The Book of the Epic: The World's Great Epics Told in StoryGuerber, H. A. (Hélène Adeline)
General
The Book of the Epic: The World's Great Epics Told in Story
Guerber, H. A. (Hélène Adeline)
Epic poetry -- Adaptations
"Let Godfrey view once more, and smile to view
My second exile;--soon shall he again
See me in arms return'd, to vex anew
His haunted peace and never stable reign:
Yield I do not; eternal my disdain
Shall be as are my wrongs; though fires consume
My dust, immortal shall my hate remain;
And aye my naked ghost fresh wrath assume,
Through life a foe most fierce, but fiercer from the tomb!"
_Canto X._ The sultan, after journeying part way back to Egypt, pauses
to rest, and is visited by a wizard, who spirits him over the
battle-field and back to Jerusalem in a magic chariot. This pauses at
a hidden cave, the entrance to an underground passage, by which they
secretly enter the sultan's council chamber.
Ismeno shot the lock; and to the right
They climb'd a staircase, long untrod, to which
A feeble, glimm'ring, and malignant light
Stream'd from the ceiling through a window'd niche;
At length by corridors of loftier pitch
They sallied into day, and access had
To an illumined hall, large, round, and rich;
Where, sceptred, crown'd, and in dark purple clad,
Sad sat the pensive king amid his nobles sad.
Solyman, overhearing as he enters some of the nobles propose a
disgraceful peace and the surrender of Jerusalem, hotly opposes such a
measure, and thus infuses new courage into their breasts.
_Canto XI._ Meantime Godfrey of Bouillon, having buried his dead,
questions the knights who were lured away by Armida, and they relate
that, on arriving near the Dead Sea, they were entertained at a
sumptuous banquet, where they were given a magic draught, which
transformed them for a time into sportive fishes. Armida, having thus
demonstrated her power over them, threatened to use it to keep them
prisoners forever unless they would promise to abjure their faith. One
alone yielded, but the rest, delivered as prisoners to an emissary
from Egypt, were met and freed from their bonds by the brave Rinaldo,
who, instead of accompanying them back to camp, rode off toward
Antioch.
The Christians now prepare for their final assault, and, advised by
Peter the Hermit, walk in solemn procession to the Mount of Olives,
where, after singing hymns, all devoutly receive Communion. Thus
prepared for anything that may betide, they set out on the morrow to
scale the city walls, rolling ahead of them their mighty engines of
war, by means of which they hope to seize the city.
Most of the Crusaders have laid aside their heavy armor and assumed
the light gear of foot-soldiers the better to scale the walls, upon
which Clorinda is posted, and whence she shoots arrow after arrow at
the assailants. Wounded by one of the missiles flung from the wall,
Godfrey seeks his tent, where, the physician failing to extract the
barb, an angel brings a remedy from heaven which instantly cures the
wound.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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