel, sin and shame in bed:

  His arms he took, his sword girt to his thigh,

  To his pavilion all his lords them sped,

  And there in council grave the princes sit,

  For strength by wisdom, war is ruled by wit.

  XXI

  Lord Guelpho there, within whose gentle breast

  Heaven had infused that new and sudden thought,

  His pleasing words thus to the duke addressed:

  “Good prince, mild, though unasked, kind, unbesought,

  Oh let thy mercy grant my just request,

  Pardon this fault by rage not malice wrought;

  For great offence, I grant, so late commit,

  My suit too hasty is, perchance unfit.

  XXII

  But since to Godfrey meek benign and kind,

  For Prince Rinaldo bold, I humbly sue,

  And that the suitor’s self is not behind

  Thy greatest friends in state or friendship true;

  I trust I shall thy grace and mercy find

  Acceptable to me and all this crew;

  Oh call him home, this trespass to amend,

  He shall his blood in Godfrey’s service spend.

  XXIII

  “And if not he, who else dares undertake

  Of this enchanted wood to cut one tree?

  Gainst death and danger who dares battle make,

  With so bold face, so fearless heart as he?

  Beat down these walls, these gates in pieces break,

  Leap o’er these rampires high, thou shalt him see,

  Restore therefore to this desirous band

  Their wish, their hope, their strength, their shield, their hand;

  XXIV

  “To me my nephew, to thyself restore

  A trusty help, when strength of hand thou needs,

  In idleness let him consume no more,

  Recall him to his noble acts and deeds!

  Known be his worth as was his strength of yore

  Wher’er thy standard broad her cross outspreads,

  Oh, let his fame and praise spread far and wide,

  Be thou his lord, his teacher and his guidel”

  XXV

  Thus he entreated, and the rest approve

  His words, with friendly murmurs whispered low.

  Godfrey as though their suit his mind did move

  To that whereon he never thought tell now,

  “How can my heart,” quoth he, “if you I love,

  To your request and suit but bend and bow?

  Let rigor go, that right and justice be

  Wherein you all consent and all agree.

  XXVI

  “Rinaldo shall return; let him restrain

  Henceforth his headstrong wrath and hasty ire,

  And with his hardy deeds let him take pain

  To correspond your hope and my desire:

  Guelpho, thou must call home the knight again,

  See that with speed he to these tents retire,

  The messengers appoint as likes thy mind,

  And teach them where they should the young man find.”

  XXVII

  Up start the Dane that bare Prince Sweno’s brand,

  “I will,” quoth he, “that message undertake,

  I will refuse no pains by sea or land,

  To give the knight this sword, kept for his sake.”

  This man was bold of courage, strong of hand,

  Guelpho was glad he did the p
roffer make:

  “Thou shalt,” quoth he, “Ubaldo shalt thou have

  To go with thee, a knight, stout, wise, and grave.”

  XXVIII

  Ubaldo in his youth had known and seen

  The fashions strange of many an uncouth land,

  And travelled over all the realms between

  The Arctic circle and hot Meroe’s strand,

  And as a man whose wit his guide had been,

  Their customs use he could, tongues understand,

  Forthy when spent his youthful seasons were

  Lord Guelpho entertained and held him dear.

  XXIX

  To these committed was the charge and care

  To find and bring again the champion bold,

  Guelpho commands them to the fort repair,

  Where Boemond doth his seat and sceptre hold,

  For public fame said that Bertoldo’s heir

  There lived, there dwelt, there stayed; the hermit old,

  That knew they were misled by false report,

  Among them came, and parleyed in this sort:

  XXX

  “Sir knights,” quoth he, “if you intend to ride,

  And follow each report fond people say,

  You follow but a rash and truthless guide

  That leads vain men amiss and makes them stray;

  Near Ascalon go to the salt seaside,

  Where a swift brook fails in with hideous sway,

  An aged sire, our friend, there shall you find,

  All what he saith, that do, that keep in mind.

  XXXI

  “Of this great voyage which you undertake,

  Much by his skill, and much by mine advise

  Hath he foreknown, and welcome for my sake

  You both shall be, the man is kind and wise.”

  Instructed thus no further question make

  The twain elected for this enterprise,

  But humbly yielded to obey his word,

  For what the hermit said, that said the Lord.

  XXXII

  They took their leave, and on their journey went,

  Their will could brook no stay, their zeal, no let;

  To Ascalon their voyage straight they bent,

  Whose broken shores with brackish waves are wet,

  And there they heard how gainst the cliffs, besprent

  With bitter foam, the roaring surges bet,

  A tumbling brook their passage stopped and stayed,

  Which late-fall’n rain had proud and puissant made,

  XXXIII

  So proud that over all his banks he grew,

  And through the fields ran swift as shaft from bow,

  While here they stopped and stood, before them drew

  An aged sire, grave and benign in show,

  Crowned with a beechen garland gathered new,

  Clad in a linen robe that raught down low,

  In his right hand a rod, and on the flood

  Against the stream he marched, and dry shod yode.

  XXXIV

  As on the Rhene, when winter’s freezing cold

  Congeals the streams to thick and hardened glass,

  The beauties fair of shepherds’ daughters bold

  With wanton windlays run, turn, play and pass;

  So on this river passed the wizard old,

  Although unfrozen soft and swift it was,

  And thither stalked where the warriors stayed,

  To whom, their greetings done, he spoke and said:

  XXXV

  “Great pains, great travel, lords, you have begun,

  And of a cunning guide great need you stand,

  Far off, alas! is great Bertoldo’s son,

  Imprisoned in a waste and desert land,

  What soil remains by which you must not run,

  What promontory, rock, sea, shore or sand

  Your search must stretch before the prince be found,

  Beyond our world, beyond our half of ground!

