Morgana. Then there is a third thing you may say; but before I say that for you, you must promise to make no reply, not even a monosyllable; and not to revert to the subject for four times seven days. You hesitate.

Algernon. It seems as if my fate were trembling in the balance.

Morgana, You must give me the promise I have asked for.

Algernon. I do give it.

Morgana. Repeat it then, word for word.

Algernon. To listen to you in silence; not to say a syllable in reply; not to return to the subject for four times seven days.

Morgana. Then you may say, I have fallen in love; very irrationally—(he was about to exclaim, but she placed her finger on her lips)—very irrationally; but I cannot help it. I fear I must yield to my destiny. I will try to free myself from all obstacles; I will, if I can, offer my hand where I have given my heart. And this I will do, if I ever do, at the end of four times seven days: if not then, never.

She placed her finger on her lips again, and immediately left the room, having first pointed to a passage in the open pages of Orlando Innamorato. She was gone before he was aware that she was going; but he turned to the book, and read the indicated passage. It was a part of the continuation of Orlando's adventure in the enchanted garden, when, himself pursued and scourged by La Penitenza, he was pursuing the Fata Morgana over rugged rocks and through briery thickets.

Cosi diceva. Con molta rovina
Sempre seguia Morgana il cavalliero:
Fiacca ogni bronco ed ogni mala spina,
Lasciando dietro a se largo il sentiero:
Ed a la Fata molto s' avicina
E già d' averla presa è il suo pensiero:
Ma quel pensiero è ben fallace e vano,
Pera che presa anchor scappa di mano.
O quante volte gli dette di piglio,
Hora ne' panni ed hor nella persona:
Ma il vestimento, ch* è bianco e vermiglio,
Ne la speranza presto 1' abbandona:
Pur una fiata rivoltando il ciglio,
Come Dio volse e la ventura buona,
Volgendo il viso quella Fata al Conte
El ben la prese al zuffo ne la fronte.
Allor cangiosse il tempo, e l' aria scura
Divenne chiara, e il ciel tutto sereno,
E aspro monte si fece pianura;
E dove prima fa di spine pteno,
Se coperse de fiori e de verdura:
E Uagedar dell' altra veni
La qual, con miglior viio che non mole,
Verso del Conte usava tel parole.
Attend, cavalliero, a quella ctitama....{1}
1 Bojardo, Orlando Innamarato, L ii. c. 9. Ed. di Vinegia;
1544.
So spake Repentance. With the speed of fire
Orlando followed where the enchantress fled,
Rending and scattering tree and bush and brier,
And leaving wide the vestige of his tread.
Nearer he drew, with feet that could not tire,
And strong in hope to seise her as she sped.
How vain the hope! Her form he seemed to clasp,
But soon as seized, she vanished from his grasp.
How many times he laid his eager hand
On her bright form, or on her vesture fair;
But her white robes, and their vermilion band,
Deceived his touch, and passed away like air.
But once, as with a half-turned glance she scanned
Her foe—Heaven's will and happy chance were there—
No breath for pausing might the time allow—
He seized the golden forelock of her brow.
Then passed the gloom and tempest from the sky;
The air at once grew calm and all serene;
And where rude thorns had clothed the mountain high,
Was spread a plain, all flowers and vernal green.
Repentance ceased her scourge. Still standing nigh,
With placid looks, in her but rarely seen,
She said: 'Beware how yet the prize you lose;
The key of fortune few can wisely use.'
In the last stanza of the preceding translation, the seventh
line is the essence of the stanza immediately following; the
eighth is from a passage several stanzas forward, after
Orlando has obtained the key, which was the object of his
search:
Che mal se trova alcun sotto la Luna,
Ch' adopri ben la chiave di Fortuna.
The first two books of Bojardo's poem were published in
1486. The first complete edition was published in 1495.
The Venetian edition of 1544, from which I have cited this
passage, and the preceding one in chapter xx., is the
fifteenth and last complete Italian edition. The original
work was superseded by the Rifacciamenti of Berni and
Domenichi. Mr. Panizzi has rendered a great service to
literature in reprinting the original. He collated all
accessible editions. Verum opere in longo fas est obrepere
somnum. He took for his standard,... as I think
unfortunately, the Milanese edition of 1539. With all the
care he bestowed on his task, he overlooked one fearful
perversion in the concluding stanza, which in all editions
but the Milanese reads thus: Mentre ch' io canto, ahimè Dio
redentore...

'She must have anticipated my coming,' said the young gentleman to himself. 'She had opened the book at this passage, and has left it to say to me for her—Choose between love and repentance. Four times seven days! That is to ensure calm for the Christmas holidays. The term will pass over Twelfth Night. The lovers of old romance were subjected to a probation of seven years:—