As soon as Arianna had come to the end of her interesting story, she propounded her enigma forthwith, in order that the rule which governed the entertainment might be strictly kept:

Small what though my compass be,

A mighty furnace gendered me.

The covering which round me clings,

Is what from marshy plain upsprings.

My soul, which should be free as air,

Is doomed a prisoner close to fare.

It is a liquor bland and sweet.

No jest is this which I repeat:

All silken are my festal clothes,