Of Parma and the pleasant Reggio dread;
Who shall by him be spoiled in sudden strife,
Of his possessions and his wretched life.
“And still the fair dominion53 shall increase,
And without wrong its spreading bounds augment;
Nor its glad subjects violate the peace,
Unless provoked some outrage to resent,
And hence its wealth and welfare shall not cease;
And the Divine Disposer be content
To let it flourish (such his heavenly love!)
While the celestial spheres revolve above.
“Lo! Lionel! lo! Borse great and kind!54
First duke of thy fair race, his realm’s delight;
Who reigns secure, and shall more triumphs find
In peace, than warlike princes win in fight.
Who struggling Fury’s hands shall tie behind
Her back, and prison Mars, removed from sight.
His fair endeavours bent to bless and stay
The people, that his sovereign rule obey.
“Lo! Hercules, who may reproach his neighbour,55
With foot half burnt, and halting gait and slow,
That at Budrìo, with protecting sabre,
He saved his troops from fatal overthrow;
Not that, for guerdon of his glorious labour,
He should distress and vex him as a foe;
Chased into Barco. It were hard to say,
If most he shine in peace or martial fray.
“Lucania, Puglia, and Calabria’s strand,
Shall with the rumour of his prowess ring:
Where he shall strive in duel, hand to hand,56
And gain the praise of Catalonia’s king.
Him, with the wisest captains of the land
His worth shall class; such fame his actions bring;
And he the fief shall win like valiant knight,
Which thirty years before was his of right.
“To him his grateful city owes a debt,
The greatest subjects to their lord can owe;
Not that he moves her from a marsh, to set
Her stones, where Ceres’ fruitful treasures grow.
Nor that he shall enlarge her bounds, nor yet
That he shall fence her walls against the foe;
Nor that he theatre and dome repairs,
And beautifies her streets and goodly squares;
“Not that he keeps his lordship well defended
From the winged lions’ claws and fierce attacks;57
Nor that, when Gallic ravage is extended,
And the invader all Italia sacks,
His happy state alone is unoffended;58
Unharassed, and ungalled by toll or tax.
Not for these blessings I recount, and more
His grateful realm shall Hercules adore;
“So much as that from him shall spring a pair
Of brothers, leagued no less by love than blood;
Who shall be all that Leda’s children were;
The just Alphonso, Hippolite the good.59
And as each twin resigned the vital air
His fellow to redeem from Stygian flood,
So each of these would gladly spend his breath,
And for his brother brave perpetual death.
“In these two princes’ excellent affection,
Their happy lieges more assurance feel,
Than if their noble town, for its protection,
Were girded twice by Vulcan’s works of steel.
And so Alphonso in his good direction,
Justice, with knowledge and with love, shall deal,
Astrea shall appear returned from heaven,
To this low earth to varying seasons given.
“Well is it that his wisdom shines as bright
As his good sire’s, nor is his valour less;
Since here usurping Venice arms for fight,
And her full troops his scanty numbers press,
There she (I know not if more justly hight60
Mother or stepmother) brings new distress;
But, if a mother, scarce to him more mild
Than Progne or Medea to her child.
“This chief, what time soever he shall go
Forth with his faithful crew, by night or day,
By water or by land, will shame the foe,
With memorable rout and disarray;
And this too late Romagna’s sons shall know.
Led against former friends in bloody fray,
Who shall bedew the campaign with their blood,
By Santern, Po, and Zaniolus’ flood.
“This shall the Spaniard know, to his dismay,61
’Mid the same bounds, whom papal gold shall gain;
Who shall from him Bastìa win and slay,
With cruel rage, her hapless Castellain,
The city taken; but shall dearly pay;
His crime, the town retrieved, and victor slain:
Since in the rescued city not a groom
Is left alive, to bear the news to Rome.
“ ’Tis he, who with his counsel and his lance,
Shall win the honours of Romagna’s plain,
And open to the chivalry of France
The victory over Julius, leagued with Spain.
Paunch-deep in human blood shall steeds advance
In that fierce strife, and struggle through the slain,
’Mid crowded fields, which scarce a grace supply,
Where Greek, Italian, Frank, and Spaniard die.
“Lo! who in priestly vesture clad, is crowned
With purple hat, conferred in hallowed dome!
’Tis he, the wise, the liberal, the renowned
Hippolitus, great cardinal of Rome;62
Whose actions shall in every region sound,
Where’er the honoured muse shall find a home:
To whose glad era, by indulgent heaven,
As to Augustus’ is a Maro given.63
“His deeds adorn his race, as from his car
The glorious sun illumes the subject earth
More than the silver moon or lesser star;
So far all others he transcends in worth.
I see this captain, ill bested for war,
Go forth afflicted, and return in mirth:
Backed by few foot, and fewer cavaliers,64
He homeward barks, and fifteen gallies steers.
“Two Sigismonds, the first, the second, see;
To these Alphonso’s five good sons succeed;
Whose glories spread o’er seas and land shall be.
The first shall wed a maid of France’s seed.
This is the second Hercules; and he,65
(That you may know their every name and deed),
Hippolitus; who with the light shall shine,
Of his wise uncle, gilding all his line.
“Francis the third comes next; the other two
Alphonsos both;—but yet again I say,
Thy line through all its branches to pursue,
Fair virgin, would too long protract thy stay;
And Phoebus, many times, to mortal view,
Would
