His offer takes, and enters a new road,
Following that cavalier to his abode.
A bowshot from the way diverged the two,
And a great palace fronting them descried:
Whence squires with blazing lights (a numerous crew)
Issued, and chased the darkness far and wide.
Entering, his eyes around Rinaldo threw,
And saw a place, whose like is seldom spied,
Of beauteous fabric, and well ordered plan;
Nor such huge cost befitted private man.
Of serpentine and of hard porphyry are
The stones which form the gateway’s arch above.
Of bronze the portal leaves, which figures bear,
Whose lively features seem to breathe and move.
Beneath the vaulted entry, colours rare
Cheating the eye, in mixt mosaic strove,
The quadrangle within was galleried,
And of a hundred yards, on every side.
A gateway is there to each galleried row,
And, ’twixt it and that gate, an arch is bent;
Of equal breadth, but different in their show,
For the architect had spared not ornament.
Each arch an entrance was; up which might go
A laden horse; so easy the ascent.501
To arch above leads every stair withal,
And every arch is entrance to a hall.
Above, project the arches in such sort,
They for the spacious portals form a shade;
And each two pillars has for its support:
Of bronze are some, and some of marble made.
The ornamented chambers of the court
Too many are to be at length displayed;
With easements, which (beside what is in sight)
The skilful master underground had dight.
Tall columns, with their capitals of gold,
Which gemmed entablatures support in air;
Exotic marbles which adorn that hold,
By skilfull hand engraved with figures fair;
Picture and cast, and works so manifold,
Albeit by night they mostly hidden were,
Showed that two kings’ united treasure ne’er
Would have sufficed such gorgeous pile to rear.
Above the beauteous ornaments and rich
That mingled in that gay quadrangle meet,
There is a fresh and plenteous fountain, which
Scatters in many threads its watery sheet.
’Tis here that youths at equal distance pitch,
I’ the middle, tables for the festive treat.
Whence they four gates of that rich mansion see,
And seen from those four gates as well may be.
By cunning master, diligent and wise,
With much and subtle toil, the fount was made;
In open gallery or pavilion’s guise;
Which from eight separate fronts, projects a shade.
A gilded roof, which with enamelled dyes
Was stained below, the building overlayed.
Eight marble statues (snowy was the grain)
With the left arm that gilded roof sustain.
Fair Amalthaea’s horn in the right hand
Had quaintly sculptured the ingenious master,
Whence water, trickling forth with murmur bland,
Descends into a vase of alabaster;
And he, in likeness of a lady grand,
With sovereign art had fashioned each pilaster.
Various they were in visage and in vest,
But all of equal charms and grace possest.
Upon two beauteous images below
Each of these female statues fix their feet.
The lower seem with open mouth to show
That song and harmony to them are sweet;
And, by their attitude, ’twould seem, as though
Their every work and every study meet
In praising them, they on their shoulders bear,
As they would those whose likenesses they wear.
The images below them in their hand
Long scrolls and of an ample size contain,
Which of the worthiest figures of that band
The several names with mickle praise explain
As well their own at little distance stand,
Inscribed upon that scroll, in letters plain,
Rinaldo, by the help of blazing lights,
Marked, one by one, the ladies and their knights.
The first inscription there which meets the eye
Recites at length Lucretia Borgia’s fame,502
Whom Rome should place, for charms and chastity,
Above that wife who whilom bore her name,
Strozza and Tebaldéo503—Anthony
And Hercules—support the honoured dame:
(So says the scroll); for tuneful strain, the pair
A very Linus and an Orpheus are.
A statue no less jocund, no less bright,
Succeeds, and on the writing is impressed;
“Lo! Hercules’ daughter, Isabella hight,504
In whom Ferrara deems her city blest,
Much more because she first shall see the light
Within its circuit, than for all the rest
Which kind and favouring Fortune in the flow
Of rolling years, shall on that town bestow.”
The pair that such desirous ardour shew
That aye her praises should be widely blown;
John James alike are named: of those fair two,
One is Calandra, one is Bardelon.505
In the third place, and fourth, where trickling through
Small rills, the water quits that octagon,
Two ladies are there, equal in their birth,
Equal in country, honour, charms and worth.
One was Elizabeth, one Eleanor,506
And if we credit what that marble said,
Manto’s so glorious city which such store
Sets my melodious Maro, whom she bred,
More vaunts not him, nor reverences more,
Than these fair dames her poet’s honoured head.
The first of these her hallowed feet had set
On Peter Bembo and James Sadolet.507
Arelio and Castiglion,508 a polished pair,
That other lady, in mid air, sustain.
Their names were carved upon the marble fair,
Then both unknown, and now so fames a twain.
Next was a lady, that from Heaven shall heir
As mighty virtue as on earth doth reign,
Or ever yet hath reigned, in any age,
Well proved by Fortune in her love or rage.
Inscribed in characters of gold is here
Lucretia Bentivoglia,509 and among
Her praises, ’tis declared Ferrara’s peer
Joys that such daughter doth to him belong.
Her shall Camillus voice,510 and far and near
Reno and Felsina shall hear his song,
Wrapt in as mighty wonder at the strain
As that wherewith Amphrysus heard his swain;511
And one, through whom that city’s name (where sweet
Isaurus salts his wave in larger vase)
Fame shall from Africa to Ind repeat,
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