LI.
“Arrived, my arms about his neck I throw,
“Weening that we unseen of others meet;
“And kiss his lips and face with loving show,
“As him I hitherto was wont to greet;
“And he assayed, with more than wonted glow,
“Me to caress, to mask his hollow cheat.
“Led to the shameful spectacle, aghast,
“That other, from afar, viewed all that passed.
LII.
“And fell into such fit of deep despair,
“He there resolved to die; and, to that end,
“Planted the pommel of his falchion bare
“I’ the ground, its point against his breast to bend.
“Lurcanio, who with marvel by that stair,
“Saw Polinesso to my bower ascend,
“But knew not who the wight, with ready speed
“Sprang forward, when he saw his brother’s deed.
LIII.
“And hindered him in that fell agony
“From turning his own hand against his breast.
“Had the good youth been later, or less nigh,
“To his assistance he had vainly pressed.
“Then, ‘Wretched brother, what insanity,’
(He cried) ‘your better sense has dispossessed?
‘Die for a woman! rather let her kind
‘Be scattered like the mist before the wind!!
