The whole Hypnerotomachia, in English

(The title page. Latin.)

THE HYPNEROTOMACHIA OF POLIPHILO, WHEREIN HE TEACHES THAT ALL HUMAN THINGS ARE NOTHING BUT A DREAM. AND ALONG THE WAY HE RECOUNTS VERY MANY THINGS THOROUGHLY WORTHY OF KNOWING.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

IT IS PROVIDED THAT NO ONE WITHIN THE DOMINION OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS SIGNORY OF VENICE MAY PRINT THIS BOOK WITH IMPUNITY.

(Leonardo Crasso's dedicatory letter to Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino. Latin. It runs over onto page 3.)

LEONARDO CRASSO OF VERONA SENDS MUCH GREETING TO GUIDO, MOST ILLUSTRIOUS DUKE OF URBINO.

Since I have always honoured and regarded you, most unconquered Duke, for the singular virtues and the fame of your name — and most of all since my brother served under your auspices at the siege of [?Bibbiena] — whatever was then bestowed by you upon him (and he often recalls it was much, reporting your kindness and humanity toward him), all of that we have reckoned to belong to all the Crassi; and what one received, we all count as received by us from you, nor do we now concede to him that he is more yours than we all are. But my brothers await an occasion to expose for your sake not only all they have, but their lives as well.

I myself, who so far as my strength allows think often — and shall go on thinking, until I have done it — by what means I may [?open myself to] you, now come into some hope of my wish. For since I know that with you one can do no more by the goods of fortune than (as the saying goes) by water with the sea, and that letters and virtues alone have power with you, I have tried letters as a ford, for a way of approach to you.

There came lately into my hands a certain new and admirable work of Poliphilo (for that is the name given to the book), which — that it should not lie hidden any longer in darkness, but should profit mortals in good time — I have seen to the printing and publishing of at my own expense. But lest that book, bereft of its parent, should seem to be like a ward without guardian or any patronage, I have chosen you as its present patron, in whose name it might go forth [?a little more boldly]: so that as I now use it as the servant and messenger of my love and regard toward you, so you may often use it as a companion to your studies and your manifold learning.

For there is in it not only such knowledge but such abundance that, when you have seen this book, you will seem to have seen not so much all the books of the ancients as the hidden things of nature herself.

There is one thing in it to marvel at: that although it speaks in our own tongue, one has no less need of Greek and Latin to understand it than of Tuscan and the vernacular. For that most wise man reckoned that, if he spoke so, there was one road and one method by which nobody could plead his own negligence as excuse for learning nothing. Yet he tempered himself so that none but the most learned could penetrate into the sanctuary of his doctrine, while one who came to it unlearned should not despair even so.

Add to this, that if any matters were by their own nature difficult, they are declared and brought out in sweet speech with a certain pleasantness — as though a garden of every kind of flower were unlocked — and they lie open and are set before the eyes in figures and images. These are not things set out for the crowd and to be chanted at the crossroads, but such as, drawn from the storehouse of philosophy and drunk from the fountains of the Muses, polished with a certain novelty of speaking, may deserve the favour of every wit.

Take up then, most humane prince, our Poliphilo, with the brow you are wont to show the learned; and take him up so that, since he is the little gift of a grateful mind, you may read him the more willingly for being reminded of your Leonardo Crasso. And if you do this (as I hope), then he will fear no one's censure, having undergone yours; and he will be read the more often by others, who will be thought to have been read by you; and I shall hope that in some part I have attained what I had wished for.

(The end of Crasso's letter; then Giovanni Battista Scita's poem to him; then the beginning of the anonymous elegy to the reader, which runs over onto page 4. Latin.)

…Farewell, and number your Crassi, with me, among your own.

(The rest of the anonymous elegy to the reader, begun on page 3. Latin.)

— symmetry, and whatever makes proud roofs.
Here you will see the cultivated palaces of kings, the adornments
of nymphs, fountains, and outstanding feasts.
Here is the two-coloured dance of robbers, and the whole life
of men set out in labyrinthine darkness.
Here read what he says of the threefold majesty of the Thunderer,
and what he himself performed at the three gates.
What form Polia had, how adorned; then behold
the four heavenly triumphs of Jove.
Besides these, he tells the various affections of love,
and its works, and how fiercely that God rages.
Here Pomona triumphs together with Vertumnus.
Here too are rites performed to the Lampsacan god.
Here is a huge temple, more perfect than any art,
and the manifold rites of the ancient sacred things.
Soon you will see another temple, spoiled by the teeth of time;
and here very many things pleasing to your mind:
the seats of Tartarus, many epitaphs, and the boat
in which the boy of Venus is carried over the vast straits;
and the highest honours reverently shown to him
by all the gods, as many as the waters hold.
Here see Cythera, marked out with gardens and meadows,
in the middle of which curved theatres lie open.
And here you may behold the triumph of Cupid.
Here is the fountain, and the venerable form of the Paphian Goddess;
and what is celebrated around the tomb of beloved Adonis
yearly by Venus — and you shall read the Naiads' laws.
This is the series of matters contained in the first volume:
these are the new dreams of the divine Poliphilo.
Where she was born, of what stock, of what parents sprung,
is Polia — the book that follows sets out thereafter.
And who first founded the walls of Treviso.
From there it has the whole sequence of a long love.
Lastly the book is furnished with a long appendix,
which I do not think, reader, it will be thankless to read.
There are very many things besides; it wearied me to report them all.
Take what the horn of plenty has generously given.
Behold, the book delights and profits. If you scorn both,
believe the fault is not the book's, but yours.

The end.

(The summary of the whole work, addressed to the reader. Italian — and, unlike everything around it, plain Italian. One unbroken sentence-chain of about five hundred words.)

Reader, if you wish briefly to understand what is contained in this work, know that Poliphilo tells of having seen wondrous things in sleep; which work he calls, by a Greek word, the strife of love in a dream. Wherein he feigns to have seen many antique things worthy of memory, and all that he says he saw he describes point by point and by their proper terms, in an elegant style: pyramids, obelisks, the greatest ruins of buildings; the difference of columns, their measure, the capitals, bases, epistyles — that is, straight beams — bent beams, zophori, that is friezes, cornices with their ornaments. A great horse. A very great elephant. A colossus. A magnificent gate, with its measures and its ornaments. A terror. The five senses in five nymphs. An excellent bath, fountains, the palace of the queen who is Free Will. A royal and most excellent feast. The variety of jewels, or rather precious stones, and their nature. A game of chess danced to three measures of music. Three gardens: one of glass, one of silk, one in a labyrinth which is human life. A brick peristyle, in the middle of which the Trinity was set out in hieroglyphic figures — that is, sacred Egyptian carvings. The three gates, at which he stayed behind with Polia. How she was in habit and in bearing. Polia leads him to look upon four wondrous triumphs of Jove, the loves of the gods, those of the poets, the various affection and effect of love. The triumph of Vertumnus with Pomona. The sacrifice to Priapus in the antique manner. A marvellous temple, described by its art, where sacrifices were made with wonderful rites and religion. How Polia and he went to the shore to await Cupid, where there was a destroyed temple; in which Polia persuades Poliphilo to go in and look upon the antique things. And there he saw many epitaphs, and a hell painted in mosaic. How for terror he departed thence and came to Polia. And as they stood there Cupid came with the little ship rowed by six nymphs, into which both entered, and Love made sail with his wings. And there honour was done to Cupid by the sea-gods and goddesses, and by the nymphs and monsters; and they came to the Cytherean island, which Poliphilo describes fully, laid out in groves, meadows, gardens, rivers and fountains; and the presents that were made to Cupid, and how he was received by the nymphs; and how upon a triumphal car they went to a wondrous theatre, all described, in the middle of the island. In the midst of which is the Venereal fountain of seven precious columns, and all that was done there. And, Mars coming, they departed thence and went to the fountain where was the sepulchre of Adonis. And here the nymphs tell of the anniversary that Venus kept in his memory. Then the nymphs persuade Polia to tell her origin and her falling in love. And this is in the first book. In the second, Polia tells her parentage, the building of Treviso, the difficulty of her falling in love and its happy issue; and, the history being completed with infinite and most worthy accessories and corollaries, at the song of the nightingale he awoke. Farewell.

(An Italian poem in terza rima, addressed to Leonardo Crasso and then to the reader. It is the anonymous Latin elegy of pages 3–4 done over again in the vernacular, for readers who have no Latin — which is itself an argument about who the book was for. It runs over onto page 7.)

Leonardo Crasso, my revered doctor,
prelate accomplished in the liberal arts
and, as I understand it, in every excellent virtue:
he merits the highest and immortal praise
for the expense and the undertaking he has assumed
to furnish us with such a compendium.
Polished reader, then — listen, listen
to the dreams of Poliphilo as he tells them,
sent down from heaven with much sweetness.
You will not waste your time extravagantly;
rather you will rejoice at having heard
the work, exuberant with various things.
If, grim, you scorn the new erotic
invitation, then do not scorn the well-disposed
sequence, with its fine and exquisite style.
If the grave discourse and well-composed learning
should not please you, then look at the figures,
ancient in geometry — which costs little.
The many signs, with their measures,
kept beside the Nile by the Egyptians;
the ancient pyramids, sepulchres,
with the obelisks set upright on top of them;
the therms and baths and statues of colossi,
such that whoever looks on them is left undone.
Here are diverse bases and thick arches,
various columns proportioned to them,
with capitals and beams that can bear them,
and the cornices with their quadrants,
the symmetries, the zophori, epistyles,
which have shown us proud roofs.
There you will see palaces cultivated and fair
of kings and lords, and the nymphal fountains,
and the banquets befitting them.
There you will see diverse chessmen joined
in a game of robbers, and human acts
conjoined in labyrinth and darkness.
Here you will read of threefold and not idle
deeds, and the majesty of the great Thunderer
in the three gates and his sound counsels.
Who Polia was, fair and triumphant,
you will see thereafter; and of Jove the celestial —

(the poem continues on page 7)

(The rest of the Italian terza rima, begun on page 6.)

— four triumphs of the supreme high-thunderer.
Then it tells you further, in no rustic manner,
the various affections, the amorous work,
and the wounds that Love deals to earthly men.
Here with Vertumnus joyful Pomona
triumphs; and the sacrifice of Priapus,
with the little ass, and the monstrous member.
There is a great temple, which from its first beginning
is wholly perfect, with wonderful art,
with manifold rites to such an office.
Another temple, gnawed in many parts,
wholly spoiled by antiquity,
as you will be able to see in these pages.
And other things that will be welcome to you:
Tartarean seats, infinite epitaphs,
and the boat of the son of Venus.
The honours that are all imparted to him
with the highest reverence by the gods —
the seas, and rivers, and the other streams united.
Meadows, gardens and Cytherean orchards,
in the middle a fair theatre laid out there,
where he triumphs with his Cupids.
The fountain of the Paphian, conquered by this,
with her venerable and beautiful form,
and the tomb of Adonis, driven from life —
who was so loved in the world by her
that now the anniversary is celebrated for him
by the Naiads and by wretched little Venus.
This is contained in the first book
of the excellent dreams of Poliphilo,
in a style graceful, transparent and various.
Down in the second it tells the parents
of Polia, and her stock, and her form, and where she was born,
and the first founders of Treviso.
Then in this wholly enamoured work
there is a worthy book, and full of much ornament,
which whoever does not read will have an ungrateful mind.
Diverse things are in this treatise
which it grieves me to report; but do you accept
the work that the Cornucopia has sent us,
amending it if it should prove incorrect.

The end.

(Two Latin epigrams by Andrea Marone of Brescia. The first is a dialogue with the Muse; the second is addressed to Polia.)

ANDREA MARONE OF BRESCIA.

Whose work is it, Muse, say? — It is mine, and the eight sisters'.
Why then was the title given to Poliphilo?
— He earned still more from us, our common foster-child.
But I ask: who is Poliphilo, by his true name?
— We do not wish him to be known. Why? — It is settled to see first
whether rabid envy devours even things divine.
If it spares him, [?what will he be? He will be known]. But if not, we do not
think you worthy of Poliphilo's true name.

O how happy beyond all mortals you alone are,
Polia, who live though dead — and better so.
While Poliphilo lies buried in deep sleep,
you make the man keep watch, through learned lips.

(The half-title, repeating page 1 with one word changed. Latin.)

THE HYPNEROTOMACHIA OF POLIPHILO, WHEREIN HE SHOWS THAT ALL HUMAN THINGS ARE NOTHING BUT A DREAM, AND ALONG THE WAY RECOUNTS VERY MANY THINGS THOROUGHLY WORTHY OF KNOWING.

(Poliphilo's dedication of the work to Polia. Italian — and here the book's own voice begins: the Latinate, clause-heaped style that will run for another four hundred and fifty pages.)

POLIPHILO SENDS MUCH GREETING TO POLIA.

MANY TIMES, POLIA, CONSIDERING THAT the ancient authors fittingly dedicated their works to princes and magnanimous men — some for a price, others for favour, some for praise — for none of such causes, then, but for the middle one, I offer this my Hypnerotomachia, finding no worthier prince to whom to dedicate it than to you, my high Empress: whose excellent condition and incredible beauty, and venerable and greatest virtues, and most illustrious manners, holding sovereignty over whatever nymph there is in our centuries, have exceedingly inflamed, burned and consumed me with your signal Love.

Receive then this little gift — you, suffused with the splendour of beauties, and adorned with every comeliness, and conspicuous of glorious aspect. Which gift you yourself have industriously made and fashioned, painted with gilded arrows in my amorous heart and marked with your angelic likeness; so that you possess it singularly as its Patroness.

Which gift I thereafter commit to your diligent and ingenious judgement, leaving the style I began in and translating it into this one at your instance. Whence, if a fault appear, and if in some part you find it barren and meagre, falling short of your elegant worth, then you shall be the one accused — you, best of workwomen, and sole key-bearer of my mind and of my heart.

Therefore I esteem and desire no prize of greater talent or price, especially, than your gracious love; and, for this, your kind favour. Farewell.

POLIPHILO BEGINS HIS HYPNEROTOMACHIA, DESCRIBING THE HOUR AND THE SEASON WHEN IT APPEARED TO HIM IN SLEEP THAT HE FOUND HIMSELF UPON A QUIET AND SILENT SHORE, DESERTED OF ALL CULTIVATION. THEREAFTER, UNAWARES, IN GREAT FEAR HE ENTERED A PATHLESS AND SHADOWED WOOD.

HYPNEROTOMACHIA POLIPHILI

DESCRIPTION OF THE DAWN

At that hour when Phoebus, issuing forth, was whitening the brow of Matuta Leucothea, he did not yet show, risen clear of Ocean's waves, his rolling wheels held aloft. But diligent with his winged horses — Pyrous first, and Eous somewhat appearing — he did not delay in painting the pale-lit four-horse chariot of the daughter of vermilion roses, following after her most swiftly. And already, glittering above the cerulean and restless wavelets, his beams came curling. At which arrival, in that instant, the un-horned Cynthia gave herself over to her setting, urging on the two horses of her vehicle together with the Mule — the one white, the other dusky — drawing her to the last Horizon that divides the Hemispheres; and having come there, the day being kindled by the star that runs before it, she yielded and fled.

In that season when the Riphaean mountains were at peace, and the chill and frost-bearing Eurus no longer shook the tender branches with such rigour in its sidelong blowing, nor troubled the swaying rushes and the pointed reeds and the frail Cyperus, nor harried the pliant withies, nor stirred the slow willows, nor bowed down the brittle fir beneath the horns of the wanton Bull — as much, that is, as it is wont to blow in the season of winter. And likewise the boastful Orion, weeping, left off pursuing the adorned shoulder of the Bull and the seven sisters.

In that very hour when the coloured flowers no longer feared the heat of Hyperion's coming son as a thing that harms them, but were bedewed and flowing with the fresh tears of the Dawn, and the meadows green; and the Halcyons, above the levelled waves of a tranquil calm and a becalmed sea, appeared to be nesting on the sandy shores. Then, therefore, when the grieving Hero

warmly sighed, upon the gnawed shores, for the sorrowful and thankless departure of Leander the swimmer: I, Poliphilo, lying upon my little bed, that timely friend of the weary body, with no one in the room that knew my secret save my dear watcher Agrypnia — who, after she had held various converse with me to console me, and I had made plain to her the cause and the origin of my deep sighs, mercifully urged me to temper such a disturbance; and, perceiving the hour at which I ought by now to sleep, asked leave to go. Whereupon, left alone in the high cogitations of love, consuming the long and tedious night without sleep, all unconsoled by my barren fortune and my adverse and unjust star, and weeping for an importunate and unprospering love, I turned over point by point what a thing unequal love is; and how one may fitly love who does not love in return; and with what protection the fluctuating soul, besieged by unaccustomed and repeated assaults and surrounded by hostile battle, may resist at all, being so unarmed — the seditious battle being above all an inward one, and ceaselessly ensnared by anxious, unstable and ever-new thoughts.

Having grieved bitterly and at length over a state so made and so wretched, and the wandering spirits being already worn out with thinking to no purpose, and fed upon a false and feigned pleasure — yet rightly and without fail upon an object not mortal but rather divine, upon Polia, whose venerable Idea lives deeply impressed in me and more inwardly carved still, and holds me. And already the trembling and glittering stars were beginning to pale their splendour, when, the tongue falling silent, that desired enemy from whom proceeds this so great and unceasing contest, impatiently urging the wounded heart, called upon it tirelessly for a profitable and effectual remedy — which was nothing other than the renewal of my torment, without interval, cruel.

Musing too upon the quality of wretched lovers, by what condition they choose sweetly to die in order to please another, and, pleasing themselves, to live ill; and to feed a spear-like desire upon laborious and sigh-laden imagining, and upon nothing else. Then, like a man weary after long labours, just so and no otherwise, the sorrowful outward weeping being scarcely at all abated, and the course of the streaming tears shut in, my cheeks hollowed with the languor of love, I now desired the natural and timely quiet. Now, my wet eyes a little closed within their reddened lids, without lingering between bitter life and gentle death, that part was invaded and possessed and pressed down by a sweet sleep which is not united with the mind, nor with the loving and wakeful spirits, nor shares in operations so high.

O high-thundering Jupiter! Happy, or wonderful, or terrifying shall I call this unaccustomed vision, which leaves in me no atom that does not tremble and burn to think upon it. To me

it seemed that I was in a spacious plain, which showed itself all green and much adorned, painted variously with manifold flowers. And with kindly airs there was there a certain silence. Nor yet did any noise, nor any formed voice, come to ears most ready to hear. But with the gracious rays of the Sun the temperate season passed.

In which place I, wandering with timid wonder, said within myself: here no humanity appears to the desiring gaze, nor yet any wild thing of the woods, nor forest-dweller, nor creature of the glade, nor any tame beast. No country house, no cottage of the fields, no shepherd's roof, no hut nor shieling is to be seen. Nor likewise, in these grassy places, did I see any keeper of sheep, nor goatherd, nor oxherd, nor groom, nor any straying flock and herd, with their rustic two-mouthed Syrinx, nor with their sounding pipes of bark. But confident, because of the quiet shore and the kindliness of the place, and going forward almost made secure, I looked this way and that, and saw the tender leaves resting unmoved, discerning no other work.

And so, straight before me, I turned my unknowing journey towards a thick wood. Into which, having entered somewhat, I did not perceive that I had thus incautiously left — I know not in what manner — the path itself. Whereupon a sudden fear at once invaded my suspended heart, spreading itself through my pale limbs with a quickened beating, my cheeks become bloodless of their colour. Seeing that to my eyes no trace whatever was granted to be seen, nor any turning aside. But in that thorny wood there appeared only close thickets, pricking brakes, the woodland Ash that is hateful to vipers, rough Elms grateful to the fruitful vine, the corky Cork-oak fit for a woman's adding, hard Turkey-oaks, strong oaks, and acorn-bearing Oaks and Holm-oaks, and so abounding in branches that they did not permit the rays of the gracious Sun to reach the dewy ground entire. But, as beneath a vaulted roof covered over with thickening leaves, the kindly light did not penetrate. And in this manner I found myself in the cool shade, the humid air, and the dusky wood.

For which cause I began thereafter, and with reason, to suspect and to believe that I had come into the vastest Hercynian forest; and that there was nothing there but the lairs of harmful beasts, and the caves of noxious animals and of raging brutes. And therefore, with the greatest terror, I feared that, being without any defence, I should be torn without warning by some bristled and tusked Boar, as Charidemus was; or by a raging and starved wild Ox; or by a hissing serpent; or that I should see my flesh miserably dismembered and gulped down by wolves rushing upon me and howling.

Fearing this, and terrified, I resolved there — all sloth being condemned — to linger no longer, but to find a way out and escape the perils that offered, and to urge on my steps, already halting and disordered; stumbling often on the roots laid bare from the earth, wandering here and there astray, now to the right hand and now to the left, at one time going backwards and at another forwards, ignorant, and not knowing where to pass; having come into a woodland glade and a thicket and a place full of briars, all scratched by the branches, and my face injured by the thorny sloes and by their intractable fruit. And by the sharp-pointed thistles and other thorns my gown was torn, and, held back, it hindered and made sluggish my attempted flight.

Beyond this, seeing no sign of instructive footprints, nor the worn line of any path, in no small measure mistrustful and doubting, I hastened the more anxiously. So that, what with my swift steps and what with the midday heat, made hot also by the motion of my body, all moistened with sweat the

cold breast. Not knowing any longer what to do, I held my mind bound and intent upon terrible thoughts alone. And so at last, to my sighing voice, Echo alone, rival of the voice, offered herself newly in answer; scattering my resounding sighs, together with the hoarse chirping of the lover of the dewy Dawn, and with the shrill Crickets. At last, in this rough and pathless wood, I desired only the succour of the merciful Cretan Ariadne — who, being privy to the killing of her monstrous brother, held out to the deceiving Theseus the masterly and guiding thread, that he might come forth out of the wayward labyrinth. And I the like, that I might come out of the dark Wood.

POLIPHILO, FEARING THE PERIL OF THE DARK WOOD, MADE PRAYER TO DIESPITER; HE CAME FORTH ANXIOUS AND THIRSTING; AND, WISHING TO RESTORE HIMSELF WITH WATER, HE HEARD A SWEET SINGING, WHICH, FOLLOWING AND REFUSING THE WATERS, HE CAME INTO GREATER ANXIETY STILL.

MY UNDERSTANDING HAVING NOW BEGUN to be darkened, so that it could not discern, and my senses to be clouded as to which choice I ought to take — whether to meet hateful death, or to hope for safety wavering in that shadowy and dark grove — running this way and that, I bent all my strength and striving to get out. Into which, the further I penetrated in my wandering, the darker it grew. And being already made feeble by great terror, I only waited, fearing it from some quarter or other, for some most savage beast to fall upon me and begin to devour me; or else, stumbling blindly and without forethought, to fall into some abysmal pit and trench, or to be thrown headlong into some vast gape of the earth; and by now to end this wearisome life like Amphiaraus, or like Curtius swallowed by the mephitic gulf of the earth, and to fall from a greater height than the witless Pyreneus did.

In this manner, almost without hope, my mind was troubled on every side, yet still attempting, lawlessly wandering, some way out. Whereupon, trembling more than the moving leaves in the must-scented Autumn under the raging North winds, stripped of their green and of the juicy weight of their moisture, I said within myself, praying thus: O Diespiter, Greatest, Best, Almighty and Helping, if by the divine suffrages the

prayer that deserves it by just petition ought to be heard: now, grieving under every fragile injury, I call upon thee as suppliant, highest father of the gods above, the middle and the below, eternal ruler, that it may please thy immense Deity to free me from these my mortal perils and this present horror, and to end this doubtful life of mine by some better end. And there, like the bristling Achaemenides pleading with Aeneas in anxious and beseeching words to be saved from the horrifying Cyclops — desiring rather to die at the hands of enemy men than by so horrid a destruction — so, and in no other way, did I pray.

Scarcely had I finished those devout prayers, sincerely made, with the heart united in prayer, contrite and shaken, and bathed in tears — holding firmly that the gods come to the aid of a good mind — when without delay I found myself, unawares, outside that narrow, harsh and overshadowing wood. And as if come forth into a new day out of the humid night, my shadowed eyes could not for a while endure the lovely light. All wan and mournful and anxious, it seemed to me nonetheless that I had come to the light I had longed for, as one might come out of a blind prison, stripped of heavy and troubling chains, and issue from murky darkness.

All thirsting, torn, my face and hands bloodied and blistered by the biting Nettle, feeling myself half dead, I counted nothing else as anything against the gracious light. So thirsty was I that the fresh airs could not cool me, nor fitly satisfy my dry heart; most greedy to swallow the empty saliva that had dried within me. But when I had somewhat reassured myself, and recalled a little spirit into me — my breast parched with repeated sighs and with anxiety of spirit and with bodily labour — I resolved by every means to quench that arid thirst. And therefore, searching carefully over that shore to find some water, and seeking long and very wearily, there offered itself to me most timely a most joyful spring, with a great vein of water freshly rising up. The place of it the marsh Acorus and the Silvan's beard disclosed to me, and the flowering Loosestrife, and the musky Masterwort.

From it there was born a most limpid stream, which, running off in little rills through the middle of the deserted wood in a wayward and winding channel, widened as it took increase from many other flowing channels. And against the hindering Rocks and fallen trunks the currents rose up in sounding waves. And thereafter it received great increase from impetuous and wave-sounding torrents fallen from the melted snows of the alpine and rigid mountains, which appeared to stand not too far off, made white in the freezing monster of Pan. To which, having come many times in my fearful flight, I found there a little dusky light, where the lofty trees were somewhat

wedged apart at their tops above the muddy river, and where I saw the sky torn by the hindering leafy branches — some of them dry — a place of horror for a man to find himself in alone, with no crossing anywhere; the farther banks appearing still darker and more tangled than the nearer.

There was my terror to hear from that quarter, now and again, the hissing ruin of trees, and a crash of branches, and the crackling splitting of wood, with a doubled and horrid-sounding din, held long in the density of the trees and the enclosed air.

Wishing therefore, I Poliphilo, terrified and afflicted, having escaped so much horror, to drink up the longed-for waters upon those green banks, I lowered myself upon my knees; and drawing my hands together into an enclosure, with the palm hollowed, I made of them a most welcome drinking vessel. Which, dipped in the spring and filled with water, I made ready to offer to my raging and panting mouth, and to cool the dryness of my burning breast. More welcome then to me than the Hypanis and the Ganges to the Indians, than the Tigris and Euphrates to the Armenians; nor is the Nile so welcome to the Ethiopian peoples, nor to the Egyptians its flooding that drinks into the baked soil; nor yet Eridanus to the Ligurian peoples, as those most acceptable and fresh banks offered themselves to me. Nor was the spring shown by the fleeing Ram so exceedingly welcome to Father Liber.

It happened that no sooner was I about to bring the awaited and desirable waters, enclosed in my hollowed hand, to my open mouth, than in that instant I heard a Dorian singing — which I cannot persuade myself Thamyras the Thracian ever found — penetrating through the little caverns of my ears, and passing through to my restless heart so sweet, so soft and so harmonious. With a voice not of earth, with such harmony, with such incredible sonority, with such unaccustomed proportion. Alas, how could it ever be imagined? For without doubt this thing exceeds the power of telling.

The sweetness of it and the delight offered me far more pleasure than the little draught that was offering itself. So much so that the water drawn up, held within the enclosure of the intervals of my teeth — my understanding as it were senseless and already stupefied, and my appetite laid to sleep, no faculty gainsaying it — the knots being loosed, was spilt upon the moist earth.

Now, like an animal that for the sweet bait does not weigh the hidden trap, setting aside my natural need, I went without delay, hastening vehemently on the way, after that more-than-human strain. And when I reasonably judged that I had come to it, I heard it in another quarter; and when I had hurried to that place, it appeared to have settled somewhere else. And so, as it changed its places, so likewise it changed to a voice more sweet and more delightful, with heavenly harmonies.

Therefore, by this empty labour, and having run so far with troublesome thirst, I so weakened myself that I could scarcely sustain my weary body. And my panting spirits being no longer able to bear up the body, gravely wearied as it was — what with the terror now past, what with the urgent thirst, what with the long wandering search, and also with my heavy anxieties and with the hot hour — I was left defenceless and abandoned by my own powers, desiring and craving nothing whatever save quiet rest for my weakened limbs.

Wondering at the chance that had befallen, stupefied by that mellifluous voice, and much more at finding myself in a region unknown and uncultivated, though a country pleasant enough. Beyond this it grieved me sorely that the flowing spring, found with such labour and sought out with such care, had been taken away and lost from my eyes. For all which things I stood with my mind entangled in ambiguity, and much perplexed. At last, seized by so great a weariness, my whole body

and languid. Beneath a rough and most ancient oak, abounding in its cupped or tufted fruit, despised by fertile Chaonia, in the midst of a spacious and grassy meadow — an oak leafy with knotted and spreading branches, making a cool shade, its trunk gaping — I laid myself down upon the dewy herbs. Resting upon my left side, lying there, I drew in the fresh airs with my thinned spirits, more constantly with my parted lips than the weary Stag that has been driven and bitten in the flanks by biting and fierce hounds, and wounded in the breast by the arrow, and that at the last, propping his heavy head with its branching horns upon his weakened back and no longer able to stand, sinks down dying and weary upon his buckling knees.

Whence, lying in this like agony, I ran over anxiously in my mind the most tangled quarrels of infirm fortune, and the enchantments of the maleficent Circe — whether by chance I had been knotted into her verses, or the magic wheel had been used against me. To these and so many attendant terrors: alas then, where could I find here, among herbs so various, the Mercurial Moly with its black root, for my help and my medicine? Then I said: this is not that; but what is it, if not a malign deferring of the death I long for?

Standing thus in these pernicious agitations, my powers dwindled little by little, and I could think of no other Safety than to draw in and receive frequently and diligently the fresh airs, and, having warmed them in my breast where a little vital heat still gathered and beat, to breathe them out again through my parched throat. Finding myself therefore in no other way than half alive, for a last refreshment I took the moist dew-laden leaves kept beneath the leafy oak, and offered them to my pale and harsh lips, sucking them dry with the greediest avidity, licking at them ravenously, and cooling a little my thirsty palate. Desiring then that Hypsipyle might show me too the spring of Langia, as she did to the Greeks. For I anxiously suspected that perhaps in the vast wood I had been bitten unawares by the serpent Dipsas, so unbearable was my thirst.

At last, renouncing and proscribing this wearisome life, whatever might come of it, astonished and estranged by the gravest cogitations, and reeling as though in madness, once again beneath this oaken shade, wanton with the spreading darkness of its branches, I was overcome by an overpowering sleep; and the sweet drowsiness being spread through my limbs, it seemed to me that I slept again.

POLIPHILO HERE RELATES THAT IT SEEMED TO HIM THAT HE SLEPT AGAIN, AND THAT ELSEWHERE, IN SLEEP, HE FOUND HIMSELF IN A VALLEY WHICH AT ITS END WAS CLOSED BY A MARVELLOUS BARRIER WITH A PORTENTOUS PYRAMID, WORTHY OF ADMIRATION, AND A LOFTY OBELISK ABOVE IT; WHICH WITH DILIGENCE AND PLEASURE HE CONSIDERED SUBTLY.

THE FEARFUL WOOD AND THE CROWDED grove being escaped, and those first other places left behind through the sweet sleep that had spread itself over my broken and prostrate limbs, I found myself anew in a place far more delightful than the one before. It was not girdled about with horrid mountains and sheer crags, nor scythed with knotted ridges, but was composed of pleasant little hills of no great height; wooded with young oaklings, with oaks, ashes and Hornbeams, and with leafy Italian oaks and Holm-oaks, and with tender Hazels, and Alders, and Limes, and Maples, and with barren wild Olives, disposed according to the aspect of those tree-bearing Hills. And down on the level there were pleasant little woods of other woodland

saplings, and of flowering Brooms, and of manifold most green herbs. There I saw the Cytisus, the Sedge, the common Honeywort, the musky All-heal, the flowering buttercup, and hartwort, or Elaphium, and the sawwort, and many various noble kinds, and many other useful simples, and unknown herbs and flowers dispensed about the meadows. All this glad region offered itself richly adorned with greenery.

Then, a little beyond its middle, I came upon a sandy place, or gravelled stretch, though in some parts scattered with some tufts of herbage. There a most joyful Palm-grove presented itself to my eyes, with leaves of knife-like point, of such usefulness to the Egyptians, fruitful and abounding in their most sweet fruit. Among which clustered palms, some were small, and many middling, and the others were straight and lofty — the chosen Sign of victory, because of the way they resist a pressing weight.

Here again in this place I found no inhabitant, nor any other animal whatever. But wandering solitary among those palms — not thickly set, but standing apart, and most worth the seeing — I thought that the palms of Rachelais, of Phaselis and of Libya were perhaps not comparable to these. Behold, then, a famished and flesh-eating wolf appeared to me on the right hand, with its mouth full.

At the sight of which my hairs at once stood up on end, and, wishing to cry out at it, I had no voice. And it immediately fled. And I, then somewhat returned to myself, lifting my eyes towards that quarter where the wooded hills appeared to join, saw far off, in a deep recess, an incredible height in the figure of a tower, or of a most lofty watch-tower; and near it a great building appearing still unfinished, yet a work and structure of antiquity.

Where, towards this building, I saw the gracious little hills of the valley rising ever higher, which I saw joined to the aforesaid edifice; and it was a closure between the one mountain and the other, and made an enclosed valley. Judging this thing shrewdly to be most worthy of beholding, I turned my already hastened journey eagerly towards it without delay. And the nearer I came to it as I went, the more I discovered a work huge and magnificent, and the desire to look upon it multiplied. For it no longer appeared a lofty watch-tower, but rather a high Obelisk, founded upon a vast heap of stones.

The height of which incomparably exceeded the summits of the mountains on either side, however famous a mountain I might reckon Olympus, or Caucasus, or Cyllene, to be. Having come eagerly even to this deserted place, surrounded with a pleasure beyond imagining at beholding freely so great an insolence of the builder's art, and a structure so immense, and an eminence so stupendous, I halted quietly.

Looking upon and considering the whole mass and thickness of this fragmented and half-ruined structure of white Parian marble: the squared and four-angled blocks fitted together without the glue of cement, and equally set and placed, so polished and so exquisitely reddened at their edges as could ever be done — so much so that between the one edge and the other, that is at the joints, no thinness whatever, however sharpened, could have resisted being thrust in and yet have penetrated in the least.

Here, then, I found so noble a colonnade, of every figuration, lineament and material as any man could ever suppose: part broken down, part still in its place, and part preserved unhurt, with their Architraves and with capitals excellent in device and in rough carving; Cornices, Zophori or Friezes, arched Beams. Great fractures of statues, many of their bronzed and finished members struck off. Basins, and Shells, and vases, of Numidian stone and of Porphyry and of various marble and ornament. Great washing-basins. Aqueducts, and almost infinite other fragments of noble sculpture, wholly deprived of any knowing what they had been when whole, and reduced as it were to their first rough beginning; fallen and cast down to the earth here and there. Above

and among which broken ruins many woodland shoots had sprung: chiefly the unshaken Bean-trefoil with its bundled pods, and Mastic of one kind and the other, and Bear's-foot and Cynocephalus, and the stinking Iris and the rough Bindweed, and Centaury, and many others germinating amid the ruins. And upon the fretted walls many House-leeks, and the hanging Ivy-leaved Toadflax, and thickets of pricking brier. Among which certain lizards crept, and crawled too upon the shrubbed walls, often in those deserted and silent places bringing no small horror to me at their first motion, as I stood all suspended.

Great fragments in many parts of plane rounding, and of Ophite and of Porphyry, and of a Coralline colour, and of many other pleasing colourings. Fragments of various storied work in high relief and half relief, in finished and in half-finished carving; declaring its excellence, which unfailingly accuses our own times, and shows that of such an art the perfection is fallen asleep.

Having come therefore near the middle front of that great and illustrious work, I saw an entire portal, wonderful and conspicuous, and proportioned to the whole building. Which fabric I saw continuous, set between the one and the other of the mountains with their sheared-off slopes, so that I could reasonably conjecture its dimension to be twenty paces and six stadia. The joining of these mountains was made level perpendicularly from the summit right down to the floor.

For which cause I stood pondering within myself with what iron instruments, and with how much wearing of men's hands, and what numbers of them, so great an artifice had been forcibly brought to pass — so incredibly laborious, and with so great a grinding away of time. Here, then, with the one mountain and the other, this admirable structure joined itself in knowing adhesion. By which joining, as is said above, the valley was fortified with a closure, so that no one could go out from there, or turn back, or enter, save through this open gate.

Now above this so huge work of building — whose height from the topmost cornices to the footing and base could easily be conjectured at a fifth of a stadium — there was founded an adamantinely pinnacled and most portentous Pyramid. Whereupon I reasonably judged that not without inestimable expense, and time, and the greatest multitude of mortals, could such an incredible artifice ever have been devised and set up. And if I rightly judged its excess, beyond belief, to be a thing unimaginable to look upon — which in the beholding wearied the visual power not a little, and thinned the other spiritual senses — how much more to make it? Therefore, so far as the grasp of my understanding will grant it me, in this manner I now briefly describe it.

Each face of the squared base of the mass, below the beginning of the stepping of this admirable Pyramid set above the aforesaid building, was in length six stadia. Multiplied by four in circumference, the said equilateral footing took up, all told, four and twenty stadia. Then in height, raising the lines from each angle by measure — as far as the lowest line of the plinth extends — all four running together and meeting at the middle of the summit constituted the perfect Pyramidal figure. The middle perpendicular, above the centre where the diagonals of the Plinth cross, was one part less in six than the ascending lines.

Which immense and terrible Pyramid, rising by steps adamantine with wonderful and exquisite Symmetry, contained one thousand four hundred and ten steps, or stairs, wrought in relief — apart from ten steps needed to finish the tapering. In place of these was set and substituted a stupendous Cube, solid and firm and monstrous in its thickness, offering itself beyond belief as a thing carried up and appointed to that summit; of that same Parian stone of which the steps were made.

The said square was set beneath as the base and support of the obelisk that is to be spoken of. This most huge stone — such as was never the block quarried by Titis — had a falling-away in its circumference of six parts, two in the descent and one in the pointed level; and it remained on the topmost plane four paces broad by diameter. In the levelling of which there rose four Harpy's feet of metal, with their pads and clawed talons cast, fixed into the great stone towards the angles, along the diagonal lines, and firmly leaded in; of proportioned thickness, and of the height of two paces. Which, knotting themselves most beautifully together, encircled and bound the lowest Socle of a great Obelisk, cast in wonderful foliage, and fruits, and flowers of fitting greatness. Upon which the Obelisk pressed, most firmly set above them. Its breadth two paces, and seven times as much in height, artificially sharpening itself, of Theban fire-flecked stone. On the faces of which were Egyptian Hieroglyphs excellently carved, smooth, and brightly polished like a mirror.

On the topmost pinnacle of it, set above with the utmost diligence and art, rested a settled base of brass. In which there was besides a turning engine, or broad-brimmed cap, fixed upon a stable pivot or pole. Which held up an image of a Nymph, an elegant work of the material already named — enough to turn to stupefaction anyone who considered it most carefully and with fixed gaze. Of such and so made a proportion that she allowed herself to be seen perfectly from below, in the air, at the common stature. And

further, the magnitude of that statue was a wonderful thing to consider: with what temerity, carried up to such a loftiness — nay, into the air — such a work had been brought, with its flying garment, part of the fleshy calves showing themselves uncovered. And two open wings were fastened at the space between her shoulders, showing the act of flight. Her most beautiful face and propitious aspect were turned towards the wings. She had, moreover, above her tressed brow the braids flying free, and the part of the Crown, or Skull, bared and as it were unhaired — which were as though stretched out towards the flying.

In the right hand, at the object of her gaze, she held an artificial horn of plenty, stuffed with every good thing, turned towards the earth. And the other hand she held pressed and closed upon her naked breast. This statue, then, turned easily at whatever breeze blew, with such a whirring of the rubbing of the hollow metal engine as was never heard from the Roman treasury. And where the figure rested with its feet, rubbing upon the little altar beneath, there sounded such a ringing as the Bell at the magnificent Baths of Hadrian never gave out, nor that of the five Pyramids standing upon the square.

Which most lofty Obelisk allows me still not the least belief that another showed any conformity to it, or any likeness. Not the Vatican one. Not the Alexandrian. Not the Babylonian. It held in itself such a heaping-up of wonder that I stood senseless with stupefaction at the considering of it. And far more still, the immensity of the work, and the excess of the subtlety of that opulent and most acute genius, and the great care and exquisite diligence of the Architect.

With what daring invention of art, then; with what power and human strength, and order, and incredible expense, was so great a weight carried up and set so high in the air, in emulation of the heavens? With what Windlass, and with what wheeled Pulleys, and with what Crabs, or Block-and-tackle, and other hauling Engines, and framed Scaffoldings? Let every other incredible and greatest structure keep silence here.

(A leaf given wholly to the woodcut: the great pyramid with its obelisk and the turning figure of Fortune upon its summit. The source transcription holds only a positioning template and no body text.)

Let us return, then, to that vastest Pyramid, beneath which lay a huge and solid Plinth, or block, or square set under it, of fourteen paces in height and in extension, or length, six stadia. Which made the footing of the lowest step of the massive Pyramid. And this I shrewdly judged had not been brought there from elsewhere, but carved out of the mountain itself by human labours into that figure and Scheme, and reduced to so great a mass in its own place. The remainder of the steps was made compositely of separate blocks.

Which immense square did not adhere to the flanking mountains of the valley, but was set apart and separated on the one side and the other by ten paces. On the right-hand side, as I went, of the aforesaid Plinth, in the middle of it, the viperous head of the fearful Medusa was fearsomely and perfectly carved, shown in furious act, crying out and snarling; with terrifying eyes, hollowed beneath the pressed-down brows, and with wrinkled forehead, and the mouth gaping open. Which, excavated with a straight passage, its top vaulted, penetrating as far as the centre — or as far as the middle perpendicular central line of the topmost Cap of that portent-bearing Pyramid — made a most ample entrance and approach.

To which opening of the mouth one ascended by way of her twisted hairs, expressed with an inconceivable subtlety of understanding, and art, and studied thought of the craftsman; with such rule and reduction that they aptly made climbing steps up to the open mouth. And in place of curling tresses I gazed astonished at vipers and twisted serpents, in living and huge coils, wrapping themselves confusedly about the monstrous head with the swiftest turnings. Whereupon the face and the scaly quarrelling serpents were so exactly counterfeited in the working that they struck no little horror and terror into me. In the eyes of which were most conveniently enclosed the brightest little stones — so much so that, had I not been certain the material was marble, I should not have dared approach so easily.

The above-named passage, carved within the solid rock, led to where the stairs were, with a winding course, in the centre, by spiral turnings; by which one climbed to the highest summit of that Pyramid, onto the surface of the square Cap. Upon which was founded the eminent Obelisk.

Beyond all this illustrious and stupendous work, I certainly judged this the most excellent: that the aforesaid spiral stairs were everywhere clearly lit. For the ingenious and most acute architect had shrewdly made certain light-stealing passages, with great and most exquisite investigation of the understanding. Which, in respect of the wandering of the Sun, corresponded directly to three parts: the lowest, the middle, and the upper. The lower one by the

light-wells; the upper was lit by the down-shafts; and with certain reflections from the opposite sides they gave sufficient light. So great was the calculated rule of the exquisite disposition of that artificial mathematician, in the three faces — Eastern, Southern and Western — that at every hour of the day the winding stair was lit and clear. Which breathing-holes were defined symmetrically in different placings of that greatest Pyramid, and distributed here and there.

I came to the part of the aforesaid opening of the mouth by climbing another solid and straight stair, which at the Airy footing of the building, towards the right-hand side flanking the sheared-off mountain, was excavated within the rock itself, where the interval of the ten paces was. By which — more curious, certainly, than perhaps was lawful — I climbed. Where, having come to the going-in by the mouth to the stair, and having at last climbed by innumerable steps or stairs, circling about, not without grave labour and dizziness of the head, above so unimaginable a loftiness: my eyes could not fitly bear to look down at the level ground, so much so that everything below appeared to me imperfect. And for this I did not dare to leave the middle floor.

And there, round about the circular and topmost exit — that is, the end of the winding stair and its opening — many spindled posts of metal were neatly disposed and fixed in a circuit, the spacing of which, from centre to centre, divided one foot, and half a pace in height. Girded above with a little waving cornice going round about, of the said cast material, which surrounded and fenced the lip of the opening and gape of the upper exit of the said stair — excepting that part by which one went out onto the surface. Rightly judged, so that no one less cautious should fall headlong into the opening of the winding cave; seeing that the immoderate height induced a reeling.

Beneath, then, the sloping level of the Obelisk, a bronze tablet was leaded in, lying face upward, with ancient writing in letters of our own, and in Greek and Arabic; by which I fully understood that it was dedicated to the highest Sun. And of the whole vast structure the measurement also was entirely noted and described. And the name of the architect, above the Obelisk, noted in Greek:

LICHAS THE LIBYAN, STONE-BUILDER, SET ME UP.

Let us return for the present to the Base, or Block, set beneath the Pyramid; in the front of which I beheld an elegant and magnificent sculpture of a cruel Battle of the Giants, wanting only the breath of life, excellently carved in wonderful relief; with its movements, and with so much

of those tall bodies as could ever be told. The imitating rival of nature was so properly expressed that the eyes, wearying together with the feet, forced themselves eagerly now to one part and now to another. No less did it appear in the lifelike Horses: some prostrate, some stumbling and falling; many wounded and struck, showing that they breathed out their gracious life; and their hooves planting themselves ill upon the fallen bodies, furious and unbridled.

And the Giants, their armour cast off, closely embracing one another; some carried along with their feet caught in the trappings; others crushed beneath their own bodies; and some falling headlong with their wounded horses. Some, laid flat upon the ground on their backs, fought protecting themselves with the shield. Many girt with side-swords and with belted blades, and with antique Persian broadswords and manifold instruments of deadly shaping. The greater part on foot, fighting confusedly with darts and bucklers. Some in corslets and helmets, marked with varied crests; and others naked, showing that they attacked with a lively heart, intent upon death. Some breastplated, adorned with various and most noble military ornaments. Many with the fearful look of men crying out; some with the semblance of obstinacy and fury.

Those who were about to die, with a thread rivalling nature, expressed the effect; and others dead, with hateful and manifold engines of war and slaughter. They showed the robust limbs and the swelling muscles, and gave the eyes to see the office of the bones, and the hollows where the hard sinews drew. Which conflict and duel appeared so fearful and horrible that you would say it was bloody and arms-mighty Mars himself about to fight in single combat with Porphyrion and Alcyoneus; and the flight they had at the braying of the ass came into my memory to see.

All these images exceeded the natural tallness and stature, and the carving was in deep relief of most illustrious and polishable marble, the flat space between introduced of the blackest stone for the comeliness and grace of the white stone and for the setting-off of the statuary work; and they stood out perfectly. Here, then, were infinite tall bodies, last strivings, intent acts, breastplated habits, and various death, with doubtful victory. Alas, my wearied spirits, and my understanding confused by such continual variety, and my disordered senses, cannot fitly bear not only to tell the whole, but they are not able to express even a part, with completeness, of so polished a stone-carving.

And whence then was born so great a boasting, and so burning a lust, to heap up stones by joining them into so great a mass, a pile, a pinnacle? And with what Waggon? with what Bearers? and Dray? with what Rollers was so great and such a vastness of stones forced along? And upon what propping were they joined and confederated? And upon what mound of cemented rough-work? And of so great an immensity, the loftiest Obelisk, and the immense Pyramid? So that never did Dinocrates more boastfully propose to Alexander the Great the

matter of his loftiest conceit of Mount Athos. For this most ample structure without fail exceeds the Egyptian insolence. It surpasses the marvellous labyrinths. Let Lemnos be quiet. Let the Theatres fall dumb. The dignified Mausoleum is not its equal. For this was certainly not known to him who wrote of the seven miracles, or spectacles, of the world. Nor in any age was such a thing ever seen or conceived — passing over in silence even the wonderful sepulchre of Ninus.

At the last I considered discreetly what opposed and obstinate resistance of vaults could ever sustain or support beneath it, and what Hexagonal and four-square Piers, and what smallness of columning could firmly, set beneath, endure so great a heaviness and intolerable weighing. By which reasoning I judged rightly that either the whole remained solid and massive, the mountain being subject beneath it, or else it was one compacted heap of glued cement and gravel and rough stonework. By such consideration I explored through the ample gate. And I saw that within there was thick darkness and hollowness. Which gate, together with the wonderful and proud building — things worthy of an eternal monument — will be somewhat described in what follows, as it was excellently disposed.

POLIPHILO, AFTER HE HAS TOLD PART OF THE IMMENSE STRUCTURE, AND THE VASTEST PYRAMID WITH ITS WONDERFUL OBELISK, DESCRIBES IN THE FOLLOWING CHAPTER GREAT AND MARVELLOUS WORKS, AND CHIEFLY A HORSE, A LYING COLOSSUS, AN ELEPHANT, BUT ABOVE ALL A MOST ELEGANT GATE.

MOST JUSTLY MIGHT IT BE FREELY granted me to say that in the universal world there were never other like most magnificent works, neither conceived nor yet seen by human gaze. So that I would almost freely judge that from human knowledge and the highest and most virtuous power no like insolence of building and of artifice could fitly be raised up, nor defined by invention. Whereupon my senses were so captivated at this intent and obstinate sight, together with excess of pleasure and with stupefaction, that nothing else came into my ravished memory that was solacing and most joyful, except when I looked applying myself, and curiously all the parts to the comely

fitting composition, examining those excellent and choice stone statues of maidenly making, so that, stirred at once, I sighed warmly and sobbing.

So that my loving and sounding sighs echoed in this solitary and deserted place, in air made thick, recalling to me my Goddess and immeasurably longed-for Polia. Alas, scarcely a little pause was granted in which that loving and heavenly Idea was not figured in my mind, and a diligent companion of my strange and unknown journeying. In which, firmly nested, my soul lay contentedly, as in the safest garrison and an inviolate Asylum, secure.

Being therefore come in this manner to such a place, where my eyes were stolen and taken up with such a sight by the copious and choice work of antiquity, above all I beheld a most beautiful gate, so stupendous and of such incredible artifice, and so elegant in every lineament, as could ever be wrought and polished. Which without fail I do not feel that I have knowledge enough in me to describe perfectly, or even sufficiently. Chiefly because in our age the vernacular, proper and native words, and those peculiar to the art of building, are buried and extinguished together with the true men.

O execrable and sacrilegious barbarism, how despoilingly have you invaded the noblest part of the precious treasure and sanctuary of Latin, and that art so dignified, at present darkened and ruinously injured by accursed ignorance! Which, associated together with raging, insatiable and perfidious avarice, has blinded that most high and excellent part which made Rome both sublime and a wandering Empress.

Before this excellent gate — judging this the first thing to say — there was left open to the sky a four-square courtyard, thirty paces by its diameter. With a notable pavement of marble squares, divided by one foot, set between with tessellation in various interlacings and bindings and colourings. In many parts broken up by the fall of stones, and grown over with shrubs.

And at the extremities of the said courtyard, on the right and on the left, towards the mountains, there were two orders of columns set to the level, with the exquisite interval of the wide-spaced manner set between, according to the fitting requirement from one column to another. Where the first run, or order, on both the one side and the other, began level with the edge, or outermost bound, of the pavement at the front of the great gate. And between the one colonnade and the other was a space of fifteen paces.

Of which columns some, and the greater part in number, were seen whole; with their Doric, or cushioned, capitals, with the bark-like, or spiral, volutes outside the ringed echinus, with the astragals beneath, hanging here and there, exceeding by a third part its own base — that is, of the capital, which was of a thickness equal to the half-diameter of the column set beneath it. Upon which lay the Architrave, or straight beam,

continuous, but for the greater part broken and interrupted. Many columns widowed of their capitals, and buried amid the ruins up to their topmost part and the projection of the Astragal and the neck and the foot. Near which runs of columning there still endured ancient Plane-trees, and a wild Laurel-grove, and cone-bearing Cypresses, and thorny Brambles. I supposed it a Hippodrome, or a covered walk, or a running-track, or Ambulatories — that is, walking-places — or an ample breadth of uncovered porticoes, or the place of a seasonal water-channel.

Upon this courtyard, ten paces in from the beginning towards the gate, I saw a prodigious horse and winged Vaulting-steed, with its wings spread, of bronze, of excessive magnitude. The hoof of which occupied, upon the level of the base, in the outermost line of the rounding of one shoe, five feet. And from this outermost circuit of the hoof up to beneath the breast I found it, by due reckoning, nine feet high.

With its head loose and unbridled, with two little ears, the one thrust forward and the other drawn back. With waving and flowing mane hanging down over the right of the neck. Upon which many striplings were attempting to ride astride. Not one of them was able to hold himself firmly upon it, because of its unchecked swiftness and hard jolting. Whereupon some were falling, some stood on the point of falling headlong. Some on their backs, and some thrown over backwards, and others were climbing up leaning on it; some, tumbled over, held vainly to the long hairs caught in their gripping hands. There were some fallen, and then in the act of rising, slipped beneath the body of the shaker-off.

In the surface of the base there was fixed and leaded a plate of the same cast material — as much as the shoes stood held fast and the young men thrown down — the whole one composition and mass cast together, by a wonderful art of founding. In the end one could not tell whether any rider of such a swift horsemanship was yet content, so far as I could judge. For which cause the statues appeared sorrowful and wearied, without lament — which was not heard because they lacked it: only because the maker could not breathe the breath of life into them, so excellently did they imitate the truth of nature. Let the sharp genius of the imprudent Perillus give way here, and of Hiram the Jew, and of every founder of statues whatsoever. It gave one to understand that those striplings were being brought so ill towards the opened gate.

The Pedestal, or marvellous base, was of solid marble — of a thickness, height and length proportioned to sustaining the machine fixed upon it — of flooding veins many-coloured, and of pleasing markings grateful to the eyes, disposed confusedly in infinite mixtures.

In the front of the aforesaid stone, towards the gate, I saw set a crown of green marble of leaves of bitter Parsley, with mixed fennel-like leaves of Hog's-fennel. Within which there was moreover fastened a rounding of white stone, in which, carved, it held a writing in Latin capitals.

(In the 1499 the inscription itself is given as a woodcut and is not carried by the source transcription.)

On the opposite face likewise, in a crown of leaves of deadly Aconite, was such a note.

On the right-hand side thereafter were carved certain figures of men and of damsels dancing, with two faces apiece — the one in front laughing, the hinder one weeping. And they danced in a ring, holding one another by the arms, man with man and woman with woman: the one arm of a man

beneath that of the woman, and the other above that of the next. And so, holding one another, they went forward, one after another, so that always a glad face was turned to meet the mournful face of the one before. These were seven and seven, so perfectly feigned in comely carving, with lifelike movements, with the veiling garments flying, that they accused the excellent craftsman of no other defect save that he had not given the voice to the one and the tears to the other. The aforesaid dance was excellently cut in a figure of two semicircles with a partition set between.

Beneath which Half-round figure I saw this word inscribed: TIME.

Then I saw besides, on the other side, many striplings — the work of the aforesaid craftsman, altogether perfect, in a figure uniform with the one just recited, most beautifully waved, and the waving of both figures clothed with exquisite foliage — intent upon gathering flowers among many herbs and shrubs; while together many merry Nymphs, jesting playfully, coaxingly snatched them away. And in the manner recited above, beneath the figure were certain hollowed Capitals which said this one word: LOSS. And they were choice letters, exactly made, their thickness a ninth part, and a little more, of the diameter of the square.

Not a little stupefied, therefore, turning it over and looking with the greatest curious delight upon that huge machine cast into an animal by human genius, most worthily imagined — so that in every member it shared unfailingly the excellent harmony and joining — there came into my retaining memory the ill-fated horse of Seianus.

Then, dazzled by such an artificial mystery, there offered itself to my eyes a spectacle no less wonderful, a very great Elephant, and with it the greatest desire to hasten towards it. But behold, I hear from another quarter a human groan as of sickness. I stood at once, my hair rising, and without further deliberation, hurrying towards the groan, I climbed a heap of ruins of great fractures and marble cuttings. And having gone forward fitly from there — behold, I see a most Vast and wonderful colossus, with the feet hollowed out and without soles, and all the Shin-bones open and empty.

And coming from there to the head, gazing with horror, I conjectured that the air let in through the gaping soles, by a divine invention, caused the groan to be moderately expressed. Which lay silent, reclining on its back, cast of metal by a wonderful artifice, of middle age, holding its head raised a little upon a cushion. With the semblance of a sick man, with the mouth showing that it sighed and groaned. Gaping, of a tallness of sixty paces. And by the hairs one could climb up over the breast, and by the matted and tormented hairs of the thick beard, to the lamenting mouth. Which by passages was all void and empty. Through that, then, driven by the stimulus of curious searching, without other counsel, into the throat by little steps

and thence into the stomach, and from there by hidden ducts to all the other parts of the inner viscera, I came, somewhat afraid. O wonderful conception! I beheld all the parts intimately, as they lie open in a human body. And at each one I beheld carved, in three tongues — Chaldean, Greek and Latin — the name of that part, so that in each natural body one might see the intestines, sinews and bones, veins, muscles and flesh; and what disease is engendered in it, and the cause, and the cure and remedy. Wherefore through all the coiled viscera there was a little approach and a convenient entry, with breathing-holes variously distributed through the body, lighting the fitting places. In no part less than it stands in nature.

And when I came to the heart, I saw, reading, how of love the little sighs are engendered, and where love grievously wounds. And there, wholly moved, I drew from the depth of my heart a bellowing sigh, invoking Polia; so that I felt the whole brazen machine resound, with no little horror. An art invented above every exquisite thing, that a man should make himself without an excelling anatomy.

O illustrious wits of the past! O truly golden age, when virtue kept concert with fortune! To this age alone you left ignorance and rival avarice as an inheritance.

I saw, standing out in another part of the aforesaid thickness, the brow of a woman's head somewhat uncovered among the ruins, the rest buried by the greatest breakages. For which cause, judging a like workmanship to be there, and fearing the disordered and unequal ruins, I left off looking at it and returned to the first place.

Where also, not too far distant from the great horse, there offered itself at the level a very great Elephant of blackening stone, more than Obsidian, sparkling with gold and with silvery flecks copiously scattered like a fine dust, and glittering through the stone. The stubborn hardness of which plainly showed its clear lustre; for in it every object represented itself and was sent back most properly to that quarter — except where the metal had spread its greenish rust.

And this fittingly, because on the summit of its most ample back it had a marvellous Bronze saddle-cloth, with two tight Girths carried round the monstrous bulk. Between which very great bindings, fastened with buckles of the same stone, there was held a quadrangle answering to the thickness of the Obelisk set above; so that no perpendicular of weight should have air, or rather void, beneath it. For being hollow within, it is not solid, nor lasting.

Which quadrangular part was beautifully lined on each of its three faces with Egyptian characters. This burden-bearing monster, then, expressed and finished most diligently and not without wonder — as well as by rule one could artificially feign and set up in statue — and in the aforesaid saddle, approvedly adorned with many seals and bosses and little histories and figures, sustained most firmly founded an Obelisk of greening Laconian stone. Of a breadth in its levelled faces equal to the lowest diameter of one pace, and multiplied by seven, so much was it to the sharpened summit

. On the pinnacle of which, fixed, there stood out a most round Triangle, of a material clear and translucent.

This greatest beast stood therefore in fitting composition, so nobly figured, upon the levelled plane of a vast base of hardest Porphyry, most smoothly lined. With two great projecting tusks of a most white and shining stone, set on and fastened. And from the bronze saddle there hung, buckled, an excellent breast-piece of various ornament, of the material of the saddle, in the middle of which was written in the Latin tongue: The brain is in the head.

And likewise, carried round by the end of the neck and joined to the great head, there went a masterly binding. From which an ambitious ornament, most notable, of bronze, hung thrown over its most ample brow, composed of two squares, with elegant lineaments. In the flat of which — surrounded with waving foliage — I saw certain Ionic and Arabic letters.

Now its voracious trunk did not keep to the level of the base, but raised and hanging it stood, turned somewhat towards the front, with the furrowed ears very widely let down, or barred. Which image in its vastness showed itself not one whit less than the natural. And in the oblong circuit of the base were carved hieroglyphs, or Egyptian characters. Decently polished, with the due base-course, with the block, gorge, torus and roundel, with their Astragals or little bindings, with the reversed Cyma at the footing. And above no less, with the projecting Cyma turned back, and the collar of the scotia and the dentils with the Astragals; excellently Symmetried according as the thickness required. The length, breadth and height: twelve paces, five, and three. The extremities of which were formed in a half-circle.

In the hinder half-round part of the base just described, I found a stepped ascent of seven steps carved for climbing upon the flat surface. By which, eager for novelty, I mounted. And towards the reserved quadrangle, set beneath the perpendicular of the saddle-cloth, I saw a little door hollowed out. A thing of great admiration, that in so stubborn a material so apt a hollow was afforded; so that by certain posts of metal fixed after the manner of a ladder, by which was a convenient ascent, one

might enter into the disembowelled Elephantine machine.

For which cause, greatly stirred by curious eagerness, I entered and climbed. Where I found the greatest and most prodigious monster all hollow and void, and made a cavern — save that the same solid mass was left within, which stood beneath as the ballast. And it had as much passage, both towards the head and towards the hinder part, as a natural man could make his way through.

And there, hung in the vault of the back, there burned with brazen chains an inextinguishable lamp, with a prison's lighting. By which, in this hinder part, I beheld an ancient sepulchre granted to the stone itself, with a perfect image of a man, naked, of the common natural size, crowned, of the Stone, most black. With the teeth, eyes and nails covered in shining silver. Standing above the arched sepulchral cover, clothed in scale-work and other exquisite lineaments. It showed the forepart with a gilded sceptre of bronze, the arm stretched out. And in the left hand it held a keel-shaped shield, its form taken exactly from the skull-bone of a horse, inscribed in three tongues with little letters — Hebrew, Attic and Latin — to this sense:

I should be naked, had not the beast covered me. Seek, and you shall find. Let me be.

At which unaccustomed thing I stood not a little stupefied, and with some horror. Whereupon, without delaying too long, turning to go back, I saw likewise another lamp burning and shining, as is said before. And crossing over the opening by which one climbs, there towards the head of the animal, in this side too I found a like making of a most ancient burial. And the

statue standing above the whole, like the other, save that this one was a queen; which, having raised the right arm, pointed with the forefinger to the part behind her shoulders, and with the other held a tablet, held fast with its cover and with her hand undivided. On which likewise was inscribed this epigram in three tongues:

Whoever you are, take as much of this treasure as you please. But I warn you: take away the head. Do not touch the body.

At so great a novelty, worthy of the telling, and reading over the riddles again and again, I remained wholly ignorant, both of the interpretation and of the sophistical meaning, which was very ambiguous. Nor did I dare therefore to attempt anything. But being struck as it were with fear in this dark and unlighted place — for all that there was the lamp's light there — nevertheless the anxious desire to contemplate the triumphal gate, urging me on, was a more lawful cause for my not lingering there than any other.

Whereupon, without doing anything else, with the thought and purpose of returning there once more by every means after the contemplation of that wonderful gate, and of considering more tranquilly such a magnificence of invention from human wits, I came most swiftly to the opening. And going down I came out of the disembowelled monster.

An invention unimaginable and beyond estimation, an excess of labour and of rash human daring: what Auger could bore through so great a hardness and stubbornness of stone, and hollow out so great a hardness of material, or what other builder's engines could do it? The hollowing within agreeing harmoniously with the outward form. At last, having returned onto the courtyard, I saw in this

base carved round about most worthily with these hieroglyphs. First a horned skull-bone of an ox, with two instruments of husbandry knotted to the horns, and an Altar founded upon two goat's feet, with a little burning flame, in the face of which was an eye and a vulture. Then a Basin, and a ewer for pouring; following, a ball of thread fixed upon a spindle-pin, and an Antique vase with the mouth stopped. A Sole with an eye, with two fronds laid across, the one of olive and the other of palm, neatly strapped. An anchor, and a goose. An Antique lamp, with a hand holding it. An ancient Rudder, girt about with a branch of fruit-bearing Olive. Then two Hooks. A Dolphin, and last a closed Ark. These hieroglyphs were of the best carving in these markings.

Which most ancient and sacred writings, considering them, I interpreted thus:

From your labour sacrifice liberally to the god of nature; little by little you will bring back a mind made subject to god. He will hold a firm guard over your life, governing it mercifully, and will keep it unharmed.

Leaving this most excellent and mysterious and unimaginable making, I returned again to look upon the prodigious Horse. Which had a bony head, and lean, and proportionately small; it appeared an excellent figuring of standing unquiet and impatient of delay, and one saw almost the trembling of its flesh, and it was more alive than feigned. With a Greek word hollowed in its brow: GENEA.

Then many other great pieces and fragments of every lineament, among the greatest broken heaps of ruin. And of all of them, devouring and flying time had kindly spared these four stupendous things only, untouched: the Gate, the Horse, the colossus, and the Elephant. O holy fathers, ancient craftsmen, what savagery invaded so great a virtue of yours, that you carried with you into the sepulchre the disinheriting of us from such riches?

Having come, then, to this most ancient gate, of work most notable, and marvellously constructed with exquisite rule and art, and with illustrious ornaments of carving and of various lineament — for all which things, being studious and inflamed with the desire to understand the fertile understanding and the keen searching-out of that perspicacious Architect, both his dimension and his lineament and his practice — I set about examining it subtly, and did thus.

I diligently measured a square set beneath the columns, two to a side. From which measuring I easily grasped the whole symmetry of the aforesaid gate. Which, explaining, I shall run over briefly. A four-sided figure A.B.C.D., divided by three straight lines and three cross lines equally distant, will be sixteen squares. Then, adding to the figure as much as its half, and dividing the addition by those same partitions, there are found twenty-four squares. This figure of little cords offers itself ready to hand, and how useful and fitting it is for reducing to a smaller scale, in cutting, or in fine work and in painting.

Drawing again in the first figure A.B.C.D. two diagonals; and marking in it besides two lines, a straight and a cross one, mutually intersecting, four squares were made. Likewise in that empty space above the equal sides, four middle points being made, and lines drawn from one to the other, the Rhombus is constituted.

The aforesaid figures being described in such a way, I considered fitly: what reason have the blind moderns, who esteem themselves in the art of building, not knowing what the thing is? So enormously still they order their false little buildings, sacred as well as profane, public and private, dishonouring the parts that proceed from the middle, neglectful of that which nature teaches by showing. It being a golden and heavenly saying and lesson that in that consists virtue — and the poet sings of blessedness — which, being deserted and neglected, must needs come out disordered, and everything with it.

For any part that does not agree with its chief is base. The order and the norm being removed, however, what convenient, or pleasing, or worthy thing could be afforded? The cause, then, of such unfitting error is born of negative ignorance, and has its origin in want of letters.

Nevertheless, although the perfection of that most worthy art does not stray from rightness, yet the shrewd and industrious Architect, to make the object gratify the gaze, may lawfully polish his work with addition and subtraction. Above all preserving the whole solid entire, and reconciled with the universal. Which solid I call the whole body of the fabric, that being the principal intent and invention and forethought and Symmetry of the Architect; which, well examined and carried through without the accessories, shows (if I do not deceive myself) the excellence of his genius — because the adorning afterwards is an easy thing.

Granted that its distribution also matters, and that one should not set the cornice at the feet but at the head; and so the ovolo, and the dentil, and the rest, must be destined to their fitting place. The ordering, then, and the chief invention are shared among the few; the ornaments offer themselves to be worked by the many, and the common or unlearned sort. And therefore the handworking craftsmen are the architect's ministers.

Which architect must in no manner succumb to accursed and perfidious avarice. And beyond his learning let him be good, not talkative, kindly, well-wishing, gentle, patient, pleasant, copious, a curious and universal searcher-out, and slow. Slow, I say, so as not to be hasty afterwards in mending. Of this let it be enough.

Reducing finally the last three figures shown into one, and adding the second from the sixteen squares contained in it, this figure will be produced. From which, then, removing the rhombus and the diagonals, and leaving the three perpendiculars and the three straight lines, except the middle one — which, cut off, ends inclusively between the perpendiculars — and by this rule two perfect squares are found, the one above and the other below, each containing in itself four squares.

In the lower square, making the diagonal, which set upright in a perpendicular towards the straight line A.B. will readily be found, by what it falls short of reaching, to be exactly the thickness of the arch and of the Antae. So then the line A.B. will be the due place of the extended, or straight, Beam. The middle point of the truncated line E.F. will be the point from which to bend the arch-beam into a half-circle. Which must have as much addition at its turned-back horns as is the half-diameter of its thickness. Otherwise, such a falling-short being there, I do not call it perfect. But this was most beautifully and exquisitely and diligently observed by the best and most skilled of the ancients in their arches, to give the arch elegance and fitting resistance, and to avoid the encroachment of the projections of the Abaci.

manner: beneath the paired columns on this side and on that, the square, or little Altar, or Podium, began from a Plinth level with the paved Area, raised one foot. Which was also the continued boundary. From this the turned-back Cymas, tori and channels with the Astragals stepped neatly towards the Podium. And with due and requisite binding they made the Socles for the Antae, that is to say the bases. And consequently, above the Podium, the cornice was stretched out with the Cyma turned up, and the other concurring linings.

