Produced by Kathleen Ethington
THE ORLANDO INNAMORATO
TRANSLATED INTO PROSE FROM THE ITALIAN OF FRANCESCO BERNI AND INTERSPERSED WITH EXTRACTS IN THE SAME STANZA AS THE ORIGINAL BY WILLIAM STEWART ROSE
TO
HENRY RICHARD, LORD HOLLAND, &c. &c. &c.
Who, at a late period of my labours upon the "Furioso", suggested the present work as its necessary prologue.
Kind peer, who, mid the tempest of debate,
Hast gladly wooed and won the Southern muse.
Where, crowned with fruit and flower of mingling hues,
She in a grove of myrtle keeps her state.
This I had entered by a postern gate,
Like stranger, who no certain path pursues.
Or garden's lord, that hath his own to choose,
Hadst thou not shewn a better entrance late:
That portal led me to Morgana's* towers,
Where fierce Orlando found the dame at play;
And though, too fast for me, from fields of flowers,
She flies to savage waste, and will not stay.
It will content me but to paint her bowers,
If this be granted by the scornful fay.
William Stewart Rose.