  XXXVI

  But yet vouchsafe to see my cell I pray,

  In hidden caves and vaults though builded low,

  Great wonders there, strange things I will bewray,

  Things good for you to hear, and fit to know:”

  This said, he bids the river make them way,

  The flood retired, backward gan to flow,

  And here and there two crystal mountains rise,

  So fled the Red Sea once, and Jordan thrice.

  XXXVII

  He took their hands, and led them headlong down

  Under the flood, through vast and hollow deeps,

  Such light they had as when through shadows brown

  Of thickest deserts feeble Cynthia peeps,

  Their spacious caves they saw all overflown,

  There all his waters pure great Neptune keeps,

  And thence to moisten all the earth he brings

  Seas, rivers, floods, lakes, fountains, wells and springs:

  XXXVIII

  Whence Ganges, Indus, Volga, Ister, Po,

  Whence Euphrates, whence Tigris’ spring they view,

  Whence Tanais, whence Nilus comes also,

  Although his head till then no creature knew,

  But under these a wealthy stream doth go,

  That sulphur yields and ore, rich, quick and new,

  Which the sunbeams doth polish, purge and fine,

  And makes it silver pure, and gold divine.

  XXXIX

  And all his banks the rich and wealthy stream

  Hath fair beset with pearl and precious stone

  Like stars in sky or lamps on stage that seem,

  The darkness there was day, the night was gone,

  There sparkled, clothed in his azure-beam,

  The heavenly sapphire, there the jacinth shone,

  The carbuncle there flamed, the diamond sheen,

  There glistered bright, there smiled the emerald green.

  XL

  Amazed the knights amid these wonders passed,

  And fixed so deep the marvels in their thought,

  That not one word they uttered, till at last

  Ubaldo spake, and thus his guide besought:

  “O father, tell me by what skill thou hast

  These wonders done? and to what place us brought?

  For well I know not if I wake or sleep,

  My heart is drowned in such amazement deep.”

  XLI

  “You are within the hollow womb,” quoth he,

  “Of fertile earth, the nurse of all things made,

  And but you brought and guided are by me,

  Her sacred entrails could no wight invade;

  My palace shortly shall you splendent see,

  With glorious light, though built in night and shade.

  A Pagan was I born, but yet the Lord

  To grace, by baptism, hath my soul restored.

  XLII

  “Nor yet by help of devil, or aid from hell,

  I do this uncouth work and wondrous feat,

  The Lord forbid I use or charm or spell

  To raise foul Dis from his infernal seat:

  But of all herbs, of every spring and well,

  The hidden power I know and virtue great,

  And all that kind hath hid from mortal sight,

  And all the stars, their motions, and their might.

  XLIII

  “For in these caves I dwell not buried still

  From sight of Heaven, but often I resort

  To tops of Lebanon or Carmel hill,

  And there in liquid air myself disport,

  There Mars and Venus I behold at will!

  As bare as erst when Vulcan took them short,

  And how the rest roll, glide and move, I see,

  How their aspects benign or froward be.”

  XLIV

  “And underneath my feet the clouds I view,

  Now thick, now thin, now bright with Iris’ bow,

  The frost and
snow, the rain, the hail, the dew,

  The winds, from whence they come and whence they blow,

  How Jove his thunder makes and lightning new,

  How with the bolt he strikes the earth below,

  How comate, crinite, caudate stars are framed

  I knew; my skill with pride my heart inflamed.

  XLV

  “So learned, cunning, wise, myself I thought,

  That I supposed my wit so high might climb

  To know all things that God had framed or wrought,

  Fire, air, sea, earth, man, beast, sprite, place and time;

  But when your hermit me to baptism brought,

  And from my soul had washed the sin and crime,

  Then I perceived my sight was blindness still,

  My wit was folly, ignorance my skill.

  XLVI

  “Then saw I, that like owls in shining sun,

  So gainst the beams of truth our souls are blind,

  And at myself to smile I then begun,

  And at my heart, puffed up with folly’s wind,

  Yet still these arts, as I before had done,

  I practised, such was the hermit’s mind:

  Thus hath he changed my thoughts, my heart, my will,

  And rules mine art, my knowledge, and my skill.

  XLVII

  “In him I rest, on him my thoughts depend,

  My lord, my teacher, and my guide is he,

  This noble work he strives to bring to end,

  He is the architect, the workmen we,

  The hardy youth home to this camp to send

  From prison strong, my care, my charge shall be;

  So He commands, and me ere this foretold

  Your coming oft, to seek the champion bold.”

  XLVIII

  While this he said, he brought the champions twain

  Down to a vault, wherein he dwells and lies,

  It was a cave, high, wide, large, ample, plain,

  With goodly rooms, halls, chambers, galleries,

  All what is bred in rich and precious vein

  Of wealthy earth, and hid from mortal eyes,

  There shines, and fair adorned was every part

  With riches grown by kind, not framed by art:

  XLIX

  An hundred grooms, quick, diligent and neat,

  Attendance gave about these strangers bold,

  Against the wall there stood a cupboard great

  Of massive plate, of silver, crystal, gold.

  But when with precious wines and costly meat

  They filled were, thus spake the wizard old:

  “Now fits the time, sir knights, I tell and show

  What you desire to hear, and long to know.

  L

  “Armida’s craft, her sleight and hidden guile

  You partly wot, her acts and arts untrue,

  How to your camp she came, and by what wile

  The greatest lords and princes thence she drew;

  You know she turned them first to monsters vile,