Between the line A.B. and the last line of the master square M.N. I found that it was taken up by a third — that is, divided into four partitions, three of which are attributed to the straight Beam, the Zophorus, and the cornice. Which cornice claimed one part more than the Beam and the Frieze; that is to say, if five portions are assigned to the Beam and as many equally to the Zophorus, the cornice deservedly usurps six. And it exceeded this limit by so much the more, in that the discreet and skilled craftsman had made a sloping licking-over above the margin determined for the Cyma of the aforesaid cornice, half a foot remaining chamfered.

And this is not found to be observed in vain, because the lowest of the carved works set above are not hidden by the coming-out, or projection, of the cornice. Although one may so much the more magnify the part following above of the ornaments — as happens with the Zophorus, exceeding for this cause the assigned Symmetry. Then above this first crowning there followed a perfect square, by this rule.

As much as the projection of the Zophorus was above the perpendicular of the columns, so much was that one thrust out. Which, divided into two partitions, one part as it was found, so much thickness was attributed to the topmost cornice. These two squares being constituted, one to a side: the remainder therefore set between, at the perpendicular of the opening of the gate, divided into seven portions, the middle one was reserved for a throne, or Niche, where the Nymph-like statue resided. Three then, on this side and on that, were left to the flanking parts.

The coming-out of the projection of the upper cornice offers itself easily: making of the line of its thickness a Four-square, divided by the Diagonal, the just rule of the projection is found.

Now taking together the whole figure of the twenty-four squares, the sesquialteral is found. Which figure is O.P.Q.T. It is manifest that it contains in itself a Four-square, and a half. Such half, equally divided into six portions by straight lines, there are found five lines between and six partitions. Upon the fifth upper line, at its middle mark, is offered by rule the pinnacle of the frontispiece, the lining sloping down from there above

the cut of the lateral extension of the cornice, where the fitting slope appeared. The edges of which, or extremities, coupled themselves justly with the Cymatia of the projection of the crowning.

Finally the frontispiece, with exquisite correspondence sharing the lineament of the elegant cornice, in its first order then usurped the flat of the projected square; and last, a part of dentilled cornice, within which was contained the angular flat.

The aforesaid gate was most diligently wrought in a levelled polish of cut stone panelling, the waving figures conforming themselves in the joining of the panels. With a pleasing fitness of the inserted works, and the material bright and gracious.

On the one side and the other, separated by two paces from the compass of the gate, there stood still unmoved two great and proud columns, buried up to their footing in the roughness of the ruin. From which, removing the ruin as far as I could, I laid bare the bronze bases, uncovering them; and of like material were the Capitals, excellently cast. And measuring for pleasure the thickness of one Base and doubling it, it expressed the entire diameter of the lowest thickness of the column. By which measuring I found its height more than eight-and-twenty cubits.

The two near the gate were of finest Porphyry and of gracious Ophite; the other two channelled, or fluted, or grooved, and most excellently ready. Beyond these, then, on the left and the right hand, stood others in orderly fashion, paired in company, with modest swelling, of hardest Laconian stone.

The half-diameter of the lowest circuit of the column made the thickness of the Base, which consisted of Tori, of a roundel, or Scotia, or Trochilus, and a Plinth. That half being divided by three, the Plinth usurped one for itself, its breadth one diameter and a half. The two partitions being divided again into four, one took the topmost Torus. The three being distributed into twin parts, one took the lowest Torus, and the other was afforded to the hollowed Trochilus, with the edges taking a seventh part of it. Such measurement I found elegantly observed by the skilled craftsmen.

Above the ruled capitals of the aforesaid columns there extended an excellent Beam, or Architrave, with the lowest band adorned with rounded whorls, or berries; and the second with an association lengthwise of truncated spindles, with two whorls pressed down in a row set between the one and the other. The third, with approved comeliness, was clothed with Cymas turned like little ears, in noble foliage with stalk-work of most approved expression.

Above this sat the Zophorus of winding fronds, deeply carved among the spirals, or great turnings, and various stalks and flowers with pleasing vine-work, in which many birds were nesting. Then above there followed an order of exquisite Modillions, with

spacing between. Above which began the reversed stepping of a copious cornice. Beyond this broken crowning, then, the greater part was seen demolished and shattered, with the trace, or imitation, of paired and great windows, widowed of their ornaments — ill showing what the building had been when defined and perfect.

Beneath the aforesaid beam ran down the top, or pinnacled summit, of the frontispiece of the preserved gate. Where, between its slope and the lining of the beam, that space imitated the figure of a stairway, which shows a triangle of unequal sides, or ribs.

Beneath the beam, in the space between the columns, there was sustained upon marvellous modillions, with an artificial hollow between — in this figure described, as much as could embrace the greater space — two roundels hollowed out, in imitation of a dish bound about at the lips with waving-work, gullets and scotias; where in the topmost stepping, in the middle of the lineaments drawn about it, there swelled a Torus, nobly clothed in oaken foliage, joined one beneath another, bound about with grooved thongs, with fruits scattered.

Within which resided two venerable images, freed from the vase, that is to say from the hollow, from the midriff upward. The breast part covered with a mantle over the left shoulder in an antique knot. With shaggy beards and laurelled brows, with a bearing worthy and majestic.

In the square projection of the Zophorus above the columns written of, in front, was this carving. An Eagle with wings spread, with clawed talons, rested upon a swelling little bundle of fronds and fruits hanging in the middle. The slender extremities of which, on this side and on that, were held suspended, bound about with straggling tendrils, of a working almost pierced through.

Therefore the conspicuous Gate, standing free in the flat of the levelling between the columns, of marble jointly panelled, was situated with the highest approbation. For which cause, the required showing of the more principal members of the said magnificent gate being somewhat fitted, it seems to me opportune in what follows to explain its pleasing and most comely ornaments. Because for the architect the being presents itself as harder than the being well. That is to say, that first it belongs to him above all to dispose the solid, and to define in his mind (as I said above) the universal fabric, rather than the ornaments, which are accessory to the principal.

Therefore to the first, the fertile skill of one alone is required. But to the second many handworkers, or unlearned operatives — called by the Greeks Ergatai — necessarily come together. Who, as has been said, are the instruments of the Architect.

POLIPHILO, HAVING MADE SUFFICIENT DEMONSTRATION OF THE SYMMETRY OF THE GREAT GATE, GOES ON TO DESCRIBE EXCELLENTLY ITS MOST POLISHED AND MOST SKILFULLY WROUGHT ORNAMENT, AND HOW MARVELLOUSLY IT WAS COMPOSED.

LET IT NOT VEX THAT NOBLE COMPANY who give themselves continually to pleasing love, that I have lingered somewhat in what is narrated above — which perhaps to them is not in the least gracious, being desirous, as they treat of it, to understand that thing in which (however bitter it be in itself) they nourish themselves with a patient mind, placing their festive heart in it.

Whereupon, human affection being naturally variable, let it not for this cause be laid to their charge: bread grateful to an unhurt palate is sometimes displeasing to a depraved one, but is rather kindly welcomed by him to whose taste it is pleasing. For, having in some part made mention of the due end of building — which is that excellent invention, to acquire by measure the solid body of the edifice — thereafter, that being freely invented, the Architect reduces it by minute divisions; neither more nor less than the Musician, having invented the intonation and the measured time in one greatest note, then, proportioning it in minute Chromatics, neatly carries it back upon the solid.

By such likeness, after the invention, the chief rule peculiar to the Architect is the squaring. And distributing this into the smallest parts, there is offered to him the harmony of the building and its measured proportion, and to his principal the fitting corollaries.

For which cause, this gate being for excellence most beautiful by its admirable composition and invention, and there being added to it so much especial elegance and with so amended a distribution that no part accused itself as needing correction in the least cutting-back — I therefore now think it worthy to describe its perfect completion.

On the right first there presents itself a pedestal, or column-foot, beneath the bases of the columns. From which, a little cornice being drawn out above in due measure, and with its moderate swellings at the base of the perfect square, it remained by rule broader than high — that is, four-cornered. Most common expressions, and not native ones, I must use, because we are degenerate and cut off from that treasure, so as rightly to set out

all the particularities of such a working. But with those who are unskilled in such craft we shall keep our reckonings in reserve.

Therefore in this (as I so call it) Altar, deepened with gorge-mouldings covered with leaves, with a modest stepping of fine cuttings — among which, of transparent Alabaster stone, the proportioned bands remained untouched, going round by the extremity of the four-cornered front, equal-sided — there was carved with the greatest diligence a man of an age passing beyond manhood, robust with rusticity, with a thick beard of hair curled by hardness at the chin, its growth coming ill through the hard skin.

He sat upon a feigned rock, with a goat's skin, which, flayed at the hinder parts, he had girt about him in a knot over his flanks; and the part of the neck, with the hair turned towards him, hung between his knotted shins. Before him, in the middle of his swelling calves, was an Anvil, fixed in a brawny piece of a truncated tree. Upon which, intent, he was forging a pair of glowing little wings, holding the hammer raised and striking his work.

And there before him stood a most noble Matron, at whose delicate shoulders were set two wings of feathered plumage. Who held a child, her son, naked, sitting with his little haunches upon the fleshy thigh of his mother — the Mother Goddess holding him somewhat raised, with her bared foot set upon a rock, held together with the seat of the hammering smith, feigned in a little hill of stone; with a little furnace in a small cavern in which the coal-red fire burned.

And the Matron had her tresses composedly carried back over her broad brow, adorning her copious head round about, so delicately expressed that I do not know by what reason those standing statues were not stirred to her, who were likewise found at the smith's work.

There was moreover there an armed man of raging semblance, clothed in an antique aegis-breastplate, with the fearful head of Medusa on the breast, and with other noble and exquisite breast-pieces; with the baldric across the ample breast, and he held with his muscular arm a spear somewhat raised. And with a crested helmet with its peak he had his head defended; the other arm not appearing, hindered by the figures in front. There appeared also a young man, seen from the breast upward, clothed in thin cloth, beyond the bowed head of the said smith.

The aforesaid history the craftsman had diligently carried upon a flat of coral-coloured stone, and introduced within the waved bound of the Altar. Which colouring flooded through the translucent stone, the coloured part being set only beneath the naked bodies and limbs, and in the hollow bounded round about the figures. Like a rose, flesh-tinted,

every lineament of this column-foot was seen equally in the other, differing only in its history.

Likewise also, in the left column-foot, a naked man of manly age was carved, kindly in aspect, in which he showed the greatest swiftness. He too sat upon a squared seat, adorned with most ancient carving; shod with buskins, unfastened from the heel towards the calves. Thence sprang two winged caps, one to each foot.

Where also that same Matron, naked, figured as a goddess — in whose narrow breast two little paps budded, unmoved in their hardness and their roundness, with ample flanks, so conformably expressed with the other that, sealed, they counterfeited one and the same form — offered that same boy, her son, to this teaching man. Who, the little boy being already beside him, standing before him upon his little feet, bent himself down and shrewdly showed him three arrows. By which act one easily conjectured that he taught him by what art he should use them in his working. And the divine mother held the quiver empty, and the bow likewise unstrung. At the feet of this master lay a viperous caduceus.

Here likewise was found the armed man, and a helmeted woman, who bore upon a spear a Trophy of a most ancient breastplate hung up, and at the top a sphere with two wings; and between the one wing and the other stood written thus: NOTHING IS FIRM. Clothed in a flying shift, with a showing of her breast above.

The two ready Doric columns of Porphyry, of seven diameters, pressed upon each of these squares thus explained; of a dark crimson colour with their little roundels lighter, confusedly scattered, shining and polished. Channelled, with twenty-four Flutes apiece, between the most exact little cords. But of the three parts, the lowest one was cabled.

The reason why they were so carved, hollowed and with the third cabled, I judged to be this: that this most excellent fabric, or temple, must have been ritually dedicated to the one sex and the other — that is, to a God and a Goddess; or to a mother and a son; or to a father and a wife; or to a father and a daughter, and the like. And therefore the skilled ancient fathers attributed to the female sex the greater part of hollowing, and to the male the cabling, because that slippery nature exceeds the manly in wantonness.

The cause of all the fluted ones was for the temple of a Goddess, the flutes showing the wrinkled womanly garment. Upon which they set the capital with the volutes hanging before, in token of the twisted hair and womanly ornament. Those caryatids which have for capital a woman's head with curled locks were expressed in the temple of that rebelling people; which, being afterwards subjugated again, in token of inconstancy like women's, in the meaning

of the columns were so built for perpetual memory.

These choice and ready columns aforesaid the sustaining bases of bronze subdued, with the Tori, or mouldings, of oaken fronds with the fruits expressed, closely girt about with a winding binding, resting above upon the Plinth set beneath. The capitals set above, of the material of the bases, of work fitting and requisite to all the harmony — such as Callimachus the Cunning Craftsman did not see in the sprouted Acanthus from the Basket upon the buried Corinthian maiden, nor made to express his comely ornament.

Covered by the curved Abaci, or bent lids, decorated with the lily in the middle. The vase of which was excellently clothed with two orders of eight Acanthus leaves in the Roman and Corinthian manner. Out of the said leaves came the lesser Helices, meeting in the middle of the vase, and produced the lily most beautifully fitted into the curve of the Abacus. From which then the little stalks twisted themselves beneath the projection of the Abacus. Such as Agrippa approvedly set in the Porch of the wonderful Pantheon, attributed for its height one entire diameter of the base of the column, with observable Symmetry in each of its parts and accessories.

Speaking now of the threshold of the gate: a huge green stone made it, degenerate with a seed-bed of whitening, black and yellow markings, and of other various and imperfect mottlings, most hard. Above this stood the straight Antae, free and shining in the aspect of the space between; as broad as the breadth of the threshold set beneath, one pace, so broadly they stood; but the outward face was notably carved. Without sign of hinges in the threshold, nor yet in the lintel; nor did there appear any trace of the iron catches of the cramps holding the half-capitals of its stone.

Thence, then, arching the arch-beam, or half-circle, with the requisite lineaments and measured bands of the beam — that is, little balls or berries, and with tenth-part spindles, as though threaded in a row made equal, and dog's-ear mouldings, and with waving down-lying work antiquely curved, or jagged, with the little stalks. The keystone of which, or clasp, or Wedge, worthy of admiration, and of a subtle and daring feigning, and of elegant polish, offered itself thus most notable.

I gazed astonished, then, upon a stubborn and most black stone, at an Eagle almost wholly torn out of the solid, with wings spread. Which had lovingly seized a noble and most delicate Boy by his little garments. So shrewdly that the pointed and hooked talons, turning themselves aside, did not hurt the soft flesh. And so, by gripping and drawing at the little folds, its clenched feet towards the swelling and keeled

it left the little hanging child bared from the navel down. Where the tender little buttocks came down between the feathered thighs of the winged one. This most shapely little boy, worthy of him who had carried him off for himself, gave sign in his little face of dreading his case.

Both his little arms being opened, then, with his knobbed hands he had gripped himself tightly to the rowing bone of the spread wings — that is to say, to the rowing part, which is that bone which, connected with the body, adheres so as to move. And drawing his swelling little infant shins up above, he had his little feet thrown across the widened tail, which most beautifully passed away beneath the soffit of the arch.

That little boy was exactly and artificially made of the white vein of the Agate, or Onyx; and the winged one of the Sard, which is the other vein coming together with it. At which most exquisite expression I stood stupefied, considering how the elegant craftsman so perspicaciously imagined to apply that stone most aptly to such an office and purpose.

So that I reasonably conjectured, by the feathers somewhat ruffled about the beak, and the beak half-open with the playing tongue showing, that she openly accused herself of being wholly intent and dissolved in desire. With her back she imitated the curve of the keystone, and with it she likewise carried the arching back of the little boy.

The remaining Arch-beam then, disposed in the soffit in squared coffers excellently lined, held hanging within them the rosettes sharply finished — as much as was the compass of the Antae, from the binding of the capitals; above which binding it stretched beyond the antae, beneath the beginning of the bend of the vault of the entry, or opening, of the gate.

In the triangles which the arch made, there was a shrine-bearing figure in each, of a most noble carving, of that artifice which the common sort call Cameo. With the garments imitating the maidenly little body, flying and yielding in part to the beautiful calves, breast and upper arms, with the hair loose and unshod, holding out towards the keystone the Trophy of victory. Which most smoothly took up the whole triangular flat of most black stone, to show the truth of the metals, and the Nymphs milky and most white. Behind the columning was seen the white panelling of the best marble, fitted on.

Above the Beam sat the Zophorus, in the middle of which was a curved Tablet of gilded metal, with an epigram of excellent Greek capitals of refined silver set into it, which said thus:

To the gods Venus and her son Love: Bacchus and Ceres, out of their own substance, to the most tender Mother.

At the one and the other extremity of the bronze Tablet were two boys holding it, or winged little spirits, perfectly formed, in such a manner that the diligent statuary of the famous burden-bearing boys of the Ravenna Snail-stair never saw such an exemplar. Joining their swelling little hands to it, they held it readily, naked, of the said metal. Aptly carried upon a flat of Cyanean stone, more to the grace of its colouring than that which, compacted in little cakes, is forced to the vomiting-out of the perfect azure; and it shone with a glassy lustre.

In the front of the Zophorus stretched above the porphyry columns were Spoils of Breastplates, Corslets knotted of triple-threaded rings, Bucklers, Helmets, Bundles, Axes, Torches, Quivers, Darts and many other engines of war — no less Airy than maritime and terrestrial — of most worthy making; and thus at their Haunches they showed without doubt the victories, the power and the triumphs which made high-thundering Jove resound, and mortals perish in sweetness.

Then in due order followed the wickedly fine Cornice, of such lineaments as decently concur with so great an elegance of work. For otherwise, just as in the human body one quality discordant from another brings on sickness — because fitness is not found in the friendship of the composition — and, the accidents not being neatly distributed to their due place, deformity follows: so, neither more nor less, is that fabric dissonant and infirm where due harmony and measured order are not found. Which thing the modern unlearned confound, being ignorant of the placing distribution. Wherefore our most wise master likens the building to a human body well proportioned in its sharing and decently clothed.

Beyond this cornice, with reversed stepping, four squarings presided: two standing above the order of the fluted, or Caryatid, Columns, and two drawn in. In the middle division of the two remembered, there sat a Nymph of excellent relief of brass, holding two torches: one quenched, turned towards the heavy earth, and one lit, towards the Sun. The burning one in the right, and the other in the left hand.

On the right side, then, in the squaring, I saw the jealous Clymene, who

was turning into unmoving fronds. And Phoebus, grown stiff, indignant at it, weeping and pursuing; and he, more fugitive, urging on the four swiftest runners of his winged four-horse chariot. Neither more nor less than one pursued by a deadly enemy hastens his swift steps.

In the square above the order of the columns on the left, of unaccustomed carving, was contained the history of how the disconsolate Cyparissus lifted his tender limbs high into the air, for the Hind struck by his arrow; and how Apollo wept hard for it.

The third square, that which stood placed next above the resisting columns, offered such a most beautiful carving: Leucothoe, impiously slain by her own father, changed her white and maidenly flesh into tender bark and moving fronds and drooping twigs.

In the fourth squaring was shown the unwilling Daphne, in no way yielding her virgin flesh to the burning desires of the long-haired Delian, sorrowfully transforming herself towards the warm heavens into eternal greenness.

Now, in successive order, above the Cymatium — which of any lineament is called the topmost line — of these histories described, there rose extended a dentilled cornice, and one of ovolos with the thunderbolts, or little darts, set between the gape of one ovolo and another; and foliage, and the tiles, with the whorls and Nicolo-stones and other Seals, and other choice workings expressed; and modillions with the Astragals, without any defect; and last the Cyma foliated with Acanthus with a most polished spacing between. Of which things so excellent a carving was afforded that, of works sharply hollowed out, not the least mark of the gnawing Auger appeared.

Returning duly to the frontispiece, or pinnacle, in the disposition of which (as I have said before) there are repeated in it all the cornices set beneath, in all the parts of the workings, answering to the perpendiculars — the drip of the topmost cornice being set aside, denied to this member.

At present it falls to me to dispatch the triangular flat of the said temple-like part, in which, not without admiring contemplation, there presents itself to be considered: as much as the extremities of this inserted figure could contain, so much was fitted in it a crown of divers fronds and fruits and stalks entwined, and diligently unfolded, of most green stone, drawn tight in four parts, in knots of thongs plaited through the little bundles. Held by two Scyllas, half human and the lower part fish-like, which with the arm above and the other below aptly embraced it. From the one and the other of the lying angles above the cymatium of the cornice, they stretched out their sea-beast tails, hampered by ready coils; and towards the end of the scaly tail

the fish-like fins. With maidenly faces, with their tresses partly twisted above the brow and the rest womanishly dressed about the head, and part hanging in ringlets over the flat temples. From between the shoulders then came the harpy-like wings, spread out and stretched towards the coils of the wrapped tail. And about their monstrous flanks went the seal-like oars; where the scaling began, emptying itself little by little towards the end of the tail, with the feet of a sea-calf turned against the crown, fleeing the heavenly wrath.

Within the compass of the crown I beheld a shaggy and teeming she-goat suckling a little boy, who sat beneath her, with his fleshy little Shins, the one thrust out and one drawn somewhat towards himself. Holding himself with his little arms to the hanging and rough wool, and with his face intent upon the swelling udders, sucking them dry.

And another of the Nymphs then, coaxing, bending down, held raised one foot of the goat with her left hand; and with the other she held out to him the distended and heavy udders, to the sucking kiss of the milk-drinking infant. Beneath which was read AMALTHEA. And a Nymph standing at the head of the beast went dutifully about its neck with one arm, and with the other hand shrewdly bridled it by the horns.

A third stood besides in the middle, with foliage in one hand, and in the other holding a most ancient Cup with exquisite little handles. At the feet of this one was inscribed MELISSA.

Two Nymphs then, between the one and the other of the three described above, danced nimbly leaping with Corybantic instruments, each in Nymph-like habits expressly imitating the movement of the agitated form. O how artificially they fulfilled their mystery of illustrious making! Chased work without fail not of the stone-carver Polyclitus, nor of Phidias, nor of Lysippus; and to the pious Artemisia, Queen of Caria besides, there were afforded, of such excellent mastery of the chisel, the relief-workers Scopas, Bryaxis, Timotheus and Leochares and Theon. For this was most skilfully made beyond human genius and any relief-work whatever.

Finally in the temple-like pinnacle, or frontispiece, beneath the order of the upper cornice, in the flat of it there appeared in carving these two words in perfect Attic capitals: Of aegis-bearing Zeus.

Of this conspicuous and most notable gate such a wonderful composition and excellent disposition was to be seen. Of which, if its every measured proportion has not been particularly explained, the blame must be laid upon regard for prolixity, and upon the lack of the proper words of description. And because gnawing time had left this one alone untouched, therefore I did not approve of passing on without having said and treated something especially of it.

It is manifest that the remainder of the aforesaid closure, on the one side and the other, was a great display of stupendous building; and this was clearly understood from certain workings preserved untouched here and there. As in the lower parts certain Dwarf columns designed to resist the unbearable weight; others Corinthian with unnoticed swelling, pregnant with so moderate a polish, and just as Symmetry required, and as the exigency of the heaviness and of the ornament wished — the artificial reasoning being drawn as it were from human likeness, and shrewdly gained. As a man to whom it belongs to sustain a heavy weight must have broad soles beneath robust legs, so in the measured fabric the Dwarf columns are attributed to the weight-bearing, and thereafter, for the adorning, the slender Corinthian and Ionic.

And according to the requirement of the harmony of the building, so all the parts stood with approved elegance. With a decent sharing of the colouring of the marbles and a pleasing distinction, with a gracious sharing towards the object: of Porphyry, of Ophite, Numidian, Alabaster, fire-flecked, Laconian, and of white marble waved with veins, and dark-red degenerate with whitest markings. Others of manifold colouring confusedly mixed. And from the circumference its rising was found by another rule than from the diameter of the lower thickness.

I found also a rare form of Cushioned base, which above the Plinth had two trochili, separated by an interposition of little necks and Astragals, with the topmost Torus.

And in divers parts there was a hiding by the hanging and thick ivy, creeping from the ground upward — the wood whose cup divides Bacchus from Thetis — with its scattered fruitful Clusters of black berries, and with green down, taking up here and there many places of the ancient building, together with many other wall-shrubs. And in the cracks grew the lively little finger-fern; and elsewhere hung the Navelwort, and Houseleek, to which its pleasing name belongs, hanging low in the eaves. And in other breakages the Pellitory, and diuretic Chickweed, and Polypody, and Maidenhair, and the fringed Spleenwort with its rusty back, and the jointed lesser Moonwort, and other House-leeks that love the antiquity of walls and of stones, and the Hair-moss, and the green Olive-grove that dwells in ruins. Whereupon many worthy works were clothed and covered with this and much other greenery.

And of the great and turned columns, one upon another, there was an inestimable collapse, so that they appeared not columns but a confused heap of timber cast down to the ground. Among the ruin likewise conspicuous relics of statues, with manifold acts: many naked, some with the garments wrinkled

or folded, clinging over the naked figure and repeating the covered limbs. Some resting upon the left foot, and some upon the other, holding the heavy head perpendicular above the centre of the heel, and then holding the other free and loosed of all weight, stretched forward. The foot distributed as a sixth part of the height, that is, four cubits. Some still whole, standing upon their little Altar, and some sitting in Thrones with modest readiness.

I saw innumerable Trophies, spoils of war, and infinite ornaments; and heads of oxen and of horses disposed at due interval, and from their horns ropes of fronds with fruits, stalks and pods, and other fruits hanging in their bulk, with little boys riding upon them in play.

For all which things it was rightly judged how copious the thought of that many-knowing Architect showed itself, in care, in study and in industry. And with how much vigilance his fertile understanding declared itself. And with how much pleasure he had laboriously set forth the effect of his purpose. And how great was the Eurythmy, publishing the subtlety of the stone-cutter's art; and how much art the carving showed in the stones — certainly with such facility that it seemed the material afforded had been not marble, however hard, but soft clay and potter's earth. And with how great a closing the stones were joined and composed, to the norm, the rule and the level.

This was the true art, which discovers our confident ignorance, and detestable presumption, and public and most damaging error. This is that clear light which sweetly invites us to its contemplation, to illuminate our darkened eyes. For no one, save he who struggling flees from it, remains blind with open eyes. This is that which accuses wicked avarice, the ravening consumer of every virtue, the worm continually gnawing the heart of him who is its captive; accursed obstacle and barrier to well-disposed wits, mortal enemy of good architecture; execrable idol of the present age, so unworthily and damagingly venerated. Deadly poison, that makes wretched whoever is hurt by you — how many magnificent works are ruined and in part forbidden?

For which cause, being seized and taken with delight and unimaginable solace, and by that holy and venerable antiquity, with such grace and admiration, I found myself with undetermined, unstable and unfed gazings. Looking gladly here and there, and crowded with admiration, and encircled in my mind, I examined, running over what the carved histories signified, gazing fixedly at it with a willing pleasure. Intent with parted lips for a long stretch, none the less my greedy eyes and insatiable appetite could not be satisfied with looking and looking again at those excellent and most ancient workings.

Stripped therefore and sequestered of every other thought, only my beloved Polia came often to my sticky memory, kept and most welcome. But for all this, with a sounding

I laid her somewhat ill aside. I persevered therefore in wonder at those most welcome antiquities.

POLIPHILO, HAVING ENTERED SOMEWHAT INTO THE DESCRIBED GATE, WITH GREAT PLEASURE STILL BEHELD THE WONDERFUL ORNAMENT OF ITS ENTRANCE. AND WISHING AFTERWARDS TO TURN BACK, HE SAW THE MONSTROUS DRAGON; AND HE, TERRIFIED BEYOND BELIEF, TOOK FLIGHT THROUGH UNDERGROUND PLACES. AT LAST, FINDING A MOST LONGED-FOR WAY OUT, HE CAME INTO A PLEASANT PLACE.

A GREAT AND PRAISEWORTHY THING WITHOUT fail it would be to be able easily to narrate, and to set out point by point, the incredible making and unimaginable composition of that vastest structure, and the greatness of so much building, and of that most notable gate, conveniently situated in a high and conspicuous place.

Whereupon the delight of contemplating exceeded my great admiration; for I judged that to Jove among the gods no making whatever is hard, suspecting almost that by no craftsman and by no human knowledge could so great a vastness be composed, and such most ample conceits expressed, and so much novelty devised, and adorned with such elegance, and disposed with such singular symmetry, and perfectly defined without supplement and correction — the illustrious and unimaginable display of that aforesaid structure.

For which reason I should not doubt in the least that, if the natural historian had beheld or understood this, he would have scorned Egypt, and the industry and genius of its craftsmen at which he wondered — those who, distributed in distinct and various workshops, chose a part to be carved and were assigned its length; and then with so much Symmetry all agreed with their own piece, and to the composition of a huge colossus, as exactly as if it had been polished by one craftsman alone. And the sagacious shrewdness of Satyrus the architect and of the other famous ones. And chiefly, for Simandius, the wonderful work of the excellent Memnon, of three great statues of highest Jove carved in one solid rock, of which one, seated, its feet or sole exceeded seven cubits. He would with reason have made little of them.

He would likewise have given way here, that stupendous miracle of the statue of the magnanimous Semiramis carved on Mount Bagistan, of seventeen stadia. And the writers, keeping silence too on the insolence

of the Memphite Pyramids, would have written more diffusely of this. And neglecting the famous Theatres and Amphitheatres and Baths, and Temples sacred and profane, and Aqueducts and Colossi — the marvellous and wonder-filled Apollo brought over by Lucullus; and the Jove dedicated by Claudius Caesar; and that of Lysippus at Tarentum; and the miracle of Chares of Lindos at Rhodes; and of Xenodorus in Gaul and in Rome; and the colossal Serapis of nine cubits made incredibly of Emerald; and the famous labyrinth of Egypt; and the solid statue of Hercules at Tyre — he would have passed them over, and would most joyfully have fitted his eloquence to proclaiming this, written with the highest praise as most wonderful above all; however inestimable a spectacle was afforded in the shrine of great Jove by the Obelisk of forty cubits, compacted of four pieces, four cubits on one face and two on the other.

Insatiably, then, considering now one and now another most beautiful and massive work, I said silently: if the fragments of holy antiquity, and its breakages and ruin, and in a manner its very Chippings, lead us into stupendous admiration and to so much delight in looking at them, what would its completeness do?

And so I thought too within myself, reasonably: perhaps in the inner shrines is the venerable Altar of the mysterious sacrifices and sacred flames, or else the statue of the Divine Venus, or her most holy Aphrodisium, and that of her bow-bearing and arrow-shooting little son. And with devout veneration, the right foot set upon the sacred threshold, there ran before me a fleeing and white Mouse.

At once, without other curious thought, with searching eyes I entered somewhat into the open space and the lighted entry, and things worthy of eternal regard presented themselves to me. Here on the right and left side the panelled wall was of most polished marbles. In the middle part of which levelling was fitted a great roundness, enclosed in the circuit of a leafy jewel with excellent company of carving. Which (like the other opposite it) was of the blackest stone, contemptuous of hard iron, of a mirroring brightness.

Between which, passing (unaware of them), I was invaded by a sudden fear at my own image. Nevertheless I was tempered again by an unlooked-for pleasure. Because in them there was clearly offered the judgment of the histories notably painted in mosaic work. And on both the lower parts, beneath the shining mirrors, were lengthwise seats of stone. The pavement clean and free of dust, worked in new and gracious pottery-work. And so too the coloured soffit was free of the wicked Spider's weaving, because there breathed there continually a most fresh air; the panelled walls joined beneath the binding. Which binding, of most subtle conceit, extended from the capitals of the most upright antae as far as the extremity of the said entry. As long as

by perspective I judged twelve paces.

Above which most polished binding the soffit began to arch, its vaulted bend conforming to that of the gate. Of such a fertile and delightful conceit it offered itself, with such excellent carving, neatly full of little water-monsters in the feigned water, and among the moderate wavelets half-men and women, with spiralling little fish-tails. Upon these, near the back, some sat fitly; some of them naked, embracing the monsters with mutual entwining. Some pipers, others with fantastical instruments. Some drawn along, sitting in strange Chariots. Crowned by the ever-swimming Dolphins with the cold flower of the water-lily; some clothed in its own leafage.

Some with manifold vessels of copious fruits, and with crowded horns of plenty. Others with little bundles of sweet-flag, and of flowers of the Silvan's beard, struck at one another. Some were girt with reeds. The other part, riding upon hippopotami, wrestled. And other divers and hateful beasts, with tortoise-shell for shield. And here they gave themselves to wantonness, and here to various games and feasts, with lively strivings and movements excellently carved and expressed. Completely, from the one end and the other, they adorned it.

In the turning of the vault I saw a most diligent worm-like work of exquisite little glass tesserae, with a gilded surface and of every most pleasing colouring. And first there presented itself a frieze two feet broad, which, going about, adorned the enclosed extremities of all the vaulted space, from the bindings recited upward, and along the length of the vault's pinnacle, with a companionable joining, existing in lively colourings. Nor otherwise than as if they had been composed just then: with natural foliage of emerald greenness, with the reverses of a Punic colour, with flowers of Cyan and of Phoenician and of adulterate hue, with gracious entwinings and knottings.

In the space contained by these, I beheld this ancient history painted.

The young Europa swimming to Crete upon the counterfeited bull. And to her sons the edict of King Agenor: to Cadmus, Phoenix and Cilix, that pursuing they should find their violated sister. And not finding her, at the rising spring they strenuously slew the scaly Dragon. And thereafter, having taken counsel, they determined by Apollo, with their companions, to build a city where the lowing Heifer should stop. Whereupon that country to this day eternally keeps the name of the Lowing bellow. Cadmus therefore built Athens; the other brother Phoenicia; the third Cilicia. Most excellently disposed, and carried out in a drawn-out order, of feigning, of painting in natural colours as it required — the acts, the places, and the fitting expression of the history — was this mosaic picture.

On the part opposite, in this same manner, I beheld the wanton Pasiphaë, kindled with infamous love, and lying hid in the wooden engine

and closed up; and the robust Bull wantoning upon the coupling he did not know. And then the Minotaur of monstrous shape, shut up and imprisoned in the laborious and pathless labyrinth. Lastly the sagacious Daedalus, fleeing from the prison-cloister, ingeniously making Wings for himself and for Icarus. Which unhappy boy, not following his father's command and track, falling headlong into the wide sea, dying gave his name to the Icarian waters; and afterwards the father, having kept himself unharmed, in the temple of Apollo hung up the rowing engine framed of feathers, by a religious vow promised.

It happened that I gazed with parted lips most intently (my unstable and most swift eyelids not moving), with my mind ravished, attending only to those most beautiful and so well disposed and perfectly ordered and artificially painted and elegantly expressed histories, left inviolate by any breakage — so tenacious was the seizing glue that the glass tesserae, pressed down page-wise and perpetually cohering, stood to this hour unhurt, and not one removed from its placing. For that excellent craftsman had gathered every absolute diligence to this excellent making.

And there, carrying myself foot before foot, pertinaciously examining with what direction of the painter's art he had observed to place with pondered distribution the readiest figures upon their just planes. And how the lines of the fabrics drew towards the object. And how from the eyes certain places were as it were lost. And things imperfect brought little by little to the perfect, and so on the contrary, granting his judgment to the eyes. With the exquisite by-works: waters, springs, mountains, hills, little woods, animals. The colouring impaired with distance, and with the light opposed, and with the neat reflections in the folds of the garments and in the other workings, not with little emulation of shrewd nature. So wondering and absorbed that I was almost not present in myself.

In this manner I had come to the end of the entry, where the gracious histories ended, because beyond was a most thick darkness that I did not dare to enter. But turning myself therefore to go back — behold, without pause I heard through the broken ruins as it were a crashing of bones and of crackling branches. I stood still, my so sweet solace suddenly interrupted and cut off.

And thereafter I heard still more plainly as it were a dragging, as of a great dead ox, through the warty place and over the heaped and uneven ruins, always coming towards the gate with a nearer and more consonant din; and I heard a very great hissing of an excessive serpent. I was stupefied. And my voice being forbidden and my hair raised, I did not make myself safe by fleeing, and in that darkness to rush on.

O unhappy me, and sad of fortune! Behold, of a sudden I see plainly, coming to the threshold of the gate — not, as to Androcles, the limping lion in the cave, but a fearful and horrendous Dragon, its three-forked

tongues vibrating, with its combed jaws of pointed and serried teeth grinding; with the bulk of its scaly hide gliding and running over the pottery pavement; with its wings beating its rough back; with its long tail of snaky slips it tightly gathered great restless knots.

Alas, a thing to terrify warlike and corsleted Mars, and to make tremble the terrible and evil-averting Hercules with all his brawny and Molorchian Club; and to call back Theseus from his attempted enterprise and rash beginning; and to terrify the giant Typhon more than the gods above were terrified by him; and to make lose whatever shaggy, obstinate and impenetrable heart there ever was. Alas, a thing to draw back heaven-bearing Atlas from his office — let alone a young man and small of soul, finding himself alone among unknown places, unarmed and fearing peril.

And perceiving that it was smoke-vomiting, of foul breath, and deadly, as I rightly suspected — mistrusting any escape whatever, and of saving myself from mortal peril, almost without breath, in my little courage I devoutly invoked, trembling and terrified, every divine power.

And without delay, turning my shoulders and entering into the darkness, I committed myself to swift flight, anxiously carrying my already hastened feet to flee. With the greatest nimbleness, unknowing, penetrating swift-footed into the inner parts of that dark place, escaping through divers and oblique turnings and windings of passages.

Where I firmly held that I had come into the inextricable fabric of the sagacious Daedalus, or of Porsena, containing so many inexplicable goings and returnings with frequent doors to cheat the exit, and to come back into those same errors; or into the chambered cave of the terrifying Cyclops, and into the foul Cavern of thieving Cacus. So that, however much my eyes were somewhat accustomed to the darkness, none the less by no means could I, wretched, discern anything.

But with my arms stretched out before my face, so as not to run butting into some pillar, I went, those doing the office of my darkened eyes. As the Snail, bearer of its own governance, putting forth its soft little horns and drawing them back, and feeling out the way and contracting them at obstacles. And I likewise, groping, so as not to strike against those greatest supports of the mountain and Pyramid. And turning towards the gate to see whether the cruel and fearful dragon came behind me, the light was wholly spent.

I found myself, then, in the blind bowels and pathless passages of those shadowy caverns, and in greater terror and mortal trouble than Mercury making himself an Ibis, and Apollo in Thrace, and Diana in Chlomone a little bird, and Pan in his twofold shaping; and in greater than those of Oedipus, of Cyrus, of Croesus and of Perseus; and in greater fright and destruction than the bear-shaped robber Thrasyleon; and in greater straits than Psyche, and in more laborious perils than Lucius made an ass — and when he heard the robbers' counsel of his own destruction, without any choice to be counselled, truly ignorant and desperate.

At that point, made most fearful and anxious above all the fears, terrors and frights named, there came besides the frequent flight of light-shunning owls about my head, to redouble the fearful straitness. And sometimes, at their screech, without delay I believed myself to be among the pointed teeth of the venomous Dragon, and held fast between its gripping jaws like a toothed saw. Without delay there followed upon this a redoubling both of my perilous and grave terror and of the truth of my heart's grief: there came into my mind the wolf I had seen, whether by chance it had been a pernicious portent to me and a messenger of my wretched outcome.

Wandering and running here and there, like the corn-gathering ant that loses the scent of its track and strays, with wakeful ears to perceive whether the horrendous monster had come upon me, sorrowful, with the peril of its Lernaean and strong venom and its horrible sword and most foul devouring. And therefore everything that offered itself to me in that first approach I suspected to be that very thing.

And there, finding myself naked and deprived of every refuge in so mortal a strait and dissolute grief — although naturally hateful death is in no way welcome, yet in this hour I esteemed it gracious. The

which I could will, but I could not avail not to will it. And constancy in awaiting it persuaded me, because of that uncertain, unhappy and trembling life. Alas, that such a dissociation of spirit made me reject its quality, unwilling, and justly to struggle against its evil coming. For I burned strongly in thinking: alas, that without any effect of my immense love, so sweetly kindled, I must perish unfruitful — although, if it had presented itself suddenly in the present case, I should have valued it not at all.

But at once returning to my fixed and accustomed object, weeping for the loss of two things so much to be desired — Polia, that is, and precious life — invoking her diligently, with a sighing and sobbing voice sounding through that thick air enclosed beneath huge vaults, and in that hidden place, I said within myself: if I die here so wretched and grieving, and altogether unconsoled, who shall be the deserving successor to so great and so prized a gem? Who shall possess so inestimable and talented a treasure? What serene sky shall regain so clear a light?

O most wretched Poliphilo, where are you going, most lost? Where do you direct your attempted flight? Where do you still hope to see again any longed-for good? Behold, abruptly cast down and interrupted are all your gracious pleasures built by sweet love in your entangled mind. Behold, in a moment cut off and annihilated are all your loving and so lofty thoughts.

Alas, what unjust lot and malign star has led you so perniciously into these troublous darknesses, and cruelly exposed and cast you down to copious and mortal languors, and destined you to perish by the most savage voracity and sudden gluttony of this terrifying Dragon? That, alas, I should be thrown whole into its foul and most filthy and dunged bowels to putrefy, and thence afterwards be cast out to an end not to be thought of?

O lamentable and unaccustomed destruction; O pitiable ending of my life! Where are those eyes so barren, sucked and drained and deprived of moisture, that they did not all melt into thickest falling tears? But behold me dying, for I feel it at my shoulders. Who ever saw turned upon himself a more atrocious and deformed savagery of fortune?

Behold unhappy and insolent death, and the supreme hour and accursed moment at hand, in this dark gloom; and that my body and my human flesh should be the sating of this terrible beast! What ferocity? What rage? What more monstrous misery could mortals suffer — that the sweet and friendly light should be taken from the living, and the earth denied to the dead? O how much more ghastly a calamity and enormous misery, so sorrowfully and so importunately desired, in abandoning my most welcome and most perfect Polia. Farewell, farewell then, excellent light of virtue and of every true and real beauty, farewell.

By such and so made an affliction and exaggerated disturbance, beyond all thought, my soul was bitterly wrung and exasperated. Above all

I gave urgent effort to escaping the peril to be dreaded, and to saving my brief and scant contaminated life — or else, by this violence without any remedy, sorrowfully gasping to die, and without further delay; for I did not know, most confused, what to do with myself, wandering, fugitive and wayward through uncertain places and pathless byways. And my legs now weakened and numb, and every bodily power shattered and languishing, half dead, and altogether bewildered and as it were ghost-ridden.

Brought nevertheless to this tearful pass, having suppliantly invoked (my last refuge) the gods above and almighty, and my good Genius, with a guiltless mind — they having perhaps in this miserable case, by their perennial pity, some fortunate care of me — behold, I began to discover a little light coming. Towards which, alas, with what alacrity swiftly making my way, I saw a hanging lamp burning eternally before a devout Altar. Which, so far as I could then discern in a moment, was five feet high and twice as broad, with three golden images sitting.

Here, disappointed by the condition of the light, I was struck with no little religious horror at those venerable darknesses, in which little was seen, however much the illuminating lamp burned — because light is an enemy to thick and bad air. And always with intent ears, and never empty of my familiar terror; but somewhat the blackened statues appeared, and round about there offered themselves the vast and uncertain openings and fearful Passages underground, or under the mountain, supported here and there, and distributed in infinite places: many greatest four-square and six-square piers, and in other places eight-sided props, scarcely discerned by the weak light, aptly set beneath in proportion to bearing the excessive vastness of the pressing Pyramid above.

Here, praying a little while, without delay I made above all things towards unknown flight. Whereupon, thus half dead, no sooner had I run past the most holy Altar than there appeared to me besides a little of the desired light, which shone faintly as through a most subtle breathing-hole seen as a funnel. O with what feasting and with what gladness of my exhilarated heart I beheld it! And hastening merrily towards it without other thought — perhaps with greater nimbleness than Canistius and Philonides — no sooner did I see it with such unbridled gladness and longing than I called back most gladly my repudiation of that thankless and troublesome life; successively clearing my disturbed mind and fluctuating spirit, and somewhat refreshed and as it were reassured; and my emptied heart, drained of love, somewhat recalled, quickened again with resprouting love, and altogether filled; and every lost and exiled thought fitted itself again to its former work. And now more fixed upon my lovable Polia, binding me with renewed entanglements more closely,

it persuaded me with firm and flattering hope to obtain lovingly and gloriously in the future that which, dying untimely, I judged I should sorrowfully lose. O how extremely it tormented me. Yet I did not refuse any boiling and new-come accessory of love that should freshen itself, festering anew in my long-suffering and occupied heart. And therefore, every dissuading obstacle being shaken off from it, and every barrier removed, I gave it especially a fair opening and a wide and open entrance.

Being therefore somewhat consoled by the kindly light, and the spirits I had lost and renounced being taken back into me, and my prostrate strength gently restored, my suspended and pathless journey and flight urged me, striving straight on. For as I drew nearer to it I discerned it multiplying. To which at last, the heavenly will accompanying me, and most beloved Polia vigorously reigning in my loving breast, I came anxiously.

Where, blessing the gods undeservedly, and obsequious fortune, and my golden-haired Polia, I found a wide way out; and thence hastily going forth, and urgently fleeing, waiting not at all. And my arms, already stretched out to avoid striking against the thickest pillars, now most fittingly adapted themselves as oars for flight. And thence, striving, Safe, I came into a most pleasant Site and region.

In which, still terrified by that horrible monster, I doubted of the wished-for sitting down and settling myself, having it so impressed upon my mind that continually and without interval I thought I felt it at my shoulders. And for such cause I could not so quickly dissolve or displace so great a terror from there. Whereupon I justly judged, doubting, that it still pursued me. And I was moved also by manifold persuasions to enter and go forward. First by the pleasantness of that most beautiful place; then by my disordered mind urging me to flee at once. And chiefly, being always desirous to see and find things perhaps not customary among mortals.

Equally such considerations provoked me by every means to enter, and to go on as far beyond as I could, and to remove myself from the way out; where I might quietly calm myself in some place and clear my mind, and put in oblivion the terror now past — there coming not unwelcome into my retaining memory the appearance of the white Mouse in the entry of the gate. And this came as a very exhortative awakening to hearten me, because it was always welcome in the auspices, and a propitious and good Omen.

Therefore it persuaded me opportunely to give effort to keeping myself for the kindness of fortune, which sometimes may be to me a bountiful and long-haired minister of prosperous and favourable things. And by this constrained and compelled, moving my sluggish journey a little more, and reined in by my broken and

weakened legs, I made my way. But still trembling decently at not coming into such a place where my entering by chance, and my hasty arrival in an unknown country, would not have been lawful, but a wicked daring and presumption, much more than the entrance of the magnificent gate.

And so, with my breast continually beating and with a long-suffering mind, I said within myself: what now persuades me to turn back? Is not fleeing and free escape easier here? And much better, I think, to expose my doubted life in this light beneath the open sky, than cruelly to perish in the blind darkness? Nor indeed should I know how to return to that opening and way out.

And in a moment, drawing from the depth of my sad heart groaning sighs, I turned over in my tenacious remembrance how much pleasure and delight my senses had lost in an instant; for that working was full of marvel and of stupefaction. Thinking again in what manner I was so ill deprived of it. Imagining to myself the bronze Lions of the temple of that most wise Jew, which by frightening brought men into oblivion.

Therefore, by such a likeness, I almost doubted that the dragon had done the same to me: that so many elegant and marvellous makings and stupendous conceits, showing themselves not human, most worthy of the telling, which I had diligently beheld, I must now let lightly flee from my dried memory; and that by such an event I should not know how to narrate them in order.

I said: certainly this is not so, nor do I feel in myself any lethargic affliction. But I hold it all placed most freshly in my understanding and my memory, kept safe, and painted indelibly. And truly that huge beast was alive and not feigned, and so fearful, rarely seen such by mortals — alas, such as Regulus did not see. And remembering it, my fallen hair rose again, and I hastened my nimble step.

Then, returning to myself in a moment, I said: here without doubt (as I shrewdly judge from the kindness of the present site) there must dwell none but human folk. But rather perhaps divine spirits and heroes are guardians here, and a lodging of Nymphs and of the ancient Gods. Therefore persuasive appetite easily provoked my reined-in step, exhorting me to the journey begun. Whereupon I, as though captured by persevering goads, with a fierce mind resolved to follow wherever playful fortune might fall, though still wasting away.

Considering therefore that beautiful and pleasant country, and the fruitful fields and fertile plains, and conjecturing the delight of them, I praised such an invitation most highly; and casting behind me every trembling restraint of mournful fear, I entered somewhat. But first I invoked the divine light, and the prospering Genii, that they should be present to guide me at this my entering, and be Companions to my wandering Pilgrimage, and bestowers of their holy guidance.

POLIPHILO TELLS OF THE KINDNESS OF THE COUNTRY HE HAD FOUND AND ENTERED, IN WHICH, WANDERING, HE FOUND AN EXQUISITE AND MOST NOTABLE FOUNTAIN; AND HOW HE SAW FIVE GRACEFUL DAMSELS COMING TOWARDS HIM, AND HOW THEY, MUCH MARVELLING AT HIS COMING THERE, MERCIFULLY REASSURED HIM AND INVITED HIM TO SHARE THEIR PLEASURES.

HAVING COME OUT OF THAT HORRENDOUS pit, and from those inner darknesses and that place almost of the dead (for all that the holy and consecrated Aphrodisium was there), into the most desired light and friendly air, and being come into this most welcome place, I turned back to look at where my going-out had been. And where my life — a life I had never valued — I saw at that point troubled and in peril.

I looked upon a mountain of no great size with a moderate slope, all wooded with greenest and pliant fronds: with acorn-bearing Oaks, Beeches, Ilexes, Turkey-oaks, Italian oaks, Cork-oaks, and the two Holm-oaks — the one Smilax, or Holly, or Acilon. Then, towards the level, it was thick with cornel-trees, with hazels, with sweet-smelling and flower-bearing privets, and with a fragrant whitening flower; two-coloured Naxian, reddening in the north aspect and whitening in the south; Hornbeams and Ashes, and the like in such aspect, with sprouting saplings.

Wrapped in greening and climbing Honeysuckle and in winding hops, they gave a cool and shadowy shade. Beneath which was the Cyclamen, harmful to Lucina, and the jagged Polypody, and the Trientale Hart's-tongue, or Spleenwort; and both the Hellebores named from the shepherd; and the three-leaved tora, or triangularis; and the Groundsel, and many other shade-loving herbs, and Woodland trees, some without and some with flowering — a place none the less broken and rough, and closely shut about with trees.

The opening, then, by which I came out of those most hidden lairs, was somewhat high in the mountain, all overgrown with shrubs. And so far as I could conjecture, it was built over against the other mentioned before; and I understood that this too had been a wonderful working, a postern, and that one ancient. But envious and rivalling antiquity, and the narrowness of the approach, and above all the wall-shrubs of ivy and other branches, had made it a thicket — so that one scarcely discerned that there was any way out or gape. A place only for going out, but showing the utmost difficulty for returning. Then to me so much

the more, because I saw it all round about thickly leafed and hidden as by a thief. By which condition one would scarcely know how to come back to it. Between the jaws of the little valley, with the rocks stretched over it, dark continually with the vapours gathered there. Whence that gloomy light was greater to me than the divine birth was to Delos.

Now, having left this leafy and stopped-up gate, going down by a certain slope, I came to a thick Chestnut thicket at the foot of the mountain — a station, as I supposed, of Pan or Silvanus — with moist pastures and pleasant shade. Passing beneath which with pleasure, I found a marble and most ancient bridge of one very great and high arch. Upon which, on the several sides of the parapets, seats were most conveniently built. Which, although they offered themselves fittingly to my weariness as I came out, none the less I then valued them not at all, in my excited going forward.

In the middle of which parapets there rose somewhat, level with the top of the keystone of the arch beneath, a Porphyry square, with an excellent cymatium of polished lineament — one on the one side, and one of like form on the other, but of Ophite stone. On the right of my way I saw most noble Egyptian hieroglyphs of this expression: an antique helmet crested with a dog's head; a bare ox's head with two tree-branches bound to the horns with small fronds; and an ancient lamp. Which hieroglyphs — the branches excepted, for I did not know whether they were of fir, or pine, or larch, or juniper, or the like — I interpreted thus.

On the other side I beheld this elegant carving: a circle; an anchor, about whose shank a dolphin wound itself. And these I interpreted most excellently thus: Always make haste slowly.

Beneath which ancient, solid and excellent bridge there gushed a broad vein of most limpid living water, which, dividing itself, made two running streamlets, one to the right and the other to the left. They ran through their fretted and gnawed channels, and between banks washed and cut, murmuring most cold; the stony and shaded banks covered with trees. In which banks the straggling roots appeared uncovered, and in them hung the Maidenhair, and the Adiantum, and the Ivy-leaved Toadflax, and the tresses of other little woodland herbs that love the river banks.

Which wooded and cool grove was pleasant to look upon and desirable for its spaciousness, and joyful with fronds, full of little woodland and mountain birds. Beyond the bridge it stretched somewhat further towards a pleasant plain, everywhere sounding with sweet chattering. There leapt the restless Squirrels and the sleepy Dormice, and it was inhabited by other harmless little animals.

In this manner, then, was shown this wooded district, shut about by the tree-bearing mountain, much to be gazed at by the eyes; and the plain covered everywhere with a variety of herbs. And the most limpid little rivers flowed murmuring down through the feet of the sloping mountains into the valley. Adorned with the flowering and bitter Oleander, and with Periwinkles, and Coltsfoot, and Loosestrife; shaded by tall black and white Poplars, and the riverside Alder and Manna-ash. And upon the mountains I saw the tall single-stemmed Fir, and the weeping Larches, and Silver-firs, and other noble kinds of like foliage.

For which cause, considering the place so pleasant, and a most convenient station and welcome retreat for shepherds — a place certainly inviting one to sing bucolic songs — I stood not a little stupefied, and suspended in mind, seeing a country so kindly yet deserted of people and uncultivated.

And then directing my eyes to the adorned plain, anxiously passing by the aforesaid place, I beheld a marble building appearing among the trees, and above the tender tree-tops its pinnacle. Whereupon, made all cheerful, judging that I had at last found a habitation and some refuge, I came to it joyfully without delay.

I found an eight-sided building with a wonderful and excellent fountain. Which also offered itself not in vain as a sweet invitation to my thirst, so long held back and not till then satisfied and quenched.

This fabric, pinnacled with an eight-sided roof and covered with lead, had at one front a stone as much higher as was one half of its square, of white and shining marble. Its breadth I judged to be six feet. Of this noble stone were diligently made two fluted half-columns, with the bases supporting a stretched-out Cyma with gorge and added dentils and little cords, with the capitals set beneath a

little Beam, Zophorus and Cornice. Above which there was added besides a quarter of the square, condemned for the frontispiece. Every lineament bare of ornament, of the proper and single stone — save that in the angular little roundel, or flat, of the frontispiece I saw a small band: two doves drinking together at a little vase.

Then the whole space enclosed between the little columns, gorge-moulding and beam, hollow and excavated, held an elegant Nymph carved within. And beneath the Cyma was the other quarter, which at the footing waved with Tori, Torus-moulding and Scotias, and a Plinth.

Which most beautiful Nymph lay sleeping comfortably upon an outspread cloth. And beneath her head it was beautifully stuffed and folded into a cushioned mound. And a part of the said cloth was then most aptly brought to cover that which fittingly ought to stay hidden. Lying upon her right side, the arm beneath drawn back, with the loosed hand she idly propped her head beneath the cheek. And the other arm, free and without office, stretched itself over the left loin, coming down open to the middle of the fleshy thigh.

From the little buds — as of young girls — of her breasts there gushed a thread of most fresh water from the right; and from the left it rose hot. The fall of both fell into a porphyry vessel, with two receivers joined together in one solid piece, set six feet apart and distant from the Nymph, before this fountain, upon a stone pavement fitly placed.

Between the one receiver and the other was a little channel set in, in which the waters met, their edges cut in the middle of the one and the other receiver, where the waters made their meeting. Which waters, mingled then, flowed away fallen into a water-furrow, or little rill. Whereupon the one being tempered by the other, they made every greenness sprout; the hot one leaping so high that it did not hurtfully hinder the other for him who set his lips to the right breast to suck and to drink, nor at the crossing.

Now this most notable statue the craftsman expressed so exactly that I should truly doubt whether Praxiteles had carved such a Venus — for which Nicomedes, king of the Cnidians, offered (so fame flies) all the substance of his people. And so comelily beautiful did he express her that men, burning in sacrilegious longing for her, violated the image. But so far as I could rightly value it, I judged that such an image was never so perfectly feigned by chisel or graver; so that I almost reasonably suspected that in this place she had been turned to stone from the living, and so petrified.

She held her lips somewhat parted and fitted for breathing, where one saw as it were down into the hollowed and pierced throat. Then from the head the

tresses, pressed down upon the cloth and flooding over it, rivalled with their most subtle hairs the wrinkled, or folded, form of the gathered cloth. The thighs were duly fleshy, with the plump knees moderately drawn back somewhat towards her, showing their narrow little joints, provoking one to lay a hand upon them and to handle and press them. And the rest of that most shapely body provoked whoever by chance might have found her so.

Behind her head, then, was a leafy Strawberry-tree of unfalling leaves, copious with its soft and round fruits, and with little birds that seemed to chatter and to be a cause of sweet sleep. At her feet stood a Satyr, itching with wantonness and all stirred, standing on his goat's feet. With his muzzle joined to a nose goat-like and snub; with the beard on his chin parted into two curlings of Goatish twists, and so likewise at his shaggy flanks and in this same manner at his head, with hairy ears, and crowned with fronds, with a face adulterated between goat and human. I judged that to his most acute genius the stone-carver had most skilfully, and at his pleasure, had the workmanship of nature present in his Idea.

The said Satyr had violently seized the Arbutus tree by the branches with his left hand, and bending it by his strength above the sleeping Nymph, showed that he made her a gracious shade. And with the other arm he drew the end of a little curtain, which was knotted to the branches nearest the trunk. Between the strawberry-tree and the Satyr sat two infant Satyrs: one with a vase in his hands, and the other with his hands wrapped about by two coiling serpents.

To the Mother of all things.

For which cause I should not know how to determine whether the long and so keen thirst I had endured the day before provoked me to drink, drawing me on, or the most beautiful awakening of the instrument. The coldness of which gave me a sign that the stone lied.

Round about, then, this quiet place, and along the babbling rills, there flowered the Vervain, Lilies-of-the-valley, and the flowering Loosestrife, and the sweet-smelling Sweet-flag, and Zedoary, Celery and Water-dock, and many other prized water-herbs and noble flowers. And then the little channel

of the fountain's outlet entered, watering, into a break, or close, of no unequal height, of composed rose-beds, orderly combed out, adorned in manifold ways with sweet-smelling roses. It watered, outpouring itself, into a field of papyrus-like Plantains, or bananas, with very great leaves torn by the blowing airs, with the crowded hanging cluster of their sweetest fruit. And it was filled besides with other most pleasing orchards: there was also the Artichoke, welcome to Venus, and the greening Colocasia with its shield-like leaves, and infinite sown plants.

And looking again upon the plain, I saw it everywhere most green, adorned and painted with a variety of scattered flowers: the yellows of the buttercup, and of frog's-foot or ox-eye; and the peacock-blues of the Satyrion, of the lesser Centaury, and of the garland Melilot; and the small ones of the Eyebright, and the golden of the Shepherd's-needle, and the flowering little Turnips, and the azures of the Clary, and of the cornfield Gladioli; and of Strawberries with flowers and fruits; and the small Yarrow with its white little tufts, and the Sawwort, and Pancuculus, and infinite other most beautiful little flowers.

Whereupon, lost in a wonderful pleasantness, I felt myself consoled. And here and there, with measured and ordered distance and interval, with gracious spaces, composedly and to the level, were the green-bearing Orange and lemon trees and Adam's-apple trees, with their branches levelled and hung one pace from the ground, thick with fronds — such as the glassy colour appears, of a turbinate form, that is, of a pinnacled length and rounded at the base — with an abundance of their flowers and fruits, breathing a most sweet odour. By which my closed heart felt itself not sparingly refreshed to the utmost (having perhaps been invaded by the pestilent stench and wasting snaky breath).

For which cause I stood long pondering, suspended and full of stupefaction, in what place I now found myself, so delightful to my senses — having especially considered carefully that marvellous fountain, the variety of herbs, the colouring of the flowers, the place planted with trees; the noble and most convenient disposition of the site, the sweet and unresting song of the birds, the temperateness and the most purged air. For all this I should have counted myself content, if I had found any inhabitant there.

And the eagerness to go forward pressed me somewhat, the kindly place offering itself to me ever more joyful — although the past terror had not yet altogether unstuck itself from my seizing memory, nor been rooted out. And for this cause alone I stopped, doubtful, not knowing where and by what way to go and set out.

Standing therefore in such suspension of mind, all stirred with thinking of the terrifying dragon, and of having entered where I did not know — the hieroglyphs of the left side of the bridge suddenly sprouting in my memory — I feared to rush into some adverse accident; and that such a monument, worthy of golden carving, was not set in vain for those who

pass by: MAKE HASTE SLOWLY.

Behold, I hear suddenly behind me a great crashing and din, like the shaking of the bony wings of the dragon; and behind me, alas, I heard a sounding of a Trumpet. At once, wretched and gasping, I turned myself about, and I see on one side many trees of Egyptian Carob, with their ripened, very long fruits hanging and shaking, which by the wind had somewhat struck one against another. Whereupon, coming swiftly to myself, and falling into laughter at a case so befallen, I moved on.

For which cause I then religiously invoked the kindly gods Jugatinus, the goddess Collatina, and Vallonia, that as I journeyed through their consecrated places they might show themselves propitious to me. Seeing that I had almost feared a warlike army because of the trumpet's sound; but, considering, I judged it to be of shepherds' trumpets of bark, whereupon I rather reassured myself than mistrusted otherwise.

But after this there was no long delay before I hear coming, singing, a company (by their voices of tender and flowering age) of damsels graceful (as I judged) and beautiful, sporting and taking their solace among the flowering herbs and in the gracious cool shades, free of any retarding suspicion, and journeying with great applause among the comely flowers. The incredible sweetness of their modulated voice, carried by the temperate and dew-bearing airs, spread itself through that delightful place, and was brought back with the sweetest sound of an accompanying lyre.

At which novelty, searching about and bending down beneath the low branches, I saw them coming towards me with a gesturing step. With their maidenly heads gathered in most notable fillets of threads of gold, wrapped and above bound and garlanded with flowering Myrtle and with manifold flowers. And over their snowy brows the yellow and trembling forelocks curled like vine-tendrils. And then down over their most white and comely shoulders flowed the long tresses, composed with nymph-like neatness and elegant art.

Clothed in a Carpathian habit of silk most adorned, and of various colouring and texture. There were three tunics, the one shorter than the other and distinct. The lowest of shellfish purple; above followed the silken one of most green colour woven through with gold. The topmost of finest cotton, saffroned and crimped, girt with a golden collar beneath the bound of their round little breasts.

Their outstretched arms were clothed by the last tunic, and copiously covered by the cotton one, which granted with the highest grace the colour beneath. And near their swelling little hands they were fitly bound with little cords of fine silk, with little golden loops, of a pleasurable artifice. And some of them had their little feet excellently laced with double soles, with manifold binding of threads of gold and of purpling silk. Some shod then over stretched hose of scarlet and greening cloth, and some over the naked, of soft and gracious shining leather, and others of chamois dyed in most beautiful colourings, without accusing the toes.

With gilded borders, their shoes over the snowy ankles with a curved opening, bound tightly and buckled with thongs passed through golden clasps, and otherwise commended with little loops of twisted gold with exquisite knotting. And where the bound of the surrounding hems was, adorned with an unimaginable cording, the round and ivory legs, driven by the moderate airs, often showed themselves somewhat.

They then, becoming aware of me, stayed their Nymph-like step and stood, emptied of their sweet song, suddenly invaded by this novelty of me newly come into that place. And marvelling to one another and curious, silently searching me out, it appeared to them insolent and unaccustomed that in that famous country a man foreign and strange should have arrived so by chance.

For which cause they stood for a little space among themselves, one to another with a secret murmuring, and many times bending to look me over searchingly. As though I had been a phantom — alas, I felt at that point all my bowels shaken, like leaves of Sweet-flag quivering in the impetuous winds. For scarcely being reassured from the terror often spoken of, and judging at once and deservedly that they had in them something beyond the human condition — knowing nothing else — I feared such a divine vision as appeared to ashen Semele, deceived by the counterfeited form of Beroë of Epidaurus.

Alas, I began again to tremble, become more fearful than the frightened fawns seeing the tawny Lioness roaring with hunger. Contending within myself whether I should kneel

to the ground, or turn about and draw back (because certainly they offered themselves to me as merciful girls, and having something other than humanity, and of the heavenly), or persevere thus constant and unmoved.

At last, having taken counsel with myself to make the venture and to risk whatever might follow — it persuading me all the while that by no conjecture could there be found in these any inhumanity or savagery, and above all that the innocent carries his protection with him — I stirred up my lukewarm spirit, still reined in by a numbing shame, knowing myself to have come unworthily into this perhaps holy place, and solacing assembly of most delicate and divine Nymphs.

And still it did not persuade me with a sincere and tranquil mind that I had entered and come there, rashly perhaps into forbidden places and a prohibited country, and with wicked daring. Turning over therefore such thoughts within myself — behold, one of these, more confident and bold, said: "Who are you, then?"

Then, all confounded between my familiar fear and sudden shame, I did not know what to say nor what to answer; and, my voice together with my spirit being forbidden me, I remained half alive, and like a statue. But those virtuous girls, perceiving that in me was a real and human shape, but terrified and fearful, all drew near, saying: "O young man, whoever you are here, our looks and presences should never make you afraid here; therefore do not doubt in the least. For here no savagery whatever is used, nor will you find displeasure in any way. Who are you, then? Speak, do not fear."

At this request, having somewhat taken back my voice, stirred by those alluring and nymph-like looks and recalled by their sweet speaking, answering I said to them: "Divine Nymphs, I am the most graceless and unhappy lover that ever could be found in the world. I love; and she whom I so ardently love and heartily desire, I know not where she or I may be. And by the greatest and most mortal peril that I could ever express, I have been led and come here."

And the piteous tears being already called to my eyes, and bowing to the earth and casting myself at their maidenly feet, sighing I cried out, beseeching pity by the most high God. At once, all shaken in their soft hearts with compassion and piteous sweetness, and moved almost likewise to little tears, dutifully and striving with one another to draw me by the arms from the ground, they raised me up; and with sweetest and most coaxing speech they said to me pleasantly:

"We think, poor little one — indeed it is so — that by the way you have entered here, wretch, few can escape. But above all things praise highly the divine power and the kindness of your star, for you have now escaped an extreme peril. But at present there is nothing more to fear that is disturbing, nor any troublesome assault; for by this way you might perhaps easily find yourself blessed. Settle yourself therefore, and be tranquil again, and comfort your mind. For here, as you plainly see, is a place of pleasure and delight, and not of grief nor of any terror. Because the age is uniform, the site secure and unchanging, time does not run, the joyful convenience, the gracious and companionable living

alluringly persuades us to it, and grants us to be perpetually at leisure. And this too you must understand: that if one of us is pleasing, another shows herself more solacing still. And our delightful and shared companionship cleaves together intensely with a perpetual glue. And one increases it; the other leads to every extreme sweetness and most conveniently to solace."

And she added: "Here, in fine, is a wholesome Field, most wide in its bounds, various in herbs and pleasant to the sight in its plants, fruitful of all crops. Fortified with famous hills. Filled with all harmless animals, and conspicuous and most crowded with every pleasure. Copious of every fruit, with a universal exuberance, and adorned with the purest springs."

Another said: "Hold all this fixed and firm, dear guest. This happy territory is more fertile than the fruitful Mount Taurus on its northern aspect, of which wandering fame declares that the vine's cluster is of two cubits, and that one fig-tree produces seventy measures of its fruit."

Then the third, festive, added: "This sacred shore exceeds the richness of the Hyperborean island lying in the Indian Ocean; nor are the Lusitanian lands such, nor Talge on the Caspian mountain."

Continuing, the fourth said, affirming with more fervour: "The Egyptian abundance is empty in comparison with ours, though it be called the public Granary of the world."

