“ ‘There passes not a month, but in that space
Three nights, four, six, and often ten, the fair
Receives me with that joy in her embrace,
Which seems to second so the warmth we share.
This you may witness, and shall judge the case;
If empty hopes can with my bliss compare.
Then since my happier fortune is above
Your wishes, yield, and seek another love.’
“ ‘This will I not believe,’ in answer cried
Ariodantes, ‘well assured you lie,
And that you have this string of falsehoods tied,
To scare me from the dear emprize I try.
But charge, so passing foul, you shall abide,
And vouch what you have said in arms; for I
Not only on your tale place no reliance;
But as a traitor hurl you my defiance.’
“To him rejoined the duke, ‘I ween ’twere ill
To take the battle upon either part,
Since surer mean our purpose may fulfill;
And if it please, my proof I can impart.’
Ariodantes trembled, and a chill
Went through his inmost bones; and sick at heart,
Had he in full believed his rival’s boast,
Would on the spot have yielded up the ghost.
“With wounded heart, and faltering voice, pale face,77
And mouth of gall, he answered, ‘When I see
Proofs of thy rare adventure, and the grace
With which the fair Geneura honours thee,
I promise to forego the fruitless chase
Of one, to thee so kind, so cold to me.
But think not that thy story shall avail,
Unless my very eyes confirm the tale.’
“ ‘To warn in due time shall be my care.’
(Said Polinesso) and so went his way.
Two nights were scarecly passed, ere his repair
To the known bower was fixed for the assay.
And, ready now to spring his secret snare,
He sought his rival on the appointed day,
And him to hide, the night ensuing, prayed
I’ the street, which none their habitation made.
“And to the youth a station overright
The balcony, to which he clambered, shows.
Ariodantes weened, this while, the knight
Would him to seek that hidden place dispose,
As one well suited to his fell despite,
And, bent to take his life, this ambush chose,
Under the false pretence to make him see
What seemed a sheer impossibility.
“To go the peer resolved, but in such guise,
He should not be with vantage overlaid;
And should he be assaulted by surprise,
He need not be by fear of death dismay’d.
He had a noble brother, bold and wise,
First of the court in arms; and on his aid,
Lurcanio hight, relied with better heart
Than if ten others fought upon his part.
“He called him to his side, and willed him take
His arms; and to the place at evening led:
Yet not his secret purpose would be break:
Nor this to him, or other would have read:
Him a stone’s throw removed he placed, and spake:
‘—Come if thou hearest he cry,’ the warrior said;
‘But as thou lovest me (whatsoe’er befall)
Come not and move not, brother, till I call.’
“ ‘Doubt not’ (the valiant brother said) ‘but go;’
And thither went that baron silently,
And hid within the lonely house, and low,
Over against my secret gallery.
On the other side approached the fraudful foe,
So pleased to work Geneura’s infamy;
And, while I nothing of the cheat divine,
Beneath my bower renews the wonted sign,
“And I in costly robe, in which were set
Fair stripes of gold upon a snowy ground,
My tresses gathered in a golden net,
Shaded with tassels of vermillion round,
Mimicking fashions, which were only met
In fair Geneura, at the accustomed sound,
The gallery mount, constructed in such mode,
As upon every side my person showed.
“This while Lurcanio, either with a view
To snares which might beset his brother’s feet,
Or with the common passion to pursue,
And play the spy on other, where the street
Was darkest, and its deepest shadows threw,
Followed him softly to his dim retreat:
And not ten paces from the knight aloof,
Bestowed himself beneath the self same roof.
“Suspecting nought, I seek the balcony,
In the same habits which I mentioned, dressed;
As more than once or twice (still happily)
I did before; meanwhile the goodly vest
Was in the moonlight clearly seen, and I,
In aspect not unlike her, in the rest
Resembling much Geneura’s shape and cheer,
One visage well another might appear.
“So much the more, that there was ample space
Between the palace and the ruined row:
Hence the two brothers, posted in that place,
Were lightly cheated by the lying show.
Now put yourself in his unhappy case,
And figure what the wretched lover’s woe,
When Polinesso climbed the stair, which I
Cast down to him, and scaled the gallery.
“Arrived, my arms about his neck I throw,
Weening that we unseen of others meet,
And kiss his lips and face with loving show,
As him I hitherto was wont to greet;
And he assayed, with more than wonted glow,
Me to caress, to mask his hollow cheat.
Led to the shameful spectacle, aghast,
That other, from afar, viewed all that passed,
“And fell into such fit of deep despair,
He there resolved to die; and, to that end,
Planted the pommel of his falchion bare
I’ the ground, its point against his breast to bend.
Lurcanio, who with marvel by that stair,
Saw Polinesso to my bower ascend,
But knew not who the wight, with ready speed
Sprang forward, when he saw his brother’s deed.
“And hindered him in that fell agony
From turning his own hand against his breast.
Had the good youth been later, or less nigh,
To his assistance he had vainly pressed.
Then, ‘Wretched brother, what insanity.’
(He cried) ‘your better sense has dispossessed?
Die for a woman! rather let her kind
Be scattered like the mist before the wind!
“ ‘Compass her death! ’tis well deserved; your own
Reserve, as due to more illustrious fate.
’Twas well to love, before her
