PREFACE. XXiii 



With mountains round about environed, 

 And mighty woods, which did the valley shade, 

 And like a stately theatre it made, 

 Spreading itself into a spacious plain ; 

 And in the midst a little river played 

 Emongst the pumy stones, which seemed to 'plain 

 With gentle murmur that his course they did restrain. 



Beside the same a dainty place there lay, 

 Planted with myrtle-trees, and laurels green, 

 In which the birds sung many a lovely lay 

 Of God's high praise, and of their love's sweet teen, 

 As it an earthly paradise had been : 

 In whose enclosed shadow there was pight 

 A fair pavilion, scarcely to be seen, 

 The which was all within most richly dight, 

 That greatest princes living it mote well delight. 



Thither they brought that wounded squire, and laid 

 In easy couch, his feeble limbs to rest." 



Tasso has some beautiful passages of this kind 

 in his Jerusalem Delivered : 



" V'e 1'aufa molle, e'l ciel sereno, e lieti 

 Gli alberi e i prati, e pure e dolci 1'onde, 

 Ove fra gli amenissimi mirteti 

 Sorge una fonte, e un fitimicel diffonde. 

 Piovono in grembo all' erbe i sonni queti 

 Con un soave mormorio di fronde ; 

 Cantan gli augelli : i marmi io taccio e 1'oro, 

 Maravigliosi d'arte e di lavoro." 



Canto x. 



