As when from squall, or other chance, a barge
Drives from the river-side, &c.
Stanza lxii. lines 1 and 2.
Ut subito propriam, prensâ tellure, carinam
Tangentem portum, ventus in alta rapit.
She raised her eyes at last, and saw the sun
Had turned his back on Bocchus’ towers and wall.
Stanza lxiii. lines 1 and 2.
I have looked in vain for Bocchus’s city in dictionaries and in Sallust’s history of the Jugurthine war. I must therefore be contented with stating from Lempriere that he was “a king of Gætulia who perfidiously delivered Jugurtha to Sylla, the lieutenant of Marius.”
The Italian commentators say nothing respecting the city of Bocchus, but are full of information respecting Morocco.
As when the stage’s curtain, &c.
Stanza lxxx. line 1.
This stanza may serve as another proof of the superiority of Italy in refinement to England in the time of Ariosto; for we here see such a description of scenery as is witnessed in our best theatres in the present day; whereas we know that our best theatres at that time exhibited only such decorations, &c. as would not now be tolerated in the basest of our barns. The idea of this illustration is taken from Ovid.
Sic ubi tolluntur festis aulea theatris, &c.
The second comparison,
Or as the glorious sun, &c.
is also taken from Ovid.
Qualis ubi oppositam nitidissima solis imago
Evicit nubem.
