XXI
It was amazement, wonder and delight,
Although not love, that moved his cruel sense;
“Tell on,” quoth he, “unfold the chance aright,
Thy people’s lives I grant for recompense.”
Then she, “Behold the faultier here in sight,
This hand committed that supposed offence,
I took the image, mine that fault, that fact,
Mine be the glory of that virtuous act.”
XXII
This spotless lamb thus offered up her blood,
To save the rest of Christ’s selected fold,
O noble lie! was ever truth so good?
Blest be the lips that such a leasing told:
Thoughtful awhile remained the tyrant wood,
His native wrath he gan a space withhold,
And said, “That thou discover soon I will,
What aid? what counsel had’st thou in that ill?”
XXIII
“My lofty thoughts,” she answered him, “envied
Another’s hand should work my high desire,
The thirst of glory can no partner bide,
With mine own self I did alone conspire.”
“On thee alone,” the tyrant then replied,
“Shall fall the vengeance of my wrath and ire.”
” `Tis just and right,” quoth she, “I yield consent,
Mine be the honor, mine the punishment.”
XXIV
The wretch of new enraged at the same,
Asked where she hid the image so conveyed:
“Not hid,” quoth she, “but quite consumed with flame,
The idol is of that eternal maid,
For so at least I have preserved the same,
With hands profane from being eft betrayed.
My Lord, the thing thus stolen demand no more,
Here see the thief that scorneth death therefor.
XXV
“And yet no theft was this, yours was the sin,
I brought again what you unjustly took.”
This heard, the tyrant did for rage begin
To whet his teeth, and bend his frowning look,
No pity, youth; fairness, no grace could win;
Joy, comfort, hope, the virgin all forsook;
Wrath killed remorse, vengeance stopped mercy’s breath
Love’s thrall to hate, and beauty’s slave to death.
XXVI
Ta’en was the damsel, and without remorse,
The king condemned her guiltless to the fire,
Her veil and mantle plucked they off by force,
And bound her tender arms in twisted wire:
Dumb was the silver dove, while from her corse
These hungry kites plucked off her rich attire,
And for some deal perplexed was her sprite,
Her damask late, now changed to purest white.
XXVII
The news of this mishap spread far and near,
The people ran, both young and old, to gaze;
Olindo also ran, and gan to fear
His lady was some partner in this case;
But when he found her bound, stript from her gear,
And vile tormentors ready saw in place,
He broke the throng, and into presence brast;
And thus bespake the king in rage and haste:
XXXVIII
“Not so, not so this grief shall bear away
From me the honor of so noble feat,
She durst not, did not, could not so convey
The massy substance of that idol great,
What sleight had she the wardens to betray?
What strength to heave the goddess form her seat?
No, no, my Lord, she sails but with my wind.”
Ah, thus he loved, yet was his love unkind!
XXIX
He added further: “Where the shining glass,
Lets in the light amid your temple’s side,
By broken by-ways did I inward pass,
And in that window made a postern wide,
Nor shall therefore this ill-advised lass
Usurp the glory should this fact betide,
Mine be these bonds, mine be these flames so pure,
O glorious death, more glorious sepulture!”
XXX
Sophronia raised her modest looks from ground,
And on her lover bent her eyesight mild,
“Tell me, what fury? what conceit unsound
Presenteth here to death so sweet a child?
Is not in me sufficient courage found,
To bear the anger of this tyrant wild?
Or hath fond love thy heart so over-gone?
Wouldst thou not live, nor let me die alone?”
—————
The End
And that’s the End of the Poem
© Poetry Monster, 2021.
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Torquato Tasso was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem Gerusalemme liberata, in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the Siege of Jerusalem of 1099