Lastly, one alluring in aspect to every headlong fall added with elegant pronouncing: "In this kindly country there would be found no encumbrance of overflowing marshes vexing us with troublesome air, nor any shutting-in by most rugged mountains, but by most adorned little hills. And on the outward side it is strongly walled about with harsh and pathless precipices. And so, in this manner, every sadness being eliminated, here is everything that can bring delight, and a refuge of the gods, with blessed security of mind.

"Beyond all these things said, we are the followers of a renowned and distinguished queen, most munificent and of most lavish generosity, called Eleuterylida, of wonderful clemency and most merciful; who governs here with the highest and strongest wisdom, and rules with a most ample dominion, and commands, fortunate and happy, with heaped-up glory. And it will greatly please her when we shall bring you to her venerable presence and majestic sight. And if by chance the others, her fellow-servants and courtiers, perceive it, they would come running here in troops to look upon what is rarely seen here. Therefore drive from you and shut out every afflicting sadness, and compose your mind, taking your comfort festively with us, and give yourself to solace and to pleasure, every trembling being driven away."

POLIPHILO, HAVING BEEN MADE AT HOME AND MADE SAFE BY THE FIVE NYMPHS, WENT WITH THEM TO THE BATHS, WHERE THERE WAS MUCH LAUGHTER AT THE JEST OF THE FOUNTAIN, AND ALSO AT THE ANOINTING. BEING AFTERWARDS LED TO THE QUEEN

ELEUTERYLIDA, HE SAW ALONG THE WAY, AND AT THE PALACE, EXCELLENT THINGS, AND A CHOICE WORK OF A FOUNTAIN.

BEING AFFABLY RECEIVED AND HIGHLY reassured by those merciful Nymphs, and altogether comforted by those coaxing girls, and my fled spirits not a little refreshed — showing myself readily willing in everything that I could judge welcome and pleasing to them — I set myself freely familiar and most devoted.

And because they had alabaster boxes of perfumed powder, and little cleansing vessels of gold and of fine stones, and shining mirrors, and golden hair-partings in their delicate hands, and white folded veils of silk, and bathing shifts, and offered me to be their carrier, they told me, refusing, that their coming to this place was because they came to the bath. And immediately they added: "We wish you to come with us. It is there before you, where a fountain pours. Did you not see it?"

I answered reverently: "Most comely Nymphs, if a thousand and various tongues were found in me, I should not fitly know how to render the thanks I owe, and to thank so homely a kindness — for you have most opportunely brought me to life again. Therefore not to accept such a gracious and Nymph-like invitation would be reckoned rustic baseness. And for so much I should esteem myself happier being a servant with you than ruling elsewhere; because, so far as I can conjecture, you are the dwellers and companions of every delight and true good.

"You must know that I saw the marvellous fountain, and considered it with a shrewd sense; and I confess and affirm it a work more illustrious than ever presented itself to my eyes. And I so occupied my shrewd mind, allured, intently gazing upon it and drinking greedily, wholesomely quenching my heavy and day-long thirst, that I went no further to explore."

One of them answered, saying placidly: "Give me your hand. Now you are safe and welcome. We are at present five companions together, as you see; and I am called Aphea. And this one, who carries the little boxes and the whitest linens, is named Osfressia. And this other, who is the bearer of the shining mirror — our delight — Orassia is her name. This one who holds the sounding lyre is called Achoë. This last, who bears this vessel of most precious liquor, has the name Geussia. And let us go together to these temperate Baths, for pleasure and delight. Whereupon shortly you too (since your propitious fortune has fallen here) will come with us

Afterwards we shall all return together, made glad, to the great palace of our distinguished Queen. Who, most clement in all things and most munificent of a wide liberality, will most ably suggest and dispose your intense loves and burning desires and lofty conceits. Take heart and comfort. Let us go."

With pleasurable acts, with maidenly gestures, with persuasive semblances, with girlish caresses, with wanton glances, with sweet little words, they led me there, solacing and coaxing. Content with everything present — save that my golden-haired Polia was not there for the fulfilment of the highest happiness, and to be a sixth with these and make up the perfect number.

On the other hand I found myself discontented, that my habit was not conformable amid this delicious company; but having made myself somewhat at home, I began affably to dance with them. And they laughed sweetly, and I likewise with them; and at last we came to the place.

There I beheld a wonderful eight-sided building of baths. And at every single outer angle two piers were paired; level with the floor began the base-courses girt about beneath them. Then the piers followed, a third of their thickness drawn from the solid, with capitals set beneath the straight beam; with a frieze above, going entirely round beneath a cornice. Which frieze was adorned with choice carving: with several naked boys, excellently expressed, equally distant, with their hands entangled in nooses holding swelling little bundles of leafy twigs bound together, girt with thongs.

Above the said cornice there then rose (with an elegant vaulting) an eight-sided little Dome, in imitation of what was beneath. Which, from angle to angle, was pierced through with a marvellous working by way of a thousand noble conceits, and stopped with little plates of pure crystal, which from afar I judged to be lead.

The little wing was fixed above a pointed thing, the eight-sided form of the Dome being sectioned, somewhat eminent; and there, immediately set above, was a Triangle, in whose topmost centre, fixed, there rose a most firm shaft, into which was let another shaft, unstable and turning, free and playing; to which was fitted a vane, which, driven by whatever wind blew, turned the tubed shaft with it, and a ball at the top of a third of the one below.

Upon this a naked boy sat, treading with his right heel, holding the other leg hanging. The back of whose head, as far as the mouth, was all hollowed in the form of a funnel, with the orifice bored through to the mouth; to which, soldered, was joined a trumpet, held with one hand by the boy near the soldering, and the other stretched towards the end of the trumpet, levelled in a line with the vane. Every

thing of thinnest bronze cast perfectly, and most brightly gilded. Which Vane, and the Ball, and the Boy — with the figure or face in the act of sounding, with the hollowed back of the head towards the blowing of the wind — easily forced it; where, the air being breathable within, the trumpet trumpeted.

And therefore, the Egyptian carobs being shaken by the wind, likewise there too the wind made the trumpet sound. For which cause I thought, laughing, that a man finding himself alone in an unknown place and frightened is easily terrified by every little noise.

Now, in the face opposite the most beautiful Nymph of the fountain, I saw the entrance, with a most polished door. All the artifice of that excellent Stone-carver who, I thought, had carved the sleeping Nymph; in the frieze of which I saw this title in Greek characters: ASAMINTHOS. Such baths, then, the amplitude of Tatius does not surpass.

Within, seats went round in four stone steps, girt with a continuous joining, all minutely inlaid with jasper and Chalcedonies of every colouring. Two of the steps the tepid water covered, up to the margin, or surface, of the third. In the angles there stood at each a free and rounded little Corinthian column, of various colouring, with straggling waves of jasper — the more welcome, the more the artful nature is wont to make it — with a decent base. And the capitals most excellently composed beneath a beam; beyond which lay the Zophorus of naked little boys playing in the waters, with little water-monsters, with wrestling and infant contests, with apt strivings of a readiness fitting to their age, and lively movements and games; and it girt it round most beautifully with a crown set above.

Above the order and projection of the little columns there tended perpendicularly from each, to the summit of the dome, a

torus with a moderate swelling of oaken fronds, one pressed above another page-wise, fringed and curved, of greenest jasper, and branched about with gilded little beans; which, ascending, ran into the vaulted heaven of the dome, coupling themselves into a rounding, within which a lion's head took its place, with curled mane. It held biting in its jaws a ring, to which were commended hanging chains of brass, excellently knotted, which held up a most polished vessel with a wide opening and little hollowed, of the said most shining material, hung two cubits above the water.

The rest of the inner vault, apart from the stoppings of crystal, was all covered with a Cyanean colouring of litharge, scattered and studded with gilded bosses, choicely shining.

Not far off there was in the earth a fissure, which continually vomited fiery matter; and taking of this and stuffing the hollow of the vessel above, they laid on certain gums and scented woods, and made an inestimable fumigation of a fragrance like the best perfumes. Then the twin leaves being closed, pierced with metal and stopped with most limpid crystal, they gave a most joyful and manifoldly coloured light. By this same piercing of open knots they clearly lit the fragrant baths, and the fragrance was kept in, and the heat did not breathe out.

The levelled wall set between the one column and the other then showed a most black stone, of a hardness rejecting metal, and shining. Enclosed by a surrounding band a quarter broad, of coral-like jasper, adorned with a lineament of double gorges, or whorls. In the middle of such a wall, between the one column and the other, resting there sat an elegant naked Nymph, with distinct resting and office, of Gallatite stone of ivory brightness; firmly placed above upon fitting little altars, which, of round lineament, composedly bound themselves in a circle with the bases of the columns. O how exquisitely carved I beheld the said images, so that more than once my eyes allowed themselves to stray from the true and real ones and to carry themselves to the feigned.

The paved little floor beneath the water was seen of various inlay of hard stones tessellated, in marvellous drawings of divers colourings. Because the most limpid water — not sulphurous, but sweet-smelling and temperately warm, without furnace or stoke-hole, and purged beyond all belief — was no hindering medium between the object and the sense of sight. For the various little fishes, on the fronts of the seats and of the floor, artificially expressed in mosaic in emulation of nature, appeared to swim alive. Red mullets, or mullets; lampreys, and manifold others — the

nature not considered, but the comeliness of the painting.

The most black stones of the wall were cut through and diligently set again with a most notable composition of interlacing, or bindings, of antique leaves and flowers, of shining Cytherean little Shells, as most acceptable to the eyes as ever one could set forth.

Above the door, in a space of Gallactite stone, I saw a dolphin bending among the calm waves, and a youth sitting upon it and sounding a lyre. Opposite, above the laughter-making fountain, likewise another dolphin swimming, with Poseidon riding upon it and with his pointed trident. These little histories were made exactly from the bounds of the same stone, and carried upon a most black flat. Here I deservedly praised that illustrious architect, and no less the statuary.

On the other hand, the comely dignity of those shapely and pleasing girls exalted itself. For I did not know how to compare, between the terror now past and this unthought-of and chance solace, the excess of it; but without doubt I found myself in extreme delight and pleasure.

And there, having most joyfully entered into such a fragrance as could never sprout in Arabia, they stripped upon the stone seats in place of a dressing-room, and laid aside their silken garments, their blond tresses most beautifully wrapped beneath netted Fillets woven of threads of gold, and most worthily bound. And without any regard they allowed their shapely and delicate persons, all naked, to be seen freely and particularly discerned — honesty reserved — flesh without fail delicate, rosy, and suffused with ripe snow.

Alas, I felt my stirred heart leaping to open itself and to be wholly taken up with a pleasurable gladness; whereupon I esteemed myself happy then, only in beholding such delights. Because most pertinaciously I could not withstand the most burning fires hurtfully assaulting and troubling me in my furnace-like heart. And for this, sometimes for my better refuge, I did not dare to look so much at those enkindling beauties heaped up in those divine little bodies.

And they, perceiving it, laughed at my simple gestures, taking girlish sport. And I for this stood with a sincere and contented mind, at being pleasing and welcome to them. And sitting in the midst of such burning, I bore no ordinary patience. But yet with tolerance I stood, bashful and forbearing, knowing myself unequal to so fair and such a company. And being invited also, although struggling and having excused myself, none the less I entered into the bath — like a crow among white doves; for which cause I stood apart, blushing, with my eyes unsteady, searchingly allured by objects so excellent.

And there Osfressia, very witty and eloquent, said to me: "Tell me, young man, what is your name?" And I answered her reverently: "Poliphilo, Lady." "It pleases me well," she said, "if the effect answers to the name." And without delay she added: "And what is your dear beloved called?" I answered modestly: "Polia." And she said: "Ah, I judged that your name signified 'much loving'; but what I now hear means 'the friend of Polia'." And at once she said: "If here

your Polia were found present, what would you do?" "That," I answered, "which befits her modesty, and which should be worthy of your divine presences." "Tell me, Poliphilo, do you bear her a great love?" "Above my own life," I said, sighing. "Beyond all delights and above all the riches of whatever treasure most precious in the world, I bear that love pierced through and kept in my burning and consumed heart." And she: "Where have you abandoned so beloved a thing?" "I do not understand it, and where I myself now am I do not know." She said, smiling: "And if someone were to find her for you, what finder's fee would you give? But be of glad heart, and give yourself to pleasure, for you shall find your beloved Polia again." And with these most welcome and like little words, the most placid and charming girls bathed themselves with much solace, and I with them.

At the space opposite the notable fountain of the sleeping Nymph outside, within the bath there was another of statues, artfully made of the best metal, with a golden and mirroring brightness. These were fixed above a marble hollowed in a square and drawn forward into a frontispiece, with two little half-columns — that is, in a half-circle, one to each side — with the little beam, the little frieze and the little cornice carved in the solid of the single stone. This excellent composition offered itself as the residue of the whole work, wonderfully accomplished with choice art and invention.

In the cut hollow, or in the emptied space of the said stone, two perfect Nymphs stood, a little less than the natural size, unclothed as far as their thighs, where the parting of the shift they wore over gave way, somewhat flying with the movement of their office; and their arms likewise bared, save from the elbow to the shoulders. And above the arm that held up the little boy the garment was raised and thrown back. The little feet of which infant — the one in the hand of the one Nymph, the other in the other's hand — they pressed; the faces of all three laughing. And with the other hand the Nymphs, moving aside the little boy's fringes as far as his girdle or navel, uncovered him. And the child held his little member with both his hands. Which, within the warm waters, made water of the freshest, cooling them.

In this delicious and most excellent place I was, by such conditions, wholly dissolved in gladness and content; but the chief pleasure of my senses was interrupted, only because among these contented ones, and among such whiteness and dew condensed into hoar-frost, I saw myself as it were Egyptian and of a swarthy hue.

One of these, then, named Achoe, affably said to me, smiling: "Our Poliphilo, take that vessel of crystal and bring me here a little of that fresh water." Without delay and without further weighing of it — save that I was gratifying her, and showing myself not only promptly obedient but even eager to please her — I went at once. And no sooner had I set one foot upon a step to get to the falling water than the little water-maker lifted his spout and drew across my hot face the coldest water, so that almost in that instant I fell back upon my knees. At which so shrill and womanish a laughter rang beneath the blunt dome that I too began (having come to myself) to laugh so hard that I felt myself dying of it.

Afterwards I understood the deception of the artifice, most skilfully

devised: that setting any weight upon the lowest and unstable step, it moved downward, and drew upward the childish instrument. Whereupon, the machine and its curious artifice being investigated with careful examination, it pleased me greatly. And therefore in the little frieze this title was elegantly inscribed in Attic characters: GELOIASTOS.

After much merry laughter, having bathed and all of us washed, with a thousand sweet, loving and pleasant little words, and maidenly jests and caresses, we went out of the heated waters, climbing up upon the dry steps with great dancing and festivity; where they anointed themselves with fragrant perfumed unguents and were smeared with an ointment of nutmeg, and offered me too a little box, and anointed me. Of which

such a soothing anointing and wholesome washing was very timely for me. Because, beyond its marvellous sweetness, it proved chiefly profitable to my limbs, laid low in my past and so perilous a flight.

Afterwards, all being clothed — and they detained a good while longer in their nymphlike trimming, combing and adorning — with great cheerful festivity they familiarly opened the vessels of the most delicate confections, and comfortably tasted them, and I with them, the precious drink following after. Then, sufficiently refreshed, and turning again to the mirrors with a scrupulous examination of the adornment of their divine presences, and of the bright forehead shadowed with the little globes of their hanging golden curls — and their damp hair wrapped in a clear covering — at last they said to me joyfully:

"Poliphilo, let us go now with glad heart to our renowned and lofty Queen Eleuterylida, where you shall feel a greater delight." And laughing they added: "Ha! the water did indeed strike you in the face." And they renewed their sweet laughter without any measure, cheerfully making sport of me, nodding to one another with a wanton blinking of the eyes and a sidelong, goatish look.

And thence, making a graceful departure and going in the midst of the festive girls, they began sweetly to sing, rhythmically in the Phrygian mode, a droll metamorphosis. Namely, how a lover, wishing to change himself by an ointment into a little bird, mistook the box, and was transformed into a rough ass; concluding that some believe unguents to be for one effect, and afterwards they are for another. By this I suspected that the point of it was aimed at me, from their looks turned mockingly towards me; but at the time I thought nothing further of it.

Judging then, shrewdly, that that anointing had been for the relief of my weary limbs — behold, of a sudden I began to be so stirred by a wanton itching and a goading desire, that I turned and twisted wholly about. And those cunning ones laughed freely, knowing what had befallen me. So much did it quicken that I felt myself every hour more sharply pricked. Whence I know not what bit, or what halter, restrained me from falling upon them like a ravening and famished eagle that hurls itself out of the air, rapacious and constant, upon a flock of partridges. Neither more nor less was I strongly goaded to violence. And feeling so great an incitement grow every hour, it tormented me; and the more I burned, bent beyond measure with desire, the more such fit and convenient objects offered themselves most violently, stirred as I was by the increase of an almost deadly plague and of an unknown heat.

One, then, of these flaming Nymphs, Aphea by name, said to me in sport: "Poliphilo, what ails you? A moment since you were jesting merrily, and now I see you altered and changed." I said to her: "Forgive me, for I writhe more than

a withy band; I am undone — give me pardon — with a wanton ardour." At this they were all moved to unbridled laughter, and said to me: "Ho! and if your longed-for Polia were here, what would you do then?" "Alas," said I, "by that divinity to whom you submit and serve, I beseech you, add no more torches, heap no more brands and resin upon my incredible burning, prick no further my kindled heart, do not make me burst asunder, I pray you. For I am undone in no ordinary measure, and am utterly consumed."

At this lamentable and mournful response of mine, straightway, their coral-red little mouths full of laughing clamours strongly stirred, they came to such an excess that neither they nor I were able any longer to walk for multiplying laughter. But falling down and rolling among the fragrant flowers and upon the grassy ground, they were choked with unruly laughter; whence it was needful to slacken and loosen a little the tight girdle across them. And lying thus half dead beneath the shady and leafy trees, and in the spreading shade of the branches, they rested.

There, then, with a familiar boldness, I said to them: "O women full of fire, and mischievous to me, is it thus you use me? See how a lawful occasion is offered me of breaking in and overwhelming you and of doing you an excusable violence." And nodding towards them as though I would seize them, feigning a boldness in doing what by no means I dared — they with fresh laughter called one another to help, and fled, leaving their golden slippers and veils here and there, their fillets carried off by the cool breezes; and their little vessels ran among the neglected flowers. And I running after. So much so that truly I do not know that they did not swoon with it, and I as well, my powers laid low.

When, then, this comfortable make-game and this mocking sport had lasted a while, and my agitation thus raised was fully satisfied, and the slippers and the other scattered things gathered up — near the green and dewy banks of a running little stream, the sweet laughter being tempered and they most tenderly pitying me, there by the trimmed banks of low and bending rushes and little willow, with the osier swimming, and nearby plentiful in living water-simples, one of these, a well-mannered one called Geusia, bending down, plucked up the Herculean water-lily, and a root of Arum, and Amella, which were sprouting a little apart one from another; and laughing offered them to me, that I should choose which of these pleased me and taste it for my deliverance. For which cause I refused the water-lily; I condemned the little dragon-plant for its burning; I accepted the Amella. And this, being cleaned, she persuaded me to taste. Whereupon it was no long space of time before, the slippery goad departing, the intemperance was extinguished. Thus in this manner the carnal enticements being bridled,

the festive damsels solacing me, eloquent and witty, we came without noticing it into a famous place, exceedingly pleasant.

Here, in fitting order and distance, was a way set with cypresses, straight and lofty, with their angled and cracked cones, as thick with foliage as by their nature they could be, and composedly placed. And the levelled ground covered on every side with the greenest periwinkle, abounding in its little azure flowers. Which adorned way, broad with a due spaciousness, tended straight towards a green enclosure; and to the opening of that the cypresses were distributed by the line, for a length of four stadia.

Coming joyfully to that cloister, I found it equal-sided, of three walls, in the likeness of a straight wall, as high as the lofty cypresses of the way. Which was all of choice citrons, oranges and lemons, thickly heaped together with a most welcome foliage and knit with an artful cohesion; and I judged its thickness to be six feet. With a door bent in the middle out of the tree-work itself, composedly carried through with the diligent industry of the maker, as well as one could say or make it. Above, in a fitting place, windows were set in order. So that on the surface no wood or stem whatever showed itself, but only the pleasant and welcome green of the flowering fronds.

Among the fair, thick and living leaves it was most abundantly adorned with white blossom, breathing a sweet orange scent; and to the desirous eyes ripe fruits and unripe offered themselves plentifully, in the highest degree delectable. Then within the thickness I looked at the branches (not without wonder), so compacted by such mastery that by them one climbed easily through the whole capacious composition. Whence, by the propping of the knitted branches, those who climbed did not appear.

Entering, then, into this green and most welcome enclosure — to the eyes exceedingly worth looking at, and to the understanding worthy of esteem — I saw that it was an elegant cloister facing a wonderful and most ample palace, excellent in its symmetried architecture and very magnificent. Which rendered the fourth wall of the leafy enclosure, of a length of sixty paces. And this circuit was a square open court beneath the sky.

In the middle part of this most notable area I saw an excellent fountain of the clearest waters, spouting on high almost to the top of the green enclosure through the narrowest little pipes, and falling down into a wide basin, which was of the finest amethyst, its diameter containing three paces, of a thickness of a quarter, dwindling towards the lips to an inch, of most excellent casting; and all round about there appeared, in relief, most worthily expressed, water-monsters — as many as the inventors of antiquity

were ever excellently able to feign in hard stone. A work of Daedalus, and notable for admiration. Nor let Pausanias boast of having set up his bronze bowl at Hipparis.

It was aptly founded upon a distinguished shaft of jasper, of straggling mixtures, the one beautifully adulterating the other, and cut across by translucent chalcedony of the colour of troubled sea-water, brought to a most noble making. Raised of ewer-like vessels, one above another, with the parting of a choice knot-work. Which stood upright, fixed in the centre of a rounded plinth of green ophite. Which round was raised from the level pavement by a fifth part, with the surrounding porphyry, which was curiously lined with well-polished little waves.

Round about the shaft, set beneath the basin, four harpies of gold with clawed and rapacious feet stood upon the flat of the ophite. Which, with their hinder parts towards the shaft, the one directly opposite the other, and with unfolded wings, held up beneath the violet lip, or basin, with maidenly faces. Their locks flowing loose down over their shoulders from the neck. And with their heads not reaching under the basin. With their serpent tails coiling into a globe, and passing at the end into antique foliage. They made with the lowest ewer-vessel of the shaft a not ungrateful but a friendly knotting and joining.

Within, at the middle navel of the vessel, above the order of the shaft beneath, there was raised proportionately out of the amethyst vessel itself an oblong chalice turned upside down, lifted as much as the vessel was hollowed, its middle standing clear of the surrounding lips of the basin. Above which was raised an artful little altar, set beneath the three naked Graces. Of the finest gold, of a common tallness, the one cleaving to the other. From the nipples of whose breasts the rising water dripped finely, appearing like little rods of burnished and streaked silvered ash. And as though it had been distilled through the whitest pumice of Tarragona.

And each of them held in her right hand an all-bearing horn of plenty, which rose somewhat above her head. And then all three openings came elegantly together in one rounding, their mouths meeting equally together. With fruits and various fronds hanging out of the rims, or lips, of the twisted horns, abundantly filled.

Among the fruits and foliage six little pipes projected a little, set in order and flowing, from which the water rose in the finest thread. And then the most skilful founder, so as not to hinder one elbow with the other, had the statues hide with the left hand, as a sign of modesty, the part worthy of covering.

Upon the lips of the gaping basin (whose circuit went about one foot wider than the ophite beneath it), standing with heads raised above their viper feet, with a most seemly spacing

there sat six scaly little dragons of shining gold. By such a devised art that the water flowing from the breasts fell directly into the emptied and open crown of the head of the said little dragons, which, with wings spread wide and biting, likewise each of them threw back, or rather vomited out, that water through a little pipe. Which then fell beyond the rounding of the ophite, and between a rounding of porphyry, which stood equally more raised above the level of the area, or open pavement, than is said above. Where, set between, there ran a little channel between the ophite and that porphyry rounding, wide at its opening one foot and a half, and two whole feet deep. Which porphyry was three feet in its flat surface, with a choice waving towards the pavement.

The remainder of the little dragons crept along the moderate hollowing of the basin, until they all came together, their tail-ends transformed into antique foliage and into a most pleasant binding with the little altar set beneath the three images, or rather their footstool, at a proportioned height. Without any deforming encroachment upon the hollow of the precious basin.

So that, by the green meeting of the orange cloister, and by the shining of the bright material, and by the purest waters, there was rendered a most welcome colouring, like a rainbow among hollowed clouds, within the noble, proud and elegant vessel.

Then, in the swelling body of the basin, between the one little dragon and the other at an even space, there stood out of that excellent casting heads of maned lions, with exquisite exactness, which, vomiting, scattered through a devouring pipe the water dripping from the six little conduits set in the most beautiful horns of plenty. Which water rose with so bridled a force that its fall came down among the little dragons into the wide and sounding basin, with a most welcome ringing of the wide-open vessel from the high fall of the said waters.

Of this most rare workmanship, then, chiefly built with so sharp a wit — such as was that uncommon vessel, and the four most perfect harpies, and of what choice dignity was the little altar, where I saw the three figures of most shining gold sitting, and with what artifice and polish it was ordered — I should never know how to speak briefly and clearly, and still less am I fit to describe the whole. A making not of human wit. But I may lawfully testify (calling the gods to witness) that never in our own age was such a chased work, nor anything near its equal, devised more welcome or more worth beholding.

And thus astonished I considered besides those stubbornly hard stones of the support of the great basin — that is, the shaft of ewer-vessels set one above another. With what ready ease, neither more nor less than if the material had been of soft wax, were those drawn threadings made, and so

let not the Praenestine way exalt itself for the Gordian building. And to this excellent colonnade let its two hundred columns yield — Numidian, Claudian, Simiadic and Thistian, divided in equal number. What marbles, what carvings, where I beheld the labours of Hercules in shining stone, marvellously cut half free of the ground. Spoils, statues, inscriptions and trophies, wonderfully chased. What gate-house, or vestibule; what royal portico. To this let Titus Caesar duly yield with his mirroring and burnished Phoenician stones — such and so great that any feeble and mouldering wit would condemn itself in wishing to tell of it.

There comes besides the dignity of the windows and of the notable door, and of the most noble podium, the distinguished expression of the builder's art. No less excellent to see was the marvellous ceiling, most beautifully coffered, with little coffers between the wavings, covered with foliage, set in square and round. Adorned with exquisite lineaments, gilded of pure gold and of a dark blue colouring, and elegantly painted. Let every other wonderful building be lost here.

Being now come to the opening of the notable door — behold, the way in was closed by a joyful and marvellous curtain stretched across, all of golden thread, and rewoven and inwoven with silk, with two most worthy images. The one of them was surrounded with every instrument fit for working; and one, with her maidenly face raised, considered the heavens intently. The beauty of which not undeservedly warned me off from thinking that any pencil (even the famous Apelles's) could reach it.

Here the eloquent and most beautiful and charming companions each joined her right hand kindly with mine, wishing to lead me in, and receiving me they said: "Poliphilo, this is the order to be kept, by which one must enter into the venerable presence and lofty majesty of our Queen. This chief and first curtain it is granted to no one to enter without the receiving of a plain and watchful damsel doorkeeper, called Cynosia." And she, hearing our coming, at once presented herself and courteously drew aside the curtain. And we entered.

Here was an enclosed space, divided by another veiling of most noble artifice and composition, and varied with every tincture. In which were signs, shapes, plants and animals of a singular reweaving. In this place, at our coming, a woman likewise careful came immediately to us, named Indalomena. And, frankly unfastening her curtain, we were led in.

Here too there was an equal space between the second and a third curtain, most excellently woven with discourse and reason, and painted in fine work with endless bindings and holdfasts and with the most ancient instruments for grappling and holding fast

roughly carved between, and without the gnawing obstinacy of the hardest emery, such triglyphs so excellently expressed. But with fit chisels and gravers of such a tempering as our modern craftsmen know nothing of, shining with a choice brightness.

The whole space of the area, then, in the middle of which was raised this most notable artifice of the famous and sumptuous fountain, had a stone pavement of squares of fine marbles of various colour and shaping. In which, less than their measure, there were most beautifully fitted rounds of gracious jasper, levelled with the utmost evenness, differing in their colouring. And the remaining corners were beautifully satisfied with winding fronds and lilies.

Then the broad bands, or fillets, between the squares I beheld to be of the best tessellation of most welcome coloured stones, with a minute cutting. In green leaves with crimson flowers, dark blue, purple and grey-green, so much the better joined in a confederate way with an obstinate cohesion, the less I should know how to express it — of an artful composition, and most bright with a choice shining, of diligent polishing, a noble shaping. More lovely in colour than crystal of various tincture struck back by the rays of the sun. Because the colours led about, with a most charming meeting, were reflected in those burnished stones; no step betraying itself in the cut tesserae, lozenges, triangles and squares, but with a most level directness, wholly equal.

By all which things I remained as it were dazzled in my senses and stupid, examining carefully within myself the work, exceedingly notable, such as I was not used to seeing. And willingly I should have wished to pause a little, and such dignity of workmanship would have needed a longer stay to investigate, and to contemplate somewhat more diligently; but I could not, because it was fitting to follow closely my eloquent companions and guides.

The aspect, then, of this sumptuous, magnificent and proud palace, and its approved situation or placing, and the symmetry of its marvellous composition, at the first meeting won me to a chief cheerfulness and comely grace; by the dignity of which making I was provoked to go on and contemplate further. For which cause I deservedly judged that its most skilful builder was excellent above any other that ever built. What framing, then, of beams and of rafters; what distributed disposition of chambers and inner rooms and courts; what walls covered and crusted with precious panelling; what wonderful order of ornament; what unfading colouring of pigment upon the walls; what rule of columns and of spacing — and there, by this

with a bite. Without delay there placidly offered herself to us in this place a third matron, our hostess and receiving us graciously. Whose name was Mnemosyne. She likewise, when we had been called in, gave us free entry. And at last here my companions presented me before the venerable majesty of Queen Eleuterylida.

How great and notable was the majesty of the Queen, and the condition of her dwelling and its wonderful furnishing, Poliphilo tells as best he can. And the kind and affable receiving of him. And how she marvelled at him. And how wonderful and splendid was the banquet, exceeding the reach of human knowledge, and the place where it was held (without comparison), he somewhat describes.

Being come to the first doorkeeper, she saw me not without astonishment; and having greeted her seemly and duly reverenced her, and being given by her a familiar invitation to enter and a courteous welcome — and in like manner by the following curtain-keepers — I saw a lofty portico, as long as the compass of the palace. Whose golden vaulting was painted with green foliage, with distinct flowers and entwined fronds and flying birds, choicely embroidered in mosaic work. The cleanest paving, like that outside in the enclosed court. The walls crusted with sumptuous stones artfully set in fine work.

At the last curtain that matron Mnemosyne very affectionately urged me to doubt of nothing, but to show myself a strenuous follower of the Queen's royal urging and wholesome counsel, and a persevering doer of it, because then the outcome would come out pleasant without fail. And entry being particularly granted — behold, there presented themselves to my eyes things rather divine than human. A most ambitious furnishing in a stupendous and spacious court, beyond the palace and adjoining it, opposite the other, perfect in its square.

The most charming and precious pavement I saw set between a surrounding tessellation: a space of sixty-four squares, of three feet the diameter of each. Of which the one shone with jasper of a coral colour, and the other of the greenest, dropped with bloody drops, with an almost imperceptible cohesion of the composition, like a

game of chess. The circuit then of an excellent embroidered border and enclosure, one whole pace its breadth, of subtle devisings of stone cutwork, excellently compacted in the smallest shapes, like a lovely painting of fine stones, cut evenly and framed to rule. The joinings not appearing; most burnished and mirroring, and of so just a levelling by line and square that a round and spherical body set upon it would have shown itself unsteady.

Beyond this, then, there ended a marvellous making of three paces of most noble knot-work of jaspers, prasines, chalcedonies, agates and of other notable manners and kinds of fine stones. Along the walls of the aforesaid area I considered certain most worthy seats of sandalwood, red and citron, most diligently made, and covered over with the greenest velvet. Stuffed, or cushioned, with a moderate downy convexity, or of a soft material that yielded most comfortably to the sitter; and the said silken pile fixed along the rims of the benches with little golden nails with studded heads, upon a silver and stretched braid, or flat little cord.

The splendid facing of the enclosing walls I beheld, all clothed with plates of purest and shining gold, with chasings answering to it, and most fitting to that precious material. In the levelled and most burnished flat, then, of the said plates — divided by certain little pilasters, or squares, of a most fitting measure and correspondence — there appeared in the middle of each, clearly, round jewels fitted in, moderately swelling in the form of the torus of a base, of a thickness suited to the capacity of the space, covered over with fringed leaves pressed one against another. Girt about with thongs, with the ends flowing, they perfectly adorned the jewel round about. Where there came in, most aptly among the foliage in a fitting distribution, a fruitage of shining and various jewels, notably shaped to various expressed lineaments.

In the remaining space, then, walled round with these swelling jewels, painted perfectly with beauty in encaustic work, I beheld with great pleasure the seven planets with their inborn properties. The remaining level, outside the roundness of the jewels, was wrought fiercely in endless and elegant expressions of silversmith's work. With an adorned scattering of manifold and inestimable gems I saw it wonderfully with its ornament.

At the left wall, or moulded partition, it was likewise. And with the spaces and jewels of the same form of ornament and of the same number as the aforesaid — that is, in seven roundings — I contemplated seven triumphs of those subject to the ruling planets, most skilfully made in the said painting. And on the right side I saw likewise seven harmonies of them, and the passage of the soul, with its qualitative receiving of the degrees of the circles, with an incredible history of the celestial operations that come with it.

The fourth wall the palace made, with a distribution equal to those hinted at, save that the door took up the middle space. The other six, with a ruled correspondence and harmony with the rest, in their jewels (opposite the planets, and in a symmetried meeting) held the virtuous operations belonging under those, expressed in the form of elegant Nymphs with the titles and signs of their effect.

The seventh, in the middle of the frontispiece, or gable, of the door, was placed directly over against the seventh jewel, which held the planet Sun. Which was raised higher than the others by the placing of the Queen's throne. For which cause every part most accurately answered — in material, in number, in form to the line, and in every least part and placing most evenly and to the level; and thus mutually the right side with the left, and here and there, agreed in a most exquisite meeting. Of which surpassing place each wall was extended twenty-eight paces.

By such an elegant disposition this open court was made even, covered round about all in the most perfect gold, a work wonderful and unspeakable.

The little pilasters, or half-squares, at a distance of four paces one from another, with a just sevenfold partition (a number most welcome to nature), were of the finest and eastern lapis lazuli, with a most joyful fullness of its colouring, adorned with a most charming scattering of minute sparks of gold. The front of which, between the closing wavings, were marvellously carved with candelabra, with a most notable company of fronds, horns of plenty, little monsters, heads maned with foliage, figures ending in scrolls, birds, and horns, and little vessels of pomegranate flower, with distinguished invention and thought, from the lowest footing to the topmost shaft, in a relief almost torn free of its flat ground. The thickness of which was measured from its own rise. These, then, in a sociable and most welcome assembly, made among the golden plates the interruption of the most seemly spaces.

The capitals were of a making suited to the other workmanship. Above stretched the straight beam with the chased lineaments required, with little cylinders, or rounds, the flattened whorls set between them two by two. And following above it its adorned frieze. Which held alternately such expressions as these: heads of oxen, with their horns knotted with fillets, flowing with hanging berries sewn on, with two branches of myrtle, looped in the middle section with a flying selvage; and with dolphins, with their gills leafed and likewise their fins, the outermost part passing into foliage; and at the whorl certain little boys with their hands seizing the whorl, which ended in an antique flower. The dolphin's head had a curve, one part of which turned back towards the little boy, and the other wound itself towards a vessel with an open mouth,

ending in a stork's head, with the beak at the open mouth of a monster with its face turned back; and there were certain vertebrae sewn on between the mouth and the beak. Which heads, leafed for their hair, the one opposite the other, made the mouth of the said vessel full of leaves; from the rims of which there hung a knotted cloth towards its lowest part, and the thin ends flowed down beneath the knots, with every ornament of a making fit to such a place and material. And in the middle, above the whorls, sat a face girt about in the manner of a little boy.

And with such and like lineaments the frieze extended itself in its adornment. Which a most seemly cornice covered, composed of every polish of artifice. Above which, on the flat, perpendicular to the projection set over it in the order of the squares, there were vessels shaped in the most ancient manner, set at an ordered distance, a good three feet high and more, of chalcedony, some of agate, some of a vermilion amethyst, and some of garnet and of jasper, alternated in colour, of various and notable workmanship most subtly chased, their bodies chiefly adorned with little hollows twisted and straight. And with masterly and excellent handles.

To the order and line of each jewel above the cornice there were aptly fixed square little beams seven feet high, of shining gold, hollow within, with a further stretch of like little beams above them going round the straight ones. And traversed crosswise in trellis-work with a ruled partition, they came together seemly. Understanding that out of the vessels set in the corners of the walls the little beam and the vine came out together. But out of the remaining vessels there rose alternately either a vine or a bindweed of gold, various in kind. And lying over the crossed little beams, with a plentiful stretch of scattering branches, entwining one with another mutually in an elegant

confederation, and with a most beautiful meeting, they covered over this whole court most aptly, with a richest — nay, an inestimable — ceiling, and with a varied foliage made of splendid Scythian emerald, most acceptable to the eyes, so that not such was the one in which Amenon was engraved. And the sapphire and beryl flowers of every season, scattered abroad. And with the utmost disposition and artifice, among the green fronds, other thick and precious gems variously shaped into fruits, with feigned clusters heaped of little stones, hanging down, of a colouring answering to the natural cluster.

All which most excellent things, of an incomparable, incredible and almost unthinkable cost, flashed everywhere most precious, not only for the most noble and marvellous material, but likewise for the great and most exquisite making. Weighing which marvellous thing with a most subtle examination, I pondered upon the wandering extension of those most intricate branches, and proportioned in thickness.

So artful — by what art, and what rash daring, and what obstinate intent were they so aptly carried through: whether by the workman's glue, or by soldering, or by hammering, or by the founder's art? By these three conditions of working and forging metal it seemed to me impossible that a covering of such a breadth and knitting should be so excellently made.

In the middle prospect over against our entry, upon a stepped and royal throne, adorned and filled with manifold fitting-together of

burning gems and of marvellous making — such as was never that seat in the temple of Hercules at Tyre, made of the stone Eusebes — the Queen herself dwelt, sitting with a venerable and imperial majesty. Divine, and of a marvellous magnanimity in her aspect. Sumptuously clothed in cloth rewoven with forced gold in the thread.

Her majestic head she held adorned with an ambitious ornament, of a silken and purple mitre, matronly and royal, of a heap of uncommon and light and burnished pearls, which went round the wide forehead in the fringe of the mitre. Which pressed down her blackest hair — shining more than Indian amber — that descended with a comely difference, waving over her snowy temples. Then, from the back of the head, her overflowing hair was parted into two tresses neatly plaited. The one here and the other there, they passed above the little ears, and then met again in a wonderful agreement. At the top of the crown they were bound in a knot, or tuft, of great and roundest pearls, such as the Indian promontory Perimula does not bring forth.

And out of the knot flowed the remainder of the long and most abundant locks, covered by a most thin veiling, with a golden parting-pin held by the said knot or tuft, which descended flying to her delicate shoulders. In the middle of the mitre, at the parting above the crown, there stood out a most precious little shape. And her rounded throat, suffused with a snowy whiteness, was encircled by an inestimable necklace, with a pendant towards the fork of her milky breast, of an incomparable diamond in a tablet of half-moon form, or oval, sparkling all over, monstrous in size, in a golden setting of fine-wrought ornament.

Besides, from her ears there were most richly hung, exquisitely in the piercing, two inestimable drops, of two great pure carbuncles, flashing without equal. She had also her feet shod in green silk, and the little slippers with golden loops twisted at the straps, adorned with many jewels. They trod upon a footstool, or rather a support, of a soft cushion swollen with a heap of down, of crimson velvet, with a border going round of eastern pearls, such as are not to be found in Arabia in the Persian gulf. With four hanging tufts at the four corners, covered with flashing gems, with their little beards, or fringes, of twisted threads, and mingled hanging things of gold and of vermilion silk.

On the right and left side, upon the sandalwood benches, the ladies of the court sat in a well-ordered manner, with an honest and homely gravity, clothed in cloth of gold, with an incredible adornment of dress, such as never was seen in the world's judgement. In the midst, then, sat this renowned and sovereign Queen with pomp and the utmost state, and an unthinkable adornment. The borders led round her ambitious garments were filled with most opulent jewels of alternating colour in such plenty that you would say nature had hailed down there all the finest manners of shining gems, in a wanton array.

At so imperial and lofty a sight, then, worshipping and kneeling to the ground — without delay the chamber-women and the ladies of the court all rose from their quiet sitting, provoked by such a novelty and spectacle, marvelling exceedingly that I should have come to such a place. But much more did I feel my sad heart open itself restlessly, anxiously thinking over things past and things present, beset and full of a deep astonishment. Wholly suffused with a reverent fear and an honest bashfulness.

At which novelty the seated ladies called my companions to their ears, curious. And asking under their breath who I might be, and my strange and unlooked-for case besides. And for this the drawn eyes of all were fixed and directed intently upon me.

Finding myself, then, most humble before this most excellent and such a presence, I remained wholly astounded, and as it were without breath and abashed. And being asked by her the course and manner of my coming, and my entry into that place by my companions, they readily set the whole out and fully recited it. Moved by this, the honeyed Queen made me rise, and having heard my name, began thus affably to speak: "Poliphilo, be of good heart

but attend and tell me: how have you come in here safe? And how have you escaped the deadly and horrible dragon? And how did you find a way out of those hateful shadows and blind caverns? I have heard the whole of it distinctly and to the end. But I marvel in no ordinary measure, since few — nay, fewest of all — are able to arrive here by such a road. Now, since your tangled fortune has brought you to us unhurt, I judge it fitting that for no obstacle whatever should I deny you my kind favour, and that I should host you freely, munificently, and with the greatest good will."

At this most liberal invitation and royal promise and welcome, as well as I then knew how, giving her huge thanks with devout and honourable speech, briefly and succinctly I told her point by point of my flight from the fearful monster. And thereafter with what laborious difficulty, hurrying, I came to this most acceptable place. At which she marvelled greatly, and with her likewise the venerable ladies. And how besides the five companions had found me terrified and wandering.

So to such distinguished magnificence I bent my mind eagerly with the utmost pleasure. Afterwards she, smiling charmingly, said: "It shows itself a worthy thing that an ill beginning should sometimes fall out to a happy issue and end. And before I lay upon you anything else to carry out at present of your loving and settled purpose and warm desire, I will that, for the profitable easing of your modest troubles, you too should sit down with this notable company at a banquet of friendship most freely offered — since the favouring heavens have deservedly shown you our bountiful and pious hospitality, and have brought you beneath our triumphant roof. And therefore, my Poliphilo, without any hesitation set yourself there to sit comfortably. For you will most gladly see part of our most splendid ordering, and the plentiful diversity of my more than royal delights, and the chief adornment of the elegant service, and the household splendour, and the inestimable preciousness of my most ample riches, and the wide effect of my beneficence."

Whereupon, at this sincere and holy command, her eloquent and kindly speech being finished, I humbly made myself her bowing servant, and with a small boldness and slight daring, obeying at once, I set myself to sit upon those delicious benches on the right side — still in my woollen gown, which yet held the burrs, or little burdocks, stuck in it, and some clinging husks of goose-grass — in the midst of the five companions, placed second, between Osfressia and Achoe, after the Queen. Six other companions on the other side. So far apart one from another that they took up that length in an orderly way. And in the lofty middle throne, come down upon the lower step, she sat in royal fashion, and with an august dignity.

The crown above the throne, in encaustic painting, held a comely beardless image with flowing yellow hair. With a little of the breast covered by a scant cloth, above the spread wings of an eagle, which with head raised contemplated it fixedly. Which was wreathed with an azure diadem, adorned with seven rays; and at the eagle's feet a branch here and a branch there of green and undying laurel, and such signs, one to each side, were expressed. In the like manner I saw painted in every crown, that is, the figure proper to its planet.

It fell out by chance that behind my shoulders was the jewel holding the history of wing-footed Mercury; and, turning, I saw how his kindness was corrupted when he found himself in the malignant tail of the venomous Scorpion. And straightening again I thought how, in a most abject habit, I found myself among so many sumptuous garments — neither more nor less than that deadly beast, misshapen and vile among the most noble signs of the zodiac.

Then they sat in an ordered way upon the magnificent benches. Which went round the whole circuit of the walls. Now on the right side and the left of the court, as many as could aptly sit, the noble ladies most richly adorned, and with unusual and elegant dressings of the head, with womanly devices, their hair drawn back and plaited in distinct little knots, the fairest in the world. Some with the fair head curled in Poppaean ringlets, justly parted and modestly waved above the rosy and shining foreheads and the smooth temples. And others with hair (like obsidian, not of Latium, not of Spain, but of India) of the deepest black, comelily adorned with the whitest pearls, and with clasps of incredible price ornamented at their snowy shoulders.

They stood with so much reverence and attention that all at one time, when the servers at the tables made their reverences kneeling, these did the same, rising from their pleasant seats. Each clothed in shining gold, with marvellous weaving and workmanship. These did not eat at these tables.

Over against the triumphing Queen there answered the opening of the third curtain, which was a great and distinguished door, not of marble, but of lovely and hardest eastern jasper. Made by art and by ancient workmanship, very notable and worthy. On either side, here and there, of this

most excellent door, towards the ladies seated at the table, there stood the young musicians, seven to a side, in most worthy and precious nymphlike dress. Who, at every changing or clearing of the banquet table, varied their sounds and their instruments. And while the feast went on, others of these sang sweetly with an angelic and Siren-like harmony.

Now in an instant there were set out tripods of ebony, and tables for the time, without tumult or noise, but each server most ready for her appointed office, and eager and clear-sighted with an affectionate effort, and wholly intent upon the service enjoined and laid upon her.

And here first of all, before the Queen, tripods of such a making were set fast. Upon a rounding of the best jasper, distinguishedly lined. Above which were fixed three stems. The lowest part of which ended upon the flat in a swift lion's paw of gold, engulfing the shafts with exquisite foliage, and clothed round about with the most polished foliage. And in the middle of each was fitted a little boy's head, held in the midst of two spread wings, from which there hung, from the one towards the other, a little bundle of branches heaped together, swelling in the middle, filled with various fruits. Which shafts in their topmost part had a projection most apt to bear up the round table before the Queen. This framework was unchanging, but the sudden round tables varied. As the material of the vessels varied at every change of table.

Then in the blink of an eye there was set upon this tripod a round table of gold, most level, three feet in diameter and a thumb's breadth thick; and of this form and measure were all that followed. And upon the ivory tables was spread a scented cloth of green silk, neatly stretched out, broad and long almost down to the pavement, unravelled at the edge all round, with its own threads twisted and mingled with threads of gold and silver, hanging beneath a band, or border, a sixth of a foot in its breadth, subtly rewoven and richly furnished with pearls. Hung a hand's breadth clear of the pavement, evenly, all round on every side. And of this workmanship all the cloths were

fringed at their edges and seemly adorned.

Next there followed a comely and nimble girl with a wide golden vessel heaped with flowers of violets — amethyst-coloured, pale yellow and white, such as are fragrant in the new spring — which she most readily scattered and strewed over all the tables (except the Queen's, which was always bare).

The sacred majesty of the Queen had put off the pompous royal mantle, such as Lollia Paulina of Rome never saw, and remained in a most sumptuous figured garment of purple crimson pile, woven all over with manifold birds and other little animals, fronds and flowers, of an ordered knot-work, and the work somewhat swelling with the most illustrious pearls, with a very thin overgarment above. Tinged with a little of a saffron silken colour, showing through, by its clear thinness, the covered work and the crimson beneath. Which habit was in the highest degree graceful and comely and imperial.

Then there came two elegant girls. Who carried an artful fountain that poured continually, artfully taking up again the water that it scattered; and it was of shining gold, founded in a basin of most beautiful workmanship, and before all else they set it before the Queen. And no sooner was it presented upon the golden table than together they made a graceful bow, bending likewise their adorned heads. And kneeling within a thumb's breadth of reaching the burnished pavement. Like reverences, in an ordered way and at one time, the attendant servers who waited made — following one another, and observing them both before and after the offering of anything whatever, and at its removal.

Three other excellent young women followed after those. One with a golden ewer. And the other with a basin, or hand-bowl, most shining. The third with a delicate towel of the whitest silk.

The divine Queen having washed her hands, she that bore the golden bowl received the washing, so that it should not go back and be taken up again into the fountain. And she that carried the ewer poured in as much scented water as was poured out, so that the fountain of wonderful devising should not empty itself. The third lightly dried her hands.

The wide and spreading vessel of this fountain was artfully founded upon four little wheels, and they carried it running along over the tables to wash most aptly

the hands of all who sat at meat. Which in the middle stood out beyond its own lips, set with studs of gems, seemly channelled, as was the hollow of the vessel round about, and with other expressions.

Upon this projecting part sat a most noble vessel, and above this another of a different kind, but both joined by two little handles, with an exquisite polishing and elegant workmanship and most precious ornament. For among the other inestimable jewels, in its cover passing into a flower, out of which there rose a diamond shaped into a little pear, with its point fixed in the flower, shining all over, of an unheard-of and unimaginable size. And by my sense of smell I judged the water to be of roses, mixed with the juice of lemon rind and a little amber, or benzoin, in a skilful gradation, with a welcome and sweet scenting.

In the middle of this stupendous space there was set out a wonderful vessel for perfuming, not only for its noble and perfect material, which was pure and best gold, but for its notable and antique making; with its support upon three rapacious feet of a foul harpy. Which, in foliage, gave a binding to that triangular base, plentifully adorned with little histories, as such a metal demands.

Upon the outstretched corners of which three naked spirits stood, set in order, two cubits high, with their little shoulders turned one towards another, near one to another. They trod upon the base, resting at the corner with the right foot, and with the other hanging and free, towards the fixed foot of the next boy. And each of them, both elbows raised, held a shaft in the form of a pomegranate flower, slender at the bottom, and in the upper part opening into a little shell for every hand, widened at the mouth and a little hollowed, with broad rims. Six there were in a due circuit, cleaving one to another.

Between the shoulders of the winged boys, from the central point of the flat of the said triangular base, there rose a shaft of distinguished expression of an antique candelabrum, which at its point held its little shell, like those aforesaid, and of as great an opening as suited to fill the empty space left in the middle between the six shells. Which shells the servers had

filled with kindled embers, and covered over then with ash; and above the ash there boiled a golden flask for each shell. With a different liquor, or waters with a day's infusion of scented matter — as I guessed, that each flask had its own distinct water, such as one might call rose-water, orange-water, myrtle-water; of tender laurel fronds, of elder flowers and others well known, with a varied and sociable scented matter. And these, boiling, breathed everywhere a most sweet and unknown fragrance.

In the presence of the most magnificent Queen there always waited three reverent and neat girls, with the trimness of veiling garments of gold and silk woven in a wonderful manner. The colour graciously changing to the eye, of the colouring of the table-cloths, so that as the cloths were changed, in the same manner the nymphlike garments of the servers were varied as to colour; with a most charming gathering of the drapery beneath their tight girdle, turning from their fleshy and snowy shoulders, and drawn over the full breast moderately swelling. Shod with golden shoes with a moon-shaped opening over the bare foot, all alike fastened with golden clasps. With flowing hair, blond and most abundant, and falling to their calves. On the whitest forehead girt with little fillets of great and uniform pearls.

These three stood before her with a singular and devout reverence, very heedful and set to such an office with a chief and ready service; who served at one table only. When afterwards the next change of table came, all these stood upon their feet, made servants with their arms folded in the utmost reverence. And thus in succession all the others observed it, and always as many again were renewed in number.

Of the three servers to each guest: the one between the two offered the food; she on the right side accompanied that food underneath with a little plate, so that nothing should fall elsewhere. The third, on the left, elegantly wiped the lips with a most white napkin, fine and cleanest. At every act the reverence was ready. The napkin was never used a second time for that office, but, thrown by the damsel upon the pavement, was at once gathered up by those standing by and carried thence away. And as many mouthfuls as were to be offered, so many scented and perfumed folded napkins they brought with them for changing, silken, of wonderful woven workmanship.

To each of those at table, then, such an order of service they diligently

kept. For no guest at such a meal touched anything, but was fed in due time by the servers, save for the cup.

At the first table, afterwards, all having washed at the aforesaid fountain of skilful artifice — by the force of gathered, or enclosed, air the water rose and was taken up again. Which thing being so exquisite, I thought that by twin pipes, here and there unequal, through a wall set between, pierced in the middle, the vessel was divided within, and by its own impulse the forced water ascended; which, having learnt by a subtle examination, was extremely pleasing to me.

After the washing of all, to the Queen first and thereafter to each in turn, the beauty-loving serving girls gave a golden apple, distinguishedly pierced through, and enclosing a paste of a wonderful scenting — for this cause, that the idle hands of each should be occupied with some act by the said ball, and the senses in looking and smelling; and it was adorned with precious little stones.

Here, then, at every change of dishes, two damsel stewards drew most beautifully into the middle of the royal court a stupendous store-carriage upon four running wheels, in its forward part in the form of a boat, or skiff, the hinder remainder shaped into a triumphal car of the purest gold, wrought fiercely with manifold Scyllas and little water-monsters, and many most exquisite expressions, and wonderfully finished, with richest little stones in an elegant distribution and wonderful ornament, filled seemlily throughout — the sparkling of which shone through all the space that could receive it, and meeting in a flashing with the glowing of the other jewels set variously on every side, you would freely say that Phoebus was there with his shining locks, with a Nymph sitting, whose face made her no less lovely with her shining eyes. So that, for the continual brightness and splendour of so many unspeakable workmanships, no addition could be found, nor any equivalent comparison, were it even the Babylonian temple with its three golden statues.

Within which were amply prepared all sauces and seasonings needful for the whole requirement of the varied table; it carried cloths, flowers, cups, napkins, vessels, little forks, drink, food and seasonings. This waggon Nymph then readily distributed the preparation to those who cleared away.

The table being then taken down for the next change, everything above recited returned to the clearing carriage. And when it had departed, the girls with the leading trumpets — such as were invented neither by Piseus the Tyrrhenian, nor by

Maletus king of Etruria — and with them the flute-players immediately began to play; and in this observed manner they did every time that the carriage went away. Playing while it returned; then they ceased. And when the table was changed, these too varied their musical instruments; and when they ceased, then the singers sang most sweetly, enough to put the Sirens to sleep, in the Aeolian mode, with hautboys and double flutes, of which mode Dardanius of Troezen was not the inventor.

And in this ordered manner there were continually heard most welcome sounds, most charming harmonies were listened to, delightful melody was felt, a most joyful scenting was drawn in, and a most splendid fullness was received, tasting most sweetly. Everything, then, agreed mutually in dignity, in grace and in delight, without any defect.

At this first and splendid table all the table utensils, or instruments, were of the finest gold, and of this the round table before the Queen. And there was presented a cordial confection: as far as I was able to conjecture accurately, it was a helpful and most excellent composition of shaved horn — that is, of unicorn — with the two sandalwoods; pearls ground in burning water kindled at the fire, and quenched in it down to the last cutting; manna, pine kernels and rose-water, musk, ground gold, very preciously composed and weighed, and pressed into morsels with the finest sugar and starch. Of this she gave two takings, at a moderate interval, and without drink, to each — a food to forbid every obstinate fever, and to shut out any sad weariness.

This done, in an instant all things were taken up and removed, and the fragrant violets scattered on the ground, and the table stripped bare. And no sooner was this so done than once again the table was covered with sea-purple cloth, and likewise all the servers; and as at the first they covered it with flowers of citron, orange and most fragrant lemon.

And here they presented, in vessels of beryl — and of this gem was the royal table (except the little forks, which were of gold) — five little cakes, or fritters, of a saffron paste kneaded with hot rose-water and sugar, and again sprinkled with a shower of the said finest musked water, frosted over with the finest sugar. These little globes, of so sweet and varied a tasting, were diligently cooked with this distinction: the first offering in oil of orange flowers; the second in oil of cloves; the third in oil of jasmine flowers; the fourth in oil of the finest benzoin; the last in oil pressed of musk and amber. Having tasted this delectable dish savourily and with an eager and greedy appetite, they then presented a solemn cup of the stone named above,

with its cover, and above it besides a most thin silken veil rewoven in fine work, covered with silk and gold, and thrown back over the shoulder of her that bore it, and hanging partly down her back. And with this observance they presented all the little vessels for drinking and for seasoning, covered over. Within which drinking-cup they had poured a most precious wine, whence without failing I plainly suspected that the god himself, vintaging in the Elysian fields, had put his divinity into so sweet a liquor. Let the Thasian wine yield here, then, and every precious thing that may be drunk.

Without delay, after the most welcome draught, this splendid table was taken down. And, the fragrant flowers being scattered upon the shining pavement, a cloth was readily stretched out of purple silk cloth; and they strewed over it flesh-coloured, or mallow-pink, roses, white, vermilion, musk, damascene, four-petalled and Ghiebbedine, mingled.

And promptly the nine servers, clothed in the said cloth and colouring, set down before each of us six cuttings of a blindly fattened head, moistened and sprinkled with its own poured fat and saffroned rose-water, and mixed with orange juice, excellently roasted and then all gilded over, and with six fitting slices of snowy Mnestorian bread. And thereafter with a seasoning of lemon juice tempered with fine sugar, with pine seeds and with its liver ground, adding rose-water, musk and saffron and choice cinnamon; and thus all the seasonings composed with a chief and exquisite gradation, shared out and excellently seasoned. All the vessels were of topaz, and the round table.

This third frugal and magnificent table being, as above, unprepared, without delay the next was renewed and covered with a silken cloth of satin of a bright yellow colour (and the servers clothed in the same), and all flowered with fragrant flowers of lilies of the valley and of narcissus. Immediately such a dish was set out: seven balls of partridge flesh with a sharp diligence, in broth, toasted, and as many mouthfuls of eyed and milky bread. Seasoning: maple-sap, almonds ground with thrice-boiled sugar, starch, citron sandalwood, musk and rose-water. Vessels of chrysolite, and the circular table. Last they offered the most precious cup, and thus it was observed in those that followed.

The fourth rich table being removed, at the fifth the board was clothed again with cloth of purple silk; and like was the nymphlike dress. Flowers dark, yellow, white and amethyst. For meat, eight morsels of the flesh

of pheasant, most freely offered, roasted in its juices, and as many mouthfuls of light and whitest bread; the sauce such: fresh yolks with little pine kernels, orange-water, pomegranate juice, sugar of Colossae, and cinnamon. Vessels of emerald, and the table of the lofty Queen.

This solemn change being carried away, without any interval a cloth of violet silk was spread, and the nymphlike garments likewise. For flowers, the three kinds of jasmine, crimson, yellow and white. For food, nine mouthfuls from the breast of the ever-keeping peacock, moist in its broth and roasted in its fat. A sauce greenest and somewhat sharp, with pistachios ground, Cyprian sugar, starch, musk, thyme, wild thyme, white oregano, and pepper. Vessels of dark blue sapphire, and the royal table.

At this seventh sumptuous change they carried away the sumptuous board, all of the whitest ivory subtly inlaid, and brought back another of precious aloe wood, excellently compacted with glue, and from one end to the other hollowed with a wonderful devising into most noble knot-works of foliage, flowers, vessels, little monsters and small birds, and filled in with a black paste of musk and amber in a confederate mixture. This I rightly judged a most elegant and sumptuous thing, breathing a delightful scent; the cloth whitest and fine, with a fine-wrought weaving of byssus of Carystus, and of such cloth the adorned garments of the serving girls. Flowers of cyclamen, with all manners of gillyflowers exceedingly fragrant. So that whoever might be able to consider so sweet and various a fragrance, with its continual and new meeting most joyful to the sense, I do not dare to express.

An excellent confection in morsels: pulp of dates with pistachios, ground with rose-water, and island sugar, musk, adulterated with precious ground gold, so much that all the takings appeared of gold; three to each were given. The vessels of jacinth, and the circular table — a stone fitting to so excellent an ordering of the divine board and its splendour, not subject to the Licinian law.

After the joyful and most welcome tasting of this marvellous confection, and the flowers rolled to the ground, by a royal magnificence there was brought without delay a great golden basin full of kindled embers, into which the cloth was thrown and the napkins of byssus; and so long a space they left them in the fire that all was kindled and glowing, and thence drawn out and cooled, it was seen unhurt, purified and cleanest, as before. And this too was a distinguished and unheard-of showing. Last of all the tripods and the boards were readily taken down and carried thence away.

All which most excellent showings, the more carefully

I considered them, the more ignorant and astonished I stood; but certainly above all things I took an extreme delight, with an intense admiration, seeing so many and so great and triumphing and most lavish sumptuosities of incredible cost and splendour, that I judge it better to be silent than to say too little of it — save that at the least price there yield here the Sicilian feasts, the ornaments of Attalus, and the Corinthian vessels, and the delights of Cyprus, and the Salian suppers.

Nevertheless so supreme and excessive a cheerfulness and heartfelt delight, and the utmost (among such delights) and extreme pleasure, was interrupted, intercepted and stained for me by one of these three who at this change happened to serve before me: who had almost wholly the comely semblance and the sweetest representing aspect of Polia, and in her stirring gestures, sly and most thievish glances. This brought me no small increase of sweetness to the highest and chief sweetness of the filling and rich seasonings and the most bountiful refreshment. But yet fittingly and carefully I drew back my eyes, stirred and enticed as they were, from beholding so many most precious gems, everywhere and universally shining with a flashing brightness, and such a diversity of unseen beauties and notable adornments — and had as it were made them her bondmen, with an immoderate longing to behold the answering of that highest beauty.

At last, in the order aforesaid, the tables being cleared, they made me a sign that I should not move from my place, for the sweetmeats that followed and the richest and sweetest dainties.

And here first to the venerable and divine presence of the Queen, and thereafter to us, five shapely servers, clothed in a garment of dark blue silk most beautifully woven with a golden thread, presented themselves together at one time to each with a singular excellence. She in the middle of the others held an uncommon little tree of cinnabar-red coral, such as would not be found in the Orkney isles, a cubit high. Fixed with great care upon a little hill all of emerald. Which little hill lay upon the mouth of an antique vase of the purest gold, almost in the likeness of a chalice, as high as the little hill and the branching coral, full of marvellous artifice of foliage, not expressed in our age.

Between the slenderness of the foot and the bowl there was knotted with the greatest polish a little apple of inestimable making; likewise the base and the cup were of distinguished relief-work of leaves, little monsters and two-formed little Scyllas, as exquisitely expressed as ever chased work could be wrought fiercely, with a proportioned circling. And the biting setting of the acorned little hill was of incomparable jewels, and so throughout the base, where

it was most seemly and fitting. Placed there, they shone with a flashing light.

In the branches of which little tree there were artfully set certain open flowerets, shaped into a five-petalled rose. Some of shining sapphire, and some of bright jacinth, or beryl. In five of these flowers there were fitted within five little apples, as big as a sorb-apple and more, and of that same painting, upon a pointed golden spike that stood out from the centre of the flower, so that they feigned to have been produced there.

Which young girl, reverent and kneeling to the ground with her right knee, keeping the other raised, held this notable coral fitly upon it. Which, besides the little branches taken up by the precious flowers, had at the tips of the others monstrous pearls curiously fixed.

Another of these had the cup, with a precious liquor, such as proud Cleopatra did not give to the Roman captain. The three others carried out the service lying upon them, as customary above. Plucking off, then, one after another with the little golden fork those small fruits (unknown to me, and never seen), and offering them to us, we tasted them most savourily. But the unthinkable sweetness of taste that I felt was no otherwise than as if in the gracious matter, set apart, there were the entering in of the longed-for form. And here were given back the round golden apples recited above.

Last of all there appeared a miraculous work, another perpetual fountain by a devised artifice of the material named before. But of another most worthy shaping and figure, wonderfully wrought. Founded upon a fixed axle, by which the turning wheels went round. Upon which axle there stood, made fast, an unequal square three feet long,

and two feet wide, and raised a third of a foot. In the corner parts there sat upon each a harpy, with both wings stretched out to the body of a vessel above, sitting over the levelled middle of this square, best clothed at the edges with a little cornice of gorges and wavings and husks.

And on each of its faces, divided into three, the middle partition, hedged between with wavings, held carved in half-relief a triumph of satyrs and of Nymphs with trophies and exquisite acts — except the front and the hinder part, moderately curved, which, in the place of a squared lineament, held a rounding waved within, in which was wonderfully carved a little sacrifice, with a most ancient altar in the one and in the other with several figures and actions; and the remaining empty places nearby the tails of the harpies, forked, and here and there most aptly turned into rolling fronds, distinguishedly clothed over.

In the middle centre of the level of the said square, out of an antique foliage, there sprang a most beautiful ancient vessel, its circuit not exceeding the compass of the square flat beneath it. And this, with all the work that follows, with every proportioned inquiry both of the rise, the breadth and the thickness, and with the most seemly lineaments of vessels, was most diligently filed and finished, with a perfect and polished shaping.

Which, at its pressed-in mouth, brought forth a basin. The circuit of which exceeded the base vessel beneath, adorned round about with little channels, and with a wide mouth and broad lips, such as no chaser ever had power to work with the graving tool.

At the central point of which another vessel stood out, wonderful for its incredible making; in the lower third of which were slices swelling on the outside, and then there girt it round an order of various and inestimable gems set like navels, most brilliantly adorned with a mutual alternation of the colouring. Above this was fitted a monstrous manly head. From which there went, here and there, its covering in exquisite foliage, clothing it all over at the meeting with the head opposite, beautifully adorning the free body of the vessel.

At the projection of the lip, perpendicular above the head, sat a ring, from which there hung, here and there, a little bundle with heaped-up small branches of fronds and flowers and fruits, swelling in its curve, with a well-polished knotting, both in the one ring and in the other.

Above the middle curve, beneath the projection of the lip, was fixed the head of a little old man with his chin drawn back into foliage, biting a

little pipe through which flowed the water of the fountain, perpetual by artifice, into the basin beneath.

In the opening, then, of this vessel there stood out a most precious little hill, marvellously heaped of countless round gems pressed close one upon another, which with an unequal, or rough, shaping made the stony little hill most charmingly, with the flashing of various lightnings of colour, with a proportioned prominence.

At the top, or summit, of this little hill there grew a little tree of pomegranates, of trunk, or stem, and of branches, and likewise this whole composition, of shining gold. The leaves set on of sparkling emerald. The fruits, of their natural size, scattered here and there, with the golden rind widely split, and in the place of the seeds there burned the brightest rubies, brightest beyond any touchstone and of the thickness of a bean.

Then the ingenious maker of this inestimable work, being plentiful in his imagining, had marked off, in the place of the pith, the seeds with the thinnest silver foil. Beyond this, and reasonably, he had feigned certain other apples split open, but unripe in their seeding, where he had composed, with a bold exquisiteness, thick pearls of eastern whiteness. Skilfully too he had feigned the pomegranate flowers made of perfect coral in calyxes full of golden points.

Beyond this, out of the top of the pipe-like hollow stem there came a turning and free shaft, the lower pivot of which was fixed in a socketed head, or rather made fast upon the middle of the axle. And it rose up through the open and hollowed trunk.

Which shaft, firmly fixed, held up a notable vessel of topaz, of antique form, the lower body of which was wide, girt with swelling slices; at the opening wonderfully with a little cornice, beneath which was a little band enclosed by another set below it. In which binding, in four equal divisions, were fitted four winged little heads of a boy with four dripping pipes at their lips. Then the remainder narrowed to twice as much as the lower body, into a stopping above the mouth of an

inverted foliage. Above which was set another little vessel, almost circular, covered with a most subtle foliage and little cornices and an artful mouth.

From the bottom of this there began a flowery tail of a dolphin, joined somewhat to the slenderness of the vessel set beneath, and it descended with the head finned with fronds above the surrounding girdle, where the boyish heads were fixed. And with a moderate hump, or bending, near the head and curving towards the tail, it made most elegant handles. And all this sloping part showed, with an exquisite polish, the expression of the best lineaments.

Such a topmost vessel, so placed, was so perfectly wrought that when the two-wheeled carriage was moved, the shaft with the vessel joined to it turned round, spinning and pouring out the water from within the tree; and when the wheels stood still, the turning ceased. And in this way I thought that its spinning had its force from one of the wheels, which held another toothed one towards the turning spindle, which had the sockets for the teeth, and moved the stem of the vessel. The wheels were half covered by a winged work; there appeared, as it were, two spread wings, one here and the other there, adorned with certain Scyllas.

This marvellous work, running before each of us, our hands being moistened and then our faces, all made fragrant with an unthinkable scent, we rubbed our hands, so that never such nor so great a scent offered itself to my senses. And in this manner the most apt girls bestowed it.

Bedewed, then, with such a sprinkling of the most fragrant water, the mistress's servers, with a singular showing of kindness, offered a golden goblet, with which first the sovereign Queen, having with a chief affability greeted us all, drank the sweetest nectar; and thereafter in order, one with another, with reverent and gracious and mutual honourings, we solemnly drank. An excellent closing and sealing of all the favours received and of the sweet tasting.

Last of all the sweet-smelling flowers were diligently swept up, and all gathered and all the leavings carried thence away, the paving remaining bright and shining as the brightness of the most burnished mirror, rivalling the aspects standing round about and the shining gems; and, each sitting in the place appointed, the Nymph of the fountain departed.

Last of all the magnanimous and lofty Queen at once ordered an unheard-of dance, or ball, upon the jasper squares, finished with an exact artifice, burnished and bright — such a thing as among mortals was never seen nor devised.

Poliphilo goes on to tell of an elegant dance after so great a banquet, which was a game. And how the Queen committed him to two excellent maidens of hers. Who led him to behold delicious and great things, and, talking with him, plainly instructed him upon certain doubts. At last they came to the three doors. And how he stayed at the middle door, among the amorous Nymphs.

So excessive and incomparable a glory and triumph, and unthinkable treasure, and frugal delights, and the highest pomp, and solemn feast, and most splendid and sumptuous banquet of this most happy and most opulent Queen having been recounted — if I have not distinctly and to the end worthily expressed her chief dignity, let the curious little crowd not marvel at it; for anyone of sharp and ready wit, and adorned and plentiful with a prodigal and most fertile tongue, could not satisfy this plainly, nor altogether.

But much less I, who continually suffered, in every inward hiding-place of my burning heart, the unceasing battle — however absent — of my lady Polia, the occupier and wasting plunderer of all my powers. Beyond, the many marvels, unheard of in their excellence and diversity, things unaccustomed and unlike, inestimable and not human; therefore dazzled and all alike weighed down in every sense of mine, my excessive contemplation drawn apart by the notable variety, I should not know how to describe it perfectly point by point, nor worthily to set it forth.

Who could think of the rich dress and exquisite ornament, and the most careful care; the perfect and ambitious and trapped-out beauty without any defect; the highest wisdom, the eloquence of Aemilius, the more than royal munificence. The distinguished ordering of the architecture, and the obstinate symmetry of this building, perfect and complete; the nobility of the marble-worker's art. The setting straight of the columns, the perfection of statues, the ornament of walls, the variation of stones, the royal vestibule, the most ample peristyle, the artful pavements — who would believe with what luxury and

cost they were adorned and strewn with most precious coverings? The spacious and high inner hall, and the most ambitious inner dining-rooms, bedchambers, closets, baths, library and picture-gallery, richly and with a majestic adornment set out, and solemnly distributed.

Receiving-rooms capacious and wonderful in their art and incredible cost, with the choice praise of their most distinguished maker, every partition and elegant agreement of the distinguished lineaments deservedly approved. I beheld afterwards, with a singular pleasure, a coffered ceiling in the highest degree skilfully adorned, stretched in an even flat, without peer or comparison; it made a proud heaven, with set spacings of manifold shaping, with a drawn and levelled measure, hedging in the little areas with a noble composition, with a ready prominence, which was duly adorned with the lineament of a cornice, with little bands, gorges and egg-work, berries, or fruits of roses evenly threaded. And leaves of acanthus licking along the corners of the square and oblong little areas, with exact roses with a twinned order of foliage, the inner one smaller, with the required interval, all open, and the curved parts, in a greater relief, everything clothed, or gilded, with the best and shining gold, and with the finest and choicest dark blue colouring. With various other figurings of the ornament matching the lineament — let the beamed roof of Salauces, king of the Colchians, yield here.

Then the voluptuous pleasantness of the ordered green places and orchards, and watered gardens, living fountains, with little streams running in marble enclosures, held and hedged in with an incredible making. Grass ever fresh with dew, and flower-bearing, and sweet summer airs and spring winds with the various harmony of small birds. The pure serenity and unfailing temper of the sky, and the wholesomeness of a freest and purest air; places neither low nor stony, nor swept by constant and frosty winds, nor burnt by the unruly and scorching sun, but lit with an easy and kindly weather, and sincerely most joyful with moderation and a middle measure; the fields fertile and untilled yet fruitful of every good, sunny hills, leafy and cool little woods, pleasant with thick shade.

Afterwards the inestimable furnishing, the ready and manifold household and elegant service, the varied youth with its growing age. The most welcome presence of the girls of the hall, of the court, of the chamber, and of the royal household; the venerable and majestic sight of them, with a dress more lovely and seemly and a distinguished ornament, and with an approved and most charming comeliness, as much as ever anyone could feel or tell.

To such endless riches, then, supreme delights and immense treasure, let not the Hyrcanian pontiff boast himself. Nor Darius, nor Croesus, nor any

human opulence and condition — behold, then, being in this part overcome, I can conveniently conclude nothing else than that I stood senseless and out of my mind with astonishment; where I stayed with the utmost pleasure, without weariness of the things present nor with any surfeit of them. But above all, beyond what I have said, I was out of myself, turning over what fate had brought and destined me to these blessed places.

But since I found myself thus, and in so great a heaping of glory, and a holy site, and a happy country, and a blessed delight, and at the frugal and triumphing banquet — such as Clodius the tragedian never made, subject neither to the Tapullan nor the Licinian law — refreshed with a moderate fullness, and none the less by the royal promise of favouring my loving desire not vainly made secure, I comforted myself, holding as nothing all that had until now befallen me and been set in my way; and of everything I spoke well of Fortune, with a joyful gladness.

For which cause, the lofty Queen wishing to show, for a greater display beyond the things aforesaid, the excess and the surpassing of the universe in all excellent and rarest magnificences — everyone sitting in their places, after the miracle of the sumptuous banqueting, without any long delay she ordered a game to be looked at, worthy not so much of the sight as of an eternal remembrance, which also was an excellent dance, or ball, in such a course and manner.

Through the way of the curtains there entered thirty-two young girls, of whom sixteen were clothed in cloth of gold (but eight of one uniform). Then one of those sixteen clothed in gold was dressed in royal habit, and another in the dress of a Queen, with two keepers of the rock, or citadel; two silent ones, or secretaries; and two knights. With an equal number, eight were clothed in cloth of silver, with the same offices.

All these, according to their office, disposed themselves thus, placing themselves upon the squares of the pavement: that is, sixteen clothed in gold on the one side, and sixteen in silver on the other, opposite.

The musicians began to play with three instruments of daring invention, very concordant and sharing together, with a most sweet consonance and tuned melody. At the measured time of the sound, upon their squares, as the King commanded, the dancing and dolphin-like tumblers moved, and with the most seemly turnings, honouring the King and the Queen, they climbed upon the next square, making an excellent pause.

The King of the silver (the sound beginning again from the top) bade her that stood before the Queen set herself over against her. She, going forward with those same reverent gestures, made her pause and stood. In this ordered manner, according to the measuring of the musical time, thus they

changed place, or, staying always upon their square, danced while those driven forward, or taken, departed — always at the King's bidding.

If the sound held one measure, those eight of one kind used that measure in passing to another square. They could not go back, save deservedly for having climbed untouched upon the line of the squares where the King had his seat; nor go straight forward, except by a diagonal line.

A secretary and a knight passed three squares in one measure: the secretary by a diagonal line, the knight by two equal-sided straight ones and one turning off the line; and they could move to every side. The keepers of the citadel could pass straight and freely over many squares. So that in one measure they could run over three, four, or five squares, keeping the measure, and hastening their step.

The King could climb upon whatever square was not blocked, or held by a garrison — indeed he may take it; and that square is forbidden him where others may climb, and if the case be fitting he must yield, with a warning going before. But the Queen upon every square of her own colour, where she first set her seat. And it is well that she always follow her husband closely on every side.

Whenever the officers of the one or the other King found one of the other without keeping and garrison, they made him prisoner, and both kissing one another, the vanquished went out.

In this manner they made a most famous game in a most elegant dance, dancing and merrily playing with the measure of the sound, in such a way that the silver one remained the winner, with cheerfulness, solace and applause. This solemn festival lasted, by its contests, flights and garrisons, for the space of an hour, with such measured circlings, reverences and pauses, and modest stayings, that so great a delight came over me that I not undeservedly thought myself carried up to the supreme delights of the highest Olympus, and to a newest happiness.

The first game in dance being ended, all returned again to their appointed square. And in the same manner as they had done at first, so the second time, having all alike returned in order to their places, the players tightening the measure of the time, so the movements and gestures of the playing dancers moved more busily — but keeping the measure with the sound, in so most apt a manner and with so approved a gesturing and art that it was not fitting to say anything.

But the damsels were well skilled, with their plentiful tresses poured over their delicate shoulders, hanging unsteadily and then leaping upon their backs according to the movement, bound at the head with a little crown of fragrant violets. And when one was taken captive, they raised their arms and beat one palm against the other. So that, playing and dancing thus, there remained

the winner a second time the first again.

In the third dance, all being ordered and set out in their places, the musicians tightened the measure of the time still further, with the manner and tone of the stirring Phrygian — such a sounding as Marsyas of Phrygia never knew how to find. The King clothed in gold made her that stood before the Queen move upon the third square, going straight in her first passage.

For which cause there was at once seen a battle, a tournament, so delightful, with so ready and sudden a vehemence; with bending down to the very ground, and then making a swift and twisting leap, and like a turning tumbler, with two rollings in the air, the one opposite the other. And then without delay, the right foot set to the ground, she turned round three times. And then at once with the other foot she went round the contrary way; all this action they used up in one measure, so fittingly and with so great an agility that nothing could go beyond it: with their deep bowings and ordered spinnings and easy leaping, with comely gestures, as much as ever of such and like a thing was seen, nor ever could be beheld, nor was ever attempted.

Nor was the one ever a hindrance to the other; but whoever was taken by the taker, the honeyed kiss being given her in an instant, went out of the game; and the fewer that remained, the more one saw a most charming skill in the deceiving of one by another. Such a worthy order and manner was kept by each without defect, however briefly the measuring of the learned and excellent musicians hastened it — and it stirred no less all those standing by to such movements, by the agreement of the consonant harmony with the soul, being here chiefly and above all in the highest and concordant consent of the well-being of their disposed bodies.

For this reason, of the power of Timotheus that most skilful musician, I warmly thought that he with his song forced the army of the great Macedonian to take up arms again, and then, turning back the voice and the tone, to leave their arms neglected and provoke them all to ceasing. Of this third game she that was clothed in gold in royal form gloriously triumphed.

This most joyful festival being famously ended with an extreme gladness and the greatest solace, all set themselves to sit. And here, being made to rise, and before the venerable seat of her divine majesty I made a deep reverence, and seemly kneeling, she spoke to me thus: "Poliphilo, put now into forgetfulness the past and befallen cases, and thence the wearisome thoughts, and the danger gone by, for I am certain that at present you are fully restored. Since, then, you wish to go on undaunted in the amorous flames of Polia, I judge it a fitting thing that for this recovery you should go to the three doors, where the high Queen Telosia dwells; in which place

you will see, above each of those doors, its title and index noted and inscribed. Read it carefully; but for the convenience of your guiding and defence I shall give you two of my witty and mistress-like attendants, who, being practised in it, will lead you there most safely and will keep close by you. Go therefore with glad heart, and with a happy outcome."

And at once, with royal largeness, drawing a golden ring from her ring-finger, with a stone anchitis: "Take this," she said, "and you shall carry it gladly with you in memory of my friendly munificence."

At this exhortation and precious gift, being become as it were speechless, I certainly knew nothing equivalent to say, nor how to give thanks. But she, kindly perceiving it, in a matronly way, and with a native excellence and majestic gravity, turned to two distinguished and notable maidens, sitting near her imperial throne; and to the one who sat commanding at the right side she said:

"Logistica, you shall be one of the two who go with our guest Poliphilo." And with a holy, religious and venerable act she turned then to the left side, saying: "Thelemia, and you likewise shall go together with him, and both give him to understand and to know clearly at which door he ought to stay. Then, Poliphilo, they will present you to another Queen, very splendid and venerable. Who, if she shows herself kind and bountiful to you, you shall be blessed; if the contrary, you shall be discontented. Nevertheless in her face no one can grasp it, because sometimes she shows herself with a noble and native courtesy and with a most charming pleasantness, and at other times of herself gloomy, malignant and to be scorned, with an unsteady onset. She it is who ends everything. And for such a dark condition she is not undeservedly named Queen Telosia; who dwells not in so proud and opulent a mansion as you now plainly see me inhabit.

"I would have you know, however, that the highest Maker, nor ordered nature, could not give you a greater treasure than to come to this my divine presence and wide munificence; wherefore artful nature could not heap up greater riches than to obtain, and to win, my kindly favour, and to be a sharer in so great a good. Whence, as you may exquisitely judge, no such treasure could ever be found in the world in comparison with that which truly is found in me, a heavenly gift obtained by mortals.

"But Queen Telosia stays in a clouded place of hiding, and her dwelling has its approaches shut, since she consents by no leave that men should discern how great and of what kind her beauty is; for it is not lawful, nor permitted, that a divine beauty should appear to bodily eyes; and for such a reason the effect of her outcome stands blind. But with a wonderful observance she transforms herself, changing her skin and of many forms, unwilling to reveal herself unasked.

"And when the most ancient doors are opened to you, in each of them she will present herself before your eyes as one to come; and yet you will not know her, unless moderating prudence somewhat sees her in a riddle, and with an upright and sincere judgement, and rather considers her — because in habit and in aspect she changes herself ambiguously. And by this two-headed watching, man is very often deceived without remedy of what he expected.

"That, then, Poliphilo, which these two girls of mine, entrusted and committed to you, shall counsel you by their suggesting — and at which door you ought to enter and to stay, and which of them shall most please you — you may hear and listen to, and freely assent to it, by my most excellent and gratuitous gift and the leave I grant, because these have some knowledge of that." And this said, she made a sign to the two, Logistica and Thelemia, who without waiting made themselves humbly her servants. And I then, in the act of speaking — not daring, nor knowing how, before so lofty a presence — gave her thanks for her great munificence.

The two appointed companions took me festively with a homely readiness and maidenly gestures, the one by the right hand and the other by the left; and leave being reverently obtained first chiefly from the Queen, and then from all. Going out by the same curtains and door, still eager and unsatisfied, I turned back to the notable door to gaze wholly at the artful palace, admirable in the builder's art and finished, the subtlety of which work no valid devising of mortals could imitate. For I fittingly thought that sagacious nature herself had here singularly feigned, for admiration, so many delights of her imperceptible workmanship — most apt for convenience, for use, and for grace and glory, and firm and constant for perpetuity, and lasting.

For which cause I should exceedingly gladly have stayed a little while; but a follower of the appointed guides and my companions, I could not; true it is that in a swiftest stealing of a glance, in the border, or frieze, of that door, I saw noted this inscription: HO TES PHYSEOS OLBOS. And as much as I could draw with my readiest senses, so much most gratefully I received, taking in that passage an extreme delight, as much as is incredible to say. O happy, then, whoever should be granted to be always in such a place a citizen, or a dweller.

Having come into the enclosed area of the orange hedge, Thelemia says to me with a singular affability: "Beyond the most excellent and marvellous things that you have beheld, Poliphilo, four more wonderful things remain for you to see." And on the left side of the incomparable palace they led me into a most notable garden of the greatest devising, of cost, of

time, and of the subtlest artifice. Which in its circuit and compass was as great as that where the majestic residence stood; round about, cleaving to the walls, there stretched fitted garden-boxes, in which, in place of greenery, every plant was of the purest glass — box-trees clipped (beyond what one can imagine and believe) distinguishedly, with their stems of gold, such material being brought thither. Between the one and the other of which there alternated a cypress, its height not exceeding two paces, and of the box one. Filled then with a marvellous feigning of many-shaped simples, with a most elegant following of nature, and with the most joyful and varied forms of flowers, with a distinct and most welcome colouring.

The flat lip of the square opening of these little boxes, or raised beds, was corniced with gold, with the subtlest lineaments, well polished and adorned; the faces of which, of glass plates gilded within, and with a wonderful graving of a most curious history, stood out most beautifully, enclosed within golden channels which held them bitingly, with the lowest socle raised a sixth of a foot.

The hedge going round the garden, at a nice distance, was with bellied columns of the said material, clothed with flower-bearing bindweed, all in relief; and here and there there stood fluted squares of gold, and from one to the other it arched, with the required beam, and frieze, and cornice, with a due projection above the glass capital of the round column. The solid part of which beneath the arches was feigned jasper with a manifold colouring, meeting and bright. Which arches were somewhat raised and drawn up from the solid in proportion; the throats of the arches were stopped with rhombs of the purest glass, a third of a foot their diameter, between twinned little channels likewise enclosed and hedged about with a various encaustic painting most acceptable to the senses.

The whole area besides was strewn with little glass roundings and other most fitting figurings, to the utmost grace, with a mutual consent and a steady cohesion, with a chief gemlike shining, without any adulterating of foliage set beneath. Above the flowers there breathed a chief fragrance from an anointing, they being smeared and made rosy.

Most skilfully here the sweet-spoken Logistica made some little narration, and, discoursing of nature, praised the excellent making, and the nobility of the material and the art and the invention (such as would not be found at Murano), and blaming its nature, she said: "Poliphilo, let us climb this most excellent watch-tower, near the garden." And Thelemia remaining below, by a winding stair we climbed cheerfully to the levelled upper part. Where she showed me, with a divine eloquence, a garden of a very wide circuit, drawn out in the form of a various intricate labyrinth, and its circling passages not to be walked,

but to be sailed. For in place of walkable roads there ran little streams of water. Which mysterious place was of itself a wholesome and pleasant field, of happy soil and fruitful, various and filled with every plenty of sweet fruits, and adorned with an overflowing of springs, and joyful with every flowering greenness, poured out with every solace and with the greatest delight. And she said:

"I think, Poliphilo, that of this wondrous site you do not understand its appointed lot. Attend. He who enters cannot go back. But, as you plainly see, those watch-towers set here and there stand seven circuits apart one from another; and the extreme harm that falls to those who enter is this: that in that central tower, in the open gap of its entry, a deadly dragon dwells, most devouring and invisible. And this is most harmful on the one hand, and on the other quiet: not to be able to see it, and utterly terrible not to be able to shun it. Which, both at the entry and in the going forward, wherever it chances and is appointed to wish, devours those who have entered. And if between one tower and another it does not kill them, they pass safely through the whole sevenfold circuit as far as the next tower.

"Those, then, who enter here by that first tower (look at the title written in Greek noting, and think most carefully upon it: DOXA KOSMIKE HOS POMPHOLYX) go with the little boat with the current, and without any care or labour the fruits and flowers fall into the skiff, and with the utmost pleasure and sport they run through the seven windings as far as the second tower. And consider, Poliphilo, how great the brightness of the air is in this beginning, growing to the middle tower, and thence little by little, about the centre, darkening and growing gloomy and lightless.

"In that first tower there dwells eternally, presiding, a most pious matron and kindly giver, before whom there stands most steadily a most ancient urn of lots and of dispensing, adorned with seven Greek letters as you see thus: THESPION, packed with fated tokens; and to each of those who enter, most charmingly and munificently she gives one of those, without respect of condition, but according as the chance disposition falls out. These, being received, coming forth they begin to sail in the labyrinth, the passages hedged with roses and fruit-bearing trees.

"The first long circuit of the seven windings being passed, from the Ram to the last fishy tail, coming to the second tower, they find countless girls of divers condition, who ask of all the showing of their tokens; and it being shown to them, they, most skilled, know the proper and disposed token, and embracing him they receive him as a guest, and invite him with them to wander through the other seven circuits; and according to his bent readiness, and with divers exercise, inseparably they lead them as far as the third tower. In this place whoever will persevere with his companion, she never abandons nor leaves him. Because there they find other more voluptuous damsels, and many cast off the

"first and cleave to these. So that, departing from that second tower to come to the third, they find the waters somewhat contrary, and it takes the service of rowing. Having come and arrived at the third, and thence making their departure towards the fourth, they find the water resisting more — however much in these seven slanting courses a great and variable and inconstant delight is seen.

"Come to the fourth tower, they find other young women, wrestlers and fighters, and these, having examined the first tokens, draw those friendly to their exercise. And those who have not their like they let pass on with their own. And in these circuits they find the water still more against them, where there is need of greater study and toilsome labour of rowing.

"Landing at the fifth tower, they find it mirroring, in which they contemplate how fair is their like; and with this most joyful and most longed-for delight, keeping it in mind, they pass on with a more laborious course. In this place is plainly discussed that saying, and golden: the blessed have held to the middle. Not of line, not of place, but of time is this passage and bound, where with a sincere examination the middle is discerned, and with whom happiness is coupled, or the blessedness of wit, or of plenty. Which, not having with them, in what follows they are the less able to gain it.

"Taking leave from here, the waters through the circling windings begin to draw somewhat their swift course towards the middle end, and with little rowing, or none, they are carried to the sixth. Here they find elegant matrons, with unwedded and chaste looks, intent upon the divine worship; by the divine aspect of whom the guests, taken with love of them, condemning the former and turning to a loathing of it, hold with these a quiet commerce and a peaceful passage through the seven windings.

"These being passed, through those that follow, with a darkening of the air, with many discomforts and a toilsome voyage, they weigh the crossing by much running. Because the more the winding of the passages draws near in the figure to the centre, the shorter they are. And so much the more one runs, fallen, with an ineffectual swiftness, and with slippery wanderings, into the whirlpool of the central tower; and with the utmost affliction of soul for the remembrance of the fair places and the fellowship left behind, and the more that they know they cannot return by turning the prow of their keel, because continually at their stern are the prows of the others sailing. There comes to a greater pain the frightful title above the entrance of the middle tower, in this Attic expression: THEON LYKOS DYSALGETOS.

"And here, considering the displeasing title, they grieve at having entered such a labyrinthine orchard, seeing that it holds in itself so many delights and yet lies under so wretched and unavoidable a necessity." Then Logistica, smiling, inspired, added: "Poliphilo, in this devouring gap there sits a severe beholder holding the scales, and a judge of those who enter, who with an even balance weighs and scrupulously ponders their action. By which they might fare better, or worse,

"elsewhere. And because it would be long to tell all, let what is told be enough for now. Let us go down to our companion Thelemia." Who, asking of our delay, Logistica answered her that it was not enough only for our curious Poliphilo to see, but that I should also give him a knowledge of that which, since the matter could not go further, he might at least understand and know by my interpretation. And this said, Thelemia says:

"Let us go for a walk to the other garden, no less delightful and filled with delights: the glass one adjoining the right wall of the proud, great and royal palace." And having entered there, I remained wholly dazzled and exceedingly full of wonder to see a workmanship hard not so much of belief as of telling. Which was of equal compass with the glass one, with a like disposition of raised beds, with adorned lips of cornice-work and a golden socle, save for the workmanship and material of the enclosing walls — for it was all made most excellently of silk: the box-trees and cypresses of silk, their stems and branches of gold, not without a most apt sowing among them of gems; and the standing beds most thickly filled with the simples that the mother of them envies, with a most joyful and most longed-for flowering, with every exquisite colouring, fragrant, and like the other glass ones.

But the surrounding walls, of a wondrous workmanship and of incredible cost, were all of a covering of pearl — that is, I saw all the faces covered with the brightest pearls, heaped and gathered into one, and with a thick cohesion, joined together of a middling thickness; and above them most beautifully, sprouting out of the boxes, a straggling and greenest ivy with its foliage somewhat raised from the pearls and hanging, with its stems of gold most artfully creeping, with slender little roots wandering among the pearls, with the utmost and most exquisite polish. And berries of jewels, knit to the clusters, with an excellent division, headed by the golden squares, with a masterly and required following of beam, frieze, and cornice of gold.

The faces of the beds rewoven in tapestry stitch with little histories of love and of hunting, in threads of gold and silver and silk, feigned with so most fitting a painting that nothing could equal it. The ground of the most level area was seen most welcome, of green silk pile, like a most notable meadow; and in the middle of the area there stood a round enclosure, with a raised dome of little rods of gold, distinguishedly covered with manifold flower-bearing rose-trees of the said workmanship.

So that I should almost say this making far more acceptable to the senses than the true one. Beneath which roof, in the going-round form, were seats of ruddy jasper; and all the space between of a solid rounding, as far as the ample circuit went, of yellow jasper, of various mixtures confusedly agreeing and most charmingly adulterated in one. With

so great a shining that they rivalled every object set before them.

Sitting solaced here beneath it a while, the most witty Thelemia took the lyre that she carried with her, and with a heavenly melody and unheard-of sweetness of sweet speech began to sing the origin of so many delights and the rule of her Queen, and with what adornment her companion Logistica's sweet fellowship was — I marvelling that Apollo did not come there to listen, so excessive was the harmony she uttered. So that nothing else at present, however longed for, would I have valued at all.

The divine poem being said, at once the god-loving Logistica, taking me by the hand, led me forth from that place, saying: "Poliphilo, I would have you know that things of the understanding are of a greater delight to the intellect than things of sense are to the senses. For this, let us enter here, to satisfy both the receiving faculties."

Who, with a most distinguished company, led me in near this garden to another, where I beheld an arched colonnade of widely spaced arches, from the floor to the topmost bend five paces high and three in the opening, all of brick, with a symmetried slope, or spread, in a continuous ring, all most beautifully clothed and covered with green ivy, no least trace of the wall appearing; and there were a hundred arches, and they closed in a flowering orchard.

Beneath each one of the arches, then, was set an altar of ruddy porphyry, excellently lined. And upon each there sat a golden statue of a Nymph with a divine likeness, with varying dress, and the ornament of the head, and of gesture, each of them reverent towards the middle centre of this garden.

In this middle centre there was mysteriously founded a base of translucent chalcedony in a cubic form. And above this, within the square compass, there was placed a rounding two feet high, and of a diameter of a pace and a half, of the ruddiest jasper. Above this then sat a triangle, by the measure of the figure beneath, of a height of a pace and a half, of the blackest stone. The corners of which triangle stretched to the edge of the plinth below it.

On the well-polished and free front of each there was fitted a most notable image, in aspect divine, grave and venerable, with their feet upon the untouched part of the triangular figure of the rounding pressed beneath, of a tall stature, as tall as the blackest stone, to which they clung with their backs, with their arms stretched to the left and to the right towards the corners; they held a horn of plenty packed full, fixed at the blunted, or cut-off, corners, the shortening of their fingers made even, a foot and a sixth, of purest gold. The horns, thongs and statues shone forth, with their hands wrapped in the wandering and straggling thongs. Flying along the flat of the stone. And in nymphlike dress, a workmanship not human but divine. And therefore

let the tomb of Tarina, queen of the Sacae, yield here.

In the lowest figure, on each square side, in the flat face, were carved Greek letters — three, one, two, and three, in this order: DYS A LO TOS. In the round one I beheld three hieroglyphic characters, perpendicular, beneath the feet of each image. And first was stamped the form of the Sun. Then, beneath the next, an antique rudder. Last there appeared a dish, with a flame within it.

Above the outstretched corners of the dark stone, looking, I saw an Egyptian monster of gold, lying four-footed. One of which had a wholly human face. The other half human and half beast. The third wholly beastly. With a fillet going round the brow, with two ribbons covering the ears, hanging down, and likewise licking along the neck and breast. And one descending down the back; with the body of a lioness, the face turned forward.

Upon the back of each, then, there pressed a massive golden triangular pyramid, up to its topmost cover five lines of the lowest face, or of its diameter. On each front there was carved a circle of that measure, and above the circle a Greek letter, OMICRON. On the next face a circle, and above it a letter, OMEGA. On the third flat a circle, and above it a letter, NY.

Here Logistica, well taught, began to proclaim and to say: "By these figures the celestial harmony stands. And take heed, Poliphilo, that these figures, with a perpetual affinity and conjunction, are most distinguished antique monuments and Egyptian hieroglyphs, which, wishing to hint at it, say to you: To the divine and infinite Trinity of one essence. The lowest figure is consecrated to the divinity, because from unity it is

"brought forth, and on every side it is one, and of every figure it is the first steadying, and in every base constant and abiding. The round one set above it is free of beginning and of ending. In the encompassed flat of which those three lineaments are held, set directly before the face of each image, attributed according to its property.

"The Sun, with a most joyful light, can do all things, and its nature is attributed to God. The second is the rudder, which expresses the provident government of the universe, with infinite wisdom. The third is the fiery vessel, and I feel of it a sharing of love. And though the three images are distinct, yet they are one thing folded together, and singularly embraced, and everlastingly knit in one, kindly communicating its good — as one may see by the horns of plenty at the elbows of the figure."

And continuing her fate-telling, Logistica said further: "At the image of the Sun, mark this Greek word: ADIEGETOS. At that of the rudder, look at that Greek noting: ADIACHORISTOS. At that of the fire was carved: ADIEREUNETOS. By such effects, then, those three animals are set below, subject to the golden obelisk lying above them, which are three great and famous opinions of such figures. And as the human likeness effectually surpasses the others, so, neither more nor less, does the opinion.

"On the pyramid are three flat sides lined with three circles, each one signifying a time: past, present, and to come. Understand that no other figure could hold those three circles unchanging save that one. And none of mortals could perfectly discern nor see two sides of the said figure together, save one wholly, which is the present. And therefore most wisely were those three characters stamped: OON.

"For which cause, Poliphilo — not accusing me of being long-winded, but most ready to set you right in such a telling — know that the first base figure is known only to itself, and to one so far as human and translucent; but to us not in full clearness. Then he who is gifted with wit climbs above and skilfully considers the colouring of the figure. Searching further, they climb to the third figure, which by its colouring is dark and shut up in those three images of gold, and walled about.

"Last, climbing higher still, they consider a figure in a threefold aspect; and thence, the more they climb contemplating towards the sharpest narrowing, and there, however well instructed, they have nevertheless gained nothing else than that one sees that it is; but what it may be, they remain ignorant, unavailing, and feeble."

Logistica having here excellently set out the most approved precepts with a most complete knowledge, with a sagacious skill, plucked from the most abundant lap of divine nature, I began

without hesitation to feel a greater delight than in any other marvellous work graciously beheld with my eyes — thinking upon the obelisk of so great a mystery, standing with an unspeakable evenness, and whole in its firmness and perpetuity, solid and eternal, with an equality of likeness not to be crumbled, and enduring incorruptible.

Where there breathed a most welcome breath of heaven, with unchanging airs, in this meadow flowering round about, founded and abiding in a wide and circling space, with bending shrubs of every fruit, sweet to the taste, and packed with every health, with a perpetual greenness, with the ordering of a ruled arrangement for comeliness and charm and adornment, disposed and planted, brought wonderfully to perfection by the chief study of nature, and unceasingly lit by the most precious gold.

Logistica being silent, then, both of them holding me by the hands, we went out festively through the gap, or opening, of one of the arches, outside the girdle of the ivied enclosure; and going on from there through the middle of that compass, Thelemia saying most joyfully: "Let us go now to the appointed doors." So that, going forward through the pleasant region and country with a ready and prepared advance, I beheld the sky purged of every darkening cloud, with sweet, witty and particular discoursings.

I, being unsatisfied in understanding the whole of the inestimable riches, unconsiderable delights, and unmatchable treasure (to which let Osiris yield, the builder of the two temples of gold, one to heavenly Jove and the other to the royal) of the most sacred Queen, put to them this little question:

"Tell me, blessed young women, if my curious asking be welcome to you now. Among all the precious little stones that I have been able to see clearly, I judged one of great worth and price — nay, incomparable and most precious beyond esteeming. Much and far more was it than the jasper that had stamped upon it the likeness of Nero in his breastplate. Nor such either was the flashing topaz of the statue of Arsinoe, the Arabian queen. Nor was so great a cost laid out for the gem for which Nonius the senator was proscribed, as for that shining and incomparable diamond, of so unseen a beauty and thickness, that hung from the richest necklace above the snowy breast of our divine Queen. What carving was that? For so great was its flashing, and being besides at a distance, I could not perfectly discern it. So that this only remains, which holds me anxious and my mind in suspense to know."

Logistica, taking note of my honest question, answered at once, saying: "Know, Poliphilo, that in the gem is carved the image of the highest Jove sitting crowned upon his throne. And beneath his majestic and holy footstool are the ruined giants, who wished to climb up to his most high seat, level with the height of his most ample sceptre. And he struck them with lightning. In his left hand he holds a

"little flame of fire. In the right a horn of plenty stuffed full of good, and he stands with his arms spread. This is the whole of what is held in the most precious jewel."

Then I said: "What do those two very unsuited things mean that he holds in his divine hands?" Thelemia, witty, answered: "By his infinite goodness the immortal Jupiter makes a show to earth-born men that they may have at their wish that of the two hands which pleases them, freely to choose."

And without delay I added: "Since our pleasant talking has fallen here, most welcome companions — my kindled desire to understand not being yet wholly fulfilled, and since my boldness did not displease you — tell me this, I pray you. Before my horrible fright I saw, of a daring greatness and art, a stone monster, which is an elephant. Entering, then, into its empty belly, I found two tombs, with writings of an ambiguous meaning, about finding treasure: that I should scorn the body and carry away the head."

Logistica, without any other thinking, expounding it, answered cheerfully: "Poliphilo, I know fully what you ask; I would however have you know that not without a great admiration of human wit, and with an ardent study and incredible diligence, was that huge engine made, with a perplexity of the intellect to understand its divine conceit. Take heed that above its front there hangs the ornament with that double-headed writing, which in the mother and common tongue says: labour and industry. For in the world, whoever living would have treasure, let him leave rotting idleness, signified by the great body, and take the adorned head, which is that writing — and you shall have treasure by toiling with industry."

No sooner were her soothing and effectual words ended than, being perfectly taught the whole, I gave thanks for her affable kindness; yet, being still most eager to search out all that I had before imperfectly grasped, and having made myself familiar with them, I made a third request: "Most wise Nymph, in my coming out of the underground caverns I found an antique and elegant bridge. Which, on both its parapets, in porphyry stone on the one side, and on the other of ophite, I saw certain hieroglyphs carved. And of both I was the interpreter; but I remained ignorant only of the branches, not knowing them, which were bound to the horns, and then why in porphyry stone, and not in the like of the other side."

At once, without other pondering, she kindly answered me: "Of the branches, the one is

"of fir, and the other of larch; the nature of which woods is such that the one does not easily hold commerce with fire, and the other, laid under a weight when squared into a beam, does not bend. That patience, then, is commended which is not easily kindled into anger, nor bends in adversity.

"The porphyry stone stands with a notable mystery for such an expression. For it is affirmed to be of such a nature that not only does it not burn in the furnace, but it also makes the other stones standing near it unburnable. Such does true patience show itself: that not only is it not kindled, but it renders those that are kindled quenched. The stone of ophite has its property well known, fitting to that saying.

"So that, Poliphilo, I commend you in this part, because you are eager for such inquiry; for to weigh everything, and consider, and measure it, shows itself praiseworthy." Here I highly praised the wisdom of the most eloquent lady, saying countless thanks.

And thus, with honest and most approved discourse, we came most festively to a most charming river. Upon the banks of which I saw a gracious plane-grove, besides other greenest little trees, and water shoots excellently set and placed, with lotuses set between. Where there crossed a proud stone bridge of three arches, with its ends upon the banks above the firmest foundations, with the piers keeled at their two fronts to hold the structure most firm, and with most noble parapets.

In which, at the middle curve of the wedge beneath the arch, here and there, there stood out, raised and well polished, a porphyry square with a gable, holding a sunk carving of hieroglyphs. On the right at our crossing I saw a matron bound with a serpent, sitting upon one haunch only, and with the other leg in the act of rising; with the hand on the side she sat on she held a pair of wings, and in the other, on the rising side, a tortoise. Opposite there was a circle, the centre of which two little spirits held, turning their backs with their little breasts to the circumference.

Logistica said to me here too: "Poliphilo, these hieroglyphs I know you do not understand. But they are much to the purpose for one who goes to the three doors. And therefore they are most fitly set here as a monument for those passing by. The circle says: the blessed have held to the middle. The other: temper swiftness by sitting, and slowness by rising. Now turn it over discussingly in your mind."

Which bridge was then of a moderate slope, showing the skilful inquiry, and the art and wit of its most clear-sighted maker and inventor; and I praised in it the eternal solidity, which is not known to the purblind moderns and false architects, without letters, measure or art, who paint it over, and covering it with pictures and lineaments the building stands in every way ill-joined and misshapen. Which was all of most comely Hymettian marble.

Having passed the bridge, we walked beneath through the cool shades, sweetly kept by the various chattering of small birds. We came to a stony and rocky place, where lofty and steep mountains rose up. And thence next to a broken and pathless and rugged mountain, all gnawed away and full of a bursting roughness. High into the air, worn down to a spur, and bare of all greenness, and dry mountains round about. And there were carved the three rough doors, rudely hollowed in the living rock, an antique work, and beyond belief most ancient, in a great harshness of site.

Above each of which, in Ionic, Roman, Hebrew and Arabic characters, I saw the title that the divine Queen Eleuterylida had foretold and prophesied to me that I should find.

After we had come there, the damsel companions immediately began to interpret clearly and to make plain the titles to be noted; and knocking at the resounding right-hand valves, closed, of metal, stained with a greenish rust, without delay they were opened.

And behold, there presented herself to us a woman far on in years, of an unwedded aspect, who came out of a wattled little cottage with a smoky roof and smoked walls, by its small door (which had noted above it PYLURANIA), coming with a modest matronliness; her little chapel set in a solitary place, and in a shady cliff, crumbling with bare and friable stone; torn, squalid, lean, poor, with her eyes fixed upon the ground; Theude her name.

And with her she had six companions and inseparable serving maids, meanly enough clothed and heavy. Of whom one was named Parthenia. The second Edosia, and one Hypocolinia. The fourth Pinotidia. And next was Tapinosa, and the last Ptochina. Which venerable matron, with her right arm bare, pointed to high Olympus.

She dwelt at the entrance of a stony road, difficult to go along, hindered with thorns and briars. The place appearing rough and displeasing, with the sky rainy and troubled, and darkened with a cloudy gloom, and a most narrow path.

So that Logistica, taking note that at the first sight I shrank from such a thing, said to me, almost sadly: "Poliphilo, this path is not known until the end." And thus of this venerable and holy woman Thelemia, sharp-witted, quickly said to me: "O Poliphilo, the love of such a laborious woman is not for you now." I, nodding shrewdly to Thelemia, we came forth from there. And the door being closed again, they knocked at the left-hand one.

Behold, without any waiting it was opened, and we let in; and there came to us a matron with a golden sword, with fierce eyes and ready in her look, brandishing her raised and shining blade in her hand. In the middle of which there hung suspended a little crown of gold and a branch of palm laid across it; with arms of Hercules and made for labour, with a magnanimous bearing, with a slender belly, small mouth, strong shoulders; in her face with a showing of not being frightened by any hard and difficult undertaking, but of a fierce and giant-like spirit. And her name was Eucleia, and she was venerably attended by six noble young women, obedient. The name of the first Merimnasia; of the second, Epitide; of the next, Ergasilea. The fourth was called Anectea. And the fifth was named Statia. The last was called Olistea.

The place and site seemed to me to be very laborious. Perceiving this, Logistica readily began to sing in the Dorian mode and tone, having taken the lyre from Thelemia's hand, and playing sweetly, to say: "O Poliphilo, let it not weary you to strive manfully in this place. For, the labour being lifted away and removed, the good remains." So vehement was her song that I was already consenting to dwell with these young women, however much the habit of labour appeared there — when suddenly Thelemia, trim and coaxing, and with a sweet semblance, said to me: "It seems to me a reasonable thing that before you settle here, my dearest little Poliphilo, you should by all means see the third door as well."

I consenting, we went out from this one too; and the brazen valves being bolted, Thelemia struck at the third and middle door, and the bar being removed, without delay it was opened. And being let in, there came to meet us a notable lady, whose name was Philtronia. With wanton and unsteady glances, her most joyful look at the first sight forced me to love her and drew me to it.

A dweller in a voluptuous place, its ground green with soft grass and clothed with flowers, abounding in solace and pleasant idleness, flowing with springs of the clearest fountains and little streams, running with a sounding gush, watered to the greatest pleasure; sunny fields, and the shades of the leafy trees cool and fresh.

She likewise had with her six mistress-like and most shapely girls of her own age, and most charming in their look, with a most welcome elegance and amorous ornaments, trapped out, seemly with an ambitious beauty; of whom the name of the first was Rastonelia, the next was named Chortasina, the third Idonesa, and the fourth was called Tryphelea. And the fifth was called Etiania; the last Adia.

Such and so made presences showed themselves exceedingly welcome and delightful to my intent eyes. For this the sincere Logistica, seeing me readily disposing myself and already abruptly bent to the love of her, and addicted in a servile manner, said with a sorrowful voice:

"O Poliphilo, the painted and feigned beauty of this woman is lying, insipid and savourless; for if you would look discussingly upon her back you would grasp, with loathing, how much unseemliness lies beneath, and how despicable and stomach-turning and abominable they are with their foulness, standing high upon a great heap of filth. For that which flees is fleeting and vanishing, and the pleasure passes, and shame with repentance, with vain hopes, with the briefest cheerfulness, with perpetual weeping and anxious sighs, the toilsome life remains behind.

"O sweetness adulterated with misery, holding in itself so much bitterness, like the honey in Colchis dripping from the leaves. O death most dreadful and foul, how you are clothed in a sweet poison; with how many hazards and mortal perils and cares are you sought by blind lovers, unadvisedly and headlong. Present and before their eyes you stand, and the wretches do not see you. O of how many sorrows and bitter pain and torment you are the bearer. O depraved, impious and execrable appetite; O detestable madness; O senses defrauded — by you thus slipperily, with that same beastly pleasure, wretched mortals are ruined. O sordid love. O most absurd frenzy. O disordered and empty desire, nesting and wounding in the hearts you have touched with so many errors and torments. O wicked and deadly destruction of manifold good. O huge monster, how easily and slyly you veil and cloud the eyes of your unhappy lovers? O sad and ill-starred are they who make themselves birdlime with so many evils, in

so little, and poisonous, a pleasure, and pressed into a feigned good."

These and like words Logistica said, stirred with vehemence and with indignant wrinkles rising on her brow; and, throwing the lyre to the ground, she broke it. Whereupon Thelemia, quick and undaunted by such urging, laughingly made me a sign that I should not attend to Logistica. For which cause Logistica, knowing my wicked leaning, kindled with disdain, turned her back and, sighing, hurrying and running, went out.

And I remained with my conquering and dear Thelemia, who, coaxing and cheerful, said to me: "This is that place, Poliphilo, where before long you will find without fail the thing most loved by you, which is yours, which is the thing of the world of which your obstinate heart thinks and longs without ceasing." So that, scrupulously running it over within myself, I found only that nothing else was stamped upon my wretched heart, thinkable and most desired, save my sun-born Polia. By these comfortable and most welcome and divine little words

I was gladdened and took an extreme comfort.

Thelemia, then, perceiving that such a matron with her company, and the place and its condition, were to my pleasure and content, and her own kindness, kissing me like a dove and embracing me closely, asked leave of me and departed.

And the metal valves being closed again, I remained shut in at once among those distinguished Nymphs, who began most charmingly and wantonly to sport about me; and, hedged in by the voluptuous crowd of them, to provoke me to enticing longings, alluring and persuasive.

Whence I felt a beginning of itching, their wanton looks fostering an increase of an amorous and wounding fire. So that Phryne would perhaps have warmed the cold and superstitious Xenocrates with so great an onset of love, and moved him and made him fall into luxury, nor would he have been called a statue by her, if she had been one of these. With wanton faces, and forward breasts, coaxing eyes sparkling and playful in their rosy brows.

Most excellent forms, kindling dress, girlish movements, biting glances, a cleanest adornment. No part feigned, but all perfected by nature, with an exquisite polish; nothing misshapen, but all a most fitting harmony. Fair heads with the blondest tresses and sunlike hair, so many and so beautifully folded together with little cords, or braids, of silk and twisted threads of gold, that they wholly surpassed human work, wrapped about the head with a distinguished ordering and held with hair-pins; and the forehead wooded with curling ringlets, hanging over with a wanton unsteadiness. And with elegant garments of manifold invention for pleasure, all fragrant, musky, breathing an unknown scent.

Their speech of itself able to steal away and force any reluctance and hardness of whatever wild and ill-disposed heart, and to corrupt all sanctity, to bind everything loose, and to fit every awkward rusticity, and to crumble every flinty hardness. By which things my soul, being wholly inflamed with a new longing, and already proscribed in the utmost burning of concupiscence, and every headlong and slippery appetite of mine stirred to love and plunged in desire, suddenly I saw myself invaded and infected with a fiery contagion, and made hot with such a kindling; and it growing within me, the lovely damsels, without my noticing, left me alone, so kindled, in a most pleasant plain.

An elegant Nymph comes to meet him in this place, where he was left alone and deserted by the wanton girls. Poliphilo lovingly describes her beauty and her dress.

My tender heart being excessively struck with amorous prickings, I do not know whether I raved, that I stayed thus astonished at the manner in which so suddenly the most welcome company vanished and disappeared from my eyes. So that, almost out of myself and as if carried off, raising my eyes a little, behold, before me I see only an artful arbour of flowering jasmine, with a tall arching, painted all over with its fragrant little flowers of the three colours mingled. Entering beneath this, heavily anxious at the unlooked-for loss, and thinking again upon the various and great and stupendous things gone by, and above all the high hope that I firmly held, according to the royal and fated promises, of finding again my golden-haired Polia — alas, Polia,

I said, breathing; so that beneath that greenness there sounded the amorous sighs formed within my kindled and treasuring heart.

And no sooner was I stirred in this agony and thus absorbed than, without noticing, I came to the end of that flowery covering; and looking, there appeared to me a countless crowd of youth of both kinds keeping high festival, with sounding voices and with the melodies of various instruments, with comely and playful dancings and clappings, and with much and most joyful gladness, solacing themselves in troops upon a most ample plain. So that, seized by this such and welcome novelty, sitting down full of wonder, I stood in thought about going any further.

And behold, a Nymph, as it were notable and festive, parting from those with her burning torch in her hand, was directing her maidenly steps towards me; whence, plainly seeing that she was a true and real girl, I did not move, but gladly awaited her. And here, with girlish readiness and a modest approach, and with a starry face, coming straight towards me and now drawing near, she came smiling, with such a presence and comely

elegance as perhaps the amorous lady of Idalium did not show to warlike Mars, nor to her the shapely shepherd Adonis, nor the delicate Ganymede to the highest and inflamed Jove, nor the most beautiful Psyche to burning Cupid.

For which cause, if I had seen this one as a fourth among the three quarrelling goddesses, and had been appointed judge by Jove above, as the Phrygian shepherd was in the shadowing woods of Mesaulon, without doubt I should justly have judged her far more of an admirable form, and without equal more worthy of the inscribed apple, and without any respect to the others. Whom at the first sight I suspected to be certainly Polia; but the condition of the unaccustomed dress and place dissuaded me. And by this lawful discerning, staying doubtful, I kept myself in a reverent suspense.

This sun-born Nymph, then, clothed her maidenly and divine little body in a most fine cloth of green silk woven with a warp of gold (that most joyful colouring of the little feathers of a duck's neck) mingled, over a white and crimped shift of cotton, covering her cleanest and most delicate flesh and milky skin, such as the inventress Pamphila, daughter of Plates, first knew how to weave in the island of Cos. Which shift graciously seemed to cover whitest and flesh-coloured roses.

But the gown above this, elegantly worn with the smallest little folds, or wrinkles, clinging, and above the wide flanks girt most tightly with a little cord of gold, holding down the folds of the thinnest cloth over the delicately swelling breast — above this first girdle the excess of the long garment was drawn up, the fringed hem remaining evenly as far as her fleshy ankles.

Then this raised and tucked-up garment was fastened at the first golden cord with the sacred girdle of holy Cytherea. Which gathered raising, curved about and elegantly composed, went round above the modest waist, with a welcome swelling, and above the firm and quivering haunches; and the remainder of the garment let down veiled the round and small belly with the finest wrinklings, unsteady at the breathing of the soft breezes and by the movement of her body, falling as far as her milky hams.

Sometimes, by the tempered blowing of the little winds, the light garment being driven, it betrayed her modest and neat shape, which made a ready scorn of it. So that I did not rashly suspect that she was almost not of a seed-born composition. Then her outstretched arms, with her long hands, adorned with fine and turned fingers, with longish, faintly reddened and

shining nails, such as were never dedicated to the like of Minerva of the flock. Which arms, through the clearness of the sleeves, appeared little less than bare; and the coming-out of the one arm and the other, near her white shoulders, was most beautifully encircled by a border woven of refined gold, and plentifully adorned with shining jewels.

In this same manner were all the hems of the gown, with the tiniest little darts of gold leaf, hanging unsteadily, most comelily dispensed in many places. Above the one side and the other the gown was unsewn, or cut apart, and joined in three places by three little pins, which were three thickest pearls braided with dark blue silk — such as Cleopatra did not have to dissolve in a draught; and with such an order was that parting bound, showing her shift between the distance of one pearl and another.

About her straight and milk-white neck there went an artful thread of forced gold. Which parted upon the nymphlike breast, narrowing then sharply to meet across it, woven in fine work, and plentifully adorned with precious gems. Beneath this garment, as is said above, her thinnest crimped overdress covered, of white silk of the smallest workmanship, which covered that precious flesh, like purpling roses, in the parting of her spacious and delicious breast. To my eyes more welcome than the fresh streams to the tired and hunted stag, more delightful than to Cynthia the fishing boat of Endymion, and the sweet lyre to Orpheus.

The sleeves of which shift, fittingly wide, near the wrists of her bound hands, were girt in and drawn by a little golden hem pinned with two thick pearls to each, of an eastern whiteness. Then, beyond all these most welcome things, I gave stubborn attention, with stealing and busy glances, to gazing with delight at the unruly little swellings, impatient beneath the pressing of the thinnest garment. Those, then, I judged not unfittingly, that so great a dignity of notable work the maker had formed most beautifully with every diligence for himself alone and for his own extreme delight, and had gathered there every force of love.

Perhaps such were the four winged golden figures bound to the royal palace of Babylon, called the tongue of the gods, not so forcible to reconcile spirits to the love of the King as I felt in these. Alas, that they would scarcely have filled the hollow of a hand, with the fairest spacing that the nature of life could feign.

At her whitest throat, whiter than Scythian snow, a necklace

precious girt her — not such as that of Caesar's hind; and I should doubt that such was even that of the wicked Eriphyle, staining her, for the betraying of the hidden Amphiaraus. Which showed itself as a threading of gems and of roundest pearls in this exquisite order.

In the pendant towards the fork of her whitening breast, in the middle between two great pearls, was threaded a flashing ruby, most round; beyond the pearls on either side there followed two blazing sapphires, and then again two eastern pearls. Beyond which, here and there, there followed two lightning emeralds, and again two pearls, and then two most shining jacinths. All these gems of a pill-like form, most just, and of the thickness of a berry, with an excellent and friendly parting.

Her most blonde head, with her hair spread out and loose, poured over her gracious neck, appeared plentiful with curling and shining little locks, seen no otherwise than as the finest threads of gold, unsteadily glowing. The parted hair of her crown, pressed down by a wreath of fragrant amethyst violets, hanging a little above her festive forehead, made a delightful triangular parting, such as was ever vowed to a Genius. And from beneath the little fillet there came out in an ordered way her vine-tendrilled hair, part of it quivering and shadowing her fair temples, not hiding her smallest ears, more beautiful than were ever dedicated to Memory.

Thence then the remainder of her yellow hair, spread out behind her sparkling neck, and hanging poured from her round shoulders, restlessly stretching over her shapely back beyond the turning of her knees, and moderately fanning itself in little waves — so that Juno's bird does not so lovelily spread its eyed feathers; such hair Berenice did not vow for her Ptolemy in the temple of Venus, nor did Conon the mathematician see such set in a triangle.

In her glad forehead too, beneath two fine, blackest, half-circled and parted brows (such as were perhaps never seen in Ethiopia among the Abyssinians, nor had Juno ever such in her keeping), there shone two festive and radiant eyes. Enough to pour Jove down in a rain of gold; ready with a clear light, with the dark iris covered by the milky white; near which her purpling cheeks, with the round and laughing dimples of two little hollows, comelily adorned with a choice grace. They breathed the colour of fresh roses, gathered at the rising of Aurora. And then set in vessels of the cleanest crystal of Cyprus, shining through no otherwise, with a reddening clearness: so, without fail, with such brightness I judged them.

Likewise, beneath her straight nose, a most charming little valley followed, bordering on her small mouth of a courteous shape; the little lips of which, not swollen but moist, and painted with a purple tincture, covered the even ranks of her small and ivory teeth, not one standing out above another, but set evenly in order. Among which Love unceasingly composed a breathable fragrance. For, thinking upon it, I presumed that in those gracious lips there was nothing else than, for the milky teeth, shining pearls, and for the fragrant breath, the warmest musk, and for the sweet voice, Thespis with her nine daughters.

By all which things being exceedingly enticed, among my kindled feelings and my disordered and burning appetite, there was straightway born a great sedition and a bitter contention, such as was not in the presences told of before, nor among the most ample and various riches. For my various and thieving eyes commended one part as far fairer than the others. But the appetite, carried off to another part of that divine little body, argued and preferred that one to the rest.

And of this the whole ill beginning of so troubling and contentious a commotion were my unsated and most troublesome eyes, which I felt sowing and stirring up so great and such a harmful quarrel in my sad and wounded heart. By the stubbornness of which I then lost it altogether; and none the less without them I could in nothing at all satisfy them. The raging appetite then extolled her most delicious breast without equal. The eyes, consenting with delight, said: if only we could uncover it all. So that those unsteady ones, thence violently lifted from her most comely face, matched every extreme pleasure in it.

And here the appetite, strengthened and unfittingly forward, murmured: who would easily persuade me that ever at any time there was a head so plentiful, with such native tresses and voluptuous ornament of weaving, and of twisted hairs in a distinguished heaping, and with a joyful winding, adorning so fair and so shining a brow. Such shavings of fir, always deserving to be in vine-curled circles.

That never such and so notable a Hesperia pleased Aesacus with her flowing hair, nor appeared to him; with then two clearest and arrow-shooting eyes, like morning stars shining in a cleared sky — a brow and head more beautifully adorned than ever the warlike Necho, adorned by the Acintani with shining rays, saw; wounding me deeply in my heart like a dart let fly by an angry Cupid. So that, concluding, I might almost dare to say that Delos, made steadfast, did not bring forth to mortals lights so gracious, so bright, so

seemly as these fixed in that divine brow, most shining and amorous of this heavenly figment; and therefore my sad heart, beset by so many quarrels, bore so great a disagreeing controversy of longing, as if between them a frond of the standing laurel of the tomb of the king of Bibria had been placed in the middle; nor did the strife ever cease unless it were cast away. And thus I thought that so great a litigation would not cease unless from that heart so great a pleasure in her were taken away — which could not be done.

And for such a reason the delightful and insatiable desire of the one and of the other could not firmly agree; like a man sharpened with hunger and raging among manifold and various dishes, who, eager for all, remains wholly content in his burning appetite with none, but infected with a ravenous hunger.

The most beautiful Nymph, having come to Poliphilo, bearing a torch in her left hand, and with the other free, invites him to go with her; and here Poliphilo, warmed more by the sweet love of the elegant damsel, begins to feel his senses inflamed by it.

Beholding present before me the real and intelligible object of a most excellent showing of so comely a presence and divine aspect, and of a plentiful heap and universal gathering of unseen beauty and more than human shapeliness, I reckoned small and slight for this, and unequal, all the inestimable delights seen before, and riches and lofty magnificences, beside so great a worth as is hers.

O happy, then, is he who shall quietly possess such and so great a treasure of love. But not only a happy possessor — truly most blessed I call him who, humbly submitting to all her desires and rule, shall by any means be possessed and held by her. O highest Jove, behold the stamped trace of your divine image, left in this most noble creature; whence, if Zeuxis had had her alone for his contemplation, he would fittingly have chosen her as his one most apt exemplar, most praised above all the girls of Agrigentum and of the whole round world, of the highest and absolute perfection.

Which shapely and heaven-dwelling Nymph, now

drawing near to me festively and cheerfully joyful, at once, her rarest beauties having been gazed at somewhat from afar by my eyes, now contemplating them more openly from close by, I remained astonished and carried away.

No sooner had her amorous aspect and most welcome presence slipped through the service of the eyes to my inmost parts than remembering memory awoke, stirring the heart within. Presenting to it and offering her who has made of it a plentiful workshop, and a quiver packed with her sharp arrows, and a familiar and treasuring dwelling of her sweet likeness: it knew her again, and her who has at length used up my tender years in her warm, first and strongest loves. For I felt it, now leaping out of place, and without delay beating steadily upon my hurt breast like a hoarse drum.

And although in her comely and most acceptable aspect, and by her blonde tresses, and in her tendrilled brow with its crisp and quivering locks playing above, there appeared to me that golden-haired Polia extremely loved — and for whom my life has never for a moment been able to move itself out of the burning flames, nor, tossed as it is, to be tempered — nevertheless the proud and unaccustomed nymphlike dress, and the unknown place, made me remain greatly in suspense over it, doubting and of two minds.

Who, with the snowy arm of her left side, resting upon her breast white as snow, carried a kindled and shining torch, standing a little above her gilded head, holding the slenderest end of it with a clenching fist; and shrewdly offering her free arm, whiter than ever was that of Pelops. In which appeared the fine cephalic and the basilic vein, like sandalwood lines drawn upon the cleanest papyrus. And with her delicate right hand, taking mine in a well-ordered way, with a wide and splendid brow, and with her laughing mouth fragrant of cinnamon and her dimpled cheeks, and with her most adorned coaxing speech, she pleasantly said:

"O Poliphilo, come safely with me, and do not hesitate at all." I then felt my spirits astonished, marvelling how she knew my name. And all my inward parts, laid low, encircled by a burning amorous flame, and my voice taken from me, shut in between fear and a reverent bashfulness. And thus, unawares, I knew not what I might worthily answer her to that, nor how otherwise to reverence the divine young girl, save that I readily offered her my unworthy and unfitting hand.

And having put it in hers, I felt her press it between warm snow and milky curd. And it seemed to me — nay, so it was — that I was touching and handling something other than a thing of human condition. Whence, after I had done so, I remained wholly stirred and shaken and suspicious, not understanding things unvisited by mortals. Nor yet what ought to follow from it, with my common ragged dress and with my foolish and vulgar manners, judging myself misshapen beside her, unfit and unlike such a fellowship, and that it was unlawful for a mortal and earth-born man to enjoy such delights.

For which cause, my face blushing, filled all with a bashful wonder, and grieving somewhat at my own lowness, I made myself her follower.

At last, though not with my whole and wholly recovered mind, I began to bring back my frightened and troubled spirits, persuading myself that I was deservedly at a most blessed outcome, beside such a beautiful and divine object, and in such a place. Whose excellent aspect would have had force enough to draw and carry the lost souls out of the eternal flames, and to bring the bodies not yet joined in their tombs back to their partner; and Bacchus would have neglected the famous drunkenness of Gauranum, Faustianum and Falernum, and

Pucinum, or Pictanum, to have a perpetual sight of her. And following behind her with my beating heart (restless with love), more shaken than the little bird sisura, and in no other manner than the timid sheep carried off by the ravening wolf by the bitten throat.

Here, fervently touched with pleasant ardours, they began little by little to grow and to warm the cold fear, and to fit the altered heat by disposition to a sincere love. And being already almost overcome and vanquished in no ordinary measure by the kindling and inward appetite, thinking silently within myself, I argued in various ways: O most happy above any lover whoever should be joined and made a sharer in the love of this woman, if not wholly, at least in some part.

Then, blaming my own wicked desires, I set against them, saying: O, it would scarcely be given me to believe that such Nymphs would deign to be with unequal and earthly men, unlike them in all things. But without hesitating: this one is worthy of the close embraces of the gods above, and of drawing them, stripped of their divine forms, changed and disguised, down from the high heavens to her delightful love.

On the other side I comforted myself, that, offering her my loving soul (having no other worthier gift), however divine she be, perhaps she will not despise it. As Artaxerxes, king of the Persians, bent down to the water presented in the hands to drink. And for this, with lukewarm sighs, I felt the inmost parts of my invaded breast stirred and greatly moved. Which willingly fitted itself to such a service, and prepared itself to be kindled more easily than a dry reed-bed to the blowing east winds, the small spark being set to it, which at the beginning begins to catch impetuously, multiplying, and then all takes fire.

By this likeness I most abundantly felt the growth of a pleasant and familiar little flame spreading in the prepared subject, in such a way that her amorous glances were by now to me deadly and mortal strokes, as the flashing thunder splits the strong oaks with a sudden onset, breaking out. And I no longer dared to look at her shining eyes, for whenever I looked at her (forced by the incredible beauty of her most welcome aspect), and if by chance her radiant eyes had met mutually with mine, for some little while all things seemed to me doubled, before the wavering blinking of my eyes and their former light were restored.

By reason of all these things, plundered and spoiled and wholly conquered, I was then disposed to take in my fist some fresh little herbs and, offering them to her, to say as a suppliant: I yield. Seeing that already in my mind I silently confirmed it, and had granted her free entry and a wide opening of my appointed soul. At once, upon this, my warm breast humbly

having opened itself like the red and ripe fruit of the pomegranate, widening at its first splitting and then cracking wholly open. And having received into itself the accustomed and familiar (though somewhat interrupted) burnings, at once the used and worn hearth knew its own heat and fire again, piercing my burnable and practised inward parts, with that maidenly aspect adorned exceedingly with an unthinkable elegance.

For already at the first cooking of the first amorous burnings, brought most sweetly into my mind (but like the horse in Troy, complete and stuffed with ambushes), it gave the beginning eternally to an unknown and implacable battle, remaining deeply fixed in my tenacious and most simple heart. Which, easily seduced by a most sweet semblance, without delay and unadvisedly did not tarry to split itself open, and to set wide windows to the amorous approaches and kindlings, and to be lit again by disposition at the pleasant fires, and aptly to put itself under so great a burden.

So that already in me a familiar stirring grew stronger at the busy and inward ardours. To which I reckoned her at present a worthier and fitter help than to the hollow little ships sailing in the swift and tossing waves of the measured sea in ill weather is Tiphys with his tiller and most convenient guiding, and the star of Castor. More welcome still than that of Mylitta to the beaten Adonis. And to Aphrodite that of Peristera, her obedient Nymph. And more acceptable than the dittany of Ida, brought by the daughter of Dione, with its purple flower, to the wound of pious Aeneas.

And feeling my breast already shaken with inward roughnesses, and silently filled again and closely packed, and my straying thoughts gathered into it, and thinking with a busy love, the wound no longer to be healed widened and grew. And my little spirits being drawn back into me little by little, I almost dared to assure myself of showing her, and expressing, my intense burnings and amorous thoughts. Then, wholly lost in a blind desire — for which cause I could no longer refuse the invading approaches, nor resist the burning boilings — I cried out with a stirred and full voice and said:

"O delicate and divine damsel, whoever you are, use less strong torches to burn me and to consume my sad heart. By now it burns all over with an unceasing and goading fire, and I feel a pointed and sharpest and flaming dart pierce and go through the middle of my soul."

And saying thus, meaning to uncover the hidden fire and to lessen a little the sharpness I suffered — excessively growing worse from this raging and terrible inflaming (of love) remaining hidden — yet patiently I stayed; and in such a way all these fervid and heavy stirrings, and rash thoughts, and wanton and violent appetites, I turned back, seeing myself with my

soiled gown. Which still held the hooks of the biting burrs fixed in it from the wood; and as the peacock, looking again at its foul and vilest feet, lays down its rounded tail, so, neither more nor less, I put down the goadings of every pleasure, breaking off my stubborn desires and vain thoughts, considering how unsuited they were to so divine an object.

For this cause I was strongly disposed with all my strength to conquer and shut in my loose and wandering appetite, and my wavering mind, and to overcome my immodest will, judging by now that it could not be otherwise than so.

At last, thinking upon it in the secret of my kindled heart, I began to think that without fail I could match my present and continual pain to that of wicked Tantalus, to whose dry and thirsting mouth the cold and purest waters offer themselves, tasteable and joyful, and to whose raging appetite the sweet fruits present themselves most welcomely up to his gaping mouth — and he remains at last unfed and fasting of the one and of the other.

Alas for me: in no other manner was a most comely Nymph, notable in form, of a flowering age, adorned more than can be said with angelic manners and famous for a chief honesty, presented most kindly before my eyes — the sight of whom exceeded every exquisite and delightful human content; and I at her side, she full of everything that avails solacingly to love and provokes to longing, and drawing the intellect away from every other working, heaping it in herself alone — and yet it did not succour my panting and delighting desire.

Now, since by such a way the burning longings were not put out, as much as I could I quieted my languishing heart, inflamed beyond measure, by slackening it with an amorous and solacing hope. And with this reasoning: that no coal is ever found so far quenched that, being near a kindled one, it does not likewise, by the fitting disposition, take fire. But my unbridled eyes, more than at any hour, inflamed that heart, defenceless and unarmed against any power, with a more uncommon desire for her chief and divine beauties. Ever more beautiful, more elegant, more comely, more to be longed for, and extremely apt and excellent to love, showing herself plainly with a marvellous increase of sweet pleasure.

Then I thought sincerely: if by chance the highest gods perceive that I desire and wickedly long for and presume upon forbidden delights — perhaps in this holy place, and of such a person, reasonably forbidden — might it not easily befall me, as a profane man, as it did to many others who have shamelessly offended: the cold and unbroken angers justly used upon bold and most confident Ixion? And in like manner

the Thracian would not have found the deep seats of Neptune either, if he, rash man, had not first adulterated pure and savoury Bacchus by mixing him with liquid Tethys, and had not unworthily thrust himself into divine estates. And Galanthis, the royal handmaid, that liar to Lucina, would not carry her offspring in her mouth, if she had not deceived her.

Whence perhaps this divine Nymph is reserved for her Genius, or for some other lofty hero, and I, unworthily attempting such a sacrilege, might deservedly stir him to indignation against me.

Weighing such a reason in good time, then, I thought that those who lightly make themselves secure also lightly perish, and that for such men deceit and failure are not hard to come by. And that among the bold (as it is wont to be said) all deceiving and mocking Fortune does not stand. And besides this, it is hard to search out another's heart. For which cause, as Callisto, feeling with shame her swollen belly grow heavy, withdrew herself from the presence of chaste Diana, so, stirred by shame, I drew myself back from such an impulse, bridling my delighting and unseemly desires.

But steadily, with a lynx's eye, and unceasingly, I examined with the utmost pleasure and with a wonderful affection the most beautiful Nymph, disposing myself wholly to her most welcome love, with an unfailing, obstinate and most settled mind.

Polia, still unknown to her lover Poliphilo, graciously and wittily makes him secure. Who, by her wondrous beauties, gives himself to love in his mind; and both of them drawing near to the triumphs, he saw countless young men and girls keeping festival with much delight.

Cupid the archer being strongly and most aptly set in my captive heart as a presiding tyrant, and having bound me strongly with the solidest chains of love, I felt him prick hurtfully, and the raw and urgent bite force me violently, being already put under the privilege of his hard but pleasant laws. And filled with a doubtful delight, sighing beyond measure, I melted and wasted away. The excellent Nymph, with a most splendid adornment, without delay coaxing, and with her

purple and honey-speaking mouth, and with forceful and drawing little words, made me secure, and banished from my mind and put away all frightened thoughts, cheering me with her Olympian aspect, and cooling with her bright speech my already rekindled soul; and with an amorous and wanton glance and with a gracious laugh she said:

"Poliphilo, I would have you know that true and virtuous love has no respect for outward things; and therefore your dress neither diminishes nor lessens your spirit, perhaps magnanimous and gentle, and deservedly worthy to behold these marvellous and holy places and realms, and the wondrous triumphs. For which cause do not let any fear at all take up your mind, but look carefully at what realms those crowned by holy Venus possess — those who have manfully striven, and persevering, serving at her amorous altars and sacred fires, have lawfully gained her most ready favour."

And now, ending her shrewd and sweet talk, we both moved our steps, neither hurried nor yet slow, but at a modest pace; and, discussing it within myself, I considered, saying:

O most valiant Perseus, for this woman you would have fought more strenuously with the horrible monster, to win her sweetest love, than for your Andromeda. And then:

O Jason, if the lawful marriage of this woman had been set before you — with far greater peril (I swear by Jove) than was that of winning the golden fleece — I reasonably judge that, setting that aside, you would have contended fiercely for this one, judging her above all the jewels and precious treasures of the spacious world, and above even those of the richest Queen Eleuterylida, most precious, and of a greater worth and incomparable price.

