In rage the features are unsteady, the eyeballs are seen largely;
they roll and are inflamed. The front is alternately knit and raised
in furrows by the motion of the eyebrows, the nostrils are inflated
to the utmost; the lips are swelled, and being drawn, open the
corners of the mouth.
The action of the muscles is strongly marked. The whole
visage is sometimes pale, sometimes inflated, dark, and almost
livid; the words are delivered strongly through the fixed teeth;
“ the hair is fixed on end like one distracted, and every joint should
seem to curse and ban*.5'
Tasso thus describes the rage of Argante:
Tacque; e ’1 Pagano al sofferir poco uso,
Morde le labbraf, e di furor si strugge.
Risponder vuol, ma 1 suono esce confuso,
Siccome strido d* 1 animal, che rugge:
* La furia, fa gl1 atti stolti, et fuor di se; si comme di quelli che si avvolgono ne
i moti offensivi, senza riguardo alcuno, rendendosi vehementi in tutti gl’ affetti, con
bocca aperta, et storta, che par che stridano ringhino urlino et si lamentino, strac-
ciandosi le membra et i panni et facendo altre smanie.—L omazzo, lib. II. p. 135.
*|* As it is thought rather a mean expression in the statue of David with his sling,
that he bites his lip, so perhaps the poet should avoid an expression which has so
little dignity. But why mean ? because not true to nature.
If the painter has any imagination and power of delineation, the reading of the
whole passage, being the combat of Tancred and Argante, must inspire him with the
grandest conception of the sublime ferocity of the human figure in action.