-----------------— hasta volans noctis diverberat umbras,
E t venit adversi in tergum Sulmonis, ibique
Frangitûr, ac fisso transit præcordia ligno.
Volvitur ille, vomens calidum de pectore flumen,
Frigidus, et longis singultibus ilia pulsat.
Æneid ix. 411.
But in painting the death of Euryalus, the poet recurs to all the
images of languid and gentle decline:
Volvitur Euryalus letho, pulchrosque per artus
It cruor, inque humeros cervix collapsa recumbit,
Purpureus veluti cum flos succisus aratro,
Languescit moriens; lassove papavera collo
Demisere caput, pluvia cum forte gravantur*.
.E neid ix. 433 f.
* Tasso presents us with some very fine contrasts of the same kind; in painting
the death of Argante, for example, he gives a picture of ferocious and savage impetuosity
and strength.
Infuriossi allor Tancredi et disse ;
Cosi abusi, fellon, la pietà mia?
Poi la spada gli fisse et gli refisse
Nella visiera, ove accertô la via.
Moriva Argante, e tal moria quai visse :
Minacciava morendo, e non languia ;
Superbi, formidabili, e feroci
Gli ultimi moti fûr, l’ultime voci.
T asso, Ger. Lib. Cant. xix. 26.
In the death of Dardinel, the simile of Virgil is beautifully imitated by Ariosto :
Come purpureo fior languendo muore
Che’l vomere al passar tagliato lassa
O come carco di soverchio umore
It will indeed often be necessary to represent death unaccompanied
with the horror by which natural representation must
generally be distinguished. We not unfrequently see a young
creature in death, as if asleep, with the beauty of countenance
unobscured by convulsion ; the form alone remains, the animation
is gone, and the colours of life give place to the livid tints of death.
D’ un bel pallore ha il bianco volto asperso,
Come a’ gigli sarian miste viole.
..................... In questa forma
Passa la bella donna, e par che dorma.
Ger. Lib. di T asso, Cant. xii. 69.
Again the same poet:
E, quasi un ciel notturno, anco sereno
Senza splendor la faccia scolorita.
A man who has died in battle lies blanched and very pale; he
bleeds to death. But one strangled or cut off by violence in civil
II papaver ne 1’ horto il capo abbassa
Cosi giu de la faccia ogni colore
Cadendo Dardinel di vita passa, &c.
As a further contrast we might take the death of the Soldan’s page: Ger. Lib.
ix. 86.
*|* So of Nisus throwing himself upon the body of his friend, E neid ix. 444.
Contrast also the death of Eumenius, ib. xi. 664, with that of Acca, and that of
Camilla; in the same book.
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