Every hour and continually she appeared more shapely, more comely in aspect, with a cleanest adornment. Nor does plentiful gold show itself so welcome to Hippodamia, and to the ravening and anxious misers. Nor does the entrance of a quiet and safe harbour so offer itself to sailors, nor a cable or a mooring-post for their fastening when they are shaken in the winter storms. Nor was the falling rain so longed-for and timely at the pyre of Croesus, as the delicious Nymph offered herself, most acceptable to love. More joyful and dearer to me than the bloody battles to raging Mars; than to Dionysus the mysteries of great Crete.

And than to unshorn Apollo the chattering lyre. More welcome still than the fruitful clods, and the thick ears of corn, and the sacred first-fruits and the Thesmophoria to Demeter.

And going further with her most festively through the grassy and flowering plain, tressed with green hair, sometimes my searching and

curious eyes I turned most attentively to her delicate little feet, shod in vermilion leather, to whose little swellings the shoe clung, stretched delightfully; and sometimes her ready and whitest legs, the silken garment moved a little by the soft breezes, flying above her maidenly limbs, uncovered themselves with a shapely and exquisite showing. And these, with a sincere judgement, I affirmed to be tinted with the finest scarlet, such as was ever gathered in the Peloponnese, among the whitest milk, and set and curdled together with fragrant musk.

By all which most delightful things, chained in the difficult and inextricable knots of a vehement love, more unloosable than the Herculean knot, and more than that which Alexander the Great undid with the sword; and most amorously netted in the most tangled nets; and my enslaved heart in most ardent and troublesome thoughts and most fervent desires, mailed, gripping me wherever I turned, feeling more prickings and more little nails in that loving heart than faithful Regulus in Africa, carried within the nailed barrel.

So that with nothing else did I cool my grieving spirits from the amorous burning, and from the most exquisite torments sharpened, which burned in my thundering breast, save by swallowing my busy sobs, gaping like a hunted fawn.

Being then plunged headlong into frequent anxieties, and seeing myself wholly carried away to a most violent love of this woman, I said from myself to myself:

O Poliphilo, how can you leave the love once inseparably kindled in your honeyed Polia, for any other? And here, wanting with all my strength to untie myself from this biting noose, which drew me more sharply than the claws of the gripping crab, it was not a work that could be done. Whence nothing else did I feel that more troublesomely ensnared my tormented soul in affection for this one than the true likeness of every bodily thread of hers, the comely semblance, and the excellent gestures of my sweetest Polia.

But above all this there offered itself to me a most cruel torment: how could I ever give up my most acceptable Polia? And at once, the warm tears called up in my moist eyes, it seemed to me despicable and very hard to renew my wasted heart, and to bring in a new and unknown lord, and impiously to banish its ancient one.

Then, comforting myself, I said: perhaps this is she, according to the divine oracle and the high and true promise of Queen Eleuterylida, but she does not reveal it; for, if I do not err, this one infallibly seems so to me. And this amorous and running thought being made, and this persuading presupposition, and being gone out of every other desire, I only pondered, with my heart and with my mind returning to the notable Nymph. By the great love of whom, closely

taken and in no ordinary measure constrained, I dared with an unaccustomed wonder to gaze steadily upon so unvisited a making. And my eyes, aptly plentiful of the nymphlike and incomparable beauties, made themselves most absorbing whirlwinds; and after they had been so warmly stirred to drink up the highest sweetness of so kind and notable a presence, they took an eternal strength to hold gathered together with them, at such a delightful service, all my other captive senses solacingly agreeing — so that from her alone, and from nowhere else, I should seek such cooling and delight, chiefly for my burning flames.

Thus, then, by a sharpening love painfully hurt and afflicted, wavering, we came at length to the right part of the spacious field.

In this place there were set in order the greening trees, plentifully leafy, full of most sweet flowers, fruit-bearing about the site, and with manifold kinds of foliage and of undying greenness; they gladdened the heart of those who looked upon them.

The Nymph beloved of Venus stood still, and stayed there, and I with her. Where, looking with an almost half-power of sight — because it could not be wholly moved away from its amorous object — by the kindness of the pleasant region, I saw drawing near the numerous chorus of a thronging crowd, festive and dancing, of most delicate and splendid young men and youths, with unshorn hair exulting, with the tresses of their ringed locks twisted without any pains, amorously crowned and combed with garlands and little circlets of manifold flowers, and of vermilion roses, and of leafy myrtle, and of purple amaranth mingled with melilot.

And with these an extreme multitude of most beautiful girls. More delicate and fair than would be found in Sparta. And the one sex and the other clothed in a proud covering, not of Milesian wool, but rather in richest garments of silk, and some of waving watered silk, not subject to the Oppian laws; some of a changeable shot colour, belying the true colouring. Some of purple chosen from the murex, and some of finest linen, such as is not produced in Egypt, white and crimped, and cloth crossed with saffron, most subtly woven. And of countless other colourings. Some of sky-blue, others of crimson, many of green and scarlet, of sandarac and of dark blue dyeing, with sumptuous delights; many of a saffron tincture, such as Corycus does not bring forth, nor Centuripe, exceedingly gracious to the sight, threaded with a golden filament. With a choice adornment of shining gems at the outermost hems about the ankles, held by the purest gold. Some were mingled among them with sacred fillets and of a divine and pontifical worship. Some with a hunting dress.

And most of these distinguished Nymphs had their blonde hair gathered together, with exquisite little twists in three parts, and knotted with a delightful weaving. Others spread their unsteady and restless tresses loosely, poured behind their milky necks. Some with their most abundant hair wrapped in the thinnest veils, their glad brow left graciously shadowed with twisted hair. And so, without labour, mistress nature gave them no ordinary grace.

And with fillets woven of threads of gold with a border of sparkling pearls; and others had adorned their haired heads with richest and delightful bands. And at their straight throats the most sumptuous necklaces, and precious collars, and armlets, and clasps; and their small ears most beautifully hung with various jewels. And the dignity of the hair with a clean and notable adornment, the brow encircled with a threading of great and roundest pearls. All which most excellent things, together with their most elegant persons, would easily have altered any rustic, fierce, obstinate and inhuman heart.

Then they showed delightfully their whitening breasts, uncovered as far as the round little swellings. Then the maidenly little body upon straight legs, with small feet. And some bare upon antique sandals, held with little cords of gold between the great toe and the middle one, and near the least, and about the full heel; and thence they came together neatly upon the top of the foot in an artful lacing. Some tightly shod, and with little golden hooks and loops. Some with soled buskins of purple and of other joyful colours, such as Caius Caligula never first wore. Others with fitted high boots girt above their white and fleshy calves; and some with little slippers, with masterly little loops of gold and of silk; many with the ancient Sicyonian shoes, and some with choice silken pumps and with golden clasps most seemly set with gems.

And besides, at their neat heads, their free brows bound about with flying veils of a spider's making; and with their biting and festive eyes, brighter than shining stars in the purest sky, beneath their fine and circled brows. And the small nose between their apple-round cheeks, reddened like those apples in autumn, duly with their laughing little hollows, or dimples. And their front teeth and eye-teeth, with the others set in order, small, of the colour of refined silver, between their moist lips like the finest coral.

Many likewise with sounding instruments, such as would never be found in Ausonia, nor even in the hand of Orpheus, keeping high festival through the flowering meadows and the most level plain with sweetest sounds, and with the sweetest voices and exulting songs, and with a multiplied glory, making one with another amorous

battles, with solacing and most joyful acts and caresses, festively going round four most precious and divine triumphs, the like of which were never seen by mortal glances, with a sincere and most delightful applause.

Poliphilo in this place aforesaid saw the four triumphing six-horse cars, all of various stones and of most precious jewels. With the mingled multitude of blessed young people, greatly worshipping in praise of the highest Jove.

Reasonably, I judge it in no way difficult for the gods above to do; nay, any effect whatever readily shows itself easily to be done at their will, and in every place, and above everything created. For which cause they are duly called almighty. Perhaps whoever shall sometimes hear told the marvellous and stupendous — nay, divine — works, might marvel exceedingly. For art, the rival, strives as much as it can to imitate natural things. But divine things, without doubt, cannot aptly be feigned or copied by any created wit and intellect without their help and inspiration. So for such a reason no one ought to let himself be taken up by any doubt, but quietly taking note let him set in his mind that to the gods above every making unaccustomed to us is possible — such as I saw thus.

The description of the first triumph.

The first of the four wondrous and divine triumphs had its four swift wheels of finest stone of the greenest Scythian emerald, sparkling with atoms of a coppery colour. The rest, then, of the car I beheld, astonished, made all of tablets not of Arabian nor of Cyprian, but of iron-sparkling Indian diamond, defying the hard emery and the steel, victorious over active fire, its scorner and stubborn foe, but quiet and tameable to the warm blood of a goat, welcome to the magic arts. Which slabs, divinely worked with a sunken carving in relief, were carved and wonderfully set and enclosed in the cleanest gold.

In the right-hand tablet I beheld expressed a noble and royal Nymph with many of her own age in a meadow, crowning the victorious bulls with manifold garlands of flowers. And one clinging to her, made very particularly familiar with her.

The left-hand tablet held that same trusting Nymph, who had climbed upon the meek and white bull. And he carried her, timid, across the swelling sea.

On the front face I saw Cupid, with a countless crowd of both kinds of people wounded, marvelling that he should draw his bow towards high Olympus. On the hinder face I beheld Mars before the throne of great Jove, complaining that his son had torn his impenetrable breastplate. And the kindly lord showed him his own wounded breast. And in the other hand, his arm stretched out, he held written: NO ONE.

This figure of a car was four-cornered, of two perfect squares in length, of six feet, three high and as much wide, with the required cornice above and beneath the plinth; and from here upward, a foot and a half, there was a flat two feet and a half wide, five and a half long, with a slope towards the cornice, all scaled with most precious stones, with an alternating meeting and order of colouring.

And at the four corners were fitted horns of plenty turned about, with their mouths upturned, above the corner projection of the cornice, packed with many fruits and flowers of thick and manifold gems, sprouting among the varied foliage of gold. Which horns I saw clothed with a distinguished showing of leaves of the horned poppy, and with twisted hollows, and with their slenderness wound at the end of the flat. Which broke off into a fringed antique leaf, that most beautifully ran over the back of the elegant horn of the said material.

At each corner, from the plinth towards the cornice, at the projection there was made fast a harpy's foot, with a moderate curving, and with an excellent turning here and there into acanthus foliage.

The wheels were covered within the car, half of them appearing; and the plinth — that is, the outermost part of that engine — in the forward part, near the harpy feet, rising somewhat and neatly narrowing, turned into a snail-like scroll. In which the nooses, or holdfasts for drawing, were fittingly committed. And where the axle was fixed and turned, fitted to that plinth there hung a pointed piece, of as great a breadth at the joining of the plinth as was twice the distance from the turning hub to the top. And here there began exquisitely two foliages, which, dividing, ran down beneath the plinth; in the middle of the space between which there stood out, moderately, a five-petalled rose, in the

middle of which that pole turned upon the axle.

Now upon the flat aforesaid there lay a fateful, whitest and kindly bull, adorned with many flowers, and with the pomp of an ox for sacrifice. Upon him sat a royal maiden with her wide shoulders, with her long and bare arms, as if frightened, holding and embracing his hanging dewlaps. Clothed most exquisitely in a fine cloth of green silk and gold, of a marvellous weaving, in nymphlike dress, with the ends of a veil tucked up at her ankles, filling like a sail, not without a plenty of various jewels for adornment, with a crown of gold pressing down a most elegant and golden head of hair, neat and shining.

Such a triumph was drawn by six wanton centaurs, sons of the falling seed of bold Ixion. With flat little chains of gold exquisitely looped at their strong and horse-like flanks, the rings knotting one with another close together, and held in golden clasps and joinings, and then running in the fitted rings, all six drawing evenly. Nor did Erichthonius find a like manner in the joining of fierce horses to his flying four-horse cars.

Each was ridden by a notable Nymph, sitting with their shoulders turned one to another, three with their notable faces turned to the right, and three to the left, with musical instruments sharing together in a heavenly harmony; with most abundant and yellow hair spread down over their white necks, their heads adorned with garlands of all fruits; the two nearest the triumph clothed in dark blue silk, of that bright and choice colouring of the little feathers in a peacock's neck.

The two in the middle in flashing crimson. And the first, going before, of satin cloth of a green emerald colouring. Not without the nymphlike additions and adornments, singing with their rounded little mouths, and playing with so great a sweetness of melody as to keep the soul unfed and ever living.

The centaurs were crowned with mistletoe. In their hands, the one at the lower part, and embracing it with the other, the two nearest the car carried vessels of antique shape, of topaz of Arabia, with its flashing golden colour, welcome to Lucina, and at which the waves grow quiet. Slender at their bottoms, and in the middle growing little by little to an immoderate body, and thence rising to their mouths, of two feet in height, without handles, of a wonderful artifice. Out of which there leapt a clouding smoke, scattering a fragrance beyond all esteeming. Those that followed blew golden trumpets, with a hanging cloth of fine silk, interwoven with gold, with

a threefold binding at the trumpet's pipe; the other two with the most ancient horn-blowers, each in concord, and with the instruments of the riding Nymphs.

Beneath which triumphal six-horse team was the axle at the middle, in which the spokes of the wheels were fixed, of a pomegranate-flower lineament, narrowing then at the pointed lips with a little apple at the circumference. Which pole was of finest and weighty gold, refusing the gnawing rust and the burning fire, the deadly poison of virtue and of peace. It was exceedingly kept by those who held festival, leaping around with measured and sudden turnings, with the most solemn clappings, with their garments girt with little flying bands; and those seated upon the drawing centaurs praised amorously, with consonant voices and with sung verses and with an extreme exultation, the holy cause and the divine mystery.

The following triumph was no less marvellous than the first. For it had its four turning wheels entirely, and the spokes, and the hub, of dark agate, lovelily straggled with white little veins. Nor certainly did King Pyrrhus carry such a one, with the nine Muses and Apollo in the midst playing, stamped there by nature.

The axle and the form of it like the first, but the tablets were of dark blue eastern sapphire, sprinkled with little sparks of gold, most welcome to magic, and by far most acceptable to Cupid in his left hand.

In the right-hand tablet I beheld carved a notable matron who had given birth to two eggs, set in a royal bed of a marvellous palace, with the midwives astonished, and many other matrons and Nymphs standing by; out of one of which there came a little flame, and out of the other egg two most notable stars.

In the other slab, the curious parents, ignorant of the new prodigy, devoutly asked in Apollo's temple of the divine image, by an oracle, the cause and the outcome. To whom the kindly godhead answered thus perplexingly: the one is pleasing to the sea; the other is pleasing to the sea. By such an ambiguous answer they were kept safe by their pious parents.

On the front face there was seen a most beautiful boy Cupid, raised into the upper air, and with the cutting point of a golden arrow violently painting in the starry heaven various figures of animals four-footed, creeping and flying; and on the earth men stood marvelling at so great an effect from one frail little arrow. On the hinder one, great Jupiter set a skilful shepherd in his own place as judge, being stirred by him next to

a most charming sleeping spring. Where he gave judgement upon three naked and most shapely goddesses. Who, seduced by busy Cupid, granted the apple to his most witty mother.

This triumphal car six white elephants, yoked two by two, drew — such as would not be found in the land of Agisymba, nor among the Gandari; nor were such subdued to the African triumph of great Pompey, nor were such set to draw the triumph of Father Liber when India was conquered. With their trunks armed with ivory and deadly tusks, and with a sweet trumpeting, they drew fittingly, with traces of finest silk of a dark blue tincture, most beautifully twisted with threads of gold and of silver mingled, in tightest knots woven four-square like ears of corn, such as are seen on Mount Gargano; with golden breastplates filled with a multitude of most flashing and differing gems, with golden rings fitted, in which the binding of all six ran.

Six most tender girls rode likewise in the manner of the first, with other unlike instruments, excellently sharing in one sound; and all that the others did, these did in like manner. Two clothed in crimson, two in a shining yellow, that inner colour of the flower of the crowfoot, and two in violet purple.

The drawing elephants were covered with a covering of gold fringed with thick pearls, and pompously adorned with other gems. And their necks encircled with round and thick jewels; and above their wide foreheads there hung an unsteady little apple of marvellous pearls, with a long little beard of various silk and golden threads, unsteady at every movement.

Upon this proud and triumphal carriage I saw a whitest swan, in the amorous embraces of a renowned Nymph, daughter of Theseus, of an incredible beauty formed; and kissing her with his divine beak, his wings let down, he covered the uncovered parts of the noble lady; and with divine and delightful pleasures they stood, both joined together most joyfully; and the divine swan set between her delicate and snowy thighs.

Who sat comfortably upon two cushions of cloth of gold, exquisitely stuffed with soft down, with all the sumptuous and adorning accessories fitting. And she clothed in a fine nymphlike gown, of whitest silk woven with a warp of gold, shining, with an elegant ornament of precious stones in the fitting places. Without lack of anything whatever that comelily comes together for the increase of delight. Exceedingly notable and delightful to those who looked. With all the parts that were described at the first, of praise and applause.

The third heavenly triumph followed, with four turning wheels of Ethiopian chrysolite, flaming with little sparks of gold — through which, being pierced, the bristle of a little ass puts malignant demons to flight; welcome to the left hand — with all that is said above of wheels.

Then its slabs, set round about in the manner told above, were of green heliotrope of Cyprus, with power over the heavenly lights, hiding the one who carries it and giving the gift of divining, spotted with little bloody drops.

The right-hand tablet offered this history carved. A man notable for royal majesty prayed in a sacred temple to the divine image, for what should follow from his most shapely daughter. The father, hearing of his own casting out of the kingdom by her, and that she should not be got with child by any man, made a fortified building of a lofty tower, and had her shut in it with a solemn guard. In which, sitting idle, with an excessive solace she saw drops of gold distil into her maiden lap.

In the other tablet was stamped a noble young man. Who with the utmost religion received the protection of a crystal shield; and he, valiant, with the curved and cutting falchion beheaded a terrifying woman, and proudly carried the severed head in sign of victory. From whose blood there was born a winged horse, which, flying to the peak of a mountain, made a mysterious fountain rise with its hoof.

On the front face there was seen the powerful Cupid, who, shooting with his golden arrow towards the starry heavens, made drops of gold rain down amorously. And an endless crowd of every condition, wounded, stood all astonished at it. Opposite, I saw Venus in anger, having with an armed man loosed her son, whom she had caught by the wings in a fated net, taking her revenge,

and wished to pluck him, having already her fist full of his flying little feathers; and the boy weeping, one with winged sandals, sent by lofty Jove sitting upon a throne, freed him unhurt from his mother's hands. And then offered him thus to him. And helping Jupiter said to him, carved distinguishedly in the Attic tongue over against the divine mouth: you are to me both sweet and bitter. And he covered him beneath his heavenly cloak.

This was pompously drawn by six most fierce unicorns, with a horned stag-like forehead, reverent to cold Diana. Which were bound at their strong and horse-like breasts in an ornament of gold plentiful with most precious jewels, with twisted little cords of silver thread and of yellow silk artfully knotting one with another, making the neatest knots, with the excellent accessories of those described before.

Six young girls sat above, in the manner and pomp of the others, and in dress interwoven with gold, of finest dark blue silk, woven with various flowers and foliage; all six with marvellous and most ancient wind instruments in concord, and expressed with incredible breath.

Upon the flat of it, in the middle, there lay a precious seat of green jasper, excellent in silver, serviceable at childbirth, and a medicine for the chaste. Which was six-cornered in its foot, rising fittingly slender beneath a plate-like little shell. The lower part of which, as far as its middle, was laboriously furrowed. And then plain and curved as far as beneath the braided lip. The hollow of which was shallow, for the ease of the sitter, with notable lineaments in the cutting.

Upon this there sat readily a most adorned Nymph and most beautiful, in a garment of gold interwoven with dark blue silk, in a fine dress of girlish neatness adorned with manifold gems. She showed her affectionate delight in gazing at a plenty of heavenly gold in her lap. With the solemn honours and joyful applause like the others, she sat with her abundant hair poured over her back, crowned with a golden diadem and with many-formed little stones.

The fourth triumph four wheels carried, of iron-like Arcadian asbestos, once kindled refusing to be put out. The rest of the four-square tabling, in the manner aforesaid, was of flashing carbuncle of Troglodytis, not fearing the thick darkness, with most polished chasings, long to speak of distinctly. But such workmanship ought to be considered in what place, and by what maker, it was wrought.

The right-hand face, then, showed excellently this history. A venerable matron with child. To whom the highest Jupiter appeared divinely (as he is wont with the goddess Juno) with thunders and lightnings, so that, kindled, she was burnt to ashes; and out of the burnt body they drew a most noble and divine infant.

In the other I beheld that same helping Jupiter offering that same infant to a heavenly man with winged sandals and bearing a herald's staff. And he then committed him in a cave to many Nymphs to be nursed.

In the front square I saw Cupid, a great plenty of both sexes marvelling as they were shot, that with his hurtful little arrow shot into the high heaven he should draw Jove in his divinity to the contemplation of a mortal girl. Opposite, behind, the greatest Jupiter was seen sitting as judge in a tribunal, and Cupid limping, called into judgement against his kindly mother, making sorrowful

complaints — seeing that by her doing he had extremely wounded himself with love of a most beautiful damsel. And that by a spark from a lamp his divine little leg had been burnt. The most beautiful Nymph being present too, accused, with the lamp in her hands. And to Cupid, laughing, Jupiter said: bear the spark, you who set fire to heaven and to all.

This single line was carved in our own letters upon a tablet before the face of the venerable godhead. The rest as those described.

This mysterious triumph six spotted tigers of Hyrcania drew, with markings of a shining tawny, and swiftest in their speed, most beautifully bound with the pliant shoot of a fruitful vine, full of tender fronds, with their winding tendrils, adorned with vermilion clusters. Drawing with a tempered movement.

Above which, in the middle of the flat, there was set a base of gold, of a lowest diameter of one foot and three palms, and of nearly the same height. One part at the lowest rounded course, and a half at the wave, or upturned moulding and braid. The rest was distributed to the pulley moulding, and to the inverted wave with the accessory braids, or rules and little cords.

The flat of this was hollow in the middle in a circle. Into which hollowing there descended the tails of four eagles, founded upon the levelled surface of the base. Which were of precious crimson aetites of Persia. And these stood with their backs one opposite the other. Having their clawed golden talons fixed and treading upon the said base. And each with both wings raised and touching.

Upon these, at the elbow, was founded this wondrous vessel of most bright Ethiopian jacinth, an enemy to the chisel, a gracious companion. Which vessel was crusted with emerald, with manifold other little veins of gems, an incredible thing. In height it was two feet and a half. Almost of a rounded form. The diameter of its thickness stood at a foot and a half, and the circumference was three diameters. Which vessel, made fast from the bottom upon the wings, rose a third, and then there was a border going round the last

thickness of a palm. From which border, to the beginning of an ewer-shaped vessel that was held in one with this same, a palm; in all, as far as here, it is a foot and a half.

Above this measure there grew a form of the vessel aforesaid, raised a foot, and began to widen for a palm and a half. Which half was given to the exquisite border of wound fronds and flowers, almost all torn free of that jacinth. The diameter two quarters and a half. Beneath this little border there stood out round about certain slices of a modest rise and a tempered keeling, somewhat thick at the top, and narrowing away at the bottom.

Then it rose most beautifully to the mouth two quarters and a half. Distinguishedly hollowed with twisted little hollows. The mouth of a little shell with wide rims, beneath the body with an elegant moulding, and at the grasp of the vessel with turned gorges, waves and rounds. Of such lineaments were the borders set both below and above.

At the border of the ewer below, within the said enclosure, there were held two cut half-rings, pressed down by their figure, set crosswise opposite with their hooked ends one to the other. Which were held in the biting jaws of two lizards, or little dragons. And the little dragons, left perfectly of a vein of emerald, the rest crusted away, lay with four lizard-like feet upon the ridge of the lower vessel; which ridge, between the ewer and the lower vessel, had a rise of a quarter. And from its lofty narrowing, descending, it ended with a lineament of an inverted moulding at the encircled rim of the body, where the surrounding border was.

Which sloping ridge was most diligently scaled of the jacinth. Only the little dragons left of the emerald vein, with their serpent bellies held above the scaling, and so the four little feet. Which little dragons, one at each side, at the cut end of the fall of the said ridge, above the cut of the little cornice, made with their turning tails a round and ready coil towards the spine. And then they made another like it below. These coils were for the handles. The lower whirl, where it was joined with the vessel, cut into two parts, one here and the other there, passed into a marvellous foliage. And at the right and left side they entered half a foot with an elegant polish into the border. Which fronds were seen almost wholly in relief; and the ground, that is the solid flat lying beneath the body, was of the jacinth. The whole circumference of the body was taken up by these leafy tails, or rather a girding band of two feet.

It remains to speak of the space that stands a foot and a half to each side. The body of the vessel from the girding downward I judged a stupendous work, and rather divine; I beheld the said vessel covered all over with an exact vine of carving. Of which the stems, or shoots, with vine-leaves, with little tendrils and ringed shoots, of a vein fitted to the devising, of topaz. Such as would not be found in the island Ophiodes.

The foliage of finest emerald, the clusters of amethyst. O how

most joyful it showed itself to the sight, and graciously to be contemplated by the intellect. The solid ground from which this exact workmanship was set apart shone of the jacinth, more burnished and rounded than would have been brought about on the lathe. Only beneath the leaves was a slight remainder left, which held the foliage to the jacinth beneath, all open and separated from the ground by almost a thumb's breadth. The curved leaves, with all the accessory lineaments skilfully polished, with a rash rivalry of nature, and no less at all the fruits, vine-leaves and wandering shoots. To this wondrous making let not the cups of the divine Alcimedon be matched. Nor yet the cup of Alcon. Which vessel was filled with fine and holy ash.

Let us return to the surrounding girdle of the most precious vessel, or bordered band. In the empty space left between the tails, I saw two histories worthy of the greatest admiration in such carving.

On the front face of that vessel I beheld, excellently cut, high-thundering Jove. He held in his right hand a cutting golden sword of a vein of Ethiopian chrysolite, shining. In the other a flashing thunderbolt of a ruby vein. And he with a threatening aspect of a vein of galactite, crowned with sparkling stars like the thunderbolt. Standing upon a sacred altar of sapphire.

In whose divine and dreadful majesty I looked upon a festive chorus of seven Nymphs, white in their dress, showing that they sang religiously, with a worshipping applause. Who then were transformed into green trees of an emerald clearness, filled with shining dark blue flowerets. And they bowed devoutly to the highest godhead. Not that all the Nymphs were changed into fronds, but the last being wholly turned into a little tree, and her feet into little roots; and the next with her feet gone; and the third from the girdle upward, with the beginning of her arms; and each of the rest thereafter. But at the top of their maidenly heads they showed the metamorphosis that was to follow upon them all in turn.

On the other side, in relief, there appeared a festive and joyful godhead, with the semblance of a slippery girl, crowned with two long and coiled serpents,

the one white and the other black, knotted with a lively coiling. He stood set delightfully beneath a fruitful vine. Upon whose arbour there climbed, with laughing faces, certain most beautiful naked little spirits. And thence they plucked the hanging and heavy ripe clusters; some shrewdly offered them to this divine godhead in baskets. And he, perceiving it, placidly received them. Some lay on the green ground on their backs, provoked to a sweet sleep by the juice of the grape. Others busily did the work of the vintaging autumn. Others idly sang, sounding their stretched drums.

Which expressions, according to the requirement of the colourings, had their veins so naturally accessory and fitting to the maker's determined devising of the precious stone; and in these little images, however small, nevertheless no defect at all showed itself, even in the least parts. But every part was seen distinctly perfect.

Out of the vessel aforesaid there sprouted a leafy vine of gold with curled vine-leaves, fruitfully adorned with little clusters, with crimson grains of Indian amethyst, and the foliage of the holy green selenite of Persia, not subject to the movements of the moon, and placid to Cupid. Keeping its bearer safe; and it roofed the six-horse team.

At each corner of the flat of the triumphal car there shone widely, set there, a most skilfully made candelabrum, founded upon three little horned feet, of branching coral, excellent for country folk. Lightnings. Whirlwinds. And driving off tempests, and kindly to its bearer, and an amulet. Such a like was not found by Perseus beneath the Gorgon's head, nor such in the Red Sea, nor such in the Persian, nor such the Drepanic.

Then in one of them the whole shaft was of sky-blue Lusitanian thunderstone, unfriendly to tempests, and chiefly friendly to Diana, with a tempered body, and a narrowing of longish pomegranate-shapes and knots. With a notable display, adorned with fine-wrought work, of a height of two feet. The other stood of finest

Dionysian stone, with spots reddening in its blackness, smelling when ground of the god. The third of best Median stone, sown with a dusky golden colour, with a nectar-like taste. The last of precious nebris, dedicated to the god, in whose choice black colour white and green met mingled together. In the little shell of which a pyramidal little flame of unquenchable fire burned continually.

By which brightness I could not steadily behold the choice workmanship and reliefs, by the reflection of the flickering light, and by the flashing of the most precious little stones.

About which divine triumph, with much and solemn devotion and the greatest pomp and religion, countless Maenad Nymphs with their hair loose and scattered. Some naked, with nymphlike mantles flowing from their shoulders, and some in fawnskins — that is, clothed in a pelt varied with the colour of a young deer — without the other sex, cymbal-players and flute-players, held the sacred rites, crying out with shouts, and dances, as at the three-yearly feasts, with thyrsi of fronds of cone-bearing trees, and girt and crowned with vine fronds twisted over the bare body, running and leaping.

There followed immediately the triumph old Silenus riding his little ass; then, immediately behind this rider, they festively led a shaggy goat adorned with the pomp of sacrifice. And one of his followers carried a wicker fan, with disordered laughter and frantic gestures. With this most ancient and holy rite they gloriously extolled this fourth triumph; and with a reverent discourse, crying out confusedly with a loud voice to Bacchus, there followed, keeping festival, the Mimallones, satyrs, bacchantes, Lenae, Thyiads, Naiads, Tityri and Nymphs.

The Nymph eloquently declares to Poliphilo the multitude of the loving young men, and of the divine amorous girls: who they were and how they were loved by the gods; and he saw the choirs of the divine poets singing.

No one of so unwearied an eloquence would ever aptly fit himself to come out and escape from setting forth the divine secrets plentifully and fully. Nor could he expressly tell, and with words sufficiently express, with how divine a pomp, unceasing triumphs, unfailing glory, festive gladness and happy dancing, these four unvisited six-horse cars of memorable show were surrounded.

Besides the renowned young men and the thronging troop of countless and most joyful Nymphs — more prudent and grave and shrewd than the tenderness of their years — with their most acceptable lovers of downy and beardless cheeks. In some the first shining down crept over their cheeks; they kept festival cheerfully and deliciously. Many having their torches kindled and burning. Some I saw bearing shrines. Others with straight spears adorned with ancient spoils. And some excellently ordered

and composed with various trophies, went before, both kinds gladly, the mysterious triumphs, with high shouts of joy sounding up into the air. Some with the trumpeting instruments, various in form and in breath, trumpets drawn out and whole, and with sounding pipes. Some singing with heavenly notes, and with unspeakable delights and eternal solaces, exceeding all that human wit could imagine at its utmost, going round the everlasting triumphs in glory, circling through the flowering and blessed land and happy country, and the spring fields, a place most holy, dedicated to the blessed.

Not hindered nor taken up by any growing shrub. But all the flowery ground was one level meadow of fragrant herbs and flower-bearing with flowers, endless of every colouring, and most beautiful of manifold form, and sweetest of scent, as much as could ever be said. Which did not fear the burning invasions of Phoebus, since he does not run in this most pleasant place with his swiftest horses to the last west. But the air always purest, and every hour unveiled of clouding vapours, but eternally a clear and unchanging day; and the earth continually grass-bearing, springlike and fragrant with flowers, like a gracious and choice painting, standing always unhurt with its dewy freshness, and with its colour without the interdict of time.

Here the four kinds of violet, cowslip, melilot, anemones, cornflowers, nigella, cyclamen, crowfoot, columbine, lily of the valley and amaranth, cassidony, spikenard, Celtic nard, ambrosia, amaranth, wild mint, citron and clove basil, and the other smallest ones; and many other fragrant and flower-bearing herbs; all the kinds of gillyflower and the smallest Persian rose-trees, fruitful with fragrant little roses, and hundred-leaved, and of all colourings. And countless others, with all the fragrant and notable herbs, without any human labour excellently distributed for beauty by excellent nature herself, and untilled they stood, with their flowering greenness never falling, and with an unfailing pleasantness and delight. And to the utmost gratifying of the senses.

Here, then, among the notable and seemly girls, with an approved comeliness, I saw Callisto of Arcadia, daughter of Lycaon, with the unrecognized Diana; Antiope of Lesbos with the honoured satyr, daughter of Nycteus, from whom were born Amphion the musician and Zethus the countryman; Issa, daughter of Macareus, with the dear shepherd. And Antichia, daughter of Accus. And the young Canace. And also her born of Athasius. And Asteria, born of the Titan Coeus. And likewise Alcmena, gladly playing with her counterfeited husband.

Then in turn I looked upon delightful Aegina, taking the highest pleasure both in the bright river and in the divine fire. Her too born of Fullus, and her of Menemphus, festive with the feigned father. And the other of Diodes with her lap filled with most beautiful flowers, and reverent to the twisting serpent. And the seemly girl no longer grieving at the horns sprouted on her. And Astyoche

and Antigone, daughter of Laomedon, solacing themselves delightfully with the flying feathers. And Curisice, inventress of the first four-horse cars. The Garamantian Nymph dancing, held by the tip of her finger on the bright banks of the Bagradas, washing her delicate little feet from the footed crab.

Then I saw in flight a fleeing quail, and a hook-clawed eagle following. Thence too Erigone I saw, who had her sparkling breast packed with savoury grapes. And the daughter of King Collus pleased with a strong bull. And the wife of Eripeus gracious with her changed husband. And her born of Alpus quietly delighting in a shaggy and woolly ram. And the maiden Melantho with the swimming beast. And Philyra, daughter of ancient Ocean, with the father of Chiron.

Afterwards I saw law-giving Ceres, her brow bound with yellow ears of corn, embraced in a delightful pleasure with the scaly serpent. And the most shapely Nymph Lara of the Tiber delighting with the slayer of Argus. And the fair Nymph Juturna. And many others, long to tell of.

Now, with an excessive delight, while ignorant and astonished I carefully contemplated with an applied mind the heavenly troop and the divine triumphs hedged about with such dances, and the delicious fields — what they were was wholly unknown to me, save that they were amorous mysteries — the divine Nymph, my faithful companion and guide, taking note of my dullness, with an excellent face and adorned and sweetest little words (I not asking her) providently said:

"My Poliphilo, do you see that one?" (showing me who in the fleeting age they had been). "By high Jove she was ardently loved. And likewise that other beloved one. And this was such a one, and those godheads were taken with her sweet love." And in this manner besides making known to me her noble and royal lineage. And the name I did not know she affably, all solacing, told me, pointing.

Then she showed me a venerable crowd of young girls. To whom three holy matrons stood before with divine bearing, going ahead of so great a delight. Adding (changed somewhat in her angelic face), she said lovingly: "My Poliphilo, I would have you understand that no earth-born creature could enter here without a torch kindled — either by ardent love and with the utmost labour, such as you see me carry burning now, or by the safe company of those three matrons." And sighing from her heart she said: "The present torch it will behove me, for your love, to quench at the holy temple (as you shall see), offering it."

Such and so made a discourse pierced my inflamed heart, so most acceptable was it to me and delightful when she called me thus: "My Poliphilo." Because I was made wholly suspicious that without fail she was Polia. For which cause I felt myself, from head to foot, inwardly altered and refreshed with the highest sweetness, and my beaten heart flee to her alone. And of this vehement effect

my face and my low little sighs accused me. And she, skilfully perceiving it, breaking off this strange and new happening, began placidly to say, coaxing me:

"O how many would most gladly wish that they could look a little upon what you now see clearly. And therefore lift up your mind to high things, and look diligently, Poliphilo, at how many other noble and renowned Nymphs show themselves deservedly companioned with their amorous young men, reverent and generous." Who, with amorous and sweet-sounding notes and measured verses, praising them and their unwearied lovers, and unceasingly keeping festival, alternating with an extreme delight, and extolling the triumphs above, together and with the air full of the manifold and most welcome chattering of various little birds.

In the first song, then, and glad dance, to the lofty praise of the first car in its rejoicing, the most holy Muses sang, with their divine lyre-player going before. Then there followed the heavenly triumph an elegant damsel of Parthenope, calling herself by the name of Leria, with her brow crowned with undying laurel. Attending upon a most beautiful girl, Melanthia, embraced with her divine father of chief beauties. Whose garments and voice showed a proud Greek. Upon whom the great Macedonian always laid his heavy head in sleeping. She carried a shining lamp, which freely shared its light with the companions following, sweeter than the others in voice and song.

And here the distinguished Nymph showed me most ancient Iphianassa; and then the ancient father of desire, stirred with his beloved daughters into a sweetest music, joined with these a plentiful and most easy Lycoris. And a matron singing between two Theban brothers, and with the fair Silvia. All these and others went before the first triumphing car, singing sweetly with heavenly lyres and sweet-sounding instruments, and dancing most readily, with brightness and magnificence.

At the second glory of triumph the notable Nemesis with Corinna of Lesbos, Delia and Neaera, with many others more amorous and more wanton than the rest, gave high-sounding and immortal praise, with Crocale of Sicily.

At the third pomp of triumph likewise the smooth Nymph, showing them to me, said: "Do you see those?" Quintilia and Cynthia Nauta, with many others, spread their delightful verses of melody. "Look also at the maiden Violantilla with her dove, and the other weeping for the sparrow."

To the praises of the fourth triumphal car there went before the noble Lyde, Chloe of Lydia, and Neobule, with the comely Phyllis and with the fair Lyce; and Tiburtus and Pyrrha with a sounding lyre rejoiced delightfully. Now after this fourth triumph there followed among the Maenads a notable damsel who, singing with her beloved Phaon, longed for horns for the beauty of her head. Last of all, after them all, she showed me a most honest matron of white

garment, and another clothed in an undying green colour, who also sang behind all the singers.

Thus, then, most joyfully they went circling round through the whole flowery and most pleasant plain. Some crowned with laurel, and some with myrtle, and with manifold garlands and varied adornment; with most solemn prayers, with a religious discourse, divine and triumphal, without term and ending, without weariness and without labour, with the utmost fullness of every delight, gloriously rejoicing, and mutually enjoying the divine sights; and the most happy realms, and the holy country, without interruption they quietly possess, most blessed.

The Nymph, having fittingly declared to her Poliphilo the triumphal mysteries and the divine love, invites him to go on further from there, where with the utmost delight he saw countless other Nymphs with their most welcome lovers, delighting themselves in a thousand solaces among the flowers, and through the cool shades and clear streams and clearest fountains; and how Poliphilo, strongly stirred by love, raged there. But tempering himself with hope, he was quieted, gazing upon the sweet face of his fair Nymph.

Not only would he reckon himself happy, but he would be blessed above any other, to whom by a special favour it should continually be granted to see the divine pomps, the heavenly triumphs, and the glorious sports, and the kindly places, and such goddesses and demi-goddesses and adorned Nymphs, of incredible beauty and ornament. And to have a particular fellowship with them, and to look upon them unceasingly.

But above all to have beside him, as an equal companion, so renowned a Nymph of chief beauty, with an exquisite nymphlike and divine adornment, a guide and a sincere leader. And this I judged no small and scanty part of blessedness. Having really beheld these things, I stayed a great while in thought, and gladdened beyond esteeming, and marvelling beyond measure.

Afterwards the

tender and delicious damsel my guide, coaxing, said to me: "Poliphilo, let us go further now." And departing thence at once, opposite the coolest fountains and shaded streams, we took a solacing journey. Where the flowing little rivers, from the living and rising fountains, went round the flower-bearing fields in a ring, running with crystal waters in gracious wavelets.

In which cleanest waters there gazed ardently at himself the purple and flowering son of the Nymph Liriope, out of his tender leaves; and the river-loving and crimson water-mint; and here and there the flowering iris set out. And all the fair banks full of other fair and most notable flowers, sprouting among the greenest and most joyful grass.

Which blessed place was of an ample and widest circuit, ringed with shrubby little mountains of a moderate height, plentiful with green laurel, with fruit-bearing arbutus, and with tufted and loftiest pines and firs, with white and temperate myrtle; and round about the clearest little channels with a gravelly and sandy bed, and in some places the ground was of tawny sand; there lived the watery and three-leaved dryope, in which the sloping water flowed with a soft murmur.

Here, then, was a great plenty of delicate and divine Nymphs, soft in years, with the fragrant flower of modesty, beautiful beyond belief, with their beardless lovers, perpetual dwellers and citizens of this most worthy place.

Of which Nymphs some, comelily, with their forward faces solacing themselves in the brightest waters, had gathered up most beautifully their finest garments of silk, shining with a various and welcome tincture, and, those being gathered at their snowy arms, they showed the elegant form of their full flanks beneath the living little folds. And their whitest legs revealed, and their round calves shown as far as their fleshy knees. And the running purest waters bathed them near their round ankles.

Which then, reflecting the excessive whiteness of their bright and shining limbs, and their neat faces, among the little waves not leaping up, and their heavenly faces — as in a shining and most burnished mirror likewise, where the current was not great — the waters, feigning, showed them; and their little feet broke the met waters, and the opposing ripples, with an oncoming bursting and a sounding meeting, invading them.

Some, solacing themselves, ran girt through the waters with the swimming and tame web-footed swans. And then, drawing up the water with their hollowed hands, they scattered it laughing one at another. Some, out of the flowing streams, standing upon the soft herbs, busily wove jewels of the fragrant and variously coloured flowers. Which they familiarly offered to their most welcome lovers, and afterwards lovingly did not deny the accessory succulent and

savoury kisses; nay, readily kissing closely, more shut and biting than the suckers of the octopus's arms, and more than the shellfish clinging bitingly to the Illyrian rocks and to the sea flats, with moist and quivering little tongues fed with fragrant musk, playfully they touched lips mutually between their laughing and moistened lips. And on their whitest throats some made with their small teeth marks that did not hurt.

Others had set themselves upon the green grass and the coloured flowers, at a welcome sitting near the adorned banks, not tangled with little reeds, but adorned with various flowers. In which the melting waters, clearer than the Axius in Mygdonia, sounded, breaking at the feet of the crimson oleander; and beneath the shadowing trees they were combed one with another, like the viper locks of Medusa, and more than the tangled dodder, in delightful embraces, and gripping more closely together than the creeping ivy to the ancient elms and to the most aged buildings.

And to their reverent lovers not fierce, not refusing, but purely with a companionable love kindly and affable, and yielding themselves to their desires, consenting with their bare and full breasts. Which gave themselves to the eyes beyond measure welcome, with loving gestures more delightful and gracious than flowing tears to cruel and pitiless Cupid. And much more than the cool little streams to the grassy meadows, and the morning dew. And more than the longed-for form to matter.

Some sang fitly amorous verses, with tired voices taken up with little sighs in their inflamed breasts, full of sweet accents, able to make sweetly enamoured the fierce hearts of stone, and to tame the harshness of the pathless Caucasus. And to hinder all that the lyre of Orpheus did, and the accursed face of Medusa. And to call back any horrible monster, pleasant and to be handled. And to quiet the continual goad of raging Scylla.

Some lay idly set in the chaste laps of the seated girls, and told the pleasant jests of high Jove; and they, sharp-witted, went about their curled hair with garlands of savoury flowers, and of fragrant little herbs, and crowned them with the utmost solace.

Likewise some of them were lovingly and feignedly refused, pretending to flee what both one and the other intently desired. And here, following, they ran one after the other with their little mouths open, full of laughing and womanly cries, with their blondest tresses poured down over their milky shoulders, veiling them, shining like a threading of gold, pressed by garlands of green myrtle. And some had them knotted elegantly with nymphlike care, with flying veils. Some with hair-fillets woven of a golden plaiting, adorned with gems.

Then, drawing somewhat together, they

bent down, and, the fair flowers being plucked and their little swelling hands filled, with amorous semblances they scattered them upon their comely faces, solacing and sporting themselves with much delight.

Others courteously, opening the closely fastened bosoms of their gowns, adding flowers to flowers, put within them the roses stripped of their petals, the sucking kiss following after. And at one time they struck each other with a hand that did not hurt, without weal or bruise, giving each other slaps sweetly upon their dimpled cheeks, faintly reddened as shining Phoebus shows himself in the wheels of the cool dawn, with the newest and most unthought-of battles that ever Love knew how to feign.

All festive and cheerful, and all provoked to delights. With girlish gestures and movements and a maidenly simplicity, tangled in a sincere love without offence to honoured virtue. Free and exempt from any sad encounter, and from the rivalry of skin-changing fortune.

Beneath the tempered shades let down by the weeping sisters of wicked Phaethon, and by the undying Daphne, and by tufted pines, with fine and pointed fronds, and by the tree dyed again with the burning blood of the unhappy Babylonians, and by the straight cypresses and the greenest orange and cedar trees, and by other most notable and most leafy trees, most fruitful of flowers and fruits, with an eternal greenness, most beautiful beyond esteeming and fragrant. Which, set in order upon the gracious banks and dispensed through the plain, at a moderate distance and interval, took up the grassy earth, full and clothed with the green periwinkle with its sky-blue flowers.

Alas, then, what heart would be so cold and frozen that it should not be excitedly kindled, seeing present before it such real and delightful offices of an even and answering love? So I reasonably suspected that even Diana the huntress would wholly and easily have been set on fire. And the icy Helice pursued by her.

For which cause I should almost have dared to utter a foolishness: that the spirits below suffer no other torment than the envy they have of these. Who without end live happily in delights and triumph, with the utmost pleasure, with no weariness of things present nor any surfeit of them.

Whence more than once my heart, kindled through my eyes with an extreme sweetness, and greatly burning, my amorous soul went out as far as my hesitating mouth. And keeping my mind fixed upon those delightful pleasures, and the soft kisses, and the abundant rewards of winged Cupid, looking on with a curious gaze, it certainly seemed to me in that space to feel of that kindled soul that this was its passing, and that it was sweetly departing to the last and utmost bounds of blessedness.

And in this manner I found myself wavering beyond all measure, lifeless and astonished, so that I almost thought myself drugged. There offering itself to my tenacious memory the unguents of the mischievous

Circe, the powerful herbs of Medea, the hurtful songs of Byrrhena, and the grave-verses of Pamphile. So that I lawfully doubted whether bodily eyes could see beyond humanity, and whether there could be there a most lowly, ignoble and heavy body, where the immortal blessed rest.

After I was drawn out of these long and anxious thoughts and fantastic imaginings, remembering exquisitely all the wondrous, holy and divine things seen by me until now nakedly and openly, at last I knew that they were not deceiving illusions, nor false magics, but truly things imperfectly grasped.

Looking intently, then, with these thoughts, the most excellent Nymph at my side and so close by, wounded my sad heart unceasingly, dying as I was, with her eyes packed with amorous and busy darts. By which she at once stirred up every wandering and straying thought of mine, and, all of them gathered and hardened into that one fixed object, she called back my deadened soul vigorously to renew itself in its first fires.

Which suffered bitterly for not daring to ask whether she were my divine and most desired Polia. Seeing that she had before given me a somewhat ambiguous and suspected knowledge; and doubting deservedly (since my rude and untilled speech would not have been fitting at all) that I should shamelessly offend her, my warm voice having come many times to my silent lips, for such a reason I pressed it down.

But whatever it was, being beset by a marvellous astonishment (like deceived Sosia by the counterfeited son of Atlas), I found myself greatly in suspense; above all, examining the heavenly workings with subtle glances and heartfelt weighings, invaded by an ardent desire — so that beyond measure I longed thus, saying within myself:

Here I would gladly be reckoned a perpetual citizen; and if it could be, no toilsome trouble could seem heavy to me, no threatening peril would frighten me. However deceitful fortune should set itself against me, I would then, without further thinking, lay out my dear and precious life entire. Not refusing to take up the laborious and heavy choice of the two doors shown to the son of Amphitryon, and to use up my sweet youth and my pleasant years through the mortal perils of the raging sea, and through the fearful places of Sicily, with greater and highest labours and terror than were borne by wandering Ulysses, being in the darkened and pathless cave of the horrible Cyclops Polyphemus, son of Neptune, and by the transformations of the company of Calypso; and not to spare my gracious life for any thing whatever, and to bear a harder and longer servitude than the loving Hebrew shepherd bore, and a more dreadful one than that of Androdus the slave — because there every labour is shut out where love burns — and to set myself to the

proving of the loving Milanion and Hylaeus, and for the fair Atalanta. And to strive in no other manner than the sinewy and strong Hercules, wrestling manfully for his beloved Deianira against the monstrous Achelous, conquered him; and I in no other way, to win so many delights, and to enter for long into the holy and most fruitful places, disposed with every delight and pleasure.

And above all to win the precious love, and to gain the long-desired good will of this woman: fairer beyond comparison than Cassiopeia, more shapely than Castiamira — alas for me, who carries my dying and my life in her will. And if by chance I appear unworthy of such fellowship and amorous commerce, at least that it might be eternally granted me by a special gift and privilege and favour to gaze upon her steadily and intently.

And then, speaking to myself, I said: O Poliphilo, if the burdensome and troublesome heaviness of this amorous weight should by chance frighten you, the sweetness of the fruit invites you, a lover of labour, to any sad toil; and if the toilsome perils frighten you, yet the hope of the patronage and help of such a Nymph ought to make you fierce and persuade you.

Then, my varied wavering having departed from here without delay, I said: O gods above and greatest, and you sovereign goddesses, powerful over mortals — if this is that most acceptable Polia whom at present I see, whom without interruption I have carried and keep most preciously stamped in my burnt and tenacious heart, cleaving with an everlasting glue, from the first years of love until now, I am content with everything, and beyond her I ask nothing else; but only this I beseech as a suppliant: bind her likewise to my fervent loves, and that she, with that same burning fire in which I so hardly feed myself for her and burn consuming, may burn equally, and both of us mailed together; or else loose me alone.

For which cause I can no longer feign and pretend the bitterness, to hide the strengthened burning. I am forever dying while living, and living I feel no life; I am cheerful while grieving, and I do not grieve, and I go on suffering; I consume myself, feeding in the flame, and the overflowing flame grows; and burning like gold in the strong crucible I find myself solid ice.

Alas, wretched me: this so heavy love troubles me more than heavy Inarime troubles Typhon; it scatters me more than the ravening vultures the coiled entrails of Tityus; it tangles me more than the labyrinth's winding; it disquiets me more than the storm-bearing winds the quieted sea; it presses me more than the biting hounds pressed Actaeon in flight, and more than horrible death troubles sweet living, it troubles my spirits.

And my tormented heart is more hurtfully gnawed by her biting eyes than the crocodile's entrails are eaten by the ichneumon. And beyond belief it is so taken up by them with unceasing strokes, as upon an anvil, more than the Ceraunian mountains often struck by the heavenly thunderbolts. And so much the more that I cannot, with all the power of my wit,

ponder and understand in what part of the world I find myself. Unless over against and stubbornly facing a sweet fire of this demi-goddess, which consumes me without bodily hurt.

Whose abundant and yellow hair is to me a knotted snare stretched and set about my hedged heart; her wide and smooth brow, whitening like lilies, twists me like a rod bound in a garland; the arrow-shooting glances of her life hang me up, sweet awakenings to afflict me; her rosy cheeks invite me sweetly to sharpen my pain; her cinnamon mouth makes me long for a sweet torment.

Then her delicious breast, white as winter snow on the northern mountains (which, being in itself an extreme sweetness), is to me a bitter and hurtful scourge. And her more than human semblances, and her comely person, drawing my appetite to an imagined delight, cruelly waste me.

And against all these insulting martyrdoms, and against this so perilous a contest, and against impious and treacherous Cupid, with all these insulting parts of that smooth little body, my provoked heart vigorously throwing itself in as a strenuous wrestler — nevertheless it could never resist, but, like Milo beside her, I find myself torn apart, every strength put to sleep, nor can I turn aside from there, as if I had entered incautiously into the Babylonian marsh.

So the only worthy and fulfilling present remedy and fitting medicine that would offer itself, however much I felt myself accepted, with all these harshest and intolerable pains of mine, would be that this goddess should be Polia — she who has secretly set me on fire and burns me without delay, and burns me all over with the flames of hard Cupid, neither more nor less than Minerva kindled the figure of Prometheus, the burning fire snatched with a light reed from the running wheels of shining Phoebus.

O Tityus, I should ill persuade myself that my torment were less than yours, while the sword-like vultures split your warm breast, and thence, without staying, your living heart, torn out and smoking, and seizing it with their taloned feet, and cruelly tearing it limb from limb with their hooked beaks, they devour it; and in a little while afterwards, it being restored, they return swiftly to that same butchery. And the sorrowful carnage begins again from the top.

Likewise, my inflamed breast being opened, two most thieving eyes without pity harshly scatter and tear my loving heart, and, tearing it, bitingly devour it. Then it is not long in time before her festive and most joyful aspect heals it again, as if it felt no hurt; and after a little instant, beginning again, they return to its stricken wounds.

Alas for me. Then, having said this to myself secretly, I began wretchedly to weep, and, sighing, to call up abundantly the familiar tears to my weeping eyes, and to find the way to long for most hateful death. And for some space, thus fiercely goaded by an excessive and deadly love, which sorrowfully stirred me beyond all bound, and with a

burning heat with piteous sighs tormented me. Now, disordered with such anguish, many times I set this purpose in my mind: to cry out with the highest wailings and say: O more than most beautiful Nymph, my goddess, and chief and only hope, be moved to pity now, and helping me succour me, for at present I find myself at the point of dying.

But at once, dismayed, judging this deceitful, I rejected it as a false and light thought; and in an instant, moved by a raging and roaring spirit, confounding myself, I said: Why do you waver, Poliphilo? To die for love's sake is praiseworthy. And yet would it ever be, by my sad and malignant ill-luck, that my sorrowful happening, and my heavy kindlings, and my noble love of such a Nymph should be recited in the hollowed earth? And then that the fine and pliant reeds should sprout, which, sounding, should afterwards make plain my growing and hurtful loves?

Not shutting out such wickedness of my wandering thoughts, I said rightly: Perhaps this woman, as she shows, is a venerable goddess; and therefore talking Syrinx of Arcadia, in the reedy and marshy seats of the river Ladon, would not have been given, shaken, to the goading and forward east winds, and to the tumultuous and frost-bearing north wind, and to the blowing and cloud-bearing south, and to the troubled and rain-bringing wind, if her untimely and unseemly speech in the presence of the goddesses had been fitting. And answering Echo, by such a likeness, would not have been made into a last voice, if she had spoken seemly.

And therefore, the gods being of themselves most pious, such contempt and negligent daring makes them severe avengers. For which cause the companions of slow and searching Ulysses would deservedly have been kept safe without the mortal peril of shipwreck, if they had not shamelessly and wickedly stolen the fated herd of Apollo, watched over by the Nymphs Phaethusa and her sister Lampetie. And Orion likewise would not have known the horrible vengeance, if he had not rashly set himself against cold and chaste Diana. And the son of burning Phoebus was rashly struck by lightning from highest Olympus, and bound eternally in the Stygian waves, for using the peony herbs.

If, then, I should show by any sign any unseemliness towards this divine Nymph, might not the like, and worse, easily befall me? At last I came out of so great a stirring of my quarrelling mind.

Taking, then, the highest delight, I grew calm; and looking at her adorned elegance and contemplating the comely form of this noble and distinguished Nymph, I wholly comforted myself. Who held plentifully in herself all that can perfectly delight in love, and all that can be sweetly loved, dispensing so great a sweetness widely from her festive eyes that, the troubling and unbridled thoughts being driven out of my disquieted

mind, I tempered it somewhat. And I turned back my sounding sighs, and with flattering hope (O amorous food of lovers, and often enough joined with a tearful drink) I wheeled my stirred thoughts by another biting bridle, with so much considered and made pleasure, gazing with an extreme delight upon that most welcome and native body, upon those rosy cheeks, upon those bright and shining limbs, solacing myself. By which singular things I kindly comforted and softened my raging desires, redeemed from the furious angers of too great an ardour, and from the amorous fire so near that they were readily taking light.

The Nymph leads the loving Poliphilo through other fair places, where he saw countless Nymphs keeping solemn festival, and cheerfully keeping the feast about a sacred altar with the triumph of Vertumnus and Pomona. Then they came to a marvellous temple, which he in part describes, and its builder's art. And how in the said temple, at the warning of the priestess, the Nymph with much ceremony put out her torch, showing herself to Poliphilo to be his Polia. And afterwards, having entered with the sacrificing priestess into the holy shrine, before the divine altar she called upon the three Graces.

I could no longer contend against the heavenly and violent armour; and, the most elegant Nymph having lovingly gained an irrevocable lordship over wretched me, further on with her (I following her measured steps), driving me as her equal, she led me towards a spacious shore. Which bordered upon the flower-bearing and hilly valley, where the adorned little mountains ended at this shore, and the vine-bearing hills, with their ways shut, enclosing round about this golden country, full of incredible delight.

Which were of wooded groves of a notable thickness, as though the little trees had been pleasantly set in order: the yew of Corsica and of Arcady, the fruitless and resinous wild pine, tall pines, straight firs, careless of bending and stubborn under a weight, the burnable spruce, the spongy larch, airy torch-pines, and lovers of the hills, kept and tended by festive Oreads. Here we both,

through the green and flowery plain, I hedged about with amorous fire, the notable Nymph guiding as my leader — I and she went among the loftiest cypress, among the spreading beeches, among the fruitful and green oaks, abundant with new fruits in their cups, loved and welcome to high-thundering Jove; and hard oaks with rough bark, and the pricking junipers that love eternity, and brittle hazels, and the ash for spear-shafts, and the berried laurel, and shady holm-oaks, and knotty hornbeams, and lime trees, disquieted by the cool breath of the soft west wind spreading through the tender little branches, with a kindly driving.

All which trees were not of a thick planting, but dispensed at the required distance, and all duly distributed in a fitting place and aspect, greatly delightful to the eyes, and springlike with leaves. The country-born Nymphs frequented there, and the wandering dryads, their nimble little bodies girt with soft and twistable fronds, and their leaping hair above their wide brows; together with the horned fauns crowned with the hollow reed, and with pithy fennel-stalk, and girt with sharp pine, with the leaping wanton and swift satyrs, keeping solemnly the faun-feasts, come out of this pleasant and venerable precinct, with more tender, green and new fronds than that grove of the goddess Feronia put forth when the dwellers wished, because of the fire, to carry away her image.

We entered, then, where there were measured square spaces hedged about with the bounds of wide, straight, four-way roads, a pace high, of dog-thorn, or thorny grape, and of ground juniper, and most thickly bound to a wall-like level of most even box, enclosing the squares of the flowering and dewy meadows.

In the order of the said hedges I beheld planted symmetrically the lofty victorious palms, with their fruitful clusters of dates hanging out of their sheaths: some black, some crimson, many yellow, such as would not be found in dewy Egypt. And perhaps the Dabulan of the tent-dwelling Arabs is not so choice, and perhaps Jericho does not bring forth such. Which stood alternating with the greenest citrons and oranges, hawthorn-medlars, pistachios, pomegranates, quinces, tree-myrtles, and medlars, and service-trees, and many other noble fruit trees, most adorned with fruitfulness, in the fields as if newly come into the spring.

Here upon the greenness of the flowering meadows, and in the cool shades, in a gathered multitude, I saw a great troop of unaccustomed and rarely seen people of both kinds, glad together, clothed rustically in skins, some of the fawn with white spots, dappled and painted, and others of lynxes and of leopards, others in the leaves of burdock, some of butterbur, and of taro, of mallow, and of the greater coltsfoot, and of other fronds with various flowers and fruits upon the bare flesh, with buskins of sorrel leaves, and garlanded with flowers, keeping festival

with a religious dancing, clapping and rejoicing — such as were the hamadryad Nymphs, and, at the fragrant flowers, the Hymenides, greening again, leaping joyfully before and on every side of the flowery Vertumnus, bound at the brow with purple and honey-coloured roses, with his lap full of fragrant and most notable flowers, lovers of the season of the woolly Ram; sitting in triumph upon a most ancient car, drawn by four horned fauns bound with garlands of new fronds; with his beloved and most beautiful wife Pomona crowned with fruits, with the flowing ornament of her blondest hair, sitting as his equal, and at whose feet lay a baked-clay water-clock, holding in her hands a packed horn of plenty of flowers and ripened fruits with foliage mingled.

Going before the car, near the drawing fauns, two shapely Nymphs bore the standards: one carrying a spear-trophy of mattocks, two-pronged forks, hoes and little sickles, with a tablet hanging before it with this title:

To those who till me I offer the soundest health of body, and steady strength, and the chaste delights of the table, and a blessed security of mind.

And the other carried a trophy of certain buds and green shoots joined together, and country instruments; leaping with an ancient rite and applause, solemnly circling, and going round a sacred four-cornered altar in the middle of the tufted and flower-bearing meadow, watered by the clearest springs, religiously set up. Which, with all the exquisite lineaments of a most excellent making, was distinguishedly carved in white and shining marble.

On each front of which there stood out an incredible relief of an elegant image, almost wholly free of the ground. The first was a most beautiful goddess with flying tresses girt with roses and other flowers, with a most thin overgarment rivalling the comely limbs beneath; with her right hand she devoutly scattered flowers and roses upon a little sacrifice, a little flame leaping out of an antique three-footed pot; and in the other she held a little branch of fragrant and berried myrtle. Beside her there stood a winged and most beautiful little boy, laughing, with his wounding tokens, and two doves likewise. Beneath the feet of which figure was inscribed: sacred to the flowering spring.

(This page is the seam. Robert Dallington's 1592 English — the only prior public-domain translation — stops within it, at the word Mustulento below. Everything from that word to the end of the book is here rendered into English for the first time. The whole page is given, so the join can be checked.)

On the next side, I saw, of wondrous carving, a Damsel, virginal in aspect, indicating a matronal majesty in the figment, with the utmost praise of the artificer. Crowned with corn-ears, with an elegant downflow of hair and nymphal habit, holding in the right a stuffed plenty of ripe grain, and in the other holding three stalks with bearded ears, and at the feet a bound little bundle of ears lying, with this subscription:

FLAVAE MESSI · S. — "To the golden harvest. Sacred."

On the third face was a Divine simulacrum, nude, with the aspect — with wondrous manner and art expressed — of an infant crowned with clusters of grapes, all laughing with lasciviousness; a vine-branch clustered with grapes he held in the left, and in the other a full plenty of grapes, out of the lips with the fronds and tendrils pendent; at the feet of which stood a wool-bearing he-goat, with this writing carved:

MUSTULENTO AUTUMNO · S. — "To the must-laden autumn. Sacred."

(— Dallington's translation ends here. What follows is ours.)

The last part had a regal image of conspicuous carving, ruddy in aspect and rigid, holding in the left a sceptre, gazing toward the sky — in the dark, turbulent and stormy air — and with the other touching the hail-clouds. Behind, likewise, the rainy and cloud-bearing air. Clad in a pelt- covering over the nude, shod with antique sandals, and subscribed with this title:

HYEMI AEOLIAE · S. — "To Aeolian winter. Sacred."

For this noble figment the outstanding artificer had shrewdly chosen the marble, which — beyond its whiteness — was veined (in the requisite place) with black, to express the tenebrous, unlit and nebulous air, with falling hail. Upon the flat of the said venerable Altar, rigidly rigorous, stood forth the rude simulacrum of the garden-guardian (Priapus), with all his decent and appropriated insignia. Which mysterious Altar a cupola'd little canopy covered, affirmed and sustained upon four poles fixed in the ground. Which poles were diligently invested with fruited and flowered foliage, and the top all covered with manifold flowers; and between each pole, at the rim of the opening, or gap, of the canopy, hung, fixed, a burning lamp; and, in circuit, ornately, gold foils, by the fresh and spring-bearing breezes inconstantly vexed, and sounding with metallic little rattles.

At which simulacrum, with the utmost religion and ancient rural and pastoral rite, certain little flasks, or glass ampullae, with the foaming gore of the immolated Ass, and with warm milk, and scintillating unmixed Wine, scattering, they broke; and with fruits, flowers, fronds, feast, and jewels they libated. Now, behind this glorious Triumph, they conducted, with antique and sylvan ceremony, the little old Janus ensnared, of ropes and tresses twisted of manifold flowers, singing songs rurally — Talassian, Hymeneal, and Fescennine — and rustic instruments, with supreme joy and glory, celebratedly exulting, and with solemn applause dancing, and female voices high-sounding. For which thing, no less pleasure and delight, with stupor, did such solemn rites and celebrated feasts here invade me, than the admiration of the preceding triumphs.

(Page 195 is a blank leaf — a full-page woodcut with no text — and is not counted.)

Then, from here, both of us somewhat progressed, with inexcogitable solace, and proceeding further, I beheld again, at the clear and fresh founts of the gracious and grassy meadows and shady groves, the cascade-Napaeae dancing, and the pleasant Naiads playing, and the marine Nereids singing — clad, some, in the skin of the sea-calf (not harmed by the wrath of supreme Jove), with great bark- vessels of estur in hand stuffed with fruits and flowers, gathered from the gravelly shores, and with diverse solaces idly making festival. Many were, in their hands, bearers of green Thyrses, which at the summit were compacted of orange-flowers, with soft fronds, and of Egyptian roses, yellow and Persian, and of Narcissus-flowers, with handfuls of crimson flowers, and odorous of amuletum; with sylvan Pan the Arcadian, and the demigod sylvan hill-dwellers, and the Dryads, and many others, and Zephyr with his beloved Chloris — to whom he had conceded the power over the beautiful flowers — and many active and singing Shepherds, in their songs expert to contend, and armed with their crooks, praised together, jubilating and applauding, with serious games and jests, with most-ancient instruments of straw and of reed, and with trumpeting Tibiae of bark, of scytala form, of a strange sound, the amorous and omnipotent Jove — festively glorifying — and the holy country-life, and making most-devout the Floralian feasts.

For which thing, how much voluptuous pleasure I felt, I leave to judge to whoever in his cogitation could feign it. Therefore, copiously stuffed with incredible joy, with my most-pleasing companion, traversing, we continued our happy itinerary and amorous walk. Whence, some time, the eyes from their sweet prison and binding — and almost proscription — somewhat removing, Lo! looking above the tender and greenest tops of the wanton trees, I saw a lofty Pterygium (winged pinnacle), above, appearing to me of a round fastigium (gable), esteeming it to be little distant from the whispering shore, toward which she, facetious, was leading me. And in which the gliding and sloping little rivers, that circled the valley, terminated; and from the feet of the most-ornate hills and little mountains — part grassy, part wooded — ran, with most-swift water, in clearest little channels with a grassy and sandy bed, one leaping down to a side. And then again, beyond the said Pinnacle, I saw a superb and eminent cupola, appearing to me covered with livid lead. Which at the summit had a cyma in octagonal form with columns, and above another cupola, and then eight quadrangular piers, covered by a single top, in balustered figure, upon which stood forth a stylus with a most-round Triangle fixed, especially splendent with golden brightness. Whence very pleasingly offered itself to me such a showing, by which I was not —

— mediocrely moved by ardent desire, to behold that more nearly and perfectly, suspecting reasonably there to be a great and antique structure; insomuch that, for this, I almost wished to pray my benign Guide that she conduct me to it — although toward the place we were all the while traversing. But within myself, castigating such desire, I said: "Alas, I dare not obtain that thing for which, with a thorny goad and with sedulous vehement impulse, I am solicited — and especially that thing so warmly desired, which I firmly judge that, obtaining it, I could make myself content above whatever lover. Therefore, repressing and suffocating, and vainly damning such inconsiderate conceit, not demanding henceforth of so long a torment help, with the diurnal pasture of heartfelt sighs — why, then, ought I to ask of this, to me not so opportune (a thing)? Alas, active heart, shared and not wholly mine — how willingly dost thou follow the rapacious hawk of thy living?" — which, wrapping itself in these wanton snares and fecund cogitations, caused, exciting in the inflamed breast, a continual palpitating, as the tear-weeping Pheasant, down from the fronds, impelled to flight by the cruel Falcon, its sad heart beats it.

And so, by these such amorous corollaries frequently agitated, proceeding somewhat beyond our moderate pace, with my Venerable Nymph, eloquently confabulating, and of the marvellous things clearly seen by divine grace affably conferring, with mellifluous eloquence, we arrived finally, a little distant from the re-beaten shore, washed by the pleasant waves of the restless sea. In this place of most-pleasant site, we found, of the building-art, a most-ornate, most-excellently-made and antique temple, of antiquarian workmanship and of the greatest cost, sumptuously skilfully-made, and consecrated to the physizoic (life-giving) Venus.

This sacred Temple, then, by architectonic art constructed round, and within the quadrangular figure in the evened Area shrewdly worked out — and as much as the diametral line found, so much did it render its height; and in the circle contained in the area, a squaring is noted. From one side of which, upon the diametral line toward the circumference, such space (was) divided into five partitions, and toward the centre a sixth supplied. From which, having then circled another circular figure, the learned Architect had raised this egregious structure and superb building — as to the principal parts, with the commodulation, dimension, and of all the compass and content he had been able (to make) — and the thickness of the walls and of the exterior Piers, and between one circuit and the other (that is, between the principal band and the columnation, or Peristyle), the free vaulting. From the centre to the circumference, then, in ten radii, or partitions, the lines deduced, where —

— cut the circular interstice, he ordained ten arches, resting upon serpentine columns; and, opposite the solid support, between one encompassing arch and the other, of a facial breadth of two feet, of the inner circular band, there resided promptly a hewn and polished Corinthian column, of a height as much as the Ionic of nine diameters (excepting the capitals), of burnished Porphyry — which carried, with the bronze capital, to the straight architrave, carried round with the frieze and cornice, led up to the solid of the fastigium of the inflected architrave, or Arch.

Which architrave, frieze, and cornice, at the order of the live (stone), or of the firm, of the Corinthian, stood forth with as much projection as the perpendicular line of the aforesaid Porphyry asked — with base and capitals of fine metal caustically gilt and translucent, with elegant enthesis, or swelling. This order, then, of projection was regularly observed throughout all the Porphyry (columns), balanced and paired, which had to overstand the requisite little wall of the columnation. But the illustrious Architect, to give the Area a freer expedition, made the intercolumniation passable.

Whence the inflected architraves, with their horns, rested upon the Ophite (serpentine) columns, turned and lathe-round, illustrable with friction, the due little slab, or plinth, set upon the capital to give it a solid footing, and not aerial, through the lids insinuated of the said capitals. And under the base was reserved a half-altar which had to be the little wall, upon which half-altars the bases of all the Ophite (columns) firmly resided.

The Corinthian (columns) footed upon a sub-column, or truly a sub-base, of the form of a half-Tube, here and there, with the half-Altars becomingly joined. Which was worked out from two squarings found from the diameter of the lowest thickness of the Corinthian; there remained a sesquialter (one-and-a-half) for the rest, to little-waves, Tori, Gulets, Knots, and Cymas, or the like lineaments, above and below, conveniently dispensed, decently conjoined, with the free bases assigned above.

Each Arch stood elegantly decorated of its keystone, with little boys, and alternately of little barks with flowered foliage. And every triangle (spandrel) specularly shone with a round jasper of varied colour, its setting egregiously circled, of little-waved foliage translucently gilt.

In the pier of the Arches, opposite, behind the Corinthian, a third of a fluted quadrangular (pilaster) stood forth, with the base upon the pavement, standing in the face of another (in the band under the arch that divided the vaults, fixed) wholly similar. The interval of these, from the one to the other, the radii drawn to the circumstance made, set upon the line of the outermost Piers. Upon the semi- capitals of which went round a circum-ligation of gracious workmanship.

The half-Tubes and half-Altars were of bright Alabaster, with curving ropes, or bundles, of manifold fronds and fruits — of lacterii (spurges), of medlars, and stalks of Poppy, growing heavy in their middle descent, of wavering shoots ensnared, suspended and knotted in certain rings comelily adorned.

Under that circum-ligation a little above narrated, between one and the other striated half-quadrangular (pilaster), in the primary wall was a quadrangular window of one square and a half, as is required in antiquarian temples. The opening, or lighting, of which artfully occupied a mirror-like, or diaphanous, plate of sogobrina stone, not fearing old age. Whence, in sum, eight windows there were — because one part the door of the temple occupied, and, directly opposite the Pronaos in front, another part (the door, with the golden valves, of the rear chapel, or the sacred Adytum, the description of which will, in another place, be more fittingly treated).

Over against the above-recited quadrangular columns, fixed in the first mural circuit, the piers projected outside, worked out from the wall of as much thickness as that of the wall — to which their breadth the lines of the radii of the division, from the centre to the circumference, gave. Which breadth divided: one portion was for the breadth of the pilaster; the other portion, again deduced into a twin partition (one here and one there, the other attributed to the collateral Pier), were for an arching in the solid of the wall, or vaulted, between one pilaster and the other. Of which Piers the projection, or outlet, divided by a third, usurped the prominence of the vault from the plane of the scarped wall; and the two thirds the Piers stood forth, in a solid arched wall-and-Piers. This exquisite observance the elegant Architects praised, so as not to give the wall a rude thickness so great that the windows should accuse themselves obtuse (deep-set), with conspicuous respect of the rude and superfluous solid; and for exterior adornment, which vaults in a ring turned themselves, conjoined most-excellently one to the other with the same thickness, with due binding, from the Piers, carried round upon the wall, throughout beautifully girt. Not otherwise, between one and the other contrasting arch, opportunely it stood.

In this intervalled void, between one Pillar and the other — or between the jaws of these arches just- said — upon the left mural plane, excavated was the window. Which vault, as much as it was distant from the Pier, so much it circled under the first outer cornice, encompassing the first roof. Ten Piers, or bones, of the building there were, and as many arches in the solid, with the exterior wall — excepting the face where, set fast, resided the chapel (sacello).

The said cornice, embracing the round sacello, joined it with the temple. Beyond this binding ascended its roof, which was a blind cupola, distinct and free of the greater one by itself.

Let us return, then, now, to the interstitial binding above the circum-columnation, or Peristyle — of the straight architrave, fascia and cornice, stretched perpendicularly above the Porphyry columns — where there were born, for each stretch of the binding, little half-columns of quadrature, striated, of egregious Ophite. Upon the semi-capital of which went round a cornice of conspicuous lineament, from which the convex of the lofty cupola began its beginning above.

Between one and the other of the half-quadrangular (pilasters) just described, I saw a proportioned window, timely situated, and of a plate of Bononia (Bologna) of Gaul, opaque, constituted in a field gilt, of artful Mosaic. Which spaces, with commensurate distribution and equal partition, I beheld most- admiredly depicted, of wormwork tessellation: the property of each Month of the year, with its effect; and above, the Zodiac occurring, with the Sun operating; and, to that of the Moon, the phases — and she is called, among the monthly (states), the new little crescent, the halved, and the pre-swollen (full) — and her circuit, by which the months are included. And the windings of the investigating Sun, the solstices and the winter-turns, circling; and of night and of day the vicissitude; and the quadrifarious commotion of the seasons; and the nature of the fixed and wandering stars, with their efficacy. I suspected that such art was here ordained by the most-noble mathematician Petosiris, or by Necepso. The inspection of which things (was) enough to draw the inspector, with excessive solace, to a choice and wondrous speculation — not without egregious spectacle, and elegant fiction, and comely distribution of figures, with defined painting of colouring and shadings, by which the commodulation of the bodies and requisite lights, to complacency representing themselves with most-worthy expression of the effects, with laudable and joyous show to the senses of the soul. A work, without doubt, worthy of pondering, as much as ever one could contemplate. Then, in one division, the content of the meaning of the aforesaid works, of antiquarian letters, was elegantly inscribed. The spaces interposed between the half-quadrangulars were hedged round with bands, carved of comely workmanship.

The remaining walls of the temple, with manifold and various-form Emblemature, were laboriously incrusted of precious marbles — as best the much-knowing Architect, imagining, could often apply to so great a magnificence of structure; nor, perhaps, was such made for Ammon. Above the order of the Corinthians, of most-perfect sculpture, the eloquent Apollo resided, lyring. And above each of the others, in circuit, upon a fit Altar, of the whole entire, a Muse of pilates stone — at the opportune gestures and office, with the utmost praise of the Statuary most-exquisitely carved — set above the aforesaid, above, of the encompassing binding.

The huge cupola showed the greatest token, rather of divine operation than of human ostentation. But if human, not without stupor and accusation of the ambition of so much attempted of the founder's-art by human wit — for, considering so great a vastness, in one sole and solid casting and pour of metal (as I judged), I remained most-highly marvelling and hallucinated, damning it almost to impossibility. Nonetheless, this such Bronze-work was all of Vine springing out of most-beautiful vases, of the bronze material, standing at the perpendicular and order of the columnation — diffusing the branches, vine- shoots, or twigs, and Tendrils, dizzily entangling themselves, with most-pleasing conjugation, in observance of the formation of the convex of the said cupola, one with the other with decent density; with leaves, clusters, little infants climbing and plucking, little Birds fluttering, Lizards creeping, in emulation of nature, most-excellently worked out, and all the rest passable (open).

The described works (were) so directly conducted, that, proportioned, in the area they artfully appeared as much as the natural. Of most-perfect gold, all shiningly gilt. The openings — that is, the void of the foliation, fruits, and animals — most-fittingly presented themselves stopped with crystalline plates, of diverse colouring tinged, like translucent gems.

To the congruity of the structure opportune is the integrity of the harmony; for every girdable inner binding demands the outer girdle. The external piers continued the areobate footing, with the three uneven steps, binding all the base of the temple — as much librated from the area as the inner pavement was raised — above the areobates, or stylobates, or Scabelli, in place of a Base: an ornament, with Tori, Alvei, Fasciae, Gulets, and quarter-circles circling round, and again round the sacello becomingly circled. Its lowest projection received (worn) from the human foot; and above, the Pilasters. Which, in the interstice, were pierced through, or tubed, and perforated — that is, the guttering, or compluvium of the precipitate waters, through the Tubes let down to the ground, were —

— engulfed, of excellent jointing, one conjoined in the tongued (socket) of the other. For in open-air buildings, stairs, compluvium, or gutters, ought not to be placed: first, for the peril of the slip; second, he who makes water next to his own feet destroys, and befouls his footwear. Therefore such inconvenience ought to be fled. The uncovered guttering, by inundating water, excavates the area — and more enormously, if a resistance of subjacent stone opposes — so that the water climbs so much the more to the footing and walls, as it defends itself from the drops, from the resulting drips.

Not without grave injury, damage and loss (and, by the ventilating impetus, the water pours through the walls, rendering them then putrid and earthy, and through the windows leaking, exhausted and vanished every rendering): by the sprinkling of which, there grows in the joints herbage — cotyledon, or cymbalaria, maidenhair, digitello, pellitory, and polypody — and, ready to produce little shrubs and wild figs, a mural ruin, with populous and reviving fibres, or roots, rendering the walls inconstant and rift.

Let us return. The band of the first wall derived its height to the level of the summit, of the thickness of the inflected Architraves, or Arches, above the columnation, and those of the vaulting, from the wall, opposite the Corinthian column. Above the surface of which wall — that is, of the binding of the circum-led cornice — was a little channel excavated. Near the lip of which, toward the temple, terminated the scaled slope of the bronze and gilt roof. The topmost of which summit, above the curved (dome), evenly began, opposite the sublime line of the cornice, of the Frieze and inner Architrave. In the said little channel, above the wall, in the flat of the cornice excavated, the waters that by rain ran down the sloped roof were poured into the receivers of the Piers. And by this way the rivulets of the conceived rain guttered, precipitating to the bottom; and by hidden pipes, or subterranean passages, flowed into the Cistern. Which had a Devourer (overflow-drain), by which the superfluous of the waters went out, and sufficiently for the sacred things remained.

— showed as much descent, or slope, as that of the scaled and gilt roof-covering — such as was not that of the Capitol gilt by Catulus, nor such scaling had the Pantheon. In this manner, between the opening of the wall under the cupola, and between this adjunct of Pilaster (founded, level, upon the external mural circuit), was born an arch, gapingly open, contrasting, with the lineament of an Architrave. The horns of which footed on both the sides of the wall and of the Pilaster, upon the capital of a half-quadrangular (pilaster) intruded in the wall (excepting the facing third of the inner Ophite), and the other in the adjunct of the Pilaster. The face of which adjunct of Pilaster, in front, was a Niche, or Solium; and before this Solium, or Niche, perpendicularly above the flat of the Pilaster, was situated, for each, a most-noble statue, with manifold acts. On the right and left side of which adjunct was seen such sculpture as on the front of the Pilaster beneath. The last surface of the thickness of the exterior arch was even with the flat of the topmost Pilaster.

The slip (of the dome), then, from the girdle began, upon which beginning the cupola usurped from without, and fell upon the Pier, with all that lineament binding itself, that was in the girdle circled under the cupola; and under this slip the arch made resistance. Which girdle was a denticulate and echinate, or ovolo, crowning, with the drip-course rolled, or channelled, with the cinquefoils between the whorls circum-led, perfect with the occurring lineaments.

In the plane of the surface of this binding, or crowning, lay the beginning of the cupola; in the projection of which was an excavated trough, into which the waters of the cupola derived, running; and down by the channelled slips they belchingly engulfed themselves into the Pilasters.

Above the slippery (curve) of the cupola, terminating at the Pilaster — that is, at its cyma, or flat — a bark, or little cartouche, covering, made two contrary volutes: the one accosting the cupola supine, and the other, near the Pier, resupine, making the volutes with a snail-line. In the inflections of the volume were born pods, or cases (pregnant of their birth), bean-like, or lupine-like. Which bark was covered with gracious scales. And above the resupine convolvulus crept, falling upon the scaled undulation, a leaf of Cynara (artichoke). Which cochlear (spiral) wrapper easily, by the norm of the compass, fittingly wraps itself — fixing the stable (foot) and turning the semicircle; then placing the stable (foot) between the led semicircle and the point, opening the compass, and coupling the unstable (foot) with the extreme of the semicircle, and turning, and so opening, and moving the point — that —

— the just figure is conducted.

Newly, above the topmost flat of each Pilaster, of wondrous make, was set a candelabrum of illustrious brass (orichalc), the orifice of which was dilated into a shell-form, in which, unceasingly, of unconsumable material, an inextinguishable fire burned — which neither by winds nor by rain could be extinguished. Which marvellous candelabra, of a proportioned and matching tallness, were seen, fittingly handled (with handles).

From the one and the other handle of which, marvellously, a festoon hung, ensnared and un-knotted in many parts, retaining itself with most-subtle artifice, of fronds, and flowers, and diversified fruits, with due pregnancy curving in the middle, and thonged, and passably (openly) excavated. Upon the little- basket-like binding of the thongs, on the middle Tube, brooded a lively and inane (hollow) Eagle, grasped-fast, with wings outspread, in the area to the sight showing conspicuously the perfection of the natural — of the material of the candelabra, with a ballast weight set under, all hollow and cast of most- subtle surface. Foliage, hollow fruits, and florets, and the other works, subtly reduced. The soffit of the inner curved-vault, between the columnation and the outer wall, of wormwork, of gilt tessellation with graphic (design) of most-explicated art, with concurrent colouring, was depicted.

Of the height treating: it is not completable to have only concluded this universal rule — that a round temple raises itself as much as is its diameter. But it concurs, regularly, to find the height of the binding above the peristyle (that is, of the topmost line of the cornice): for, the line deduced from the centre to the circumference of the first circuit, so much presents that height. Then, all the diameter divided into six divisions, four of those rectified will likewise give the last surface of the upper binding.

The rule of the descent of the roof ought not to be neglected: one takes the intercapace from wall to wall, where the ridge-slip ought to be placed, and reduced into two perfect squarings as much as they can come; and, the diagonal extended, cutting the line, discriminating the two squares — thence, beautifully, the slope is exacted.

Universally, the Symmetry of this wondrous fabric, by the outstanding Architect elegantly disposed, with consentaneous bindings, inner and outer, congruous. Much more diffusely the regulation could, to all conveniences, to the corollaries of the solid, be manifested — and, by those figures of the area, to find the Height of walls, which here stood straight, as best one could do without obliquity, or straightness, and —

(This leaf is a full-page woodcut — the illustration of the Temple of Venus Physizoa. The source transcription holds only the gathering-signature "n iii" at its foot; there is no body text to translate. The image renders the rotunda whose architecture pp. 197–204 describe: the domed round temple on its stepped base, the vine-wrought cupola, the eternal-fire candelabra, and the peristyle.)

— its thickness, and whatever least particle and line, and even the cuttings, without error. O unhappy times and our age — how, by the moderns (using a convenient vocable), is so beautiful and worthy an invention ignored! For which thing let no one imagine that Architraves, Friezes, Cornices, Bases, Capitals, Columns, half-Columns, Pavement, Incrustations, Bands, Boarding, and all the Compagination, Dimension, Partition, should accuse themselves without token of the shrewd and outstanding wits of the ancients and the elders, exquisitely excogitated and digested. And of Marbles the egregious xesturgy (polishing-art), such as neither the foam of burnt tin renders, nor yet the burnt ceruse.

In the centre of the said Temple stood forth a well-head orifice of a fatal Cistern, with a most-prompt Chorus of Nymphs in circuit, of prominent carving — in default only of the spirit (i.e. lacking only breath) — of Alabaster, most-excellently expressed, as best with the chisel one could carve, with their flying habits and veils.

In the middle part of the closure of the inner summit of the lofty cupola went round a jewel of dense fronds, of the aforenarrated metallic vines, which in the depth of this heaven ended so perfectly, one tightly entwined with the other, as best one could imagine. Which fittingly admitted (left) so much circulation (opening) as showed above, the opening of the inverted ewer-vase. Which circum-led space, supplying, most-beautifully occupied the viperine head of the furious Medusa, artfully cast of the material of the cupola — which, among the balled-up serpents, the vociferating mouth and handle-like and wrinkled brow, stood in the centre, perpendicularly above the Cistern. And out of the extremes of the mouth came a little conduit, from which, fixed, a most-excellent knotwork perpendicularly descended, suspended above the well-head orifice.

This knotwork, all of perfect gold, at the lower extremity ended in a ring, which another retained, set fast to a slenderness of the bottom of an inverted little conch (that is, the opening downward, and the bottom, sima-moulded, above), thinning, tapering to the ring; and in the resupine lip, of a circuit of a cubit in diameter, it had set fast four little rings, or clasps, in which four hooks harped (gripped), from which, ensnared, four little chains hung. And these too, holding, seized a circular plate in the flat, evenly suspended. Upon the upper circumference of this margin, in incision, brooded four monster- made girls, with loosed hair, with the forehead wreathed of choice —

— work, cast. And each of these (girls), discriminating itself at the thigh, and the fleshy hips dissenting, turned those then into antiquarian fronds, with Acanthine foliage; meeting one with the other, they joined themselves; then toward their flanks, or sides, the voluble ones seized them with a tight fist, with the harpy-like wings outstretched, toward the little chain — which, behind their shoulder-blades, were knotted. In the order where the sinuous and jagged fronds of the one and the other girl met, was fixed, at the back, a hooked Grapple. Which shoots, meeting at their back, joined themselves; and out of the middle of the binding, above, came certain seeded, half-cracked ears (of grain). And beneath the binding, three little follicles, four bindings, and four grapples.

From those little scorpions hung another four little chains, which, suspended, retained the marvellous lamp, of spherical figure and of a cubit's compass.

In the flat of the aforesaid rotundity, in the middle, it was circularly open; and then, by diameter, level, from one damsel to the other, gaped four round openings, less than two palms in circuit. In these four little mouths hung four hollow spheres, which, with their own lips, or rims, with an exterior reflex into themselves, in their opening, and retained in those mouths — so, with artifice, diligently expressed, that almost all their rotundity was free, appearing wholly pendent below. Which little lamps were excavated of precious stone, an incomparable work: one of Balas-ruby; the other of Sapphire; the third of Emerald; the last of Topaz.

The greater lamp, as above is said, was spherical, of most-clean crystal — nor at the lathe would such justice have been usurped — subtly carved, a work of great exquisiteness, and incredible make. Which, toward the orifice, had four little handles, justly distributed —

— in four locations, by which, concatenated, hung the mouth (vessel), open of a half-arm; and in this mouth was let in another urn-like vase, or of cucurbit (gourd) form, likewise of purest crystal.

Which so regularly, let in, hung, that in the centre the light of the lamp burned. Then all the body of the greater lamp was full of burning water, five times reiterated at the distilling. For which the effect made me suspect (a marvel), because all the spherical body simulated burning, by the wick being placed at the middle point. And by this, the sight could not ably fix itself upon it — as, ill, upon the Sun — the material being of wondrous perspicuity and of subtle make.

No less the unconsumable liquor was most-limpid in the cucurbit bottom, by this demonstration. And likewise of such liquor the four upper (lamps) burned. Where reflected the vague colourings of the precious stones, in the greater lamp, and the greater in those, with inconstant splendour vacillating throughout all the Sacred Temple. And by the mirror-sheen of the most-terse marbles — such an Iris the Sun, after the rain, does not paint in the air. But above all, a marvellous thing this represented itself to the sight: for the sculptor-artificer had perspicuously excavated, in circuit, upon the corpulence of the crystalline lamp, of cataglyph (relief-hollowed), or coffered, work, a most-prompt battle of little infants riding upon the knotty and swift Dolphins, with the tails inspiring themselves (curling), with manifold and dissimilar effects and infantile efforts — not otherwise than if nature had feigned it; and they appeared not excavated, but of raised work, and so-made expressed, that the intent of my eyes, away from so delectable an object, from the accompanying Nymph, they violated (drew off).

— violated. And the vacillation of the light seemed to give motion to the sculpture.

Finally, for the absolution of this marvellous structure of Temple, it remains to say briefly that it was compacted of quadrates of Augustan stone in part, and part of the above-narrated marble, in perfect jointing, without iron and timber, with more subtle investigation of sculpture than ever in our century could be done, nor imagined — nor such did they construct for Apis, the Samnitic-Egyptian God.

Under the bases of the little Pilasters, or quadrangulars — which was the lowest and continuous binding, in the first band, or wall; and the upper girdle likewise, with the encompassing capitals — went round, in the most-even pavement, a strip, or band, of finest Porphyry, as much as was the projection of its square, and contiguous, almost without dispute, another of Ophite. Under the sub-base of the columns was circled, as much as its thickness, a strip of Porphyry, with two collateral of hardest serpentine, with the order of the Peristyle in circumduction. The like was seen of the orifice of the cistern, girt in the pavement — a strip of Porphyry and another of Ophite.

The remainder of the much-admired pavement, between the well-orifice and the peristyle, was of marvellous emblemature, of little-minutiae, of little tessellation of fine stones circling themselves, elegantly included, deduced in partition: ten roundels, a foot in diameter, of their colour and species, the one to the line of the other. There were two of reddening Jasper, most-pleasingly suffused with various spots; two of Litharmenon, of little sparks of gold, more minute, disseminated of rutilant atoms; two of green Jasper, variegated with chalcedonic veins, with reddening and yellow spots; two of Agate, confusedly undulated of milky threads; two, lastly, of most-limpid Chalcedony. And, by the narrowness of the lines toward the cistern, likewise the circular figures decreased.

Under the vaulting were, in the floor, an Asaroton of wormwork emblems — foliage, animals, and flowers, tessellated of most-minute little bodies, of stone-cuttings diligently tessellated, depicted, and most- evenly rubbed smooth, or sculptured. Which art Zenodorus had not, in paving at Pergamon; nor such was the lithostroton at Praeneste, in the shrine of Fortune.

Let us return to the cyma, or Pinnacle, of the magnificent cupola — of the same metallic material, refinedly gilt, above the heaven of the —

— stupendous cupola, eight fluted and somphe (spongy), or hollow, columns egregiously rose, with a noble footing, drawn apart by an interjected and encompassing fenestration, with little arches between one and the other, upon the collateral piers overstanding. Above which, with an exigent harmony, sesquialter (3:2) of the height, of composite and lineament, were circum-led the Architrave, Frieze, and Cornice, with the projections level with the subjacent columns. A scaled cupola resided. Above the projections, level with the substitute columns, resident, for each I saw a simulacrum of a wind, with elegant expression of its nature — winged, with the wings outspread, and stretched at the shoulders — on an unstable Peron, or stylus, artfully fixed to turn; and, at whatever blowing wind, all eight Petasi (wind-hats) investigated, circling, involving themselves — the face they turned toward that opposite to the blast.

In the aforesaid summit of the just-narrated cupola, again eight little Pilasters, with the height of two squares, rose straight, with an ewer-vase, with the opening inverted, above them. The ascent, then, of the whole, with exquisite commensuration, and with an object mathematically proportioned to the inspectors.

Upon the bottom of the ewer-vase (so I interpret it, for its form), roundabout, most-beautifully scored of melon-scoring, was impressed a stalk of the proper metal, which began from the breadth of the bottom, moderately slender ascending. And by as much as was found the middle of the vase, the stylus, ascended, sustained a huge hollow triangle, together with the stylus artfully cast. In the summit of which gaped a round opening; and in the low, corpulent (part), in four locations, it was bored — conjecturing, I pondered, the shrewd device of the provident artificer for this: that water let in by rain, or conceived frost, should not occupy it from its office, and to avoid the weight. Through the upper Opening of the said sphere, free of the lips, the said stylus, or spindle, passed, sharpened at the tip. From the outlet upward it was as much as from the bottom of the vase to the sphere.

In this fastigium a bronze moon was fixed, eight-day (crescent), as much as she shows, with the horns to the sky. In the gulf, or sinus, of which sat an Eagle with outspread wings. Under the moon, on the stylus, were four solid and firm grapples, in which four little chains of the aforesaid metal were retained, and with the whole bronze-work cast — to indicate, of the founder-statuary —

— statuary, the large fertility of his wit. Whence one could easily judge that such subtlety the shrewd founder investigated: to found, or cast, an entire little chain without soldering — making a fit mould, quadripartitely cut, in the centre made a pervious hole, into which is let the first ring, and then, the formed parts applying themselves into one — infinitely, one derived from the other, lightly it will be cast.

The said little chains, upon the middle corpulence of the bronze sphere evenly deriving, each in the extreme, ensnared with itself, retained an airy (bronze) Chodon (bell). Which bells, from their middle toward their low (rim), had comb-like fissures, within which a little ball of fine steel resulted, to render enclosed the tinkling sound. These bells were, at exigent proportion, agitated by the blowing winds; upon the corpulence of the hollow sphere they beat, and rendered their tinkle sharp, harmonised, with mixed booms of the metallic triangle — a grateful and sweet and great sound, curiously excogitated and thoughtfully found; and perhaps beyond the sound which, at the summit of the Temple of Jerusalem, the pendent chains with the bronze vases (made), putting the birds to flight.

Lastly, to conclude, remains a rule for understanding all the dimension of the most-celebrated temple. The wall where were the eight windows — its thickness was one and a half feet; as much the scarped (part), or that part which turned itself; that same, the outlet of the —

— Pilasters, which, beyond the cornice, usurp the square of all this thickness, on every side — that is, three feet.

The door, then, of this holy and stupendous temple offered itself antepagmented (framed), of Doric form and workmanship, all of finest Jasper. And in the fascia of its sublime (lintel), of Greek majuscule antiquarian letters of pure gold fixed, this saying stood inscribed:

ΚΥΛΟΠΕΡΑ (KYLOPERA) [?the reading and sense are uncertain; the letters are given as transcribed]

The gilded valves, with most-polished ornament of metal, of which door they were, and of most-beautiful and pervious (open-work) workmanship — so much the more beautiful, as less could their like be made — of illustrious brightness, closed with an exterior bolt. Which the Conductress Nymph did not dare to remove, unless first the Divine Priestess of the said venerable and sacred Temple, with the other frenzied long- haired and most-comely virgins (which in all were seven), religiously unbolted it. These sacred virgins most-integrally there ministered, most-officious, in the sacred things, to the Priestess-Sage of the sacrifices; and to her alone to concede the ingress most-deservedly pertained. Whence the sacred virgins, having benignly respected us, domestically blandishing, accepted us. And, from my faithful conductress Nymph the cause of her and of my advent heard, to us all — easy and gracious, with large (open) faces — with them they made us ascend, by seven porphyry stone steps, to the egregious door, bound with the encompassing footing of a magnificent and elegant propylaeum.

There we found a noble pause, or little area, of a square of blackest and indomitable stone (such as would not be found in the Euganean fatherland), even and lucidly rubbed smooth, hedged in most-beautiful emblemature. Before the holy threshold of the dedicated valves, all inter-excavated (intaglio'd), and in the excavations intersecting little barks of Cytherean conch, of the most-beautiful intersected lineaments that ever to human eyes most-pleasantly could present themselves. In this place, all affirming themselves, and both of us, the sacred Priestess began then to make a prayer. Then, in reverence, the Nymph and I inclined ourselves. What she said to herself, I certainly ignored — because, my head somewhat bent, without delay the most-ready and exploratory eyes, to the unseen whiteness and polish of the most-vague feet of the accompanying Nymph, I carried back. Where, again, a little portion of the glittering right calf was uncovered; for, moderately, by her act moving, the most-tenuous lappet gave way, removed, laying bare the whitest whiteness of the snow-making —

— and bristling Boreas.

And then, incontinently, an enucleated admiration succoured in the warm memory: that, it being natural that whiteness disgregates (scatters) the visual power, this (whiteness), with so much delectation, drew and congregated all the seeing into itself — not only not harming it, but, to the utmost solace and extreme pleasure, that so precious object, viscidly retaining it bound to itself, and taken, occupied it. Whence, the Sacred Woman's devout prayers to the Gods Forculus and Limentinus, and to the Goddess Cardea, being sincerely finished, and (all) righting themselves, the beautiful Nymph (I alone persisting, with eyes fixed on her voluptuous operation) — nor for all that would I ever have moved myself, had not the most-subtle cloth returned to re-cover the divine delights.

Then, suddenly, by the libation-woman the Bolt removed, those twin valves — not with a strident noise, not a grave rumble, but an acute and grateful murmur, reflecting through the vaulted temple — hissed sweetly. And, animadverting this, I recognised (it), by seeing under the extreme part of the ponderous valves, of the one and the other, a voluble and turned little Cylinder, which, by the axle fixed in the valve, upon a terse and evened plate of hardest Ophite inverting itself, and by the friction, made a most-acceptable tinkling.

Beyond this, reasonably I was stupefied that the valves, each by its very self, without any impulse, opened themselves. Whence, then, all having entered, of a sudden — without looking elsewhere, there affirming myself — wishing to investigate whether the said valves, so timely and moderately, by a counterweight were drawn, or by some other instrument: whence I beheld a divine device. For in that part where, one with the other, the valves met in the tongued closure, from the inner part, was a plate of fine steel soldered upon the metal, most-terse.

There were then, marvellously, two little Axles of a third (foot) in breadth, of best Indian Magnet (to which the Diamond does not dissent — of Callistone the lover, to human eyes outstanding, by the scordeon made mortal (weakened)) — singularly opportune to navigators — which showed, of their fit colour, cerulean, smooth and illustrious, fixed most-polishedly in the thickness of the opening of the marble wall (that is, in the jambs, contiguous to the antae of the artful door). Then, in this manner, by the violence of the rapacity of the Magnet, the steel plates were violated (drawn); and consequently, by themselves, the valves, with temperate slowness, unbolted themselves. An excellent and most-exact work — not only to see, but beyond measure of subtle device. What improbity (audacity) of an artificer's investigation!

In a tablet of Magnet, to the right of the ingress, was carved, of exquisite antiquarian Latin letters, that celebrated Virgilian saying:

TRAHIT SUA QUEMQUE VOLUPTAS — "Each is drawn by his own pleasure." (Virgil, Eclogue II.65)

On the left, the tablet I saw, of most-ancient Greek majuscules, elegantly inscribed:

ΠΑΝ ΔΕΙ ΠΟΙΕΙΝ ΚΑΤΑ ΤΗΝ ΑΥΤΟΥ ΦΥΣΙΝ — in Latin, "Each ought to do according to his own nature."

Raising then the eyes, curiously stimulated, to the magnificence of so great a Temple, and to the vastness of the noteworthy and sky-reaching cupola, with the other most-exact parts — of ambition, and of outstanding artifice, of divine device, and of superb workmanship, and wondrous lineaments, of stupendous ostentation, seasoned most-marvellously. And much more marvellous I judged the incredible beauty of the divine Nymph, which enticed my inspecting eyes, and held all my soul — insomuch that from the right disquisition of whatever considerable part of it (the temple) I might move, and she alone, drawing, coarcted (me) to contemplate her with stupor and marvel. Give pardon, then, reader, if I have not perscribed every fitting particular.

And so, then, the sacred Priestess entering the Temple, with the ingenuous and outstanding Nymph, and I pertinacious following her, and with all the other sacred Damsels — with their most-rich hair falling, most- ornate, over the milky necks, dressed in most-choice purple, and above, worn back, the most-tenuous cotton (robes) shorter, or curt, than the first garment — to the fateful orifice of the mysterious cistern, devout and festive, they conducted us.

Into which, as was said, no other water entered save that which, through the perforated Pilasters, from the water-channels and compluvia of the fastigiate Temple, freely, without harm to the structure, poured itself in. The high priestess there made a nod to the virgins, and they went into an Adytum sacristy; we three alone remained.

And lo, with the utmost veneration, maturely, one carried, with registered procession, the ritual book, duly invested with velvet of Cyan silk, of most-round pearls-in-union, in the form of a flying little dove nobly of padded re-weaving, with little gold handles — each of them (the virgins) marked with Pancarpies (all-fruit garlands) on the comely head. Another brought two most-subtle little veils, lily-decked, and two purple Tutuli (fillet-caps). The third had the holy brine in a golden vase. The fourth held the secespita (sacrificial knife) with an oblong ivory handle, round and solid, joined at the pommel with silver and gold, and nailed with Cyprian copper; and, as well, a praefericulum (ritual jug). The fifth was bearer of a hyacinthine lepista (bowl), most-eyeing (beautiful), full of fountain water. The sixth bore a golden Mitre, with richest Lemnisci (ribbons) pendent, throughout ornated copiously with precious and most-refulgent gems. All these, a little priestess, candle-bearer, preceded, with a Candle never yet kindled, of candid, most-purged, and virgin material. These delicate virgins, taught to do the sacred and divine things, and scrupulous at the ministries — more expert than the Etruscan discipline — and, at the sacrosanct sacrifices, with ancient institute apt and most-observant, to the pontifical Priestess, with obstinate religion reverent, presented themselves.

And there, with the utmost devotion, and with ancient rite, the sage seeress first accepted a Tutulus, and bound the hair; then set over it the superb Mitre; and in the middle of the precious Mitre, tightened above the most-tenuous little veil, covering the holy head.

The other Tutulus, with the other little veil, she gave to the Nymph. And she, without delay, having ornated the blonde head with the Tutulus, set over it the veil. Both the veils were bound in the crisping (of the hair), and conjoined, with a stupendous jewel — of most-shining and full-of-colour Sapphire, the one consigned to the Nymph; but that of the Priestess, of Ananchitides (a divination-stone).

Vested, then, devoutly, over the orifice of the mysterial Cistern, without delay she made me approach there; whence, having accepted a golden little key, with religious observance she unsealed the bolted Well. Where the sacrificer, consigning to that Virgin who had carried the Mitre the candid candle, took, venerating, the Ritual book; and, having opened it, put herself before the high Prophetess. Who began, low, in the Etruscan tongue, somewhat to read. Then, scrupulously, she took the sanctified Brine, and, with many sacerdotal signings, with the right hand into the thundering Cistern she poured it. Then she made, from the ardent torch (of which the Nymph was bearer), the pure candle be kindled.

This done, she made the ardent torch be turned, with the little flame downward, into the middle of the orifice; and, interrogating the Nymph, said these words: "Daughter, what petition and desire is thine?" She answered: "Holy Priestess, grace, for this one, I ask — that together we may come to the amorous realm of the Divine Mother, and drink of this holy fount." And to me likewise she said: "And thou, my son, what askest thou?" Humbly I answered: "I, most-sacred Lady, not only the efficacious grace of the supernal mother supplicate, but above all — that she, whom, doubtful, I esteem to be my most-desired Polia, I beseech that by her, more ambiguous, in so great an amorous torment I be not thus retained." The divine Priestess said to me: "Apprehend, son, then, now, that kindled torch, from her pure hands, and, holding it thus, with me three times sincerely, in this manner, thou shalt say:

'Just as the water shall extinguish this burnable torch, in the same manner, the fire of love re-kindle her
stone-made and gelid heart.'"

With the holy rite, and with those proper words which the Hierophant said to me, saying — at whatever terminated and finish, all the expert priestess-virgins, with venerable ministry, this responsory said: "So be it." At the last time, the ardent torch, into the frigid Cistern, she made me, with reverence, immerse.

Not so soon did I do this holy command, than she, taking the precious hyacinthine lepista, and with a little cord of gold and of crimson and green silk (deputed to such office), infusing it into the cisternal water, drew out of the blessed water, and, with religion, offered it to the Nymph alone. And she, with prompt devotion, drank it. Immediately then the hieratic Priestess, with the golden little key, diligently re-shut the covering of the Cistern; and, somewhat reading over the holy and efficacious prayers and exorcisms, she enjoined the Nymph to say, three times, these words toward me:

"May the divine Cytherea hear thee, to thy vow; and, propitiated in me, may she nourish her son."
Responsory from the virgins: "So be it."

The said ceremonies religiously terminated, the Nymph, in that instant, reverent, at the sandalled feet of purple re-woven with gold, ornated with manifold gems, of the Priestess, having prostrated herself — of a sudden she made her rise up, and gave her a holy kiss. And to me then the Nymph, boldly turned, with her comely presence placid, full of pious semblances, with a sigh come warmly from the base of the inflamed heart, thus said to me:

"Most-desired and my most-cordial Poliphilo — thy ardent and excessive desire, and thy sedulous and pertinacious love, from the chaste college has wholly stolen me, and has constrained me to extinguish my torch. And for this, henceforth — although thou reasonably didst suspect that I was she, notwithstanding that —

— until here I had not revealed myself to thee — nonetheless, no small fire has it been to me, to keep it occult and concealed, and thus so long suppressed. But be that as it may, I am, without doubt, that Polia of thine whom thou so lovest. Congruous, therefore, it presents itself, that so worthy and so-made a love be not immune from vicissitude, and from equivalent reciprocation and requital. For which thing, behold me, to thy inflaming desires, all most-ready! Behold, that I feel the ignited fire, from most-fervent love, throughout all of me to grow up, and to scintillate! Behold me, the end of thy bitter and frequent sighs! Behold me, most-delightful Poliphilo, a salubrious and present remedy to thy grave and molesting sorrows! Behold me, to thy amorous and acerb pains a consort principal, and of the whole partaker! Behold me, with my profuse tears, to quench thy cordial burning, and, for thee, to die, prompt and most-surrendered!"

And, for the Pledge (arra) of all this — "Take (me)!" — (embracing me, straining me) she gave me, lip-to-lip, a little-biting and sipping kiss, full of divine juice; and, provoked by singular sweetness, from the starry eyes some few little pearls in the form of little tears (fell); insomuch that, by her blandishing speech, and by the salivous and most-pleasing kiss, from head to feet all inflamed I was altered, melting myself into sweetest and amorous tears, and wholly lost myself. And likewise the sacrificing Priestess, with the others standing by — moved by singular sweetness — could not contain themselves from little tears and sweet little sighs.

Which thing the infecund and fasting tongue would not know how to gather, nor so many fit words to beg, that I could condignly express even a little of what the enkindled heart made of it, in so sweetest a flame as, in every part, o'erwove it. I remained, then, like one fallen of the Epilepsy. Ultimately, these amorous and holy gestures and ceremonial rites — in so singular and choice a sweetness and incredible delight, by love, expedited — I found myself almost in an unthought experience of dying content.

The Hierophant said: "Let us proceed, Polia, then, to the completory of the inner sacrifices of our sacral undertaking." Now toward the round and blind Sacello — situated directly opposite the door of the magnificent temple, and with it artfully joined and contiguous — all, composedly, went. Fabricated of antiquarian and unwonted make, and noble material.

Which was all of stone, diligently re-squared to the form, of precious Phengite marvellously built, with a cupola'd and round roof, of a single and solid rock of the said stone. Such was not, of such marvel, the Sacello of the isle of Chennim in Egypt, nor that of the celebrated Sacred (place) of Ravenna. Which stone, of such miraculous nature, that — not being windowed, but all obtuse (closed), and having only the golden valves — throughout, clearly, it was illuminated (a secret absorbed by it, hidden from our cognition, from its parent (the sun)); and therefore thus is it denominated. In this interval, two of those virgins, unburdened, and by precept gone, carried, with sincere veneration: one, a pair of whitest male Swans, grateful in the auspices, and a most-ancient little urn with sea-water; and the other, a pair of candid Turtledoves, by the feet bound together with crimson silk, upon a wicker basket full of vermilion roses and oyster-shells — and, near the golden valves, upon a sacred and quadrangular anclabris (offering- table) disposed, devout and venerating, let them repose.

And there, the golden valves unsealed, together they entered. But I affirmed myself upon the holy and reverend threshold. And with vigilant eyes, immovably fixed on the most-beloved object, respecting, I saw the admonitress bidding that my Polia — true myropolis (perfume-seller/sweet one) — should genuflect upon the sumptuous pavement, and, with sincere devotion, prostrate herself.

Which pavement was marvellous, all of gems, stony, orbitally composed, with subtle make, with manifold and elegant knotting politely distinct — a work bonily tessellated, disposed in greening leaves, and flowers, and little birds, and other animals, according as opportune was the grateful colour of the precious stones, splendid, shining, with perfect evening — from which, doubled, it re-showed those who had entered.

Upon this, then, my little-bold Polia, having religiously denuded the milky knees, with the utmost elegance genuflected — more beautiful than ever Mercy saw (knees) dedicated to herself. For which thing I stood suspensefully attentive, with silent lips. And, so as not to interrupt the holy offerings, and contaminate the propitiations, and interrupt the solemn prayers, and the mysterious ministry, and perturb the altar- ceremonies, the wicked sighs, by valid love inflamed, I duly incarcerated.

Now, before a sanctified Altar — in the middle of the little sanctuary laboriously situated, of divine flame lucent — genuflected, humbly, she stood.

The demonstration of which Altar, succinctly saying, I beheld a conspicuous device of unwonted make. The lowest of the said, upon the stepped and marble footing, was a round little slab. Upon which undulated an auricular foliage, most with polish jagged, and choicely cauliculate, ending its point at a little cord, or knot, or fillet, contained upon the little slab. And likewise, at the birth of the encompassing foliage, sat above another little cord; and between this and another was pressed a trochlea (pulley-moulding) moderately channelled, and then a little cornice. Upon the bracket, or plane, of the said Trochlea, over- stood another regulated rotundity; then, somewhat gulleted, it contracted itself toward the flat and unencumbered surface. In the middle part of which stood forth a striated stylus, more stretched in the lower part, upon the flat, with a proportioned base. The diameter, then, of the inner rotundity of this stylus divided: one partition was consigned to the encompassing projection; the upper head had two portions, with turned gulets, and the lowest also duly reserved.

The aforesaid stalk covered an inverted flat rotundity, turning in projection as much as the extreme outlet of the lips of the subjacent Trochlea, ornated in the upper part, in the extreme circuit, in a sloped demonstration, with a Sima of noteworthy foliage, from an egregious little cornice most-polishedly being born. In the circled content, then, of which little cornice, beautifully occupied the opening of an elegant flower, in balustered lineament fashioned, with the calyxed lips over the flat lambent, and quadripartite into most-pleasant acanthine foliage, gaping. Under which, in the jagged discrepancy, subsided another leaf, artfully carved. Upon the point of which, after the due lineaments, egregiously rounded a knot of exquisite expression. To which, fixed, set, dilatedly stood forth an antiquarian platter of purest gold, with the lips broadish, and a little lacunate (hollowed). In the flat rim of the lips, alternately, stood forth incomparable Diamonds and Carbuncles, with outstanding pyramidal fashioning, in the circuit marvellously disposed, of incredible thickness. Let yield here the Scyphus of most-strong Hercules, the Cantharus of pleasant Bacchus, and the Carchesium dedicated to immortal Jove.

At the margin of the soffit of the inverted flat, in the rim, evenly distant, were contained four most- beautiful handles, deriving, and solid with the Trochlea; their volutes were under the inverted flat, and ended above the Trochlea, with the cochleate whirl, spreading with the slope of the little slab. Then, moderately, they inverted themselves toward the soffit, at a grateful up-curve, submitting themselves to it with the whirl resupine, and the other supine.

This marvellous sculptile was all of one solid of finest jasper, of manifold mixture of colouring most- admiredly coming together, and in whatever part with incredible and most-exquisite lineaments. A work, most- certainly, not worked out by force of chisel, or scalpel, but with unknown artifice marvellously expressed.

From the marble and stepped footing, up to the beginning of the stylus exclusive, it was raised a cubit; the stalk as much; the remainder, up to the golden platter, a foot and a half. Thence, above, a quadrant: from one upper volute to the other spread gold threads, through the middle of which were threaded, in longish berries, coruscating balas-rubies, bored, and of most-refulgent Sapphires, and of scintillating Diamonds, and of springing Emeralds, with gracious and amicable colour-alternation strung, with inestimable and monstrous pearls — such that, without doubt, such a gift Octavian did not make to Capitoline Jove.

In the inversion of the lips of the golden platter, quadrifariously, perpendicularly, hung orbiculate gems, and pierced, through which, pervious, let in, a gold thread, threaded, they were retained, suspended, and bound to a clasp, free in the grapples — larger than a hazelnut, seven to a thread. At the extreme of the thread, interdicted (finished) by an elegant little floret, with the little spirals of varied silken thread, gold, and silver, intermixed. Again, from one clasp to the other likewise knotted, gold threads, gemmed, spread in the aforesaid manner —

— and order, but of number nine, in the middle with gracious inflection curving. The platter, within and without, with a half-explication of most-excellent expression of little boys, little monsters, flowers, and foliage, copiously decorated; and the whole presented itself most-admired and marvellous artifice.

Before, then, the aforewritten and most-sacred Altar, of incredible cost and artifice, of a sudden the intent little priestess, admonished, opposite the sacrificing Polia, with the ritual book open, venerating, presented herself. And all (the Priestess excepted), in that manner, upon the stony, sumptuous and bright floor, bowing, genuflected. And in this celebrated and solemn eusebia (piety), with voices devout, and tremulous supplicating, I heard, with such an oration, the three divine Graces invoked, reading:

"O joyful Aglaia; O verdant Thalia; O delectable Euphrosyne — Charites (Graces) divine of the
high and high-thundering Jove, and of Eurynome most-beloved daughters, and of the amorous goddess most-
observant handmaids and unceasing servants. From the waves of the Acidalian fount of Orchomenus in Boeotia,
or from the blessed seat and assistants at the side of the venerated Throne of Apollo, benignly conjoined,
depart (hither). And, as divine Graces, to my devout prayers piously succour, propitious — that, in his
(her) divine sight and venerable majesty, it may please (her) these my religious dedications, and my pure
and votive sacrifices, and the poured supplications, with maternal affect moved, to hear."

Finished the holy and sincere oration, all, singing, made the responsory: "So be it." For which thing, having I, with most-devout auscultation, venerating, heard, and the holy oration clearly understood, with the utmost sincerity of heart I stood attentive, and, into myself all that revoked, with scrupulous diligence, and with exploring eye, immovable, such mysteries I considered. And likewise I, genuflected, observed the expertise of the antiquarian and sacral ceremonies of the divine Priestess, excessively commending, above all, with what elegance of promptitude Polia adapted herself to such and so great a mystagogy (initiation). Most-intent, nonetheless, upon that which of it ought to follow.

I cannot in the least let myself be persuaded that such rites, ceremonies, sacrifices were found out by Numa Pompilius, nor at Caere of Tuscany, nor ever in Etruria, nor by the holy Jew; nor with so much religious observance and order did the Memphitic Seers sacrifice and burn-offerings to Apis in Egypt, immersing the golden patera in the Nile; nor yet with so most-religious a veneration, in the city of Rhamnus of Euboea, was Rhamnusia (Nemesis) worshipped; nor was Jupiter Anxur worshipped with such superstition; nor those who, at Feronia inspired, found such rites — walking without harm upon the kindled coals. Nor so entranced were the Edonian Clodones, nor the Mimallones, aspired by the numen, as in the present they were entranced. Deservedly I judge (beyond that which I have openly beheld) that, by the things prepared and superstitiously disposed, (a marvel) ought to succeed. For, of the hair, the golden Polia Nymph — of such-made office worthy, in the sacred things imbued and initiated — no sooner saw the nod of the sacristan monitress, than, from the most-clean pavement, without voice, delay, or noise (no other one moving), most-promptly, religiously, she rose. Whence, by the sacred monitress, to a wondrous hyacinthine little urn, set apart in the sacello, she was conducted — such as, of such artifice, Mentor never knew to make.

And I, most-attentive, regarding her, in all acts scrutinously observed. And in aspect now I saw her such as the most-lucid Phoebus, with the new day, colouring, paints the fresh aurora. And there, ceremoniously, with prompt and untouched hands, an odorous liquor she drew out; and her milky and vermilioned face, breathing purpling roses, with the delicate moistened hands, all shrewdly, she irrigated. Whence, thus devoutly purified, with more sincerity than perhaps had the virgin Aemilia — before the step of the most-holy Altar, where stood a wondrous golden candelabrum (which was of most-exact and much-admired expression, and elegantly circum-ornated and knobbed with thick gems; in its summit stood forth, exigently, a round opening of a little shell, or a platter, less than an arm's embrace) —

In this, then, was placed the sweetest sperm of the huge whales (ambergris); odoriferous musk; the crystalline and fugitive Camphor; odorous Ladanum of great Crete; Thymiama and Mastic; both the Storaxes; the almond- scented Benzoin; the ponderable Aloewood; blatte-bisantie, or Indian nails (onycha); and the happy germens of Arabia. Which all precious things were, with distributed weight, most-excellently graded. To which the solicitous Polia, and with —

— exquisite diligence, venerating, admonished, set the ardent candle. Then, when these aromatics she had kindled, without other thinking she extinguished the candle, and set it apart.

In which smoky little flame, and of incomparable fragrance shining, having placed there a little branch of arid myrtle, she kindled (it); and of a sudden, upon the sacrificial Altar (whence she had taken it), returning it kindled, all the other little branches placed upon the said altar she set afire. Whence, intent and affectionately taught, into this fire she threw the pair of candid turtledoves — first diligently plucked, and upon the sacred anclabris table throat-cut, un-backed with the secespita, and together bound with gold threads, and knotted, and with purpling silk — having, with the utmost veneration, the warm gore reserved in the praefericulum. Thrown, then, the immolated turtledoves into the odoriferous flame and burning, the seeress, precentor of the rubricated rites, began to sing, and psalm, and, following, all alternating. But before the fore-dancing Priestess, two of those, with Lydian Tibiae, preceded, most- sweetly sounding, with the Lydian mode and tone (such as Amphion could not find out); and then Polia and the others, one following the other, each holding in hand a branch of odorous and flowered Myrtle. Dancing in chorus, then, with time, step, and continence, with even uniform distance, and leaping with solemn and religious thiasi, with intoned voice concordant to the sonority, produced forth from the virginal breasts, reflexed with incredible symphony under the obtuse cupola, around the incensed Altar, thus rhythmically saying:

"O holy fire of odour: thaw the ice of every heart; placate Venus with love, and grant us her ardour."

In this mysterious manner singing, and tibia-sounding, with most-elegant chorus, orbitally they gyred, while the sacrifice burned. And, extinguishing thus, the little flame smoked. I think that those odours were to suffocate the stench of the roasted flesh, beyond the (main) purpose. Then, no sooner was it extinguished, than of a sudden, to the pavement, all silently (the Priestess excepted) they prostrated themselves. For which thing it was not long time, that I openly, out of the holy smoke, saw a most-beautiful little spirit, oracular, and of form other than human, as beautiful as, with shrewd discourse and investigation, one could imagine. And at the divine shoulder-blades a pair of arched little wings it had, with an unseen and unwonted light — which, not without some lesion of my eyes regarding it, most-avidly, the lost heart truly felt. With so vehement an impetus, more than the thunderbolt created of water —

— of fire, cloud, and of fulminating wind. Whence, the sacrificer, aware of me, made a gesture that I not frighten myself, and with a token that I keep silent.

Which pretty boy, in the little swelling hands, bore a myrtle crownlet; and in the other, a little arrow of ardent, scintillating fire. And on the summit of the divine head, downed with little gold threads, went round a most-precious crown of most-splendid diamonds. Circum-fluttering three times the incensed and smoking Altar, at the last, uncoerced, he resolved himself, and so dissolved himself in the manner of nebulous smokes in the air; and from the eyes, infuscated by so much shining refulgence, he took himself, and vanished incontinently.

Which mystic and divine things, in that guise marvelling, and such-made a portent having I, trembling, seen — some space in the soul considering — I remained thought-heavy, full of devout horror. And after a little, the intrepid monitress made all the virgins rise up; and, taking a golden little rod in the purified hands, ordained that my most-choice Polia — from the ritual book open before her, held by the little priestess, reading, and according to the rubrical orders — should take of the remaining ashes from the cremated sacrifice. Which, with singular veneration taken up, in a golden sieve prepared for such ministry, upon the venerable step of the dedicated Altar, sifting, most-aptly she riddled, with so shrewd a promptitude as if another had ever, most-devoted, operated (it). Where the most-erudite monitress, the other fingers of the left hand contracted, made her extend the ring-finger; and in the holy ash she expressed certain characters, with most-exact diligence, such as, in the pontifical ritual volume exemplar, marvelling, limpidly she painted.

That the most-diligent Polia had done this — the sage monitress made Polia, and all the others, again upon the precious pavement humbly genuflect; and, most-accurately upon the ritual index marvelling looking, likewise she too, with the golden little rod, superstitiously, in that same ash, signed some mysterious figures.

For which thing I, stupefied and totally alienated, and made all timid — insomuch that on my head not a hair remained that was not raised — with the soul much suspended, doubting, thought-heavily, in this solemn and sacred propitiation, that my ingenuous Polia was not stolen away (like Iphigenia), and some other animal, or damsel, put in — and of losing, in a moment, all my desired good: whence the heart smitten, and into itself concluding all the little spirits, without vital vigour almost I found myself. Nay, so strongly it shook me, as the mobile reeds, wind-blown by the impetuous and wanton breezes; and more tremulous than the wooden shavings, and with the mind vibrating, more than the thin sedges in the marshes, by forceful winds —

— impulse, vibrate. But, be it as it might, the ever-vigilant eyes from my sacrificing Polia I never dislocated, but, with suspectful admiration, pertinaciously observed, noting what most-aptly she did, and together the high Priestess.

Who, the ritual seized, with many signings, and with innate sanctimony, exorcised all those things that to pious love might be impediment and noxious. And a branch of sanctified rue — presented to her by one of those ministers, dipped in the Hyacinthine little urn, in the liquor with which Polia had made fluid her comely face throughout — she asperged all, and all (the virgins), and me. The holy aspersion performed, and then collected the other myrtle branches and this of rue, one of the ministers admonished, the golden little key received from the Priestess, she devoutly opened the well of the cistern. And within, the aforesaid little branches, and the little feathers of the immolated turtledoves, she immersed, holding the well open and waiting. Beyond this, she those holy ashes, somewhat reading over most-holy execration, sanctified again. And with obstinate ceremony, those charactered ashes, with a little brush of odorous hyssop (with gold threads and murex silk bound into a little clump), she gathered up. And, having put them in a palm-sized little box, with solemn religion, she preceding, and Polia with the others venerating following, to the lip of the sacred cistern (opened), in order they came.

Which little box, the Nymphs singing measured hymns with decent offering and censing, within she immersed; and then, buried, re-shut the cisternal mouth. Having she this immersion sincerely made, with that procession and order they returned into the marvellous sacello. Where the divine Altar three times with the molucra-rod she struck, with many arcane words and conjuration. Making demonstration that, to the pavement, again all should prostrate themselves — she standing on foot, and with the pontifical (book) open, the little priestess before her genuflected most-devout — with low voice, pausingly, thus praying, in our tongue she said:

"O most-holy and inspired Erothea, pious mother, and illustrious, unceasing and valid patroness of the ardent and holy loves, and of the amorous fires, and of the sweetest conjugations untiring helper. If, to thy divine numen, from her the invoked graces have arrived — by which grateful and accepted be her excessive ardours, and her already-vowed heart — render thyself pious and yielding to her poured prayers, full of affectionate and religious espousals and instant entreaty. And remember the exhortatory and divine persuasions of Neptune to furious Vulcan, by thee sedulously made, when, from the Mulciberian (Vulcan's) nets, bound with amorous Mars, thou wast loosed unharmed; and to thy supernal clemency it pleased thus to hear me. And, propitious, grant to fulfil the determined vow and fiery desire of these two.

"Wherefore, by thy blind and winged son — she being, in this her tender and florid age, apt to thy holy and laudable service, and to thy sacred ministries disposed, separated from the colds of Diana — to thy amorous and divine fires (conserving nature), with the utmost and integral devotion, she wholly prepares herself. And already, by that wounding son, her soul pierced through, and out of the chaste breast her soft heart uprooted, she feeling (it) — he not refusing, but patient, and meekly inclining himself — that (heart) —

— with singular religion and approved devotion, into the divine fire of thy most-sacred Altar thrown, and with special sincerity dedicated, without remission, inflaming, she offered it. And now, feeling the amorous heaviness that protrudes and presses in her burnt heart, for the atrocious love of this her young man, easy and pertinacious, and with unchanged soul she disposes herself — worthily adapting herself to thy delectable and honourable ardours — and so much the more fervid, as the more thy divinity, entreated, will lend her favour.

"Therefore, both being most-desirous coveters of consequuting thy merits, and of feeling the holy graces, and of seeing thy most-holy numen — O Amathuntean genetrix — for both, I, in the present, pray, orate, and supplicate, and, adoring, beseech: in this her good and sincere piety, that they may navigate and cross over (by means of thy most-potent son) to thy delicious, triumphal and glorious realm. And, by me, mediatress and most-observant religious of thy mysteries, fulfil the urgent and stimulating desires, and extinguish the subtly-rising incitements, and grant (them) to come to the ordained end of thy venerable sacrament.

"Be moved now, most-pious Autophies (self-born) Goddess, and untiring Mother of mortals, benign Preserver; and hear the most-devout entreaties, as were heard the intent orations of Aeacus, of Pygmalion, and of Hippomenes, humbly offered before these thy divine Altars; and reach forth, and lend thyself favourable and gratifying in succouring them — with that innate pity which affectionately thou didst show to the boy-shepherd (Adonis) beaten by jealous Mars; and by that divine blood which then, in a rosy flower, thou didst scatter.

"Whence, if our merits and beseechings, in the sight of thy high majesty, were less worthy: grant, and make, that thy amorous clemency, with the holy flames, to our feeble effect mercifully supply. Inasmuch as they, inseparably, with firmness of soul, with singular promptitude of heart, and with un-dissolvable resolves, have warmly vowed themselves, and strictly bound (themselves), with special obedience, to succumb, and with sedulous service, to thy venerable and most-sacred laws, and from those never in the least to discrepate — in which, already many days now, the young man, corroborated, continuing, has been an impavid and strenuous Athlete, and in this same (service) she scrupulously professes, with wondrous hope of thy divine and efficacious patronage, and, all refuge imploring. Interceding, then, I beseech, supplicating, thy high sanctity and sublime power, that thou, munificent, repay the desired effects. O Cyprogenia, by those amorous burnings which it pleased thee to inflame thee with, with beloved Mars; and by thy furious husband; and by thy struggling son — which —

— eternally live with thee in the supernal delights and glorious triumphs."

To this end, all the sacred virgins, with high voice, responded: "So be it."

From the holy orations and pious intervention the holy lips were no sooner occluded, than the praying Priestess — of the sacred (things) most-expert — took of the odorous roses prepared, and many little barks of little conches, or marine oysters, and, with the most-clean hands filled, those ceremoniously, above the altar, in circuit of the fire-holder, she scattered; and, placing (some) in a bark of oyster, of the sea-water of the little Urn she asperged all the divine Altar.

Then, upon the anclabris table, the two swans, throat-cut with the secespita, immolating — the blood, with that of the incensed turtledoves, in the golden Praefericulum, with devout ceremonies and affectionate deprecation, the virgins singing measured Odes, and she low-voiced reading — she committed that the bloodless and slaughtered swans be cremated in holocaust in the sacristy, in a place disposed for such a deed; and that the ash, collected in a box, in an opening under the Altar, be thrown.

Taking, then, she thence the sacred Praefericulum, with both the bloods, before the consecrated Altar, upon the terse and most-luculent pavement, the sacrificing Expiatress, having dipped, with great reverence, her forefinger in the purpling blood, many arcane characters diligently signed; and, Polia called, the —

— like she made her do, the virgins continuing in the sweetest song of the most-pleasing Odes.

This done and performed, the notable libation-woman washed her hands with keen diligence, and Polia likewise, of the sacred blood — because no other contact was licit — the little priestess pouring the most-purely expiated water, with the golden ewer, and receiving the consecrated washing in the golden simpulum.

Polia then, admonished by the most-expert Priestess, with a virgin sponge, those sanguine characters most- tersely wiped up; and, in the washing of the purified hands, compressing it (the sponge), she washed it, most- diligent.

Then the Monitress — all with the face turned to the pavement — that washing, tremulous, and with venerable ministry, devoutly, upon the fire-holder poured. Whence, of a sudden, a smoke leapt to the convex heaven of the cupola, little by little ascending — incontinently, when she had thus done, and to the ground prone prostrated herself. Lo, a little instant — suddenly I felt move, and the grave earth quake under the round knees, with an unthinkable din in the air; and in the Temple, with a horrendous roaring, thundering — not otherwise than if, from the high heaven, into the measureless deep, a great mass were suddenly felt to fall — and the strident hinges of the golden valves gave a rumble in the vaulted Temple, as, in a sinuous cavern, the broken thunder should inwardly thunder.

Whence, full and surrounded by marvellous terror, and fearfully agitated, I invoked, silent, whatever divine subsidy and pity. And, scarce somewhat opening the frightened eyes, I looked to the smoking Altar. Out of which, purest smoke I saw miraculously issue, germinating, and successively multiplying itself into a verdant rose-bush — which, with multiplied little branches, a great part of the sacred sacello copiously occupied, to the raised altitude of the cupola, with a numerosity of vermilion and rubricating roses together, and with many round fruits, of wondrous odour fragrant, of colouring candid-and-vermilioned; which offered themselves more pleasing to the taste than, by chance, are not those which, to the famished mouth of Tantalus, present themselves. More beautiful were they not, those desired by Eurystheus (the Hesperides' apples).

Upon this rosy bush, then, appeared three white little doves, with some little birds gregariously fluttering in the branches; and, festive, they leapt, colluding, and most-sweetly sang. And, by such a portent, the numen presented — in that guise occulted — of the most-holy Mother, rightly I suspected.

For which thing, the sacrificing Priestess having risen, with matronal decorum — and Polia too, with special beauty (more than ever to my eyes she appeared gracious), and in her sweet aspect laughing — both, reassuring me, invited me into the sacrosanct sacello to enter; and, within, calling me before, venerating, of the divine Altar, between the Priestess and Polia genuflecting me, the Priestess, with veteran ceremony, three of the miraculous fruits extirpated: the one for herself reserved; of the two, to me one, and to Polia the other, offering. Those, with revoked religion, and the utmost integrity of heart, together, all three, we tasted.

Now, no sooner did I taste the miraculous and sweetest little apple, than without delay I felt in me refresh and renew the rude and gross intellect, and the anxious and mourning heart all recreate itself, anointed in amorous joy — neither more nor less than one who, overwhelmed in the deep sea, and to the bottom immersed with shut lips, without draught of breath, from above returns, most-avidly taking the fresh and most-pleasant airs, and vivifies himself. For which thing, incontinently, in me more amorous flames began to burn; and with a more sweet torment of new qualities of love it appeared to me to be transmuted. And therefore I began evidently to know, and effectually to feel, what the Venerean graces are, and of how much efficacy they present themselves to the earth-born, and how great a reward joyously they attain, who — through the delightful realms, intrepidly soldiering, and in the amorous, pertinacious battles — arrive at them. Ultimately, after the devout and sacred refection of the fatal fruits, taken without hesitation, that divine germ (bush), vanishing from the eyes, disappeared. The libant Priestess went out of the holy sacello, and Polia paired with her, and I, and all.

With such and so-made order, terminated and defined the mystic sacrifices, and libations, and immolations, and the divine cult — both, having deposed the sacred vestments, and stripped off, with choice veneration, all those mysterious and pontifical instruments, with domestic and templar obsequies, in the sacristy reverently they re-deposited.

And there, weighingly, the high Priestess, with special majesty, thus familiarly said to us: "My children, now by me expiated and blessed, to your amorous undertaking and voyage go. I pray, again, that the divine mother show herself auspicious and affable, and to your amorous conceits, intents, and cases, be pitiful, favourable, and propitious. And, in the present, encloister the profound and frequent sighs; the lamentings postpone and leave; put to flight every mourning. For already, by my instance, this present hour will be to you salutary and favourable. Then, to these my salubrious admonitions and profitable commands let your soul attend, so that she, with her pious and sweet affect, grant you happy success."

After the sacred monitress with bland speech had said (this), we — immortal thanks saying — from all reverently took leave, with sweetest and mutual salutes, indicating (by) the wet face that our departure almost troubled them. Nonetheless, bidding farewell, out of the magnificent and superb temple we went; and, my chrysocari (golden-graced) Polia admonished of our way and itinerary, finally we departed.

O comitation so long desired, so most-pleasing, and happy, and prosperous exit of the transacted sadnesses! Now my heart, breathed-upon with internal sweetness, and the noxious fire perfused with celestial dew, no longer wavers me — but firmly and evidently this is my so most-desired Polia. My tutelary goddess. The genius of my heart. To whom, well-deserving, due gratulation I owe, of so great her service to the divine mother, and of so great a showing of love in this most-pleasant comitation. These and like words low-voiced saying, Polia, in that instant aware of my depressed speech, regarded me with two festive eyes kindled with love — more clear than most- lucid stars, without the horned Cynthia, in the serene sky coruscating; not otherwise than as the ignited steel upon the anvil, malleated, scintillates, so, in my smitten breast, those (eyes) frequently scintillated. And, in speaking, comely, with angelic accents, with the purpling mouth (hiding-place of every fragrance, apothecary of oriental pearls, most-rich seminary of enucleated and sweet little words), timely, soothing, she delineated (dissolved) all my mental inquietude. A speech, without doubt, to make pleasant the terrific aspect of Medusa, and to mitigate the horrendous atrocity of the inflamed Mars, and to despoil him of his bloody armours; to steal the most-beautiful Ganymede from the hooked talons of the supreme bird; and, from tenderness, to burst and minutely cleave into tiniest fragments the hardest marbles, and whetstones, and crags, and roughest rocks, and abrupt (cliffs) of Persia, and of the pathless and cloudy Mount Atlas in the Ocean-part; and, quieting, to tame, or make gentle, the most-savage beasts of Libya; and to vivify every dusty and ashen dead. Thus she said:

"Poliphilo most-delightful" (having taken my hand), "now let us go to the roaring —

— shore; for I hope — nay, so certain and most-firm I hold it — that we, joyous, will come where our ardent heart desires. And for this cause, from the laws of Diana obnoxious (bound), yielding, I have extinguished the torch. The solemn sacrifices, and supplications, immolation, and burnt-offering being made, and, praying, I have poured out the humble prayers, and tasted the miraculous fruits — so that, expiated, clean and purified, and worthy, we may see the divine presences, which to the unclean sight of mortal men are not conceded."

Whence the notable Polia, likewise, and I, of immense sweetness upheld, and in sincere love corroborated — (she) with me these arcane conceits mellifluously conferring, and paired and adherent to her walking — to a most-ancient building we came, alacritously joyful, festive, and gladsome. About which was a religious grove.

Which was built up above the sea-sounding and (wave-)washed shore, by the refluent sea. And there, again, was left a great vastness of walls, or partitions, and of structures of white marble, and a fragmented and battered mole of a harbour nearby. In the fractures of which, and left joints, the salt-loving and littoral crithmum (samphire) germinated; and in some places I saw the littoral cakile, and much kali (glasswort), and the odorous marine wormwood; and, by the sandy embankment, eryngo, and purslane, and marine rocket, and very many other celebrated simples — the caratia, and myrsinites, and like shore-dwelling herbs — from which harbour, by many uneven steps, one ascended to the suggestum of the propylaeum of the temple. Which building, by voracious time and by putrid antiquity, and by negligence, to the humid earth collapsed, here and there demolished, had left without capitals the shaft, or decapitated trunk, of some huge columns of Persian stone of red grain; some, with mutual alternation of Mygdonian marble; some had the contracture (fluting) broken — the hypothesis (base), nor the hypotrachelion, nor Astragal was seen; some, again, I beheld of bronze, of marvellous art (such as were not in the Gaditan temple) — but every thing under the open sky, of decay and old age offended.

