and the fine concluding verse, "Oh nostra mente," to another perhaps in his _Trionfo della Divinità, v. 61_, not without a recollection of Lucretius, lib. ii. v. 14:
"O miseras hominum menteis! o pectora caeca!"]
[Footnote 7: A fountain which caused laughter that killed people is in Pomponius Mela's account of the Fortunate Islands; and was the origin of that of Boiardo; as I ought to have noticed in the place.]
[Footnote 8: All this description of the females bathing is in the highest taste of the voluptuous; particularly the latter part:
"Qual mattutina stella esce de l'onde Rugiadosa e stillante: o come fuore Spuntò nascendo già da le feconde Spume de l'ocean la Dea d'Amore: Tale apparve costei: tal le sue bionde Chiome stillavan cristallino umore. Poi girò gli occhi, e pur allor s'infinse Que' duo vedere, e in se tutta si strinse:
E 'l crin the 'n cima al capo avea raccolto In un sol nodo, immantinente sciolse; Che lunghissimo in giù cadendo, e folto, D'un aureo manto i molli avori involse. Oh che vago spettacolo è lor tolto! Ma mon men vago fu chi loro il tolse. Così da l'acque e da capelli ascosa, A lor si volse, lieta e vergognosa.
Rideva insieme, e insieme ella arrossia; Ed era nel rossor più bello il riso, E nel riso il rossor, the le copria Insino al mento il delicato viso." Canto xv. st. 60.
Spenser, among the other obligations which it delighted him to owe to this part of Tasso's poem, has translated these last twelve lines:
"With that the other likewise up arose, And her fair locks, which formerly were bound Up in one knot, she low adown did loose, Which, flowing long and thick, her cloth'd around, And th' ivory in golden mantle gown'd: So that fair spectacle from him was reft; Yet that which reft it, no less fair was found. So hid in locks and waves from looker's theft, Nought but her lovely face she for his looking left.
Withal she laughèd, and she blush'd withal; That blushing to her laughter gave more grace, And laughter to her blushing." Fairy Queen, book ii. canto 12, St. 67.
Tasso's translator, Fairfax, worthy both of his original and of Spenser, has had the latter before him in his version of the passage, not without a charming addition of his own at the close of the first stanza: