Armida is the Sorceress, the niece of Prince Idreotes, in Tasso's
Jerusalem Delivered
, in whose palace Rinaldo forgets his vow as a crusader. Byron, in
Don Juan
(Canto I. stanza lxxi.), says:
"But ne'er magician's wand
Wrought change, with all Armida's fairy art,
Like what this light touch left on Juan's heart."
In the Catalogue of Byron's books, sold April 5, 1816, appear four editions of Tasso's
Gerusalemme Liberata
, being those of 1776, 1785, 1813, and one undated.