My frugal and well-mannered Polia here said to me: "Poliphilo my sweetest, behold what worthy monument of the great things, to posterity thus, in such supine ruin, and in so great a heap of stone-breakages, rough and humpy, left. Already, in the primaeval (past), it was an egregious and marvellous temple, about which already most-solemnly they held market, and huge multitudes of mortals thereto, every year, convened, making spectacles; and, for its elegant structure and for the observed sacrifices, diffusely famous, most-religiously by the earth- born celebrated. But, because at present abolished is, and ignored, its dignity — thus, as thou seest it lie, disrupted and ruined, expressly destitute — it is denominated the Polyandrion temple. In which, Poliphilo, my little-heart, are many little tomb-pits, where were buried the pulverable bodies of those who, badly, for wicked, unlucky, and lugubrious love, to obscure death, miserable, ceded. To the infernal Pluto dedicated; and, by returning years, at the Ides of May, with ancient and solemn ceremonies —

— all those who, to affable love indulging, gave heed — both men and women. In this place, to the celebrated funeral and solemn panegyrics, from diverse regions and provinces, neighbouring and remote places, mourning, they convened — beseeching and sacrificing to the numen of three-bodied Pluto, that they (the dead) should not have stumbled to so great an impiety as to be conscious (causes) of their own and untimely death. Therefore they immolated the dusky victims, or blackish sheep not yet known by the male, upon a flagrant bronze Altar — the males to the god, and the females to the goddess — and, making the lectisternia for a triple night. That flame and fire then, with the scattering of a multitude of roses, and with arferia (offering), they extinguished — as, in this place, a great rose-garden of whatever kind, still left, openly thou seest. Which, then, to gather them was a nefarious thing; but the priests commuted (permitted) them.

The incense-sacrifice finished, the infuled pontiff — on the breast ornated with a marvellous and mysterious golden fibulation, with the adornment of a precious stone Synochitis — somewhat of the holy ash, to each, with a little golden simpulum, then with much devotion gave. The ash accepted, in crowds they went out of the temple, with observed veneration, to the rushy shores of the near sea (as thou seest). And, in a reed the sacred ash placed, out into the deep they blew it, with religious superstition, with high-sounding voice, and inelegantly exclaiming, and with feminine ululations confusedly intermixed, and saying: "Thus perish whoever shall be the cause and conscious (author) of his lover's death."

Then, when in such manner they had scattered the ash into the sea, the reed thrown, having spat three times into the said sea, three times saying "Fu, fu, fu," they returned, festive, with other roses — those, throughout all the temple, disseminating, and especially upon the sepulchres (with funereal weeping), which, in order, in the temple were situated — singing lugubrious sepulchral and tearful songs, sounding with sacrificial and kite-like tibiae.

Newly, they set, each with their fellow-countrymen, in a circle upon the pavement, the tables and the viands, and whatever edible by those brought, in one communicating exposed, with the Salian feast-fare. And there, with holy rite, they made the silicernium (funeral feast); the superfluous then, the Manes being called, at the sepulchral altars they left; and, beyond this anniversary, they held the secular games.

— diverse places (each) hung the borne cypress-branch. Which branches, fixed here and there, with superstition observed, stood until the future anniversary. And, the year returned, all those dried fronds — the sacristan libation-men gathering them — the sacrifice they kindled. Finally, after all this most-festively performed, and with the utmost observance the funeral offices celebrated, with suppliant prayer, with religion and ceremonies of the gods (whatever evil genius put to flight), the high priest Curio first, and then, saying the last words: "Ilicet" ("It is permitted to go") — everyone, licitly and festive, could return to their own dwelling, and, glad, betake themselves homeward.

With this such order, my magniloquent Polia — eloquently having, and with bland little words, so much observance worthy of most-laudable commendation, integrally expounding, narrated (it), and me compendiously instituted — to the spacious and sandy shore, of pleasant surges rushing, washed (rolled-back), where was the destroyed and deserted temple, we came.

In this place, then, upon the fresh and flower-bearing little herbs, we gladly exposed ourselves to sit. Thus staying, insatiable, with the face-beholding eyes I subtly contemplated, in one sole perfect and untouched little body, so much congruity, and accumulation of beauty — an object, without doubt, refusing (that I) should not see a more gracious thing beyond, (with) my eyes, nor of so much content — where, of new and re-sprouting conceits, my ardent heart, with tacit joy refreshing, and somewhat the vulgar and common sillinesses deposed, I considered a more intelligible effect; and, together, the most-serene sky, the salubrious and most-mild air, the delightful site, the delicious fatherland, the ornate verdures, the pleasant and temperate hills ornated with opaque little groves, the clement weather and pure airs, and the comely and pleasant place — dignified by the rivers flowing down, irriguous, through the wooded valley, near the curved hills, to the right and left part softly running, to the near sea precipitating; a most-salubrious field, and of most-pleasant grass, filled with manifold trees, canorous of the concert of little birds. Let yield here, then, the Thessalian river and field (Tempe). And there, together thus sitting, among the springing and redolent flowers and roses, in this celestial effigy, with so much delight the gaping eyes, occupied, fixedly I held; and to so beautiful and rare a make, and divine image, with all the senses, gazing, most-devoted and applied — and, in me, more pleasant, resulting the heated vexing impulses, in which the soul, from sweetness liquefied, insane I stood, and all anxious, projected all and curious to consider, marvelling, by what mode and reason that purpling liquor — at the touch of the precious flesh of the little swelling wrist of the hand, remaining most-pure milk, for some little space — to its place returned not. No less, with what artifice, in this most-comely body, the mistress nature had particularly dispensed, and stuffingly disseminated, all the Arabic fragrance; and how, again, industriously, in her starry forehead, of gold threads becomingly vine-tendrilled, she had fixed the most-beautiful part of the sky, or the shining Heraclean (star).

Then, to the comely and slender feet the sight converting, I beheld on them the vermilion shoes violently drawn on, and, over the ivory instep, moon-wise mouthed and sinuated with a phytontea (plant-like) opening, with little gold rings, and with little cords of cyan silk ensnared, and tightly re-bound — most-apt instruments to intercalate (bind) the life, and excessively to torment the more the inflamed heart. Then, straightway, the lascivious regard returned to the straight throat, berried in a circle with oriental pearls — not understanding, of the one and the other whiteness, the true distinction — of a sudden descended to the glittering breast, and delightful bosom, where sprouted two round little apples, resistant to the garment, and obstinately repugnant; nor such, without fail, in the orchard of the Hesperides, did Hercules furtively gather; nor such does Pomona ever see in her orchard, as these — most-white in the rosy breast, standing immovable, fixed, whiter than the flocked and lucid snow —

— in the season of Orion at setting, under the pissatile (?) body of the placid monster of Pan. Among which (beauties), voluptuously, I beheld a delicious little valley, where was the delicate sepulchre of my soul — such as Mausolus had not, with all his having, collocated. Being, then, I, for this, content — and the lacerated heart conscious that the eyes, distracting it into whatever of those most-elegant parts, dispensed it moribund — nonetheless I could not, for this, so much bridle the amorous and inflamed sighs, and so covertly castigate (them), that I did not concede them their simulated sound to express itself.

By this such-made accident, immediately she too, provoked by the contagious love, and stirred, the lewd regards most-placidly (special envy to the Sun) into me converted; and throughout I felt an irritating fire, itchingly diffusing itself, into the lowest and interstitial parts, and even through all the capillary little veins, seminarily to scatter itself. Whence, in her illustrious and notable features continually to contemplate, a mellifluous sweetness, and solace, sweetly I heaped up. And there, some time, collided by disordered and insatiable appetite, and by fiery and importunate stimulus gravely oppressed, with piteous words, full of suasive and vehement prayer, secretly imploring, I appetited within me the desired kisses, sipping and fluid, and sweetest, with vibrating (like a viper) and succulent little tongue — imagining to feel the extreme sweetness of the savoury and little mouth (breathing-hole of odorous air, and mossy spirit, and freshest breath) — and, feigning to enter into the hidden treasure of Venus, and there, mercurially, to steal the most- precious jewels of parent nature.

Whence — alas, sighing — by that divine mother surrounded I found myself, and by the flame-bearing son circum- walled, and by so most-beautiful a figure invaded, all henceforth morbid and infected by such notable circumstances ornated and comely, and by the golden-fleeced head enticed (that whatever hair offered itself to me a constricting snare, and chain), and beset by these torturing knots, and by the plenitude of such pleasant pastures, and of amorous sweetness viscously baited — I could not, with whatever shrewd effort, resist the accessory and invading ardours, and irritating thoughts; and, in me, the arrow-bearing love, having forced itself, wholly disposed me — so insupportable a burning (patience overcome) to extinguish — and, spurned every repugnant reason and mature counsel, in the solitary places, with Herculean audacity, to make assault, and the divine and untouched Nymph, unbridled, to fore-attempt. But first, with sighing and precatory voice, of pity impetrable, thus to say:

"Alas, divine-born Polia — in the present, for thee to die, eternal praise I esteem; and death more tolerable and soft, and more glorious, with these thy delicate and swelling hands, would be to me the last end and demise. For, the soul circumfused by so many tormenting ardours, ever more savagely quickening themselves, it, languid, scorching, without intermission and pity they burn — so that never is left me to take a quiet hour, nor peace."

For which thing — by this way wishing to this incentive and frequent stimulus to put a finish — lo, that, of other most-savage fires, my scarred heart, all from the beginning, to burn candently I felt. "Alas, how wilt thou do here, Poliphilo? Somewhat cogitate of the violence done to Deianira, and to the chaste Roman (Lucretia) — badly and unhappily turned out — and of many others. Consider that the omnipotent gods of earthly loves have received resistance — let alone a lacerated and most-abject man. Revoke into memory that all long time accrues to him who can wait; and that the fierce lions, again, by continued days, are made gentle, and each other sylvan and cross animal; and the grain-bearing ant, again, by assiduous journey — however most-tiny — in the hard flint imprints its trodden (path): let alone that a divine form, hidden in a most-human little body, ought to take in itself the vestige of fervent love."

And thus, observed, reprobating, I confuted (refuted) so great a harm — the vexing passion taming — hoping to attain the amorous fruits, and coveted effects, and triumphant contest. In memory questioning the holy orations, and sacrifices, and libations, and the extinction of the torch — in which divine offices herself, and her Poliphilo, she had intently and especially commemorated with commendatory entreaties — for so much I thought, by suffering, a more efficacious reward and requital, and the implored (thing) to attain, than that, with perilous improbity, to profit my most-bitter languors, and lose thence every hope.

The Nymph Polia, aware of the versicolour (changing) of my face, and its varying — more than the illustrious Tripolion, or Teucrion, that three times a day changes the colour of its flower — and seeing me altered, and solicited certainly by the intimate love (so many warm and frequent sighs), pitifully, with her adulating regards, timely tempered and delineated (dissolved) the impetuous movements and irruent agitation. And so, and not otherwise, my soul burning, in these continual flames, and burnable asperity, love stimulated me patiently to hope — that, as the Arabian phoenix, in the aromatic twigs, in the aspect of the ardent Sun kindled, from the arid ashes hopes to renew itself.

Above all the excogitated and exquisite torments of love not mediocrely beset seeing myself — and to the pre- chosen and salubrious and present remedy, and my heart-healer, being near — stupefied I marvelled that, against every natural order, she more morbidly infected me. And whatever her outstanding act, ornate eloquence, biting regard, from so opportune a health, finding myself near, abdicated me (drove me off); whence ever more multiplied an exhortable suasion, of wishing, to the provoking commodity (a grateful little gift to ravishers), not to present myself ungrateful and pusillanimous. Fremishing like a furious and snarling dog, the pursued beast having reached, in the alpine leaps: so I, neither more nor less, a furious coveter, the very desired prey here reached, wholly to satisfy myself. Accustomed now to an assiduous and familiar death of love, I did not, for this, repute the atrocity a passion, that thence might be ensued. And therefore every inconvenience, however most-damaging, licit it suaded me. Whence my eutrapela (witty) Polia, shrewd of the improbe condition of blind Love, and aware — to mortify so importunate a burning, and somewhat to syncopate it, and, as my singular preserver, succouring — thus benignly says to me:

"Poliphilo, of all mine most-beloved, I am never unaware that antique works supremely please thee to see. So, conveniently thou canst, in this interval, while we await lord Cupid, go licitly to see these deserted temples, collapsed by devouring and obsolete old age — or by fire assumed, or by many years shaken — to thy solace to behold, and the noble fragments left, of veneration most-worthy, to speculate. And I, in this place sitting, content, will await thee, watchful, awaiting our lord to come, who must ferry us to the holy and coveted maternal realm."

Then I, greatly most-avid — with the other most-commendable works seen — also these, most-accurately and multividuously to contemplate, rose from the happy session, from under the tempered shades of laurel, and of myrtle, and among tallish cypresses (then, about the place, the honeysuckle painting its odorous flowers, where a voluble flowering jasmine, with soft shade, opaquely covered us, disseminating over us copiously its whitest flowers, at that time most-sweetly odorous). Absorbed, without other cogitating, from beside Polia, by those devious embankments of fastigiate and vast heap and ruin — in the greater part occupied with ground-ivy, and terrambula, and implicated with thorns — solicitous I came. Where, ponderingly, I conjectured this to have been a magnificent and marvellous temple, of choice and superb structure, according as the proven and illustrious Nymph had shrewdly vaticinated to me. There, then, it appeared that, in a ring around the round temple, were —

— tribunes disposed; because still left were some semi-integral, or semi-ruined, parts, and great fragments of gates, with sinuous beams, and horns of vaulting, and tall columns of varied species — some Numidian, and some Hymettian and Laconian, among the above-named — and other most-comely sorts, pure and unencumbered of lineament. By the disposition of which tribunes, thus openly I judged, that in those were located the sepulchres.

In this place, before all things, at the rear part of this archaic temple, I beheld a great and lofty obelisk of reddening stone. And in the base quadrate, I saw, in one face, these hieroglyphs carved.

First, in a circular figure, a balance (trutina), between which was a platter; in the triangular (spaces), between the balance and the circle of the platter, on one side was a dog, and on the other a serpent. Under which lay an antiquarian little ark; and from this, raised straight, was a drawn sword, with the point above exceeding the balance-scale; and there a regal crown was inserted. Which thus I interpreted.

Then, under this, in another quadrangular figure, I saw: an eye; two ears of wheat, transversely bound; an antiquarian acinaces (scimitar); then two wheat-threshers, transversed, between a cycle (circle) and heaped (?); a world (globe) and a rudder; then was a most-ancient vase, out of which sprang a frond of olive berried with fruit; there followed a pansa (full) platter; two Ibises; six —

— coins in a ring; a sacello with an open door, with an Altar in the middle. Newly, there were two perpendiculars. Which figures, in Latin, thus I interpreted:

**DIVO IULIO CAESARI SEMP. AUG. TOTIUS ORB. GUBERNAT. OB ANIMI CLEMENT. ET LIBERALITATEM AEGYPTII COMMUNI
AERE S. EREXERE.**

"To the divine Julius Caesar, ever Augustus, governor of the whole world, for his soul's clemency and
liberality, the Egyptians, with common bronze (funds), erected (this) as sacred."

Likewise, on whatever face of the recounted base quadrate — like the first circled figure, such another presented itself, in line and order of the first. On the right plane, then, I beheld again these elegant hieroglyphs. First, a viperous caduceus. At the lower part of the rod of which, here and there, I saw an ant that grew into an elephant; toward the upper (part), equally, two elephants decreased into ants. Between these, in the very middle, was a vase with fire, and on the other side a little shell with water. Thus I interpreted them:

PACE AC CONCORDIA PARVAE RES CRESCUNT, DISCORDIA MAXIMAE DECRESCUNT.

"By peace and concord small things grow; by discord the greatest decrease."

Over against this was the other circulation (panel). Within which I beheld such designs of egregious expression: one anchor, again, in the diametral place, transverse; upon which sat an eagle with wings outspread, and in the anchor's little shaft was intricated a bond (knot). Under these lineaments a soldier, sitting among some warlike instruments, speculating, feared a serpent. Of this I made such interpretation.

With extreme voluptuousness contemplating these most-noble conceits, in such figuring expressed, I beheld also the fourth, over against the first circle. I saw a triumphal Trophy in the lower part of the lance, of which two in-transversed palms; and, item, to it knotted, two bounteous cornucopias raised themselves. In the middle, on one side was an eye, and on the other a comet-star. This said (thus).

For the magnificence of which obelisk, I thought that such was not carried down to Thebes, nor in the Circus Maximus erected. Then, into the front part returning, I found all disrupted the propylaeum; and at the ingress of the destroyed door, lying, I saw a fragment of a frieze-architrave, and part of the cornice in one solid; in that frieze, inscribed, I saw, of elegant writing of majuscules, this saying:

D · M · S ·
CADAVERIBUS AMORE FURENTIUM
MISERABUNDIS POLYANDRION

"To the Gods of the Dead (Dis Manibus Sacrum). The Polyandrion, for the wretched corpses of those raging
with love."

This noble and much-admired fragment, in one solid frust (chunk) — and a little portion of its fastigium, or frontispiece — still retained itself egregiously delineated. In the triangular plane of which, two figments I saw carved, and not entire: a decapitated bird (I judged it to be of an Owl), and an antique lamp, all of perfect alabaster. Thus I interpreted them:

VITAE LETHIFER NUNTIUS — "The death-bringing messenger of life."

Come then into the middle part of the temple, somewhat immune and unoccupied of rubble I found it. Where, again, the consuming time, to one illustrious work of note — all of rubicund porphyry — had only pardoned. Which was sexangular (hexagonal), with the bases upon a solid stone of Ophite, of the same figure, fixed in the pavement; and six little columns, distant one from the other six feet, with the Epistyle, Frieze, and Cornice, without any lineament and sign, but simply terse and pure. Which were, on the exterior, imitating the (hexagonal) form; but the interstices in a circled figure. Where, upon the flat of the cornice, was born a cupola of a single and solid rock, marvellous artifice; which thinned at the summit, where a pervious funnel, streaked and mirror-like, covered a subterranean vacuity, illuminated by a circular opening of egregious grating, impeded (closed) of metal casting. Which noteworthy ciborium, of the utmost polish, thus I found.

Through which grating, looking, it appeared to me to see, below, a certain squaring. For which thing, kindled with curious cupidity of being able to descend to this part, rummaging among those fractures, and minutiae, and ruins, searching out some passage — lo, that in a marble pier, comminuted (broken) all to about two paces, invested with an obstinate and flex-footed ivy (by which I found almost all occupied the opening of a little door): into which, by too scrutinous desire seduced, without other pondering, and inconsiderately, I entered. Where, by a blind, sloping little stair descending, at the first ingress there appeared to me horrend lurking-places and unlit gloom; but, a little after, the eyes somewhat accustomed, to discern I began, and I saw a great and ample subterranean place, vaulted in the round, and, by the humid, ill-resounding. On dwarf columns it was upheld and sustained. Six of them were subjected, at the perpendicular of the overstructures of the cupola, with the arches including as much place of opening as the contained compass of the six upper (columns). From which dwarf (columns), then, all this place vaulted itself, candid of marble, of polished squaring cemented, and almost not discerning the joints. In which was much aphronitum, or baurach (natron/saltpetre) deputed. There I found the sectile paving, most- beautifully expressed, levelled and flat, but befouled by a frequency of night-owls.

Between the dwarf (columns) was founded, on the floor, a bi-square Altar, all of orichalc (brass), six feet long, and with the socle and little cornice half (that) high. Which was hollow, tomb-wise, like a sepulchre. But in the opening, from the surface downward a sextant, I saw a grating, or a grate, of the proper material, cast together. On one face I saw a little window — I thought, by this, the sacrificers ministered the fire to holocaust the victim, and thence drew the holy ash; and again I cogitated that, upon that grate, they set (things) to incense, or to burn the animal — the soffit of the opening also appearing smoky. There, juridically, I conjectured, that the —

— smoke of the sacrifices, ascending, sublimed itself through the passage of the porphyry cupola, and exhaled outside. And, by chance, I suspected that the tholos, or middle summit of the temple, was open, by the Egyptian rite, and (that) of the holy smoke the reek, or burning, without molesting the temple, went out. On the other side of the aforesaid Altar I found, of Roman letters exquisitely excavated, this title (I thought of the altar found by Valesius at Tarentum):

INFERNO PLUTONI TRICORPORI
ET CARAE UXORI PROSERPINAE
TRICIPITIQUE CERBERO

"To infernal Pluto three-bodied, and to his dear wife Proserpina, and to three-headed Cerberus."

In the circling of this earthy, or subterranean, place, other work I saw not, save fixed seats of the proper material. All these things, with great and unmeasured pleasure, and singular devotion, diligently beheld, I returned above; where, marvelling at the integrity of this notable work of the ciborium, within myself I confirmed the suspicion that the heaven (roof) of the temple was open — for the ruin, in circuit, was heaped up, and this part I found immune. Now, there inspecting, I moved the eyes, and saw a tribune somewhat entire. Of a sudden, with the eyes accompanying the feet, to it, hasting, I went. In the heaven (vault) of which an artful painting was there left, with incredible effort and efficiency of the artificer, of colorific work of mosaic subtly expressed.

There, cavern-wise, was painted a vault infuscated of thick gloom, showing a huge and sad, and frightful cavern, all carious, like a many-holed or fistulous pumice; which, on the left side toward the middle part, near a most- rough, pathless, ferruginous and craggy rock, terminated. In which was seen a gap of concavity in front; and in the face, toward its ending, distant from a tufaceous stony mountain, scrupulous and chasmy — this, in the same manner incaverned opposite, and pervious. In the middle height, between the one and the other, passed a bipartite bridge of iron, candent (white-hot) to the middle, and then it appeared most-frigid —

— metal. Beyond these pendent and rotten rocks, by that division between the one and the other, it showed within to be all a burning place of fire, full of ignited and flying sparks running, and white embers falling (like most- dense atoms in the solar rays), crackling through the flames, feigned shrewdly; and an ignited boiling lake; and many steam-vents, by the rocks, appearing.

On the front part, a dark and clay-muddy, glacial and most-rigid lake, showing itself. And on the right side, again, was a craggy and rough and murex-like mountain, of sulphurous colour; through which, in diverse little gaps, it vomited foul and caliginous smoke — as of matter repugnant to the ingress of the active fire — and immediately gushing a suppurated ignited matter; which vomition gave the appearance of crackling, or making a pop, like a concreted vapour compelled to exhale diffusely, and then, in the fistulous passages, the belch to return; and that demonstration which one place did not make, the other place supplied to indicate. In this was a scabrous rupture, cavernously in-caverned, with crude, grave and Avernal shades. In which fissure was fixed Taenarus, with a bronze door, roughly worked out in this burnt and pumiceous rock. And there, under these cavernous curvings and crags, three-throated Cerberus, sleepless, sitting — of blackest and humid coat, headed with frightful serpents, of horrend and terrible aspect — with grave breath, those metal valves, unlulled, exploring, with un-winking vigilance, in perpetual light the pupils keeping-watch.

In this horrend and cuspidate shore, and most-wretched site of the freezing and stench-bearing lake, stood the raging Tisiphone, ferocious and cruel, with the viperine hair, upon the poor and most-wretched souls implacably furious. Which fell in droves into the eternally most-rigid lake, down from the iron bridge; and, rolling through the freezing waves, hastening to flee the painful and death-bearing cold, came to the most-frigid shore. And, gone out, unhappy and fugitive, from the Tartarean fury, over a most-difficult, laborious and rugged bank, to the left hand, they fled headlong, with the jaws open, and with the brows depressed, and with the reddening and tearful eyes indicating clamours, stridor of jaws, and with dolorous weepings and woes. Which, oppressed, and by horror one against the other impelled, and treading each other down, into the most-frigid Avernus and deep, rushing, precipitated themselves. And those that escaped the precipice, in the scabrous cavern met the other horrible fury, Megaera, and (she) prohibited that they should not precipitate themselves into the flying flames; and, compelled, upon the incendious bridge they climbed. Such a painful order I judged to be on the other part, because the mournful Alecto — sister of the two named, daughters of Acheron and of black Night — she too was obstacle, and furially impeded, that the souls deputed to the everlasting flames should not overwhelm themselves in the freezing lake; but, frightened by the horrend fury, they climbed, they too, with the others meeting, the accursed bridge. And thus —

— it appeared to me, that the souls that were damned to the ardent burning, into the ice desired to migrate; and those that were adjudicated to the most-torpid lake — much more frigid than the Stygian marsh — excessively desired to enter, refreshing themselves, into the maledict and heat-bearing flames. But, forced to climb the fallacious crossing (the candescent pass), by fatal disposition it divided itself in such manner, that the souls proscribed to the inextinguishable fire fell again into their eternally constituted place. By the like, those that attempted to evade the inevitable cold, refuged, were, from the bridge, re-submerged into the most-freezing deep. By virtue then of the divine justice, the transit returned to its pristine being.

Without interval, other dolorous souls attempted this same, successively, with vain and impotent wish, and by no means could they attain the desired effect. Those most-wretched souls, then, that hastened without quiet to flee, by furious horror and rabies agitated — the incendious flames — could not, by relieving, come and refresh themselves in the ice. And those likewise, that gave assiduous heed to fleeing the hardest cold, and entering into the ardent flames, frustrated of the greatest desire, could not. And this, to those, was inescapable, and a pain unceasing — ever more desirous, losing every hope. Which so much the more ardent avidity increased, as, upon the bridge, the one and the other felt — those (of the fire) the reflex of its cold, and those (frozen) the heat — the one with the other meeting at its term (the bridge's midpoint). And this, in the affect, was the greatest quickening of pain and of torment. For which thing, with so obstinate an art of colouring, and of simulated gestures and expressed efforts, I saw such a painting skilfully-made, and exquisitely perfect, as ever could be made and shown. And the title, indicating, was inscribed: that, in the burning flames, were condemned the souls that, for too much fire of love, killed their very selves; and, in the horrid ice, were immersed those who, rigid and chilly to Love and refusing, had obstinately shown themselves.

Finally, with such disposition I beheld this odious, frightful and to-be-avoided Barathrum (pit), that where the lakes met — that is, the frigorific with the most-ardent — by the contrariety they must make, with eternal controversy, a terrible thundering; because then, meeting, both immersed themselves in an abrupt precipice, effused into a dark, vast and most-deep passage and immense abyss. Where the profundity was so artfully feigned by the artificer, that, by the colouring, those demonstrations feigned (themselves) to be true, and (one seemed) to see a most-absorbing vortex, with wondrous emulation of the colourings, and of lineal symmetry of prospect, and of the figures the elegance, and copious invention, and artful designation, and with incredible sharpness — such that Parrhasius of Ephesus, notable painter, could never first glory himself of a like device.

Then, whoever accurately considered such an expression could easily conjecture (it) to be thus; because the maker, most-rich of shrewdness, and of outstanding cogitation, had here exquisitely feigned the souls to a corporeal expression — which shades cannot appear save (as) concreted air, and condensed in that effigy, by which the effect is comprehended. And therefore many souls, stopping their ears; others (covering their eyes with the little palms) dared not look into the terrific and gulfy abyss, full of frightful, terrible and various monsters; others, pale, to express the torpid cold, straining their arms to the breast; some, to demonstrate the ardour, blew out smoky breath; others, to indicate the mourning sadness and dolorous pain, the fingers of the hands joined comb-wise, wept. Whence, upon the limited bridge, in the diagonal compacture, meeting in droves, the one and the other of the first butted (against each other), and could not proceed, by the treading-down of those following. Then the bridge, by fatal everlasting order, separating itself, rejecting its own, into its own place returned; and re-joined, again, others unceasingly attempted, successively, that (bridge) —

— climbing. Whence the dolorous souls, desperate, wishing the horrific death much more than they abhorred the frightful places and horrend furies, (wished) that same odious death, vainly affected (desired). Which unhappy and stench-bearing Erebus was so conducted and polished, that even to the inspectors no slight fright it induced.

In this place I saw a square Altar, on the face, or front, of which, of perfect majuscules, this title I found inscribed:

ARA DEUM INFER(NORUM).
VIATOR, HIC CAESAM LAODIAM PUBLIAM INSPICE, EO
QUOD AETATEM SUAM FRAUDAVERAT ABNUERATQ(UE),
CONTRA PUELLAR(UM) RITUM, IUSSA AMORIS,
SEMET EXSPES GLAD(IO) INTERF(ECIT).

"Altar of the infernal gods. Traveller, behold here Laodia Publia, slain — because she had defrauded her own
(youthful) age, and had refused, against the custom of maidens, the commands of Love; and, hopeless, killed
herself with the sword."

Much gladdened, from here departing, among the ruins I found a noble stone of square marble, on one side broken, but the greater part reserved: on one front, among the undulations, in the middle, in the manner of two little quadrangles with the arch, was inward-carved; and here and there a tallish ovoid figure — the one had D and a head of a mask (larva), and the other an M and another head — the cyma somewhat fastigiate, but decapitate, where, fixed, an ancient bronze vase stood forth, without lid, gaping (I thought in it the ashes were stored), with this inscription (the rest of the lineaments immune):

· D · · M ·
ANNIRAE
PUCILLAE
PUELLAE
INCOMP(ARABILI)
DIDUS (?)
AEMULATRICI
MOESTISS(IMI)
PARENTES · P(OSUERUNT) ·

"To the shades (Dis Manibus). To Annira Pucilla, incomparable girl, [a?] rival of Dido(?), the most-mournful
parents placed (this)."

Next to this, lying on the floor, I saw also this elegant epitaph, on a porphyry tablet — by which to have been a superb sepulchre I conjectured, because at both sides it appeared continuous by fracture, and not thus a simple tablet, but this part stood pure of lineaments, immune, with the lettering left. About which germinated the hybrid nasturtium.

· D · · M ·
GLADIATORI MEO AMORE,
CUIUS EXTREME PERUSTA,
IN MORT(IS) LANGUOREM DECUB(UI);
AT EIUS CRUORE, HEU ME
MISERAM, IMPIATA CONVALUI. D(IVO?)
FAUST(O) AUG(USTO)
PIE MONUMENT(UM) RELINQUENS,
UT Q(UOT)ANN(IS) SANG(UINE) TURTUR(UM)
INTER SACRIFICAND(UM) ARC(ANAE) RELIG(IONIS)
HANC INTINGI, E XLIX ACCEN(SIS)
FACUL(IS), ET COLLACHRYMULANTES
PUELLAE SOLVERENTUR,
LUCTUMQ(UE) FUNERAL(EM), OB TANTI
INDICIUM DOLORIS, DEVELLAT(IS)
CRINIB(US) PROMISSIS, RUSSARENT
PECTORA FACIEMQ(UE) DIEM
INTEGRUM; PROPITIATIS
MAN(IBUS) CIRCA SEPULCRUM
SATAGERENT ANNUALITER
PERPETUO
REPETUND(UM).
EX T(ESTAMENTO) F(IERI) I(USSIT).

"To the shades. To my gladiator, by my love — for whom, burned to the utmost, I lay down in death's languor; but
by his blood (alas, wretched me!), unpurified, I recovered. Leaving a pious monument [to divine Faustus
Augustus?], that yearly, with the blood of turtledoves amid the sacrifice of the arcane religion, this [torch] be
dipped, with forty-nine kindled torches; and that the weeping girls be loosed (in mourning), and, for the token
of so great grief, funeral lamentation — with hair torn and let flowing — redden their breasts and face a whole
day; and, the shades propitiated, they busy themselves about the sepulchre yearly, in perpetuity to be repeated.
By her testament she ordered it made." (Several abbreviations are conjecturally expanded.)

Then, when I had these two epitaphs accurately perused, and most-pleasingly seen, solicitous, inquiring, turning the eyes — lo, that I see a historiated sepulchre. To which, without tarrying, I went. On the anterior part of which, fixed, was a little altar, together with such (figures) expressed. Upon the flat of it, of wondrous artifice, was set a head of a sylvan goat, held by one of the horns by a little old man, with the head of hair, in the old manner, tormented (dressed), confused; who was clad, over the nude, in a pall thrown back over the right shoulder, coming under from the left, returning over the right, and at the back pendent; near, he was clothed in goat-skin — one (skin) in front and the other behind at the back, over the shoulders, the feet of both skins knotted, and the others hanging between the thighs with the rough hair turned to the flesh; and girt with a torque, or fillet, made of tanus, or black vine, with its leaves.

HAVE
LERIA,
OMNIUM
AMANTISS(IMA),
VALE.

"Hail, Leria, most-loving of all — farewell."

Who (the old satyr), with the tumefied cheeks, sounded two rural Tibiae, and (was) propped upon a knotty trunk of Dendrocissus (tree-ivy), all hollow of old age, with pervious cracks and rami discordant, rare of leaves, with the hair (foliage) unkempt and un-fronded. Between these two leapt a nude boy. On the other side was one who, upon the robust shoulders, bearing a leaky Armillum (wine-jar) with the orifice inverted, over the horned head scattered the unmixed wine. Beside him was a matron, with the hair let down, dishevelled — and she, and the porter of the wine-jar, nude — and tearful, holding a torch with the kindled part downward. Between these two appeared a little Satyr-boy, who in the hands squeezed a serpent much involved. There followed then a rustic old woman, basket-bearing, clad over the nude in a flying cloth, girt over the flanks; on the inelegant head, over the bald (crown), she had a cesticillus (pad); and above she bore a wicker cista full of fruits and of fronds, and in the other hand held a vase of oblong clayey orifice. These figures most-excellently were carved, and roughly (in high relief). On the little altar thus was inscribed. Excited most-highly by so much comeliness of monuments, questing, to me a most-elegant Roman epitaph, inscribed on a stone, offered such a most-pleasant dialogue, and with such ornaments:

· D · · M ·

VIATOR, HUC PROPIUS FERTO
OCULOS; DEINDE VERBA MECUM
FACITO. — "FUI SINE AMORE VIVA;
AMANS, HEU, MORIOR."
— DIC, QUAESO, AMABO: REM ME(AM?)
HUIC POLYANDRIO DEDI, MORTUAM
OB AMORIS INCENDIUM
PUERI FLORENTIS AETATE
FORMOSISS(IMI). — "QUID INSANIS? AT AMANS VIVEBAS."
— PROFECTO: CUM NOXIE
AMARE COEPERAM ADULESCENS,
SPRETO AMORIS MUNERE, ABNUIT;
CONTABUI, MORTE RAPTA,
HIC SUM. — "QUID TIBI POSSUM?"
— NEVIAM ROMANAM, CRUDELIS
PROCULI AMORE
DEFUNCTAM MISERE,
TOTAM PER URBEM
ORBEMQ(UE) DICITO.
HOC SATIS. VALE.

"To the shades. — Traveller, bring your eyes closer here; then make words with me. — 'I lived without love;
loving, alas, I die.' — *Say, I pray, I beg: my [body] I gave to this Polyandrion, dead by the fire of love for a
boy in the flower of his age, most beautiful. — 'Why art thou mad? Yet thou wast living, in love.' — Truly: when,
a young woman, I had begun (to my) harm to love, the gift of love spurned, he refused; I wasted away, snatched by
death, here I am. — 'What can I do for thee?' — Nevia the Roman, wretchedly dead of love for cruel Proculus,
through the whole city and world proclaim. This is enough. Farewell.'*"

Leaving this, which with the utmost gladness I saw, I entered into a tribune, broken and disrupted. Where, again, part of an egregious painting of most-lively mosaic I found. In which I saw a Matron, prostrate upon a kindled pyre, and raging upon her very self, killing herself. And there, no other than feet, womanly shod, appeared — some part with the calves, and little covered with drapes. All the rest was, by the unsated and voracious time, consumed, and by antiquity, and by winds, and rains, and ardent Sun destroyed. In this same place the Ark (tomb) was comminuted, and the greater fragment was this, reversed, which, righting it, I found with such writing. Next to this, lying on the floor, of alabaster stone, I found an antiquarian vase, high more than a pace and a half, with one of the handles broken, and part broken in its body; up to the opening, part superseated a half-cube, or Taxillus (die), high one foot, or —

— four palms. On which, on one face, at the front of the fracture, was inscribed; and likewise, where it was broken, by the token of some letters part fragmented and entire, part remained. Then, in the subjacent body, from the circling girdle toward the bottom (in which were fixed the handles), on the front of the fracture, was this outstanding writing.

Leaving these broken monuments, to a destroyed tribune I came, in which somewhat a fragment of mosaic was comprehended. Where, painted, I beheld a man afflicting a damsel; and a shipwreck; and a youth, upon his back carrying a girl, swimming to a deserted shore; and part was seen of a lion; and those two, in a little boat, rowing — the following (part) destroyed. And again this part was in many places lacerated: I could not wholly understand the history. But in the marble-incrusted wall was interset a bronze tablet, with Greek majuscules; such an epigram it had inscribed — which, in the idiom (Greek), to so much pity provoked me, reading so pitiable a case, that of tears I could not (refrain), damning the guilty (party). Which, as best I could, thus (I rendered) in Latin:

HEUS VIATOR — (the epitaph of Leontia and Lollius; Poliphilo's Latin rendering of the Greek)

"Ho, traveller! Interpose thy hands a little (in prayer), being adjured; and, reading, much-groaning, give kisses
to the metal, adding: 'Ah, cruel monster of Fortune! They ought to have lived.'

"Leontia, a girl, the chief beloved of Lollius, a freeborn youth — when the intemperance of love pressed (her),
afflicted with paternal torments, she fled away. Lollius follows; but, amid embracing, taken by pirates, they sell
them to a certain trafficker. Both captive, they board a ship. When, by night, Lollius suspected Leontia to be
carried off from him, seizing a sword, he butchers all the sailors. The ship, the sea's savagery arisen, dashed on
the rocks near land, sinks. They climb a rock. By the impulse of hunger, seizing Leontia, I set her on my shoulders.
'Favour, be near, O father Neptune,' saying, 'us and our fortune I commit to thee.' Then, with a dolphin-like effort,
with my arms I cut the little waves. But Leontia, amid the swimming, speaks: 'Am I a trouble to thee, my life?'
'Lighter than a water-skater, Leontia, little heart.' And, oft asking, 'Hast thou strength, my hope, my little
soul?' 'I say (yes).' Those (words) thou rousest. Soon, embracing (my) neck, she sweetly kisses her bearer, solaces,
exhorts, gives spirit to the diver. I exult. To the shore at last we come, safe. Unhoped-for, a roaring lion attacks.
We embrace each other. The lion spares the dying. Terrified by the chance, a little boat cast up on the shore
together with a rowing-oar, we fugitives board. Each in turn, singing, we row. A day and a night — and a third —
wandering. Only the sky itself, on every side, lies open. By lethal hunger we are tormented; and, wasting with long
fasting, we rush into embraces. Leontia saying, 'I pray thee, dost thou perish of hunger?' 'It is enough to be with
thee, Lollius — I am fed.' But she, sighing: 'My Lollius, dost thou fail?' 'Not at all,' I say, 'in love, but in
body.' With only vibrating and mutual tongues we fed ourselves sweetly; and, more tightly, with gaping mouths, sweet
kisses cast, ivy-like we embraced. Both, without turning (breath), we die. By the surges — not (even) raging —
hither, by the breeze, we are carried; and, wretched, in the estuary-air, bound in those very embraces, among the
Plutonic shades here we are laid. And whom the piratical rapacity did not retain, nor the leonine maw devour, and
the sea's immensity refused to take — the narrowness of this little urn here holds them both. This unhappiness I
wished thee to know. Farewell."

From here departing, more avidly lustrating through the heaped ruins, I found another tetragonal altar, which on its flat had a base without plinth — that is, a gula (cyma), then a little fascia, and then a torus. Beyond this it was levelled. On which levelling sat a plinth, or little slab, that from angle to angle made a sinuous (curve), as one of its square figure incurving little by little; the projection of which angles did not exceed the circumference of the torus, or torus, subjacent. Upon which abacus-plinth lay a circular (base) of a vase; the circumstance of which did not pass the outlet of the angles of the subjacent plinth. Which vase dilated itself, in the opening, as much as was the extreme of the lowest of the underlying gula of the base. The rim, or lip, of which — keeping its thickness — tended (in) an inflection, into itself inverting. On the altar I saw such an epigram:

INFER(IS) D(IIS) DEAB(US)Q(UE).
C. VIBIUS ADULESCENS,
INTEMPERATO AMORE
PERCITUS PUTILLIAE
SEX(TI) PUELLAE GRATISS(IMAE),
QUOD ALTERI ULTRO
TRADITA (EST), NON SUSTINENS,
CRUENTO GLADIO
SIBIMET MORTEM
CONSCIVIT. VIX(IT) ANN(OS)
XIX, M(ENSES) II, D(IES) IX; HORAS
SCIT NEMO.

"To the infernal gods and goddesses. Gaius Vibius, a youth, stirred by intemperate love for Putillia, most-pleasing
girl of Sextus — because she was willingly given over to another, not enduring it, with a bloody sword took death
upon himself. He lived 19 years, 2 months, 9 days; the hours, no one knows."

Thence departing, I found a noble fragment of best porphyry, with two equine heads carved, from which came out an intricate binding — two branches of myrtle, in-transversed and pendent, retaining. In the middle of the transverse they were knotted with a tight shoot of wondrous make. Between the one and the other (horse-)bone, over the myrtle fronds, I saw, of most-beautiful Ionic majuscules, such writing (the rest of the writing, with the stone, destroyed).

ΤΟΜΟΚΟΥΡΕΙ / ΔΑΡΚΙΑ / ΑΡΤΕΜΕΙΣ / ΛΟΝ…ΧΟ (TOMOKOUREI · DARKIA · ARTEMEIS · LON…CHO)
(A Greek inscription, fragmentary; the reading is uncertain.)

Excited most-highly by so much comeliness of monuments, searching, to me an epigram somewhat perplexed, candid in marble, I found — only the inscribed part of a little altar remaining; the rest, broken, lay on the ground:

· D · · M ·
LYNDIA, THASIUS,
PUELLA, PUER.
HIC SUM. SINE (TE)
VIVERE NOLUI,
MORI MALUI.
AT, SI NORIS,
SAT EST.
· VALE ·

"To the shades. Lyndia, a girl; Thasius, a boy. Here I am. Without (thee) I would not live; to die I preferred. But,
if thou (now) knowest — it is enough. Farewell."

With the greatest delectation and pleasure beholding these noteworthy fragments — avid, still more, searching, to find other new (things) — thence, then, like an animal questing the ever-more-pleasing pasture, transferring myself through the embankments of ruins, of huge chunks of columns, and some entire. Of which, wishing to know the proportion, one I measured, extended on the ground, and from the socle to the contracture (fluting) I found, of its shaft, the tallness seven diameters of its lowest thickness. There, near, offered itself to me a most-ancient sepulchre, without any writing, in which, by a fracture, looking in, I saw only the funeral vestments and footwear, petrified. I conjectured reasonably (it) of the sarcophagus-stone (of such effect) of the Troad of Asia — suspecting (it) of the cadaver of Darius.

And nearby I saw a noble sepulchre of porphyry, exquisitely carved among sylvan little shrubs, of which offered itself to me to read an elegant epitaph; and it had the cover in the form of an egregious little temple, scaled scale-wise — one part of the said, over the ark, remaining, and the other lay cast down on the floor, and inscribed with such an outstanding title.

· D · · M ·
P(UBLIA) CORNELIA ANNIA, NE IN DESOLATA ORBITATE
SUPERVIVEREM MISERA, VIVAM ME ULTRO IN
HANC ARCAM CUM VIRO DEF(UNCTO), INCOMPAR(ABILI) AMORE
DIL(ECTO), DAMNAT(A) DEDO; CUM QUO VIX(I) ANN(OS) XX
SINE ULLA CO(NTROVERSIA). LIB(ERIS) LIBERTAE(SQ)UE NO(STRIS UT) QUOT-
ANN(IS) SUP(ER) ARCAM NO(STRAM) PLUTONI ET UXORI PRO-
SERPIN(AE) M(ANIBUS)QUE OMNIB(US) SACRIFICENT, ROSISQ(UE)
EXORNENT; DERELIQ(UO) IBI EPULENTUR. DO(MUS) D(IVAE) P(ARENTIS)
M(ONUMENTUM). D(EDIT) A(NNIA). EX (SESTERTIIS) LLSX ATQ(UE) T(ESTAMENTO) FACIUNDUM DELEGA(VIT).
VALE, VITA.

"To the shades. Publia Cornelia Annia — that I might not, in desolate bereavement, survive, wretched, alive — of my own
will give myself, condemned (to death), into this coffin with my dead husband, loved with incomparable love; with whom
I lived twenty years without any controversy (quarrel). (I charge) our children and freedmen that yearly, over our
coffin, they sacrifice to Pluto and to his wife Proserpina and to all the shades, and adorn it with roses; with the
remainder let them feast there. Annia gave this monument of the divine parent (?); from (a sum of) sesterces she
ordered it, and by testament, to be made. Farewell, life."

Below again (from here departing), under a corymb-bearing and wandering ivy, pendent from a decayed course of wall, very dense of frond, a noteworthy zygastrion (chest) sat, of a stone like ivory, until then in the greater part still terse and bright. Within which, curiously looking, through a fissure, or chink, of the flat cover, I saw two entire cadavers reserved (preserved). For which thing rightly I judged this sepulchre (to be) of chemites stone. On the front of which I saw these Egyptian hieroglyphs carved; and within, again, many glass ampullae, and many earthenware (vessels), and some little statues in the archaic Egyptian manner, and an antiquarian lamp of metal artfully made — and in the soffit of the covering, pendent, that one little chain, ensnared, retaining (it), suspended, burned; and, near the head of the buried, were two little crowns, which I judged golden, but by time and by the lamp-smoke infuscated. Such was the interpretation:

DIIS MANIBUS.
MORS, VITAE CONTRARIA ET VELOCISSIMA, CUNCTA CALCAT, SUPPEDITAT, RAPIT, CONSUMIT, DISSOLVIT. MELLIFLUE DUOS,
MUTUO SE STRICTIM ET ARDENTER AMANTES, HIC EXTINCTOS, CONIUNXIT.

"To the shades. Death — contrary to life, and most swift — treads on all things, tramples, seizes, consumes, dissolves.
Mellifluously (sweetly) it has here joined two, who mutually, tightly and ardently loved each other, (now) extinguished."

Gladdened, with incredible solace, by so much variety of antiquarian and magnificent works, still, without doubt, my soul increased (in wishing), insatiably, more lustrating, to investigate other novelties. Whence, even if before, tearful, the Greek epitaph of the two miserable lovers dead of starvation (Leontia and Lollius) had excited me — much more, again, there presented itself to me a much-admired but pitiable monument, of two other most-unhappy lovers, standing in a great stone, with such lineament expressed: a square, by the diagonal raised (set lozenge-wise), contained in itself two little pilasters, with a little cornice and a half-hemicycle above; between which, from the angles of the little arch, hung a tablet, on which, reading, I saw such a pitiable epigram.

O LECTOR INFOELIX — (the epitaph of Lopidia and Chrysanthes)

"O unhappy reader, be present at this monument while it calls thee — and then, afterward, it asks that thou read
into what human pleasure falls. Here is the ash of two lovers, who, long since, mutually burning insolently with
itching love, by the wicked, unbridled impulse of pleasure, met in a deserted place among ruined rocks, where by
chance also stood the broken walls of sacred buildings and rough ruins. There we both were ardently urged to pay
Venus the desired gifts. Lying back, I, Lopidia, saw a snake, slipped down from on high, threatening. 'Ho! cease
from what thou hast begun,' I say; 'my Chrysanthes, rise, flee — lo, a serpent about to devour us!' — as I watch it
hurling itself from the wall. Soon he, terrified, looking up: 'O my Lopidia,' he says, 'I beg thee, go thy way, flee
thou the road, let me attack the dying dragon.' Scarcely had I risen — alas, sad, wretched me! — when I saw my
Chrysanthes, my life, entangled to destruction and tightly circled in the snake's coil, now anxiously breathing.
And suddenly it wounds the throat of my Chrysanthes with biting teeth; then I behold my Chrysanthes being
suffocated. 'Ah, ah, I perish, unhappy! I feel my Chrysanthes dying!' At once, furious, I rush at the serpent, and,
a club seized, I hasten to strike; but the serpent twists its wrangling neck, nor by force could I drive off the
entwined one. Striking at last, incautiously missing, I killed my Chrysanthes, most unhappy. Alas, I am undone!
What have I done? What shall I do? Shall the serpent and I, so wretched, survive? By no means! But with Herculean
daring — nay, with a ghostly, snarling fury — with that same club, the blow turned, upon the fallen corpse I strike
the coiled beast, and kill it. What then, a girl, was I to do — lost and dead? My Chrysanthes and the beast,
witnesses of my crime, thrown over my shoulders, I carry into the city, watering them again and again with sighs,
heart-grief and tears. I climb a certain platform in the public forum, and, sighing, I make the matter known. In a
crowd the citizens run together to the cruel and hateful spectacle; they pity the entangled chance, accuse Fortune,
damn Venus. I attest my crime, I invoke the infernal powers: 'Therefore,' saying, 'receive me to pay the penalty
together with my Chrysanthes; now let me transfer all the guilt upon myself.' Then, desperate, in the public sight
of all, a sword seized, I transfix my breast, and gave my most-wretched self to be buried here, in an eternal tomb,
with his corpse. Farewell."

Having read the compassionate case of the unfortunate lovers of this most-outstanding epigram — from here, again supremely content, departing, not many paces making — there occurred to me a noble tablet of tetragonal marble, with somewhat of fastigium (pediment), with two little columns, one to a side; of design immune and unencumbered. And, to the compass of all the quadrangle, was, as if uprooted (in relief), a foliate crown, or jewel, diligently conducted; in which I read such an inscription. Which stone lay cast down on the earth, but with the workmanship supine (face up). Which elegant varieties not a little pleasure, in my soul, joyously accumulated.

More ardently invaded (I) found myself to the investigation of the most-worthy antiquarian works. There presented itself to me a disrupted tribune, with the right wall reserved, in which I saw, with excessive voluptuousness, a porphyry sepulchre, of most-worthy device, and of most-excellent workmanship, and of marvellous cost, and of incredible artifice of sculpture. Which stood — at the extreme sides raised by two quadrangular little columns (a third of them worked out, with regulated flutings, upon a footing with the base collocated) — and, perpendicularly subjacent, was a little altar, with three elegant mourning Nymphs, toward the middle turned, weeping together. By the like, on the other side, semi-detached from the solid, not without the corollary and requisite lineaments. Above both the capitals the epistyle, ornate, extended itself. Then, with volutes of most-comely fronds and flowers —

— invested, the Frieze resided above, located, covered with a becoming little cornice. Between the one and the other quadrangular (column), somewhat, a solium, or niche, with regulated excavation of fluting, stood forth, level with the plane, between those quadrangulars. The projection of which made, on the one and the other side of its opening, a little pilaster, with capitals and base; upon which rose an inflected architrave — so detached from the levelled, or plane, that there remained, in the interior part (that is, at the lips of the solium), a little tongue (ledge). Level with the capitals, a wavy binding girt the solium, and above (it) the half-cupola.

Which little pilasters egregiously were ornated of sculpture. Under the little pilasters lay a projecting tallish little altar, with the ornaments of the overstanding little pilasters. Between the one and the other projection of the said little altars, or sub-column, I saw a Greek inscription, by which I knew this to be the monument of the pious Queen of Caria (Artemisia). Thus it said:

ΑΡΤΕΜΙΣΙΔΟΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΙΔΟΣ ΣΠΟΔΩΝ (ARTEMISIDOS BASILIDOS SPODON) — "The ashes of Queen Artemisia."

With socles, and little crowns, and cymas, and gulets, most-excellently the whole girt and companionable.

On the lower plane of the niche was a plinth of the narrated material, in aspect most-beautifully adorned with sculpture, upon the flat of which stood fixed four equal-placed lion's claws of gilt metal; which pressed (bore) an antiquarian little ark, with lineaments of notable expression. Upon the cover was a bench (throne), to the compass of the covering, feigned covered with silken cloth, with an encompassing fringe.

Sat upon (it) a Matron-Queen, with regal cultivation, and majestic vestment, on the breast fibulated over a fitted garment; which, from the collar down through the breast, and transversely in the girding, went round a little fascia, and, over the belly, dilated in the form of a tetraphyllon (four-leaf), that is, in a figure of four hemicycles; in which, of Greek majuscules, was thus annotated:

ΜΑΥΣΩΛΕΙΟΝ ΑΤΙΜΗΤΟΝ (MAUSOLEION ATIMETON) — "The priceless Mausoleum."

With the right (hand) she held a chalice to the mouth, drinking; and in the other she held a little rod, or sceptre; with the poured (loose) hair, over the head wreathed with a somewhat-fastigiate crown, tapering to another crownlet at the nape; from which, becomingly and combed, descended the hair.

Upon the keystone of the arched architrave stood forth an oval figure, flattened, of a height up to under the projection of the Sima of the cornice; in which I beheld impressed a face of regal majesty, crowned, with prolix beard and twisted hair. I judged it to be the true simulacrum of the husband (Mausolus). Retained, here and there, by two nude winged little spirits, seated upon the extreme circling of the arched architrave; which, with the other hands free, the little arm extended, a bronze little cord —

— held pendent, incurved (the bronze cord the winged spirits held). Through which had passed some balusters. And from the retaining hand, perpendicularly, they held suspended a copper thread, festooned and beaded, all excellently gilt.

Upon the flat of the crown, somewhat inclined, ascended a plinth, with manifold ornaments. In its flat, in the middle front, resided a rounding of metal, which, enclosed, had a blackest stone, also mirror-like, in which I saw such writing, of Greek majuscules:

ΕΡΩΤΟΣ ΚΑΤΟΠΤΡΟΝ (EROTOS KATOPTRON) — "The mirror of Love."

The encompassing lip, of metal, a palm in evened breadth, was comelily bossed. On its upper circle stood straight a perfect nude image, of gilt metal, with the right holding a little spear, and in the other an antiquarian clypeus (shield) of egregious lineament carved; on the one and the other side of this rounding — one here and the other there, with the back propped, sitting upon the flat — two winged boys, toward the projections, held a kindled torch.

On the slope of the aforenarrated plinth, likewise sitting back-to-back, were two nude and winged infants, upon the flat of the crown; with the hands in view they retained an apple, and with the inner arms seized a most-ancient bronze candelabrum, most-lucent, gilt, in the form of a vase, by a dolphin handle — which handles were two up- curved, biting dolphins at a knot, and, with the tail, derived, hooked, over the body of the vase, thinning to the shell-shaped gap, with two other knots toward the orifice; which, somewhat in circular dilatation, upon the lip, in order, had fixed four sharp pins, and in the middle one, that exceeded the others, with the foot-stalk between the shins of the boys.

All this sculpture, founded, sat upon a square Ophite (base) rising from the pavement, nude of lineament, except that in the middle, carved, I saw a maritime, or naval, trophy (I thought, in monument of the victory attained, the fleet of the Rhodians vanquished): a rostrum, or part of the beaked prow, of a most-ancient ship; in the middle of which stood forth a trunk, in the branches of which was invested a military cuirass, and, by the brachial outlet, the branches extended, truncated of tips; to one of the said, hung by the ring, was a shield; on the other, a naval instrument; under the cuirass, transversely, on the trunk, hung an anchor and a rudder; upon the top of the trunk, where the collar came out, a crested helmet was most-beautifully set. All which things it is not to be believed were, without symmetry and greatest artifice, exquisitely, with all the requisite lineaments, expressed, and most- excellently polished — worthy of noteworthiness and eternal memory. The commensuration of which, whoever knows the proportion of the sesquialter (3:2) will easily conduct it perfect. I suspected that by one (workshop) the sculptors of the Mausoleum and this (were) perfected.

(This leaf is the full-page woodcut of the tomb of Artemisia — the monument described on pp. 264–266. The source carries only the two Greek inscriptions that label it; there is no body text to translate.)

ΕΡΩΤΟΣ ΚΑΤΟΠΤΡΟΝ (EROTOS KATOPTRON) — "The mirror of Love."
ΑΡΤΕΜΙΣΙΔΟΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΙΔΟΣ ΣΠΟΔΩΝ (ARTEMISIDOS BASILIDOS SPODON) — "The ashes of Queen Artemisia."

(This leaf carries only a printer's asterisk-ornament — a decorative section-break following the Artemisia-tomb woodcut (p. 267). There is no body text to translate.)

ASPICE, VIATOR — (the epitaph of Sertullius and Rancilia)

"Behold, traveller, (the ashes) of Quintus Sertullius and of my sweet betrothed, the maiden daughter of Gaius
Rancilia, together; and then afterward read what licentious Fate does. In our very flowering age, when the sharper
force of love rushed upon us, mutually captured — at length, with father-in-law and mother-in-law consenting — in
solemn wedding we are joined. But, O unhappy fate! On the first night, when, by the law of importunate pleasure to
be discharged, we were compelled to extinguish the torch and render our vows to the shades of Venus — alas, in the
very act, the marital house, collapsing, oppressed us both, most joyful, embraced, with the final sweetness. O
deadly Sister (Fate)! Nor do I know what I had done (to deserve it). Consider: our longer hour was not then in the
fates. Dear parents, bewail not our wretched and ghost-marked funerals with mourning nor tears, lest you make them
more unhappy. But you — live your years longer than ours, best reader, and live your own. (Farewell.)"

Not far distant from this — somewhat moved to little sighs by the preceding unhappy case read — I found another noteworthy and most-worthy monument, with two fluted little columns, one to a side, semicircle-worked out of the solid rock, of whitest marble, with little bases and capitals, little architrave, little frieze, little cornices, and little fastigium; in the three-sided (pediment) of which two whitening turtledoves drank together in a little vase. In the content between the fluted (columns), of low relief carved, was an arched soffit, evenly distributed into little coffered squares, where, in each, a cinquefoil occupied, by the optic norm (in perspective), the linings diminishing with the content (depth). Under which an artful ark somewhat stood forth, fixed with two little doors — in one of which entered —

· D · DITI ET PROSER(PINAE) · S ·
· V · F ·
TREBIAE Q(UINTAE),
L(UCII) S(EX?) TREBII FILIAE.

"Sacred to Dis and Proserpina. (This) monument of love and of piety Aulus Fibustius, her husband, (raised) — with
whom, with the utmost longing, delightfully she lived one month, three days. She, my wife, most-loving to me, most-
unhappy, left me tears and eternal mourning. Perturbed by an extreme jealousy — when she suspected that I had lain
with another woman — her sweetest love converted into fury, with the iron (sword), through the middle of the breast
driven, she killed herself. Alas, wife — why this? My dear consort, thou oughtest to have removed from thy lover not
only the deed, but even the suspicion. Farewell freely. But I, uncertain, unhappy and trembling, my life loosed
(undone), rest.

— THE INEVITABLE STATE OF NATURE THE STEPMOTHER.
— THE BENIGN EDICT OF NATURE THE MOTHER."

From here, with most-joyful solace, departing — with curious desire most-eager to behold new things — hastening to a semi-integral tribune, I beheld some exquisite relics of mosaic painting, wormwork-made. In this place I found no sepulchre; but in the glasswork painting, still, Proserpina, with Cyane and with the Sirens, gathering flowers near the burning mountain of Etna, was perfectly discerned. Where Pluto, unsealing the fire-rooted crater of the flame-breathing mountain, voluptuously ravished her to his love; and Cyane, for not being able to succour her, piteously weeping. There I found huge stones of the putrescent wall gaping, and grassy through the cracks with aster and pellitory; which was also entangled and destroyed, as by a wedge fixed of a big root of an aged wild-fig, whose roots, springing everywhere, creeping, had destroyed the tessellations, and, the coition of the joints deserted, rendered great looseness of the walls.

Whence I only beheld part of a little river, (that) seemed a vestige of human form transmuted into it (Cyane), of incredible art feigned, and marvellously expressed — such the like as once, in the shrine of Minerva on the Capitol, in the tablet was seen the rape of the said (Proserpina), painted by Nicomachus. Where, with the mind applied to such pleasant regard being — lo, at my back I hear the fall of some tessellations; and, finding myself solitary, in a deserted and silent place, suddenly somewhat frightened, and, turning back, looking, I saw a gecko, or wall-lizard, that had been the cause of such ruin.

Therefore no little displeasure invaded me, for not being able to see the whole work integrally, it being in the greater part demolished. Considering, then, the violent manner in which Proserpina was suddenly seized, a sudden and sad thought, in the loving heart, fiercely struck me, saying: "Alas, wretched, impudent and unhappy me! O importunate investigation, and unbridled curiosity of past things, and of broken stones inquiring — to what am I devolved? If, by my ill misfortune, my most-beautiful Polia were seized from me, and, by neglect of so great a present thing — above all the treasures of the world most-pleasing — were driven off from me!" And, in a moment, a more bitter blow transfixed the sad heart, presenting already in the confused mind the piteous and lamentable case: that the fugitive of the burning fatherland (Aeneas) incautiously lost his beloved Creusa. And much more excessively it disturbed me, invading, such a terror, remembering that, on the sandy and solitary shores, drawn away from my presence, my most- loving Polia sat alone.

And that thus, to her, the trident-bearing Neptune might not violently do (as to Medusa)! Alas, at this point I certainly experienced what is the affliction of spirit, and the quality of true lovers — extremely more trembling, terrified, and stupefied, and finding myself in greater anguish, and into more miserable trepidation deduced, than when I saw myself almost a putrescible little morsel among the gaping and horrend jaws of the venefic dragon, at the next-door demise. With so much terror that I could judge (myself), through the priest and the removed simulacrum of the Pellenean temple, to have every serenity struck from the mind, re-cruding every hour, the more, the formidable grief in the fluctuating heart.

For which thing, impelled by the coquent cares and urgent anguishes, without any delay, most-swiftly brazen-footed — leaving so noble an undertaking, and illustrious inquisition, and laudable lustration, and virtuous solace — suddenly, then, through those windings and infested bushes, and rough shrubs, and through the place made narrow of stones and of thorns, and through those prolapses of marbles, and formless heap of rudiments and fragments, uneven, scrupulous, and among caustic nettles and pathless ruins, I hasten, with hostile course, by rough ways and innumerable stumbling- blocks, with prompt velocity — not esteeming the laceration of my ragged toga, here and there held by thorny fronds, and all full of burs and down, and thistle-tufts, and goat's-beard, and sowthistle, in some part entangled by the rapacious seeds of hound's-tongue — firmly holding to have arrived at the newest troubles, and formidable perils, and ultimate and deadly privation of all my hoped good, to my sweetest and most-precious Polia: not wholly alive, but half- dead, like an asthmatic drawing the breath (not by other way than if the grave odour of the Babylonian gulf I had drawn), with the eyes wet with tearful dew, near her, having prostrated myself, spasming, with incredible heart-grief and swooning, scarce I arrived.

And she, with the soft soul moved, with serene forehead, and propitiated and soothing face — thus lurid and afflicted, with assiduous pulse in my dolorous breast, with bloodless pallor trembling — miserating, grieving, with amorous pity, marvelled at it; raising me, pretty, into her sweet embraces; and, with a genuine sweetness, and with a most-tenuous saffron veil, my dirty face, dewy in most-rich sweat, with amorous obsequy lightly rubbed, dried me — both most- officious and, with blandishment, sponging me. Whence, the cause and accident of so much bitter and troublous anguish eagerly inquiring, and most-benignly blandishing me —

— with those persuasive and suasible little words, and soothing eloquence, with elocutive fluency, that opportunely served to recreate me, and to vivify a body deformed in death, I somewhat, and satisfyingly, relieved, returned; and, in me, little by little, the prostrate virtues quickening, and, laid up, in her venerable lap lying — every sad terror (gone) — I narrated to her, sighing and groaning, the suspicious cause. She pleasantly smiled, and, amorously, with prompt little kisses kissing me, with egregious shrewdness assured me, saying that soon she awaited the holy God of love, Cupid; and therefore, blandishing, exhorted me that I ought patiently to give heed to pleasure — because suffering, most often, is the cause of most-noble effects.

Consoling me, then, my beauty Polia — on this pact, paired with her residing — the semi-fled life refreshed me; the boxwood pallor converted into its (natural) colouring, and the trembling invasion changed, I evaded into generous magnanimity. But like a cineous cadaver, or dusty putrefied body, near my divine Polia, that (was) not integrally, and to the (full) number, re-vivified. And therefore the habituated eyes returned to their accustomed gain and peculiar pasture, tenaciously fixed on her.

Lo, that she, the calm Polia, with outstanding gestures and modest movements, and with celestial semblance, and festive face, and with paternal customs, with adorned beauty — worthy and illustrious of everlasting sight, and venerable beholding, of wit, form, (and) modesty egregiously endowed — composedly, without delay and any tarrying, rose from the pleasant seat under the frondy little canopy; and, with reverent leave and inclination, duly venerating, and without any motion, with singular reverence, devout, she stood kneeling, with the face suffused with vermilion, more than the ruddying Claudian apples.

For which thing I — of such cause and act ignorant and unaware, because the eyes, unceasingly to contemplate her immense beauties retained and sedulously occupied, I knew not, revoking, to dislocate, nor to remove them, and thence fittingly to decline them — I did the like (suddenly to her accosted): I genuflected on the ground.

And lo, that (I not adverting) opposite us, the divine Cupid — with naked and uncovered body, comely and pretty boy, in a swimming and swift little boat presented himself, with his unveiled eyes navigating to the whispering shores where we sat awaiting; and, to the ancient (by age-emulating time worn) mole with the stern arriving, by no means —

— my eyes, for the disproportion, suffered not, in the celestial form, firmly (unless the eyelids pressed) to collimate (fix upon): so much rutilant splendour that puerile and divine aspect breathed, that by this it reasonably persuaded me rather not to be among the mortals, but, without any failing, truly to be among the divine heroes — beholding a heavenly spiritual (being) informed corporeal, and to the material eyes unwontedly and rarely sensible showing itself, and objecting (before me). Whence, in extreme stupor, the dejected soul contemplated his head over-gilt with little crisp and most-tenuous hairs, with two great and illuminating eyes of special majesty, frightful — the light of which, beyond the vacillation, mortified my feeble sight. Then the round and swelling cheeks, suffused with purpling roses, with all the other parts so beautiful, that I would deservedly repute the greatest felicity (for) him who only should think it thoroughly, let alone (him) expressing it. And, as a winged god, at his holy shoulder-blades two wings stood forth, fixed, of little gold feathers, of rosy-peacock colour, and cyan, and of mallow colour, and glittering, agglutinated.

Persevering, my patroness and god-like Polia, and I, genuflected, we stood, thus, while the flying God began to speak; whom I recognised by conjecture, marvelling — and (he), of so great a workmanship of Polia the wondrous rarity admiring, and the magnitude of so many virtues and beauties stupendous (I thinking, verisimilarly, that to his most- beautiful Psyche, in his soul, not without concupiscence, (as) more comely, more outstanding, and of more eminent excellence he preferred her). And there, with speech of celestial afflation, a voice formed — (a voice) to recompaginate every dissolved thing, to reawaken unharmed the sleeping cadavers in the humid earth, and out of the eternal sepulchres, and even from the initial matter; and to bridle the edacity of the insatiable Vulcan (fire), and to make the horrid waves lay down their turbid swelling, and to mitigate the unquiet alluvion of the intemperate sea, to make silent the groaning shores, and to quiet the foaming and gnawed rocks; to incite whatever hollow (heart) to holy Venus, and to her pleasant service — thus he made his persuasive little words:

"Polia Nymph, and thou Poliphilo — in the amorous obsequies and sincere cult of our venerable genetrix, intent cultivators, and, in my flaming fires, intrepid, religious effects (doers): in her divine sight are your purely-vowed sacrifices, your sedulous interventions, arrived, and your most-devout prayers, and dedicated service, and chaste obligations. For this, your ardent desires merit, and efficaciously will be resolved (fulfilled), according as, praying, you have obtained. Put then, with thy —

— individual companion, with secure safeguard, into my little boat. For to go to the maternal realm, and destined island, none avails, unless I, as its proper navarch and ferryman, transport it (thither)" — and, with divine reasonings, facetiously he invites her to enter.

Polia then, not tarrying, and unlazy, festive, my hand alacritously re-taken, rose, silent, but all prompt; and, with elegant acrimony (keenness), with profound veneration and venial (reverent) bendings — she and I, having climbed upon the fateful little boat, and, in the poop, set to a commodious sitting, and I paired with her without delay — those divine Nymphs composedly, from the up-jutting shore, as much as one drawing of the hand, rowed.

The little boat was an exeres — that is, a little vessel not leaky, but fixed with a rowing-apparatus of six oars — with a marvellous exterior daub: not of palimpissa (pitch), nor blackened with zopissa (ship-pitch), but with a precious liquamen composite of almond-scented benzoin, ladanum, musk, amber, zilibeth (civet), and with twin storax, and, with ordered distribution of quantity, with a most-noble mixture throughout anointed, and, of excellent artifice, compaginated, and interwoven of white sandalwood, and citrine odoriferous, and of grave and non-carious aloewood, exuding a wondrous and never-so-felt fragrance, over-smeared; fixed with little gold nails, which, in their bosses, or their nipple-headed caps, shone with wondrous artifice, encloistered, most-precious gems. The gratings and the thwarts were of blood-red sandalwood. Beyond measure they rendered the heart exhilarant.

