NOTES TO CANTO V.
Among all other animals who prey
On earthy or who unite in friendly wise,
Whether they meet in peace or moody fray,
No male offends his mate: in safety hies
The she-bear, matched with hers, through forest gray.
Stanza i. lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Alberto Lavezuola commenting on this stanza, observes (I translate his words), “It would not appear absolutely true that in other descriptions of animals, man excepted, the male does not sometimes war upon the female, and I have read in a worthy author of a he-bear having beat out the eye of a she-bear with his paw.” Without sacrificing the gallantry of brutes to a single exception, and that, moreover, of a bear, it would appear (to weigh the passage with the precision in which the old commentators delight) that Ariosto had laid down this rule of conduct among animals (I use animals in the common sense of the word), as more universal than I believe it is: but, on the other hand, it is certain that the savage beast is infinitely more generous on the point in question than the savage man; and Ariosto, in the latitude allowed to poets, seems to have sufficient grounds for his justification.
