Without the missing good, that palace leave.
“As soon as thou (pursued the dame) art near
The place where he has built the magic seat,
Resembling thy Rogero in his cheer
And every look, Atlantes thee shall meet,
And make himself by his ill art appear
As suffering from some stronger arm defeat;
That thou may’st aid him in the peril feigned,
And thus among those others be detained.
“To the end thou may’st escape his ambush, where
So many and so many, thus betrayed,
Have fallen; though he Rogero seem, beware
To lend him faith, who will demand thine aid:
Nor, when the sage presents himself, forbear
To take his worthless life with lifted blade.
Nor think to slay Rogero with the blow,
But him who works thee still such cruel woe.
“Hard will it seem to slay, full well I know,
The wight, in whom Rogero you descry:
But, for truth is not in the lying show,
Trust not to sight where magic blears the eye.
Fix, ere with me you to the forest go,
To change not when the traitorous foe is nigh:
For never shall with you Rogero wive,
If weakly you the wizard leave alive.”
The valorous maid with the intent to slay
The false enchanter, on her plan decides,
Snatches her arms, and follows on her way
Melissa sage, in whom she so confides,
And thus, by fruitful field or forest gray,
Her by forced journeys that enchantress guides;
And studies to beguile their weary course
Ever, as best she may, with sweet discourse:
And as the fairest topic of all those
Which might be grateful to the damsel’s ear,
Her future offspring and Rogero’s chose
(A race of demigods) in prince and peer.
For as Melissa all the secrets knows
Of the eternal gods who rule our sphere,
The good enchantress can discover all
Which should in many ages hence befall.
“Oh! my best guide,” exclaimed the damsel bold
To the weird-woman that to aid her came,
“As thou hast many years before foretold
Men who shall glorify my race and name,
So now I pray thee, lady, to unfold
The praise and virtues of some noble dame,
If from my lineage any such shall rise.”
To whom Melissa courteously replies:
“Chaste dames of thee descended I survey,
Mothers of those who wear imperial crown,
And mighty kings; the column and the stay
Of glorious realms and houses of renown.
And as thy sons will shine in arms, so they
Will no less fame deserve in female gown,
With piety and sovereign prudence graced,
And noble hearts, incomparably chaste.
“And if at length, I should relate to thee
The praise of all who from thy root ascend,
Too long my tale would hold, nor do I see
Whom I could pass, where all to fame pretend.
But from a thousand I some two or three
Will choose, because my tale may have an end.
Why was not in the cave thy wish made known,
Where I their shadows might as well have shown?
“To hear of one of thy famed race prepare,
Whom liberal studies and good works engage;
Of whom, I know not well, if she more fair
May be entitled, or more chaste and sage;
The noble-minded Isabel,166 who, where
It stands on Minciu’s bank, in other age
Shall gild the town, of Ocnus’ mother hight,
With her own glorious rays by day and night;
“Where, with her worthiest consort she will strain,
In honoured and in splendid rivalry,
Which best shall prize the virtues’ goodly train,
And widest ope the gates to courtesy.
If he by Taro, and in Naples’ reign,167
(’Tis said), from Gauls delivered Italy,
’Twill be replied. Penelope the chaste,
As such, was not beneath Ulysses placed.
“Great things and many thus I sum in few
Of this brave dame, and others leave behind;
Which when I from the vulgar herd withdrew,
Sage Merlin from the hollow stone divined.
For I should leave old Typhis168 out of view,
If on such sea I launched before the wind:
And with this finish my prophetic strain,
—All blessings on her head the skies will rain.
“With her shall be her sister Beatrice,169
Whose fortunes well shall with her name accord;
Who, while she lives, not only shall not miss
What good the heavens to those below afford,
But make, with her, partaker of her bliss,
First among wealthy dukes, her cherished lord;
Who shall, when she from hence receives her call,
Into the lowest depth of misery fall.
“Viscontis’ serpents will be held in dread,170
And Moro and Sforza, while this dame shall be,
From Hyperborean snows to billows red;
From Ind to hills, which to a double sea
Afford a passage;171 and, the lady dead,
To the sore mischief of all Italy,
Will with the Insubri into slavery fall;
And men shall sovereign wisdom fortune call.
“Other the same illustrious name will bear,172
And who will flourish many years before.
Pannonia’s garland one of these shall wear.
Another matron on the Ausonian shore,
When she shall be released from earthly care,
Men will among the blessed saints adore;
With incense will approach the dame divine,
And hang with votive images her shrine.
“The others I shall pass in silence by,
For ’twere too much (as said before) to sound
Their fame; though each might well deserve, that high
Heroic trump should in her praise be wound.
Hence the Biancas and Lucretias I
And Constances and more reserve; who found,
Or else repair, upon Italian land,
Illustrious houses with supporting hand.
“Thy race, which shall all else in this excel,
In the rare fortune of its women thrives;
Nor of its daughters’ honour more I tell
Than of the lofty virtue of its wives:
And that thou may’st take note of this as well,
Which Merlin said of thy descendents’ lives,
(Haply that I the story might narrate)
