Con gli occhi belli e vaghi con amore;
. . . . . .
"Colà la vidi altiera, e là umile
Mi si mostrò la mia donna gentile."
So he passes the time. In vain Pandarus seeks to distract him;[242] in vain he seeks to comfort himself with making verses; the longing to see Criseyde again is stronger than anything else.
MARCUS MANLIUS HURLED FROM THE TARPEIAN ROCK
An English woodcut from Lydgate's "Falles of Princes." (Pynson, London, 1527.) It is a copy in reverse from the French translation of the "De Casibus." (Du Pré, Paris. 1483.) (By the courtesy of Messrs. J. & J. Leighton.)
At last the ten days pass, and Criseyde ought to return to Troy. Troilus awaits her at dawn at the gate of the city; but in vain: she does not come. He consoles himself, however, by thinking that perhaps she has forgotten to count the days and will come to-morrow. But neither does she come on the morrow. Thus he awaits her for a whole week in vain at the gate of the city, till at last in despair he resolves to take his own life.[243]
Meanwhile Criseyde, from the day of her departure, has passed the time much better than Troilus. For in truth she has consoled herself with Diomede, who, after the first four days, has easily made her forget the Trojan. She does not wish, however, that Troilus should know she has broken faith. She answers his letters and puts him off with words and excuses.
"My love with words and errors still she feeds,