Chapter 23

[Footnote 3:

"That sweet grove Of Daphne by Orontes." _Parad. Lost_, b. iv.

It was famous for the most luxurious worship of antiquity. Vide Gibbon, vol. iii. p. 198.]

[Footnote 4: I omit a point about "fires" of love, and "ices" of the heart; and I will here observe, once for all, that I omit many such in these versions of Tasso, for the reason given in the Preface.]

[Footnote 5: In the original, an impetuous gust of wind carries away the sword of Tancred; a circumstance which I mention because Collins admired it (see his Ode on the Superstitions of the Highlands). I confess I cannot do so. It seems to me quite superfluous; and when the reader finds the sword conveniently lying for the hero outside the wood, as he returns, the effect is childish and pantomimic. If the magician wished him not to fight any more, why should he give him the sword back? And if it was meant as a present to him from Clorinda, what gave her the power to make the present? Tasso retained both the particulars in the _Gerusalemme Conquistata_.]

[Footnote 6:

"Giace l'alta Cartago: appena i segni De l'alte sue ruine il lido serba.

Muoiono le città: muoiono i regni: Copre i fasti e le pompe arena ed erba: E l'uom d'esser mortal par che si sdegni. Oh nostra mente cupida e superba!"