Stifled her words: with keen emotions fraught,
His hand, his robe the lovely suppliant caught,
In attitude of woe: the youth retired,
And by resistance victory acquired:
Love found all entrance closed against his power,
And manly virtue curb'd the tearful shower:
Love entered not, the passion to renew
That cool at Reason's sovereign mandate grew,
But Pity found its way his heart to move,
Pity, the modest partner still of Love.
RINALDO IN THE ENCHANTED FOREST.
FROM THE ITALIAN OF TASSO.
THE chief himself, with strange surprise impress'd,
Admired the lustre of his alter'd vest,
Then, buoy'd by spirits light and hope renew'd,
On to the gloomy grove his way pursued.
He came where, conquer'd by the distant view,
Less valiant warriors yielded and withdrew:
Nor gloomy scenes nor fearful he descries,
Delightful shade alone salutes his eyes.
Farther he went, and heard a soothing sound,
That fill'd the undulating air around;
The noise of falling rills, that hoarsely wept,
Of winds that mid the branches murmuring crept,
The tuneful cygnet's melancholy wail,
The answering plaint of lovelorn nightingale,
The harp's, the psaltery's voice, the human tone,
Such various sounds he heard express'd in one.
He, caution'd by the rest, prepared his ear
For bursting thunder and for sounds of fear,
But finds the voice of nymphs, the siren's song,
The warbled concert of the feather'd throng,
The purling rill, the breeze's whisper sweet:
Awhile instinctive wonder chain'd his feet;
Onward at last, in doubt, and slow he moved,
Nor other hinderance or delay he proved,
Save where a spacious river cross'd his road:
Pure and in tranquil majesty it flow'd;
Each bank with Nature's choicest treasures bloom'd,
With living verdure gay, with flowers perfumed;
So wide its horns it stretch'd, the extensive wood
Was belted by the circumambient flood:
Nor round the' encircled space it flow'd alone;
A lesser streamlet, from its bosom thrown,
Parted the silvan ground; the water laves
The' embowering wood, the wood o'ershades the
waves;
Each lent to each a mutual charm, and made
A gradual interchange of stream and shade.
To find a ford he for a moment tries,
When lo! a wondrous bridge before his eyes Sprang up; of gold the structure seem'd, and show'd,
On solid arches propp'd, a spacious road.
He pass'd, and scarce had reach'd the adverse
When in the waves the crashing fabric sank,
And roll'd in tumbled heaps the stream along,
Late a calm river, now a torrent strong.
He turn'd, and with amaze the change beheld;
As if by melted snows increased, it swell'd,
And, whirling round and round with headlong
force,
In foaming eddies urged its rapid course.
Yet, roused and on fresh wonders keenly bent,
Through the thick trees his piercing eyes he sent,
And still in those lone shades some wonder new
Absorb'd his thoughts, and fix'd by turns his view.
Where'er he moved, beneath his magic tread
A fountain burst, a flowery carpet spread;
Here sprouts the lovely lily, there the rose;
A spring starts up, a gushing streamlet flows.
Around and o'er his head, with youth renew'd,
Fair smiled again the' austere and aged wood;
The bark grew soft, and every tree was seen
Gay with more joyous life, and fresh with brighter
green;
Each dewy leaf luxuriant manna bore,
The' exuding bark distill'd a honey'd store. Wakening afresh, the music's soothing strain Was heard once more to warble and complain; Yet none might guess where that strange chorus dwell'd,
Which with the birds, the waves, the breezes, held Such concert sweet; whence rose the voice to sing, Who breathed the melting flute, or swept the silver
While wondering he observes, and scarce believes
What yet as true his outward sense receives,
He spies a myrtle tall, and thither tends,
Where in an area broad a pathway ends;
Aloft and wide the shrub ambitious spread,
And o'er the palm the cypress rear'd its head:
Above each neighbouring tree elate it stood,
And seem'd the mistress of the subject wood.
In the wide space arrived, fresh marvels rise,
And greater novelties arrest his eyes:
An oak he sees, which of itself divides,
Wondrous to tell! and from its bursting sides
There issued forth, in strange attire array'd,
Of youthful years mature, a blooming maid.
At once a hundred trees prolific part,
And from their pregnant wombs a hundred damsels start.
As when some artist's hand delights to trace
The fabled goddesses of silvan race;
Or as the stage presents its woodnymphs fair,
With colour'd buskins, and dishevell❜d hair;
Short are their robes, their snowy arms are bare;
So deck'd with Art's and Nature's beauty stood
The' unreal daughters of the teeming wood,
Save that the lute or chorded lyre they show
In place of quiver and of bended bow.
With hands combined they form a jocund ring,
Weave the light dance, and tune their voice to sing.
Himself the centre of the circle stands,
While round and round him skip the frolic bands:
Then round the tree they move; and soft and sweet
The warrior's ear these chanted accents meet-
'Welcome, thrice welcome to this happy grove, O thou our queen's delight, her hope, her love! Timely thou comest to heal her bleeding heart, Mangled and torn by Love's unpitying dart; This wood, enwrapp'd in dismal gloom of late, Abode well suited to her mournful state, Trod by thy steps, its features gay resumes, And with more vivid beauty smiles and blooms.' Such was their song; and soon a dulcet strain Burst from the myrtle; soon it rent in twain. Old times with awe majestic forms beheld, That in the breasts of rude Sileni dwell'd; But from this myrtle's opening bosom came A fairer sight; a nymph of matchless frame
Sprang forth, that every glowing charm combined
Ascribed by Fancy to the' angelic kind.
Intent Rinaldo gazed, and seem'd to trace
The well known features of Armida's face.
She with a glad but melancholy look
-Eyed the proud youth; a hundred feelings spoke
In that expressive glance: And do these eyes
Behold Rinaldo once again?' she cries;
'Why art thou here? some comfort to bestow On widow'd night, and days of hopeless woe? Or comest thou on unkind aggression bent? Perchance to drive me hence thy harsh intent? Else why conceal that face, those features fair? Why grasp thy falchion, and for war prepare? Comest thou an enemy or lover, say?
Not for an enemy I smooth'd the way,
That golden bridge supplied, and call'd to birth
The springing flowerets from the lap of earth,
Oped the pure fountain, and whate'er had proved
A hinderance to thy cherish'd steps removed.
But if a friend, that hidden face expose,
To my charm'd gaze thy beaming eyes disclose,
Soft lips with lips, with bosom bosom join,
And let my hand at least unite with thine.'
As thus she spake, she roll'd her swimming eyes,
Breathed the sweet magic of dissembled sighs,
And sobs that thrill'd, and tears of crystal shed ;
From her fair face the lovely colour fled;
In marble hearts soft sympathy might grow
To see such piteous plenitude of woe.
He cautious, though of heart that knew to feel,
Delay'd no more, but drew his shining steel,
And to the tree advanced: the Fair applied
To the loved trunk her arms, and, clinging, cried,
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