Whereas the rime upon the earth puts on
Her dazzling sister's image, but not long
Her milder sway endures; then riseth up
The village hind, whom fails his wintry store
And looking out beholds the plain around
All whiten'd, whence impatiently he smites
His thighs, and to his hut returning,
There paces to and fro, wailing his lot.

Dante's description of Satan is terrible:

That emperor, who sways
The realm of sorrow, at mid breast from the ice
Stood forth; and I in stature am more like
A giant than the giants are his arms;
Mark now how great that whole must be, which
suits
With such a part. If he were beautiful
As he is hideous now, and yet did dare
To scowl upon his Maker, well from him
May all our misery flow. Oh, what a sight!
How passing strange it seem'd when I did spy
Upon his head three faces: one in front
Of hue vermilion; the other two with this
Midway each shoulder join'd and at the crest;
The right 'twixt wan and yellow seem'd; the left
To look on, such as come from whence old Nile
Stoops to the lowlands. Under each shot forth
Two mighty wings, enormous as became
A bird so vast. Sails never such I saw
Outstretch'd on the wide sea. No plumes had they,
But were in texture like a bat; and there
He flapped i' th' air, that from him issued still
Three winds, wherewith Cocytus to its depth
Was frozen. At six eyes he wept: the tears
Adown three chins distill'd with bloody foam.
At every mouth his teeth a sinner champ'd,
Bruised as with ponderous engine; so that three
Were in this guise tormented.

The description of Beatrice, metaphorical as
it is, teems with love:

I have beheld, ere now, at break of day,
The eastern clime all roseate; and the sky
Opposed, one deep and beautiful serene
And the sun's face so shaded, and with mists
Attemper'd, at his rising, that the eye
Long while endured the sight; thus, in a cloud
Of flowers, that from those hands angelic rose,
And down within and outside of the car
Fell showering, in white veil with olive wreath'd,
A virgin in my view appeared, beneath
Green mantle, robed in hue of living flame,
And o'er my spirit, that so long a time
Had from her presence felt no shuddering dread,
Albeit my eyes discern'd her not, there moved
A hidden virtue from her, at whose touch
The power of ancient love was strong within me.

The sun is thus sublimely described by
Dante:

The great minister
Of Nature, that upon the world imprints
The virtue of the heaven, and doles out
Time for us with his beam.

The Morgante Maggiore of Pulci is rich in
metaphor; the same may be said of the Orlando
Innamorato of Bojardo; but we must leave
Angelica, "that lucid oriental star," and the
Court of Charlemagne; passing the Orlando
Furioso of Ariosto, the Amadis of Gaul of
Bernardo Tasso, we enter the Armidian gardens
of Torquato. We are in tie realm of love,
metaphor, and allegory.

Here is not a bad metaphor of the pouting
lip of a young lady:

That lip, which (like the rose that morn with dew
Has largely fed), so moist, so sweetly swells;
That lip approaches thus, by Cupid's spells,
To tempt to kiss, and still that kiss renew.
But, oh! ye lovers, though so fair its hue,
Fly far away—- for in these flowery cells,
'Mid those sweet roses, Love, the serpent, dwells.
And should you kiss, you bid to peace adieu.
I, too, was snared; I, too, believed that bliss
Lived on a rosy lip; I, too, believed
Its nectar sweetness rapture would impart;
But, ah! I found, like Tantalus, deceived,
That nought remains behind the empty kiss,
But Love's fell poison rankling to the heart.

The angel Gabriel, sent ou a special mission
to Godfrey, is a fine metaphor:

He clothes his heavenly form with ether light,
And makes it visible to human sight;
In shape and limbs like one of earthly race,
But brightly shining with celestial grace:
A youth he seemed, in manhood's ripening years,
On the smooth cheek when first the down appears;
Refulgent rays his beauteous locks enfold;
White are his nimble wings, and edged with gold,
With these through winds and clouds he cuts his
way,
Flies o'er the land, and skims along the sea.
Thus stood th' angelic power prepared for flight,
Then instant darted from th' empyreal height;
Direct to Lebanon his course he bent,
There closed his plumes, and made his first descent;
Thence, with new speed, his airy wings he steer'd,
Till now in sight Tortosa's plains appeared."

Here is a metaphor of a coquette. It is the
description of Armida, sent to create dissension
in the Christian camp:

New ringlets from the flowing winds amid
The native curls of her resplendent hair;
Her eye is fixed in self-reserve, and hid
Are all Love's treasures with a miser's care;
The rival roses upon cheeks more fair
Are all Loves's treasures with a miser's care;
The rival roses upon cheeks more fair
Than morning light their mingling tints dispose
But on her lips, from which the amorous air
Of paradise exhales, the crimson rose
its sole and simple bloom in modest beauty
throws.

The description of Rinaldo reminds us forcibly
of Shakespeare's description in Henry the Fourth:

I saw young Harry with his beaver on,
His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm'd,
Rise from the ground like feather'd Mercury.

Tasso compares Erminiato a beautiful flower.
By the right of conquest she had become the
slave of Tancred:

But he received her as some sacred flower,
Nor harm'd her shrinking leaves; midst outrag
keen,
Pure and inviolate was her virgin bower;
And her he caused to be attended, e'en
Amidst her ruined realms, as an unquestioned
queen.

The description of the Christian camp at
night is a grand conception; Erminia attempts
to see her lover: