"Una selva sterile de robusti
Cerri,
Nodosi aspri e rigidi e vetusti.
Vi si sentia grandissimo romore,
Ne vera bestia anchora ne pastore."
Teseide, book vii.
There is a purposed grisly ruggedness in the corresponding passage of the Knightes Tale, which heightens the horrors of "thilke colde and frosty region:"
"First on the wall was peinted a forest,
In which ther wonneth neyther man ne best,
With knotty knarry barrein trees old