Which wondrous and unwonted little boat, six most-apt and supremely-disposed and lordly maidens rowed. The oars, with the blades, were of illustrious and snowy ivory, not with radish (bleached), but genuine, pre-shining; and the rowlocks of gold, and the (oar-)thongs of commixed and twisted silk. These maidens were dressed most-richly, of most-limpid cloth, to the swift and modest breezes inconstant and flying-prone; impeded by the re-blowing (of the wind), with voluptuous ostentation of the members of the sub-adhering form, the flower of their little age it showed — with the head becomingly wrapped of abundant most-blond tresses; some with rich hair, lucid, more black than Indian ebony. And how pleasing it presented itself to see two opposite (types) accosted: the flesh beyond measure snowy, of the face, shoulders and breast, surrounded most-richly by blackest hair, disposed in spirals and textures, wantonly bound of little silver cords, with knotting and snares so pleasant, and most-grateful to the senses, as ever any voluptuous thing could appear — to revoke them (the eyes) to itself from every other noteworthy sight, and enthralled, distracted — over the nape constrained (bound up) with oriental pearls, to which let yield that which —

— Julius (Caesar) bought for his dear Servilia. And some had, of roses and of other conspicuous flower-wreaths entangled, the little-crisp hair, tendril-wise shadowing the lucid forehead; with sumptuous collars of turbinate stones, of various and companionable colouring, most-precious, encompassing the milky and straight throat. Then, tightly, they were girt, transversely, under, close-by, the hard little breasts — an obstinate obstacle to succumb to the thin breast-garment — which, however violated (constrained), nonetheless, to their dwelling somewhat quaking, proterve (saucily) returned. Which breast-garment, in the circuit of the collar, had an adornment of over-thread of gold, interwoven, in the greatest polish of expression, of constrained threads, with the rims of ordered and pellet-like pearls; and along the length of this hedge, composedly outspread, shone most-precious gems.

To replicate aptly I would not know that which to me was licentiously conceded, and (I) made partaker, to speculate — every thing, scatteringly, in the soul revolving, with amorous device, embracing (it), in the memory repeating, in the mind representing a sweet enjoyment, and sweetly, of so much beauty, a soft pleasure verisimilarly I usurped. Two, then, of these — Aselgia and Neolea — were of lascivious adornment, preciously clad, Attalically, of chamochaino cloth wefted with golden weft, and of a warp of cyan silk, such as King Attalus in Asia could not find. Two others, likewise — Chlidonia and Olvolia — had the voluptuous Babylonian dress of precious thalassium (sea-purple), with varied texture. The last, Adea and Cypria, were invested of most-noble melledarum, with wormwork and airy stitching, with most-minute and pervious slashes, manifoldly jagged, in the ground set under with gold foil at the extreme fringes. And at the joint of the arms was, broadly, an outlet of the proper garment, whence came out the ivory arms, bared, for ostentation of another whiteness than the milky coagulation, with all the requisite ornaments and nymphal additions. The fresh and wanton breeze then, according to its motion, now the form of the round, untouched and hard belly, reflowing, disclosed; and the noteworthy pubis; now the fleshy thighs; some time the trembling buttocks. Then, on the longish little (feet), the footwear, by force (with a shoe-horn conducted) brought back — such were of cyan silk, and of greening and Punic colouring, exquisitely tanned; on the vertex of the foot, with a sinuate opening, moon-shaped, most-polishedly fenced round, with rims and gold buckles politely strapped, and with crepidae and gilt soccoli; and some with silken little cords, gold-pointed, and alternately, by some, suppressed —

— golden circlets, threaded, strained (them, the shoe-cords). And with others, manifoldly adorned, of wanton and virginal shrewdness, invented to gratify the senses with laborious voluptuousness. All these things, of special dignity, so gracious and much-admired offered themselves to our amorous mystery, as, to the ardent flames, the fatness (fuel); and to Vulcan, the sulphurable matter; and, of the Tartarean pit, the vigilant custody to three-throated Cerberus; and to Megaera and her sisters, the mortal fright; and the florid youth to amorous Cupid; and to the mother (Venus), the commodious lurking-places.

Separated, then, from the sandy shore, these divine boat-nymphs beautifully reined the ivory oars in the flat grating, by the gyrons (oar-loops); and each, with the most-shapely faces toward the nude lord (standing on the prow), with majestic reverence, joyously turned themselves — and their whitening backs to us. My genius, and Polia, with most-luculent confabulation, said to me: "My Poliphilo (every other thing postposed and refused), most-beloved — I wish that thou understand and know, that these six present little maidens are the readiest handmaids of that lord, and opportunely ministering to his pleasant service."

Sitting, then, these solacing, comely and outstanding little Nymphs upon the sandalwood thwarts, paired, turned toward the divine lord, and to us the delicate back — the divine helmsman, the smooth wings distended, explicating, having called with odoriferous breath to himself the sweet zephyr, wind-blowing rendered the holy feathers (more than the ardent carbuncle to the pre-shining torches, coruscating lightnings), and, the plumate wings filled with flower-bearing air, we began to abandon the garrulous shores, and to navigate upon the deep and spacious sea, with grateful calm tranquil. And, of great and fearful veneration, and of singular sweetness and alacrity, my amorous and contumacious heart being stuffed, and all shakeable, distinctly with my genius I cogitated: what heart so inhuman could ever be found — or one of such hardness, so vivid and so vigorous, however more rough than the bark of the palm to imagine — that, to such-made beautiful and concupiscible presences, and divine objects, to all gentleness most-tender and most-soft, and mortified, invalid, and most-lenient, of a sudden would not have shown itself?

And what imprisoned and extinguished concupiscence — glacial and depraved appetite — that would not here have vigorously unbroken the tenacious cloisters and biting snares, and most-aptly restored itself to the comely, most-beautiful and amorous spectacles, and would not have turned itself into flame-bearing Etna? And what Diana would have spurned so benign fires — (fires) to contaminate the chaste Hippolytus, and make lascivious the most-modest Orithyia? But what must those have felt, who wholly were apt, near, and uniformly disposed (to love)? I found myself like the little fish born in boiling water — thence extracted, and in other waters set to boil, it never cooks (again). Beyond, then, stupidly I beheld that divine little spirit, and, in his over-gilt feathers, some restless little plumules, tender and delicate, such as are on the immature wings of the young hawk not yet flying from the nest, and, at the dewy winds, tremulous resulting. O how gracious, and how most-pleasant to the senses, the little golden-crimson feathers presented themselves! Which golden colour, in some feathers, refulged, and (some) of phoenician colouring; some of glaucous colour, and of emerald tincture, and of mallow colouring, and of cyan, and (some), more than the icteric little bird, yellow — in a golden colour most-admiredly coming together, and, with harmonic dispensation, most-decorously, through the divine wings.

For which thing, all the jewels of fecund nature, distributed there, participatingly, to coruscate, I easily judged — because they irradiated like mobile and most-tenuous foils of most-pure gold, suspended in the breeze, and, in the clear sun, wind-blowing, comelily painting the waters of the most-placid colours; then torn (reflected) by the unstable and crisping little waves, in a great emulating gyre. I beheld also the incomparable beauty of the divine composite of Polia, from hour to hour ever more delicious and shapely presenting herself. Then I beheld also the most-purged and serene air, the moderate and placid weather, and the saline cerulean waters — like perspicuous crystal, most-limpid, seen even to the most-open shallows — and, here and there, many wooded rocks; and, ornated of vernal verdure, the scattered (Sporad) little isles, thick of leafy greening shrubs, and most-pleasantly shady; and many vague places, from the senses, afar, lost themselves; and in the flattened (waters), like spots, they appeared. Likewise the frondiferous trees over-shadowed the littoral little banks, and the greenish reflex, then, in the most-nitid and mirror-like waters, as the proper (thing), was discerned.

Proceeding, then, our solacing and triumphant navigation — where presided the empire and divine monarchy of potent Love; where resided that lord who, in extreme sweetness, renders himself austere, and, in austerity, feigns himself so sweetly sweet, and, in sweetness, so bitter, and, in bitterness, presents himself so pleasant. O happy, therefore, whoever, navigating, should feel his feathered wings prosperous and favourable! Finding myself, then, thus, between two so pleasing lords — the one inflamed me, the other consumed me — lo, that the marine gods: Nereus with the most-pleasing Chloris, —

— with the daughters Ino and Melicertes, upon the non-foaming waves, making festival, came, upon their bigae (chariots), adoring the divine boy. And there the wave-born Melanthus, or Posidonius (Neptune), with the cerulean beard, hispid, with the pungent and tri-cusped trident (fuscina), towed by great seals (phocae); and the cerulean and piping Tritons with the sonorous conches trumpeting — so that through the ether the clangour, bellowing, resounded, leaping — with a throng of Nymphs, the Dircean and the Nereids, seated upon the most-swift and curved dolphins (at the aquiline breath everlasting, conveyors of Arion, friends of the same name), and the sea-monster (pistrix), and the monstrous Cephisus.

And with this same order came the ancient father (Oceanus) with his consort Tethys, and with Erato, Ephyra, and Phillyra, Hippo and Prino, the daughters, festive, presented themselves; and then the daughter of Nereus, with the grieving Aesacus (of the mournful voice, clad in anthracite colour, or dusky garment, in mourning for his dear Epiriphe, bitten by the venomous serpent); and Halcyone, plaintive of her beloved and awaited Ceyx, flying, made festival; and Proteus, drawn by the hippocampi; and Glaucus the fisher, with his beloved Scylla; and the other fish-monsters — many horse-fish (hippopsarii) and man-fish (anthropopsarii) — with unthinkable applause, with flux and reflux, and the fragour of the facing and hoary waters, submerging themselves, and thence bursting up; and, with honorary veneration, with solemn honorifics, with huge stridours, most-choice wave-wanderers, of monster-making and fishy effigy. And, again, a multitude of shore-dwelling little birds, and whitest swans — some swimming, and some flying through the air, and, with the extreme (highest) voice, singing sweet concerts, resounded. Praise and glory, unanimous, they gave, as to the omnipotent gods (their) subjects, gratulation most-celebratedly discharging; making, too, jocosely, great fragours with the movements of the waters, agilely, with the breathing gills, and little wings, and rowing fins, leaping and salient, and with grateful din whistled softly. For which thing, I, incredibly delighted (at) so much variety of aquatic gods, and Nymphs, and monsters, before by me never seen, with so much venerating dance and honorific exhibited to the divine boy, marvelling stood stupefied. For no less than ever a triumphator I judged myself, than whoever in Rome triumphing; and then, for its being to me by the gods so benignly and so well communicated, more happy I esteemed myself than the fortunate Polycrates.

It befell now, that, my heart being already domesticated in a solacing fire, with plenitude of delightsome pleasure, and contiguous to my delicious and divine Polia — beyond all the memorable spectacles, I tasted a refreshing odour, breathing from the utmost cleanliness and delicious daintiness; fallen into the greatest stupor, with my genius, within me, I said: "Behold, that which I —

— coveted, I have now victoriously attained; and openly I see it; and that salutary help, so long wished-for, embraced, I hold — with no less gratification and voluptuous solace than the splendent Cynthia, solacing, with her beloved Endymion (scrutator of the shallow waters), the supernal realms relinquished, in the wobbling, light and piscatory little skiff, near the Lamian rocks. Nor could even Paris glory so much of the litigious judgement (of the apple), nor of the smuggled- away Ledaean (Helen), sailing with swollen sails at the blowing south-wind. Nor Jason, of the malefic and deceived Medea. Nor Theseus, of the Minoan prey (Ariadne). Nor the Roman Captain (Antony), of the ambitious Egyptian (Cleopatra). Nor could the granddaughters of tall Atlas glory equally of their grandsire, sustaining, with most-robust shoulders, the starry sky. Nor the painter Apelles, of the amorous gift the Great Alexander made him (Campaspe). Nor is the spicilegium (gleaning) so most-accepted to golden Ceres, as I (glory) of having beside me my divine Polia — the comeliness of whom would have hastened slow Saturn, and stopped most-swift Phoebus, and stabilised the caduceus-bearing Cyllenian (Mercury), and set aflame frigid Diana, and (would have) even had the gods officious (in her service).

Navigating, then, with the light and sweet appulse of the outstanding breezes, I, with scrutinising and perspicacious and inconstant regard — intently, not being able to affirm (fix on), now the one, now the other speculating — but of this I could not discern, nor delimit, the disparity of the two (Cupid and Polia), save (in) the divinity. And there, strongly by an inexcogitable sweetness compelled, to both I freely repudiated (surrendered) my soul: commending it to the power of one (Cupid), who fittingly could condone to it his amorous salvation; and to the will of the notable Polia, that she too benignly should lend her consent. But yet, undoubtedly, I esteemed, confident and reliant, that to such majestic presence and venerable aspect no other effect and exit could breathe than ardent love, and that she now could no more flee her triumphal boat, nor retreat; and much more I hoped for the sequel of my extreme desire, by the saying of the amorous hieroglyphs of the fluttering standard (Amor vincit omnia) of this glorious little boat of the divine and most-potent Cupid — where, exulting to be conducted into such dignification, most-blessed, and glorying to be adorned with so excellent a companion and amorous reciprocation (that Apollo cannot so glory of the ornament of his quiver and cithara of Peneian fronds, nor Polycrates of the recovery of his ring, nor the Great Alexander of the attained victories and elevated trophies) as I judged myself glorious, finding myself in so great a triumph. Nonetheless, beyond belief marvelling, by what mode, or instinct, in that divine little body was so active and forceful a fire fruitfully placed — which the universe inflames —

— and burns; transcends, penetrating the most-solid heavens, and thence, without any diminution, the profundity of the abyss — a fire of marvellous nature, which neither the liquefying Tethys, nor the ancient father Oceanus, nor the trident- bearing Neptune could ever resist. What fire is it? — that the mortals, in it, with supreme sweetness dying, nourish themselves, and live.

Still greater a miracle I beheld, cast into stupor: how, in that flocked snow of Polia's delicious breast, it burned without contrast, and purpling roses germinated? I cogitated affectionately how it burned, too, in those whitest lilies, replete and superfluent of juicy and milky humour? I felt myself not even able to discuss how it inflamed so sharply in those glittering roses, sprouting among the wintry frosts of rigid Capricorn? I found myself likewise ignorant in what manner the breathable Eulus (breeze), in the festive eyes of the fair Polia, with so much impulse of soliciting, provoked that fire so inflammable — (a fire) that the leonine rays (of the Sun) of the Gaditan fleet, to burn that of King Theron, proceeded not with so much burning as, from her eyes, burnable, into my heart irradiated — unknowing, more, and out of my mind, by what manner Pyragmon and the companions (Vulcan's smiths) had fabricated, in them (her eyes), their so thick and domestic workshop, to fulgurate. But above all things this exceeded — that I, by no shrewd way, could investigate: with what virtue, wasting, collided, mortified, and wholly prostrated to so many wicked insults and frequent battles, struggling, I repugned? — with the lightning heart captive and tightly rebound, surrounded by hostile pleasure, and circumvallated by kindled and gracious flames; which (against their own name), unable to conflagrate that pricking bramble- patch and that most-rough, imbricated thistle-bed (my resistance), were, in my heart, angularly implicated, and, by those most-placid eyes (faithful dispensers of the holy treasure of the great Cupid), diffusely disseminated.

"O sweetest winged one" (turned to that god, I then said), "how sweetly thou nestlest in my soul!" "O most-pleasant" (then, to the star-bearing eyes of Polia, I said), "O sweetest executioners — how, of my sad heart, have ye known to compose and gird so full and crammed a quiver to the divine flanks of Love? Nonetheless, ever more gracious I wish you, and warmly desire — much more, and without comparison, than the auricled (ass-eared) Lucius desired, in so many noxious troubles and supreme and mortal labours, the vermilion roses; and more grateful and opportune than, to the unhappy Psyche, the succour of the grain-bearing ant, and the reedy warning, and the eagle's aid, and the innocuous little prick of Cupid's arrow." For all which things, I could not, however, revoke the ardent soul out of the delicate arms and voluptuous embraces of my beautiful-haired Polia — because my insatiable conceits had there firmly, and eternally, imprisoned and proscribed it —

— and she, with this high lord, this continual prey, navigating, divided and imparted. Therefore this alone I esteemed extreme sweetness of delight — to which, in presence, the blessed celebrity and triumph invited me.

(Chapter argument:)

POLIPHILO NARRATES THAT THE NYMPHS, HAVING RESTED THE OARS, BEGAN SWEETLY TO SING. AND POLIA,
SINGING IN COMPARISON (in answer), FELT A GREAT SWEETNESS OF LOVE.

With the utmost auspicious, superb and great pomp, insolent triumph, with unthinkable joy and voluptuous gratification — with stimulating darts savagely fixed in the scarred heart, at the amorous eyes of Polia, and at the arrow-frequency of Cupid, an opposing and most-firm target — with an amplified heart, more furnace-like burning, ever more avid to augment the ardour, through the solicitous ministry of the insatiable and impatient eyes (to which reasonably I pardoned it, considering the cause that made them so cupidinous, and supremely applied to it, and sedulously intent): like the simulacrum of Apis, which toward the sun ever turns, gazing — so, and not otherwise, were my eyes directed upon her, who was a conspicuous and exciting object, from that much-admired irradiating face, in the world proscribed of equivalent beauty, and by every means interdicted.

But more noxious, and much more iniquitous and vexing slaughter, did the furtive and wandering thoughts experience of this valorous lord — best of such matter the shrewd quaestors, and of the gain the most-apt artificers, to fabricate and compose, of fire and of flames, so sweet a torment, so venerable an idol, so shapely a simulacrum, so outstanding a form, in the workshop of the imaginative faculty, and solacingly to feign. Oh, how much — molesting, and refusing all temperament, declining to succumb — did these unbridled and public cut-throats of my repose and quiet show themselves, and insatiable and raging of the unseen beauty of my golden-haired Polia; sometimes sweet, and sometimes bitter, sometimes glad, and more often sad; many times desirable, and often to be fled, they accused themselves. What most-valid forces, then, could have imprisoned the incontinent senses — reluctant, to dissent; and dissenting, to repugn; and repugning, to drive off; and driving off, to spurn —

— whatever hedge and enclosure, throughout that pleasant meadow diffusely flower-bearing of the singular and choice delights of Polia (like a murmuring bee), most-richly, unwearied, they gathered — so much sweetness, and sweetest delight, diffusing it through the oppressed viscera. Where the amplest serpent- flames, without relaxation insulting, violently invaded. For which thing I did not judge it worthy, nor convenient, that the amorous and carbuncled heart, vigorously exercised in these such works, and sustaining them, should be moved to remove it, and by molestation to debilitate it. But rather, most- modestly, I ought, tolerating, to support it — which so willingly, for my affable content, it had laboriously contracted.

Now, in the fateful ship's-command, without sternpost and rudder navigating, we the first-sailors, and upon this unpremeditated vessel, where all the mysteries of love breathed — which had for its poop the prow, and for its prow the poop, with the most-worthy and exquisite artifice, accommodated to Cupid by his mother — than which never an apt and most-richly eloquent tongue of round oratory could, expounding, express, and expressing recollect, and distinctly recollecting recount.

In the very middle of which — that is, in the mast-step — was raised a golden spear, with a triumphal and imperatorial standard, of thin silken cloth, of cyan dye; in which, of little gems of the opportune colouring, with whitest pearls, were polishedly, picturewise, re-woven, on both faces, with manifold foliage, with the utmost most-comely adornment, three hieroglyphs: an antique little vase, in the mouth- gap of which burned a little flame; and then was the world; joined together with a little branch of osier, at the soft breaths of the spring-bearing and obsequious zephyr wind-blown, flutteringly volant, and choicely inconstant. The interpretation of which I made thus:

AMOR VINCIT OMNIA — "Love conquers all."

The divine Steersman I, with reverent and decent regards, willingly willing him, with every possible effort to contemplate — the disproportionate object, my feeble sight fittingly did not suffer. But, conniving with my cheeks (half-closing my eyes), in this manner somewhat the divine boy I manifoldly comprehended. Sometimes he appeared to me of twin aspect; sometimes of triple; and yet, sometimes, he showed himself with infinite effigies. Who, with Polia, made our itinerary happy, blessed, and glorious. And by this way the amorous and prow-standing Cupid, fanning the sacred feathers of his perpetual wings — in which Canens, lover of Picus, solaced herself — shone more than refined gold, of various and most- pleasant colouring, rotating in a circle above the little waves. More beautiful and more pleasing than the crystalline triangular column of Euclid demonstrates, approximated to the eyes.

Now the nautical Nymphs gave beginning — with a most-sweet note, and with a heavenly intonation, from the human wholly deviated, and beyond belief, with reasoned song-craft — to sing, and to trill a most-sweet concord, with consonant voice and melody. Insomuch that rightly I doubted I should shatter from excessive sweetness, because almost from its place removed I felt the resulting and wounded heart, and of sweetness it seemed to me, reasonably, that it should exile itself through my lips. And they, following, with vibrating little tongues, in the sonorous palate broke, crisping, doubling, and tripling into one the briefest little chromatics, or tailed notelets — and, first intercepted, two by two; then three and three; then by four; last, all six — the rosy little lips, tremulous, moderately opening them, and graciously joining them, they proffered the modulating spirits, with mosaic proportion, with mellifluous voice, in the warm heart syncopated, and with weary utterance of love. A voice sighing to the places, most-sweetly throating — enough to put into oblivion the natural need, and to neglect it — with stringed instruments they sang the sweetnesses and qualities of love: the facetious thefts of supernal Jove, the solacing warmths of most-holy Erothea (Venus), the lasciviousnesses of festive Bacchus, the fecundities of the foster-mother and golden Ceres, the savoury fruits of Hymenaeus — with versifying manner expressing, and rhythmically proffering, melos emmetron (metred song).

For which thing, with a straying mind, most-firmly I held that such was not that sweet-sounding one which Eurydice, borne in the winged three-team to the infernal (regions), and —

— from the most-shady seats, from the eternal flames freed (Eurydice). Nor yet, with such a sound, did Hermes lull to sleep the eyed shepherd (Argus). Such (a sound), through the most-purged air scattering itself, breathed out of the precious and coral little lips; and through the white throat one saw the vocal spirits passing, with modulated sweetness diffusing itself. For that was celestial flesh, and a divine composite transparent — like crystalline, most-frigid, and refined camphor, tinged with crimson.

Whence Phoebus would have stayed from coming to bedew the wolf-light dawn with his coruscating rays, and would have forgotten to paint, and to make the colours for the flowers, and to renew a gracious day for the mortals. And by this, without doubt, the bow-bearing Diana would have forgotten the curved bows and the flying arrows, and the sedulous huntings, and the dense woods; and, warming the gelid fount, she would not have spurned the presence of the incautious hunter, and would not have turned the horned stag, to the biting dogs lacerable (i.e. she would have spared Actaeon). And the all-wandering Selene would have withdrawn from illustrating with her splendour the supernal heavens and the shadowed earth. And the frightful Proserpina, in her mournful realm, would not have racked the doleful subjects, had a like tone reached her ears. And the solacing Bacchus would have made resistance to the slippery lasciviousnesses, and would have neglected the Ogygian hills, Elis, Naxos, Chios, and Mount Massicus, and Mareotis, and would have made little of the must-sweet delights of the vintaging Autumn. And the fostering Ceres would have kept the ears of corn ever in green, postponing the abundant realms of Ausonia, nor would have exchanged the fat and four-grained ears with Chaonia. And the cloud-thundering bird (Jove's eagle), out of the hooked curvature of its inverted talons, would not have felt the ravished Phrygian cup-bearer (Ganymede) flee away — so most-sweetly the Nymphs sang, and concordantly sounded, and each of them, with my Polia singing along, dispensed celestial melodies to the open ears.

By which the black and multiform and lucubratory Cerberus would have been lulled; nor would he have kept watch, with unmoving eyes, the metallic valves of Taenarum. And then the raging Tisiphone, with the monster-bearing sisters, to the wretched souls would have shown themselves most-placid and benign. Nor ever were Parthenope, with her sisters Leucosia and Ligeia — daughters of Achelous and of Calliope — singing at the Capri isles near Pelorus, heard with so much harmony, of voice, mode, Lyre, and pierceable tibia; whence the soul, incendiarily inflamed, removed from its place by the happy songs, and sounds, effigies, beauties, retinue, and majesty, I could not redeem, nor make it my own. But, most-tightly bound, it commended its estate into the delicate arms, and in the whitening bosom of Polia, a perpetual and surrendered hostage, obliged it. Which then, cogitating, by delectable paths and voluptuous conduits, arrived at the arcane delights. And thence, with all my excited virtues drawn into myself, I could resume nothing else but a solacing imaginative, and glorious.

By which, of over-rich pondering, the anxious mind, with a refreshment of spirit, fed itself; and with little curious regards, and lewd appetites, the manifest and perfect shapelinesses (and rarely such a habit of appearance) of Polia most-avidly I beheld, refusing every other thing worth watching, avertible of protection. But singularly, then, most-pleasing to me was her glittering breast, wondrously painted with purpling roses, and with milky lilies, in their first opening — in the tearful dawn, without obstacle to my eyes, a most-placid spectacle, openly conceded, and without an impeding medium, but sufficiently coloured — to that most-admired object which was her face, so enticing and marvellously beautiful, graceful, and perspicuous, that such does not appear, with its ornament Hippe, in the pure sky; with little tendril-curls above, and the rosy forehead and flat temples trembling, which, with the utmost adornment, down the snowy neck and whitening shoulders flowed. The wanton and spring-bearing breeze choicely re-blew them. As much as ever the most-high Jupiter can imagine, to confer on the nature of it, and benignly to produce and skilfully-make — nor ever could Apelles have painted a like one, and much less Aristides, who feigned human souls with his little brush.

Of which sight I could not sate myself — neither more nor less than the murmuring bees do not sate themselves of the odorous thyme and amellus, and the wanton she-goats of the flowering cytisus, and of the tender fronds. And with willing soul, and with incredible pleasure, I would have unlocked my most- amorous heart, judging it no way grievous — and tessellated (it) — that she, thence, having seen it, should have received by proof the token of what are the qualities that, loving, one endures. As to Caesar the stigmatised Antipater (showed his scars), and as my soul was promptly seduced by her sweet little face and notable figure, and reduced into servile surrender — not otherwise making pervious my breast, lacerating, fenestrated, than the most-pious Egyptian Pelican, dwelling in the solitude of the turbid and headless Nile, to its raging chicks, for hunger, with piercing and cruel beak splits and shatters itself, disembowelling the pitiful and maternal heart. Which, not to Dionysus, but only to her, perpetually is most-dedicated, excitable; and, diffusing itself, flowed in me the insane and Lernaean loves, and the fiery desires; and the incitative thoughts it feigned in the consenting heart, composing, to consume me, and to destroy my very self, an ardent and most-burning flame, by me wholly conceived. And with greater miracle the lethal and death-bearing dart, innocuously transfixed, poised itself in my wounded heart, than the pendent lethal dart in Ephesus, without a noose, in the temple of Diana. The soul therefore interdicted, to vivify me fully availed not.

Therefore, for such-made cause mortified, beyond measure ardent — if not her delectable regards, refreshing me, recreated me, and the amorous nods —

— comforted me, and the low and sweet little words vivified me. She soliciting me affectionately, that I should give heed to the sweet songs of such egregious and divine singers, and to enjoy so many marvellous things with the senses — interrupting the fixed regard upon her, and all my cordial intent. Beyond all that one can opine, more pleasing was my most-beautiful Polia to my fervescent burnings, than, by chance, so pleasing and expected would not have presented themselves the rapid waves of Xanthus and of Simois to the Ilian flames (that burned Troy). Nor so pleasing showed itself the honoured gift of the head of the bristly Boar, from Meleager to Atalanta. Nor to the beloved Alcmena the fair gift from the benign Jove. Nor so pleasing and opportune offered itself to Hannibal, in the waters, the elephant — as Polia, most- pleasing to my every delight and content.

Constant, then, to the begun work, between sweetest voluptuousness and odious delay, I persevered — neither more nor less than the ponderous gold persists to the utmost cement, and to the most-subtle liquors. I turned me then to the divine boy. "O flame-bearing Cupid," murmuring I said, "you, some time, my lord, with the most-beautiful Psyche, wounded your very self, and with your own cruel arrows, up to the newest line of ardour — as the mortals — she supremely loving, and it pleased you to love her above all girls. And much it grieved you, the guileful counsel of the envious and fallacious sisters, and upon the cloudy cypress against her, with long-lasting lament racked, you made irate, lamentable complaints, upbraiding her. Use and exercise, therefore, toward me, pity; and consider, expert, the fragile quality of the cupidinous lovers; and temper somewhat your burning torches, and modify your noxious arms, and slacken your death- bringing bow — for of love I am all racked.

"For which I reasonably argue: that if, in your very self, savage and pitiless, you wounded yourself — what equability of soul persuades that I should not fear that, without pity, toward me, more harsh and unbridled and most-savage, you would not show yourself?" And so, exasperated, concitatedly I dared; and with diverse petitions, and prayers, and fabricated complaints, and feigned satisfactions, I somewhat softened the strong invasion, and the frequent impulse of the wicked and eyeless love. But for all this my enkindled heart was not condignly reconciled, nor really satisfied to my disjointed appetite. And that which then I prayed him: only that he put an end, at least, to my tormenting and long-lasting hoping, with the molesting expectation of a prison-like issue.

For, however much the coveted future be much more sweet of avidity than the acquired past delight, yet every hostile love contends toward the expected end. Therefore, abridge, with sudden abolition, the timely hope. My lord, this ungrateful and displeasing deferring — more than to the pure eyes the smoky Cloud, and to the teeth the stupefying sourness, and than the —

— being slow with help to the coveter — because to a concupiscent soul it is a grave torment, the odious day-postponing, and the prolonging of the desired end. Accusing then also, and pregnant nature reasonably — that she shrewdly had all things, and most-excellently, conciliated, save that she had left uncompacted the appetite with the power. Then returning into myself, strongly marvelling. For I could not perfectly know where so much prepared and durable material (like unconsumable Etna) he found, and a fire-place copious of so much fire, within my nursling and burnable heart. At the end, only to guard vigilantly the choice and most-noble adorned, composed, and ornate object, and to exhaust, with my hidden ears, the sweetest consonances with heavenly intonation — from which, receiving ineffable diversion, I tasted, to the senses, a quickening and extreme delight.

Now, in this inexperienced manner, over the placid and levelled little waves of the un-furrowed deep, our speeding six-oar ran like a light water-skater; and the most-comely rowers, most-festively jubilating, sang in the Iasian mode; and the divine Polia, again, without the others, alone — from those minimally dissonant, but comparable — Lydian-wise sang. Not the plaints of raging Tragedy, nor in the cackling Satire, nor in the deceitful Comedy, nor in the tearful Elegies; but with a most-adorned poem, and with elegant little words, the supreme sweetnesses of the holy and fostering Erycina (Venus) they composedly proffered, and the delectable fallacies of the assisting son (Cupid) they eloquently sang. And Polia, affable and comely, of cultivated adornment, polished and elegant, congratulating — the thanksgivings of the obtained graces (provoking to admiration) she sang, with such vehemence and sweet-sound as, of blind Demodocus, at the hearing of the wise Ulysses, with wailing cithara, did not attain. Which most-pleasing companion — feeling herself no less delighted, partaker — speaking jocosely, and blandishing, tempting me: how did the instant things appear to me? Naming to me, of whatever rowing Nymph, the proper name; and with sweet persuasion she affirmed to me that perseverance alone wears the victor's diadem. And in this unbridled avidity wholly slipped down, and most-cast-forth, most-pleasantly we navigated, and prosperous we arrived at the delicious island Cythera.

Having come most joyfully to the longed-for place, whose worthy loveliness Poliphilo affirms, fittingly describing its plants, herbs, birds and dwellers. But first the form of the little boat, and how, at the descent of the lord Cupid, many gift-bearing nymphs opportunely presented themselves to meet him.

The divine boy making sail with his spread wings — not from the wineskin of Ulysses, but urged by the obsequious and dew-bearing breezes, daughters of Astraeus and of rosy Aurora, of one unanimous consent — Polia and I, finding ourselves kindled and headlong with eagerness to reach the destined end, with the greatest delight of love that ever human sense could feel, nor foreconceive, nor much less divulge. Which, however excessive it was intimately in the heart, was nonetheless the more readily quickened by the deific presence, and by those most witty rowing nymphs, and by the sweetest singing, and by the mysterious form of the solid and unshaken little boat — a fit instrument organised of love — and by the precious material, and by the sweetness and pleasantness of the place; and much more by the near flame that Polia, with rare excellence, exuberantly breathed into my burnable heart. For her amorous and most refulgent eyes, gliding lightning-like through mine to my inmost heart, seditiously stirred up a most bitter conflagration; by which, heated through and prostrately wounded, frequent sobs gushed forth — not otherwise than the cook pours out over the burning and excessive fire through the lips. Just so, neither more nor less, the boiling gasps compelled from my fervent heart abundantly boiled up, showing themselves resounding; and the importunate fires I fittingly mitigated with the sole beauty of my lovely Polia, my guide. But how it was, I most abundantly experienced such pleasure that I was wholly absorbed and consumed — more than ever my most decent tongue could adapt itself to such expression.

Finally, most joyful, glad and triumphant, to the island extremely desired, with our proud and oar-wandering ship of six banks — not ballasted, but light — which was compacted of a form thus.

Of a fourfold partition, two were used up in the poop and in the prow, thus alike in lineament or form, the one as the other. The two other partitions were dispensed in the remaining hollow body; and —

— one gunwale and the other, between prow and poop, began and ran with a bent slope. This falling-away sloped a quarter, and thence little by little, level, the rest lengthened out to the opposite end. These bent curvatures stood two feet high from the decking. And in one and the other the three thwarts were fixed transversely, raised a foot and a half from the decking. The keel then was clothed with plates of gold, and so the bent ribs, from one end and the other rising belly-wise. At the last tapering — called the dolphin — bent round in its shaped likeness, it hooked, rendering a graceful volute; in the rounding of which shone an ornament of thick and most precious gems. From the winding of which, toward the flat of the poop and of the prow, little by little it stemmed into a stalk, turning into an antique foliage, amplified upon the flat with a natural and exquisite shaping of the finest gold, sparsely serpentining, with exact little stalks and tendril-lacings, or incisions, and fringings, most elegantly expressed lapping over the flats. From which scroll likewise there proceeded most beautifully, descending inlaid from the pointed summit of the flat, following the shaping of the gunwales — that is, the rail, or lip, where the tholes were fixed — a marvellous frieze, a palm's breadth wide, all of gold and gemmed, of incredible cost, egregiously girding it with a marvellous and friendly distribution and placing of the gems; and all the wooden composite so diligently, and with exceptional polish, with the planks joined plated fashion without the caulker's art, and without any wedging, appearing an even-matched joinery, as of one whole solid. And over the coating of the fragrant and blackest pitch, gleaming and mirror-like, and with a gold trituration, throughout most admirably designed in a Syrian lineament, with all the other circumstances above fittingly described. Thus it was.

With these amorous triumphs, and the euphonious voices of the sailor-girls, and beyond by the sea-deities, the serene air was filled, and the cerulean deep, with confused clamours, and a multitude resounding — the waves, and feasts, and dances, and especial gesticulation and festive gladness, and devout veneration — as, gliding to the most pleasant place, we put in. So kindly and most gratifying, so delightful and beautiful, offering itself to the senses with singular tree-set ornament, as ever the most excellent and voluptuous thing could be beheld with the eyes. For every fertile tongue would accuse itself of poverty of expression; and by such a likeness the things commemorated before would be too unbecoming and abusive a comparison to this. For beyond estimation it was a most solacing place, and of delights — all planted and adorned as a kitchen-garden and herb-garden, and a fertile orchard, and a pleasant pleasure-ground, and a gracious tree-plot, and a most delightful shrubbery. Which was a place not of trackless and disused mountains, every roughness done away, but flattened and even right up to the circling steps toward the marvellous theatre at its heart. The trees were of most sweet odour, most fertile of yield, of the widest spread of branches. A garden of incomparable delight, affluent, of the largest fruitfulness, of most delightful flowers, and stored, free of impediments, and of ambushes all adorned, of flowing fountains and fresh rivulets. The sky not rigid, but temperate, most wide, clear and bright; not of the horrid shades of infernal places; immune from variable and inconstant weather that might offend with the ambushes of tainted winds harassing, nor with troublesome and wintry frosts; nor the swelter of an importunate sun, nor an invaded and torrid place of the dryness of heat; nor scorched with horrid freezing. But all springlike and salubrious — such as the air is not to the Egyptians who look to Libya — of long health and salubrity, and destined for eternity. A place planted with green things, of admirable density of leafy trees, of most gratifying show, with most lovely presentation of greenery; and everywhere through the liquid air an incredible breathing of flowery fragrance, with all the grassy ground steeped in fresh dew, and flowering meadows; and beyond the imagining of every pleasure, teeming with natural goods — with coloured fruits among the perennial green foliage, in stable cohesion and consent, with paths marked out among the plants, and arched over with manifold roses. Let the watered and tree-set field of Themiscyra yield place here.

Wherefore I judge it more than arduous, and reckon it difficult, to wish — even with keen wit — to narrate it. But as much as my grasping, retentive, yet arid memory, set upon its praise, shall recall to me, so much briefly I will adapt myself to write.

This holy place, dedicated to nature — witty to mortals, and pitiable — nursling of the gods and their station, and lodging of the blessed spirits, encircled (as I could rightly conjecture) three miliaria; and on every side an interflowing of salt —

— most limpid waters. Which was not heaped of tufa crags, gnawed by the obstinacy of the surging and foaming waves, full of cracks like rough Plotae; nor of shallow shores broken and eaten by the wave's harassing injury, nor by the clinging salt; nor was it composed of proud Niobe's rock, nor do her most sharp and hard children appear there. But all minerally of the most polished material — not brittle, nor friable, nor turning to mud, but translucent, whole and undefiled, like keen and artificial crystal.

Where with careful diligence I explored the little pebbly shores wiped clean by a kindly wash, of scattered gems of varied form and colouring, shining. There too, dispersedly, appeared an abundance of the fragrant issue of the monstrous whales, carried in by the fruitful tides. A most adorned island, then, of most gratifying and new and perennial covering of springlike greenery, admirable everywhere over the flat.

But first, upon the bare shore-banks close by, I beheld the coeval and tall cypresses with their close-set and cracked cones, persevering, and durable for weighty roofs — timbers not savoury to the gnawing woodworm — and the spacing between cypresses of three paces, one separated from the other. This regular order, turned round in a ring, was observed throughout the whole outer circle of the island. Then, in a circle, there went round a most delightful and flowery myrtle-grove, loving the talkative shores; which stands votive and dedicated to the divine mother of the amorous fires. Compacted and most densely reduced and shaped in the manner of a walled fence, a pace and a half tall, enclosing within it the trunk-stocks of the straightest cypresses, the beginning of its foliage rising two feet from the levelled top, or flat, of the myrtle-grove. Thus this greenery, so made, walled about the shore-banks, with fitting passages left and distributed at the seemly places. Which fence showed the least wood, but, protected by the delightful and flowery foliage — no top exceeding another, no leaf — kept its summit and its circling shorn with exceptional evenness.

Within this walled-about myrtle and green hedge (which might be, from it toward the centre of the island, about a semitertio of a mile), I saw, by the drawing of lines from the centre to the shore-circumference, in equal partition twenty, each of the immensity of a stadium, with a fifth part added — imitating the outer enclosure of the myrtle. In each division was a little grove of diverse meadows variously grassed, and of tree-plot the like; distributed specifically according to the required aspect of the kindly sky. Let Dodona's wood yield here. Which divisions, in a ten-angled figure, fittingly interposing a line for each interval, multiply into twenty. Which figure, made in a simple circle, and making section mutually of two diameters, gave also the central point. One half-diameter of these —

— which you will, divide by an equal half, with a prick. And from this point draw obliquely a straight line, toward the topmost summit of the half-diameter; and at this topmost point, upon this aforesaid line, mark off from the half-diameter as much as is a quarter part of a whole diameter. Then extend a line from the centre, cutting over the mark to the circumference: this will be the division of the ten-angled figure.

These twenty divisions were, by most noble fences, diversely latticed with fitting and convenient marble openwork, two inches thick, between the measured placing of most polished little pilasters, of whitening marble, and the rest most lustrously reddening; clothed with a varied delight of creeping plants, one shut off and separated from another. In the middle of the fence there opened, level, in each, a gate — seven feet in the opening, nine high up to the arching of its topmost curve. Which latticings were of such rhombs, and little squares, and such degenerate from the quadrangle, and by other most beautiful devices. Along these serpentined the periclymenon; others the jasmine; some of bindweed; some of hops; and some of black bryony, or black vine; others of convolvulus, with the lily-like half-azure bells; some all white; some of momordica — so each was varied. Some of Jove's flammula; of smilax, which for love of beautiful Crocus made itself Autophoros, adorned with a white fragrant lily-flower, with a thorny and ivy-like leaf; of bittersweet; of the little vine, with the three-cornered bladder-campion, its seed spotted with whiteness; and of many others which, serpentining on high, are unknown to me by name.

In the first partition the grove was a daphnon, or laurel-grove, of manifold laurels: here I saw the Delphic, the Cyprian, the Mustax with its greatest and whitening leaf, and the wild, the Cinos, and the Royal or Bacchalian, the Taxa, the Spadonic, and Chamaedaphne — such as never on Mount Parnassus, most admired and most pleasing to Apollo, most noble gift sent to the Romans. Nor did such laurel-bearing earth kiss Brutus, most pleasing to Tiberius; nor did Drusilla see such, borne by the white hen; nor were such born of the augur's command, planted in the villa of the Caesars, triumphal ornament — chiefly the Sterile. I saw also the Daphnoides, or Pelasgian, or Euthalos, fragrant with frankincense; nor did Peneus's daughter make such a perpetual green of so much beauty, with whose leaves Apollo was wont to adorn both his lyre and his quiver. Let the airy Sicilian mountains yield here, both as to their sweetest springs and as to their loveliness — however the most beautiful son of Mercury delighted himself there with Diana — which are not prescribed by the wrath of most high Jove, offering themselves so pleasing to cover the bald head of Caesar, mixed with many Comari in the most pleasant soil.

I beheld also another little grove, in which, with even placing, was a most pleasing oak-wood of tender leaves. And here I saw the broad-leaved, and the common oak, and the robur, and the hemeris producing the medicinal canchry, and the haliphloios with its salt bark, with plenty of Italian oaks, and Turkey oaks, and cork-oaks, and beeches, and holm-oak — or smilax, or holly — here leafy with leaves that do not fall, tended by the Querquetulan nymphs.

In another fence there followed, in equal order, another most gratifying little wood of fragrant wild cypresses, savin, romidascalo, or junipers, led topiary-wise into manifold figured devices, with minute and pricking leaves — the willing consort of the divine mother, preservable — and loftiest cedars of manifold use, weeping cedar-oil, of foliage like the cypress, of which at Ephesus stood the statue of Diana, in the most noble temples most highly prized for its eternal hardness; the aged Carie, and refusing the gnawing moth; fruitful to its great Crete, beautiful in Africa, and fragrant in Assyria; with a lovely interspersing of vrate, or savin, of perennial greenery, harmful to Lucina, shaped, and likewise variable.

Afterwards I saw also a tall and leafy pine-wood of pine-nuts: here the Tarentine, or wild pine, and the urban, and the bitter stone-pine, or Apine, and the pinaster, and the Zapina, and the weeping Resina, artfully distributed.

Again, in another cloister, there stood a most copious box-grove, planted in round and square marble tubs, among fragrant and flowering little pot-herbs — such as the like would not be found on the Macedonian mountain Cytorus — most dense, with a lovely tapering to a point, diminishing in just measure and degree, and thinning with a graceful gradation, not without commerce of many other most admirable devices most beautifully reduced. But one marvellous work exceeded all these. For of this kind of little tree I saw all the labours of tall Hercules industriously and with antique shaping composed [in topiary], not without manifold representation of innumerable other feignings of diverse animals, always green, with leaves that do not fall, regularly placed, and with a proportioned and congruent interval distributed through the grassy and flowery meadow.

Likewise there was another neatly planted with manifold trees. And here the hard cornel, with its blood-red fruits, and some of white fruit; and there was the most bitter yew, pleasing and most apt to the lethal instruments of Cupid. Afterwards, mixed together, I saw the elm, lindens, and the finest phylire, chaste-tree, hornbeams, and ashes, and the flowering spear of Romulus, and many medlars, and rough service-trees.

There offered itself also one of straight-stemmed and lofty firs, however —

— they show themselves fugitive from the ample sea, and its site is mountainous; nonetheless, here tall and reaching to heaven, set among them in order, the spongy and agaric larches, or larigni, that refuse the fire — and others like these, disposed with fitting and gracious placing.

Most notable, following, offered itself another, where was the walnut, first called diuglans: here with no hostile shade; and the peach, and the basilica, or molusca, and the Tarentine, not without the social company of hazels. Let Avella yield here, and Praeneste, and the Pontic nuts. Consorting also with these was the impatient Phyllis grown to a tree — she who gave the name phylla to the leaves, first called petala. She offered herself flowering, as at the coming of loitering Demophoon summoned; and the Greek nut, and the almond, and the Thasian.

Not without utmost pleasure I beheld also a little wood of chestnuts, with the fruit armed in a pricking bristly husk, such as first the Sardians found — whereby, by the Greek word, they were called Sardian acorns; to which afterwards the divine Tiberius gave the name Balanus. I sincerely thought that to these the parthenia rightly yielded, and the Tarentine of easiest shelling, and the more easily balanite, and rounder. These surpass both the pure Salarian and the praised Corelian, and the quick-boiling, and the Tarentine and Neapolitan; where too was the broom, or myrica, or Aspalathus.

There were then here also little woods of most noble quinces, or cydonians, and a carob-grove such as Cyprus does not produce the like; and of slow palms there offered itself a dense palm-grove of most useful fronds with knife-like point, resistant and not to be bent at its summit, laden most thickly with its pulpy fruit — not squalid and small like the Libyan, nor like the sweet dates the inner Syria produces, but far more excellent in magnitude too, and in sweetness, than Arabia and Babylon yield. There was also a most lovely one of most noble pomegranates of all the kinds — sweet, sharp, mixed, acid, and vinous — to which are not to be compared the Egyptian, nor the Samian, nor the Cretan, nor the Cyprian, both the seedless and the red-tufted and the white-tufted, most fecund of fruits and blossoms.

Afterwards I saw a most gratifying little wood of lotus, or nettle-tree, Syrian bean, ciceraso, or melli, or celtis, with a far sweeter yield than the Syrtic and Nasamonian — here in all Africa surpassed, it stands. Nor was there lacking one of Christ's-thorn with reddening fruit, a rival to wine in sweetness. Let Cyrenaica yield here, and inner Africa, and that too which is born about the shrine of Hammon; and one of both the mulberries — the one expresses in its fruit the mournful love, the other affords nourishment to our delights —

I beheld also one of most teeming olive, and a fig-grove of all the kinds with copious yield. And a most delightful poplar-wood, and likewise one of hippomelides with the Egyptian pods, with the weeping metopon — such as, at the oracle of Ammon, dripping gum-ammoniac, would not be found.

Which little trees were of most elegant and most artful distribution and order — which the aspect of the sky there did not want, but without repugnance of nature everything stood best placed. Whereby that ingenious nature there manifestly avowed all the delights which, scattered through the universe, she had shrewdly produced. Here heaped together, and with especial study, one may conjecture all to be created. The ground too was grassy and flowery and with springing and shaded fountains, of glassy water most clear, moist with waters sweeter than the fountain of Salmacis. And there they suffered neither the frost-bearing Bear nor the cloud-born South Wind, but the air most salubrious, most purged, and most pure, and by far most lucid, freely pervious to the eyes, most light and even, and invariable, with great loveliness and a temperate sunniness of place and sky, that never suffers turbulent alteration; but dissipated, and every cloud driven off, that liquid sky shows itself, the bold winds shut out — the crackling east winds, the whistling north, and the malignity and asperity, with great crash, of the raging storm, and every iniquity of weather — not subject to the tumultuous changes of waters nor to the cold Balance. But everything may be regarded lustrous, and the desirable light, glad and pullulating in the station of the woolly Ram drying his fleece in the illuminating and Herculean Phoebus, with no falling but a perpetual green, celebrated by the manifold song of birds — as, flitting in the air, the little crested lark, and together the singing nightingale, made all the air resound with singing.

At the outermost boundary of this semitertio of a mile, all distributed into little woods toward the centre — because a circumference of circular figure is of as much measure as are three of its diameters, and so much the more that in eleven partitions, one diameter deducted, there are two portions; therefore the diameter of this voluptuous island stood at one mile, with two of the eleven partitions added — there went round an excellent enclosure, of a height of eight paces and of a foot's thickness, so densely leafy that the least stem did not appear, with paired pervious windows, and, in order at the fitting places and passages, arching open gates, made and compactly conducted of orange, lemon and citron trees, with lustrous greenery in the mature leaves, and of new fronds, of the first and mature fruits, and of the most fragrant flowers dispersedly adorned — so much the more pleasing and admirable to the aspect, as it is most rarely wont to be granted to human eyes to see an equivalent work.

In this pleasant and delightful enclosure, between the greenest myrtle-grove and this flowery orange fence encircling, innumerable and mingled animals, shut in, roamed loosely — however nature, unlike, repugned — harmless and tame. They wandered there in mutual friendship. And first the goat-born satyrs with their pendent and twisted little horns; the two-horned fauns, with the other sex. Then the half-wild stags, and the rock-seeking roes, and the timid does, the spotted fawns, the leaping kids; the long-eared hares; the timid rabbits; the cat-kind, white and yellow weasels, and the lying gallante; restless squirrels, and drowsy dormice; the fierce unicorns, and tragopan and tragelaphus [goat-stag]; every leonine kind without any fierceness, but playful; the long-necked giraffes, swift gazelles; and infinite other animals, intent on the solaces of nature.

Beyond this cloister, then, toward the centre, I found the magnificence of an excellent orchard, or delightful pleasure-ground — such as never could humans, not only order, but, I persuade myself, so much as think. It is easy, then, that the second workers act according to the first worker. And I too consent to this, that no wit so fecund is found that could singly avail worthily to publish somewhat, by report, of so many most excellent works of this sacred place. Let the hanging gardens built by King Syrus yield here. Wherefore I rightly judged that by no other, but only by a divine artificer, was so most exquisite a conception, for the contemplation of the fostering goddess of nature, produced to such order and effect most becomingly.

Which most admirable garden, stretched toward the centre, of 166 paces and a half, divided into meadows. Which division stood by passages straight to the centre, and circularly transverse, five paces wide. The primary meadows, in the first line of their squaring toward the enclosure, with the lateral ones, were 50 paces. But the fourth line, toward the centre, decremented; and from this line took its dimension the first line of the second meadow, and in the same manner the third meadow was squared. Because the force of the lines tending to the centre caused the narrowing, and the straitness of these meadows and of the streets; and therefore the squaring was deformed, the transverse ones remaining in their integrity.

Which streets were pergola'd, and in each ridge was a little dome upon four Ionic columns, the shaft or their tallness being of nine diameters of their lowest thickness. And here and there of the passages, or streets, were tomb-shaped platforms of finest marbles, with most becoming lineaments. And every four diameters stood one of the aforesaid columns. Such columniation, and intercolumniation, was observed throughout.

Out of the little chests, or platforms, beneath the socle of the solid columns, sprouted rose-bushes, their height not exceeding a pace. Which between one column and the other made a delightful fence; to each column, on this side and on that, perpendicularly raised, in the middle of the inner column adhered, most straight, a rod of rose-bush. Which — beyond the most noble architrave extended over the said columniation, of red stone like most gleaming coral — without other support the rose-bushes made the topiary bend. The summit of the said pergola, with the little chests, columns, and straight beam, stood five paces in height. From which summit the little domes began to round, or swell, in bubble-form; these alone covered with yellow roses. The pergolas along their length were roofed with all kinds of white roses, and the transverse ones with vermilion roses of every condition, with perennial fronds and flowering in the utmost multitude, and a breathing of fragrance; and out of the little chests sprouted every generation of flowers and of aromatic herbs.

The first surrounding pergola continued with the cloister of the orange-grove, which had a window of the opening of the arch terminating at the cloister of the pergola, directed toward the centre, less open from the ground up by one pace, equal to the intercolumnar fence.

Each meadow had four gates, in the middle of the enclosing columniation, the little chests left pervious. Which gates, through all the meadows, uniformly corresponded to one another, level.

In the middle of the olive-set and flower-bearing meadows, an elegant work of excellent distribution and especial polish, I saw. First, in the first meadows, I beheld a most celebrated fabric of a gushing fountain, set beneath a little watch- tower of box greenery of shrewd device. Which was found uniform throughout the whole primary order, and in the circuit of the meadows, in this manner.

In the middle of each, with equal distribution, three steps, turned in a rounding, were built up. Of the topmost, in the levelled surface, the diameter was two paces and a half, with a peristyle of eight little columns raised above, with the little bases in the circling round of the upper step, and with the capitals. Which usurped seven diameters in their tallness (Doric, of the lowest thickness) and bellied arches from one to the other. Above the arches went round the beam, fascia and cornice. At the perpendicular of the underset little columns, for each, was superstructed an antique vase. By diameter of its dilated bulk three feet, with the round bottom pointed, and thence little by little dilating, it came to the middle prominence, adorned with an exquisite little girdle. And thence from the rim the moderate slope ascended to the orifice, with lips of great polish about the gap of its opening; and thence to the rim a foot and a half, the rest down to the —

— its foot, three feet high, and the foot half a foot, with little channels, or runnels, twistingly, with a most slender beginning, moderately amplifying toward the rim, with two twisted handles, both at the lips and, above the outer slope, oppositely coiled — not without emulation of the lathe. Out of the mouths sprouted straight stocks of leafy box, of the thickness of the underset little columns, the belly removed, with little arches from one stock to the other. The triangles [?eyed — pierced?].

Then, sloping stretched on high, as much as the stocks, from the opening of the vase to its little head, with hairs [thin shoots] that grew in an even line going round the upright over the stocks — among which hairs, from their beginning the separation somewhat dilated, ascending curved they migrated, thinning the discrepancy toward the lineament of this part, which above narrowed, with divided loosening, between the one and the other above inflexed; at the base of each sloped hair, so named, an outstretched branch made a hooking, in the curve of which hung a pommel [ball]. Then bending back, raised toward the top of the hairs, with a ready gaping curve, at the summit it held a free jewel, or circle. Beyond this recounted arrangement, on high there continued six straight stocks, and tall two-thirds as much as the haired part, with little windowed arches; then a little cupola swelled. Above which swelling rose a squared thing, half-and-one pace of an oval, and a four-parted pervious opening; and from the base of the angles issued an outstretched branch, hooked upward. Upon the inverted hooking sat, for each, a flying eagle in the act, with its beak in prospect. The top of this square peaked itself, and upon the point sustained a cone-shaped, or globular, deformation. From the vases upward, it was all of the greenery, close and cohering, of the box set in the vases, artfully heaped and best conducted with density, and justly clipped tithe-close and shorn — so that truly, to the eyes, a thing more lovely than such topiary artifice and material could not be accommodated.

In the middle intersit of the levelled, most solid inlay of the peristyle was a fountain, founded within a rounding somewhat shell-like hollowed, from the centre of which rose an inverted baluster, two feet. Above sat a platter, the gap of its opening having by diameter four feet; in the very middle of which, three straddling tails of three golden hydras, through the bottom outlandishly three-forked, then tightly intertwining in a most beautiful knot, divided by the belly one from the other in a bag-like form, with an arching discrepancy, and in their throats snake-wise knotted, with the head three-forked apart, vomiting the most fragrant water into the shell — equally sustained upright, two feet, a vase of ovate figure. Of which, in the part above the surface, were fixed eight little gold pipes, from which a most slender thread of water leapt forth. And through the gaps or intervals of the box columns it issued, dewily moistening the whole meadow. The interstice of which watch-tower was clear and pervious. The stone-work was all of finest jasper, reddening and lustrous, adulterated drop-wise with infinite spots of manifold colouring, with elegant and exquisite carving at the fitting places.

Now in each corner of the quadrangled meadow, with a proportioned distance from the little chests, was disposed a platform of four steps, in square form. The first step, most solid, in front appeared two feet; in the flat, or mouth, a side of a foot and a half; and they were hollow platforms. Then followed the other above, in graded order, tall as the open breadth of the first; and so the third, and so the fourth. In the first, fragrant herb germinated; so in the following. Here, then, were crisp and tiniest basils, citron-scented and chervils, which did not overpass the middle front of the step, the fronds kept even; the like stood uniform throughout. The other had fragrant and small thyme, gracious to the honey-making bees. In the third, the small and bitter glyciacon, or nectary, or southernwood, such as the Sicilian does not offer. In the topmost, Celtic spikenard, of pleasing odour.

This arrangement, in all four platforms placed at the corners of this first meadow, showed itself all clothed with flowering chamaedaphne. The opening of the topmost step was a foot in diameter, and in each was planted a most noble and fecund fruit-tree, led uniformly topiary-wise. And first they were apple-trees: in one corner I saw most fragrant Appian apples; in the other, Claudian apples; in the third, Paradise apples; in the fourth, the little Decian apples. But in each meadow of this first order the species of the said fruit varied. Trees here fecund with apple-bearing offspring, the fragrance diffusing everywhere — with such beauty of colour, and producing such sweetness of taste, as the tree of Hercules of Gades did not produce, nor such trees as Juno commanded to be grafted in her gardens; whereby they might be called pomarii aphyracori [orchards of golden apples].

The topiary shaping, and the circled thickness, was of a crown, with the winding toward the watch-tower. The parapets, or fences, of this stepped platform stood of most beautiful mirror-jasper, oversown with golden sparks, and mingled with yellow mottling, and with cyan veins serpentining, and reddish ones running, and confusedly dappled with a chalcedonic waving, squared off with most gratifying little wave- lines.

Beyond, then, from this described first order of greenery toward the island's centre — in the second order, in the middle of the area, in place of the watch- tower — I beheld a most admirable device of box, in artful topiary. A stone ark set of precious chalcedony of the colour of soapy water, with most becoming lineaments, its height three feet and in length three paces, destined to the line of the transverse streets. From the one and the other end, less a foot, was set a box in the form of an antique vase, both two equal and uniformly egregiously conducted, with the little foot, bulk and orifice, raised a pace, without handles. Upon their mouths a giant three paces tall, on this side and that trod with the foot, with legs apart. Clothed in a rounding down to the cap of the knees, girt, with the arms spread on high, and to human stature the neck, head, breast, shaped with exacting harmony. He was helmeted; with his arms he sustained two towers, one per hand, four feet wide, six tall, with the base —

— two-stepped, with little windows, porticoes, and battlements, or crenellation. Out of one and the other tower issued, with a little stock, a pommel — as much in roundness as the content above the tower. In the upper part of the one and the other pommel, in the middle, issued the trunks, which, coupling with equal partition, conjoined inflexed, like an arch of masonry raised in the arched summit, as much as the height of one tower. Next to the slanted trunk — that is, at the beginning of its exit from the pommel — rose another slender and straight stock, holding a cone-shaped pommel, smaller than the underset. The lower rounding of which answered to the summit of the arch. Beneath which summit, in the middle of the convex, fixed supine, was another pommel; like one of the stocks, raised from the said pommel, in the middle bend of the summit a trunk half a foot grew, which sustained a shell somewhat hollowed, and sprinkled from its orifice, a little less than the content of the arch. Out of which platter rose as much of a stalk again as the underset of the shell, which subsided into a form of lily with supine lips about. Out of which lily — that is, basket — grew a box raised in eight suppressed pommels, gradually diminishing toward the top, somewhat separated one from another; all the work from the arch upward being of six feet, the aforesaid box excepted. No indication showed itself in all this excellent topiary of woodwork, except the straight stocks; but all was covered with most propped foliage and most evenly shorn, with diligence and art clipped.

Between one and the other vase, in the chest, was seen a box without a stock, in onion-form [?cepacea], a pace wide, two feet and a half tall. In the middle of which was led a pear-tree, raised four feet, with the pointed top. Above the tapering it held a flat circular figure, its diameter four feet. In the middle of this lens-like round sprang forth a little stock holding an egg-shaped form, tall as the pear beneath.

In the corners also of the present, and second, meadow toward the centre, as in the first were constituted the chests of four steps, with all the regulation, dimension, and placing that the other platforms of the first meadow have — except of the stone, which was of blackest amber, or ambrum. Never did the Phaethontides beside Eridanus pour out such in their weeping, nor would such be found in the Electrid isles, nor does the temple of Ammon produce such — of mirror-smoothness, drawing the straw when rubbed. Which chests were figured circular.

In the lowest germinated the fragrant cassia; in the next grew odoriferous nard. In the third was Mint, the nymph, betokening the fierce hatred of Proserpina. In the fourth grew the unlucky royal Amaracus, extinguished amid his own odour — and such Cyprus does not produce.

In the upper middle likewise, planted, sat a fruit-tree for each. But dissimilar in fruit, and in topiary form, to the first. For [?…] they were four, of a spherical figure most beautifully; they produced kinds of pears — one, musk pears; the other, Crustumian; the third, [?…] and succulent Syrian; the last, tenderest little curmunduli. [?…] in this secondary order of meadows, the others [?…] varied the species of the fruit, with [?…] colour, with most gratifying odour, and with [?…] taste. The ground alone clothed with fragrant and tiniest [?…], and the platforms of [?…] simples.

Following in order, the description also of the third meadow toward the centre, which in its middle had a chest of round content, raised three feet, by diameter two paces the opening, with the accessory lineaments. Out of it exalted itself an artificed box, of the following topiary composite. The chest was of finest litharge.

The stock a foot and a half; above sat an onion-shaping, somewhat exceeding the round of the chest — which was hollow, and open at the top by diameter a pace and a half. Above the lips of which opening a columniation of six greening stocks turned with little arches, four feet high. Then a metal-shaped summit, or shaped into a chalice-foot, ascended; on the summit of which lay a most exact pommel, three feet in its thickness.

Upon the lowest end of the domed summit, at the perpendicular of each stock, there coiled the tail of a serpent, with the belly bent and the spine arching, as much as was the projection of the onion-bulk; adhering with its neck to the pommel existing above, with the head outstretched and jaws open, and through most hidden pipe-like passages it leapt, pouring most fragrant water from the mouth, with the feet extended toward the head, with the wings spread — six in number.

Out of the top of the pommel sprang three branches, three-forkedly divided, and raised two feet bending. Each of which, then, at its summit sustained a little rounded altar, or a little tube, with exquisite diligence attributed above the little coronet, and below the fitting throats, with most even clipping. The height without the lineaments three feet. Above the flat sat an antique water-jar, four- handled, raised three feet. From each of which singly grew a box with two steps of box rounding. The lower exceeded in circuit the bulk of the underset water-jar, raised from the orifice above the stock one foot; the other, upper, stood off from this somewhat lessened, as much again. Beyond this raised, as much again, was a pommel of the vase's compass. Out of which, at equal height, one standing opposite the other with a triangular separation, rose for each a most straight stock — one conjoined with another by three semicircular arches, the bend of which tended from the distance of one stock to the other; but to the horns, or feet, of the arches was adjoined a stock for —

— elegance of its springing. Between this arched trigon, with lovely consent of form, was made a tortoise-shell summit, or shade-canopy; the uprights of the stocks did not rise higher than the summit of the ceiling, but all three by rule met in one height, sustaining a lily-like chalice. Out of which, raised, sat a turbinate, or globular thing, with the slender part downward, or the volute turned down. The gracious loveliness of these most delightful devices offered itself to the sight so most acceptable, as the bodies and figuration of most admirable greenery, so justly exact, as one could best compose them, and inform them of such material for topiary, and compact them in such lineaments.

In this said meadow of every mingled flowering herb — far more than a feigned picture — again in the corners the platforms, with the described regulation, were three-cornered. But of chrysolectrum of yellow gold, such as is not gathered by the virgin Hesperides, with a most sweet rubbing of the citron odour, more than the translucent and clear one gathered in Citros, an isle of Germany, renders; nor are such the tears of the Meleagrides. There germinated, in the lowest chest, the most sweet saliunca; in the upper was mountain polion; in the third were labdanum and cistus; in the topmost the fragrant ambrosia.

The fruit-bearing trees of hemispherical form in the convex, which in this third order did not exceed one another, but of convenient stature, and of varied species, and of manifold fruit. Here were pistachios, tamarinds, all manners of myrobalans, and hippomelides, and of all Damascene plums, of many other most delicate fruits. Besides those which [?…] are peculiar to us, of diversified species, of [?…] and form, and of sweetness of [?…] unknown, and [?…].

Which fruits and flowers redounded, with leaves that do not fall, offering themselves to the beholding senses with the utmost delight. Which, moreover, did not contend with oblique, wayward and intricate branches, but were neatly clasped in diverse forms. Not subject to the lunar changes, nor subjected to the paling of Phoebus, but ever bound, with tender and juicy greenery, unchangeably, and in one same state, and product, endured, and a fecund yield.

And by this condition likewise the flowers and the fragrant little herbs endured; from which, throughout, an unexperienced fragrance, most acceptable, was diffusedly spread. The rose-bushes then showed themselves with the more grace, the more diverse and, to me, unvisited the kinds. Here flowered copiously the Damascene, Praenestine, five-petalled, Campanian, Milesian, Reddening, Pestan, Trachivian, and Alabandan, and of all noble and most praised kinds — which, with their most sweet odour, and most delightful colour, and most gratifying flower, among the greening fronds, perennially preservable persisted. Nor sooner did one fall than another succeeded.

The chests were expressed with most cunning art. The striations of which mirror-wise emulated to have in themselves both the air, and fronds, and flowers, and foliage dispensing.

Beneath the topiary works and pergolas, the paved streets were of a more excellent paving of make than ever any accessory could be in human wit and thought.

Beyond the aforementioned equally three-parted meadows, a most magnificent determination, of an excellent and admirable eustyle bellied peristyle, most beautifully enclosing, circled in circumference, walling about. The little wall of which circling columniation was constructed of most noble and orderly and daedally-perplexed latticework, interspersed with the little altars, preserving the solid beneath the bases, fittingly plated with —

— the socle and cymatium, undulate and gulleted correspondingly. The intercolumniation had the spaces at the intervals of two columns and a quarter part; and where the ways derived to the peristyle, there, as much as its found breadth was, so much was constituted, or caused, within the peristyle the loosening — which the continuous surrounding discontinued. And there a most noble gate was wrought. The low-bent arch of which footed with its horns upon a column on this side and that, as much as its shaft and placing conjoined uniform with the others; but in thickness they dissented, being symmetried to the superstructure. Beyond the incurved beam sat the summit, or frontispiece, with all the correlative ornaments most polishedly carved. Above the surrounding columns there stretched continuously in a ring the architrave, frieze and cornice, with marvellous devices and befitting lineation. Which, with marvellous tomb-like work, hollowed and stuffed with earth, stood forth; out of which every sort of most admirable flowers germinated. And at the perpendicular of the underset columns were planted topiary box and junipers. Thus upon the collateral ones, in a preservable order without indication of stock, was a most round pommel of box; and upon the other, so alternating, above a foot of stock rose the juniper with four pressed pommels gradually decrementing, and the flowers interposed.

This marvellous peristyle had the little walls, and the supra-columniation, all of most noble alabaster, diaphanous and lustrous, without rubbing and polishing of Theban earth, nor with pumice. But the columns varied in colour, because those that stood in a facing place in one place were of translucent chalcedony, and the collateral ones, above the —

— little wall, shone with greenest stone hexacontalithos of manifold colouring. The other two, on this side and that, were of lustrous hieracites with most gratifying blackness. Then the other two of whitening galactites. The two next, in order, of chrysoprase. The last of gleaming atizoe of silvery brightness, and pleasing odour.

And thus they alternated inlay-wise, with incredible delight of beholding. Which had their entasis so artfully, as if they had been turned exact on the lathe — with such art as Theodorus and Tholus, architects in his workshop of the turning-lathe, did not find for turning columns. A work certainly sumptuous, proud, precious, and elegant.

The Ionic columns with their capitals, with the echini within the lanceolate — which, clothed with a bark-like enwrapping, shone with bases of finest gold, such as the gold-bearing Tagus does not produce in Hesperia, nor Padus in Latium, nor Hebrus in Thrace, nor Pactolus in Asia, nor Ganges in India. The frieze was adorned with antique foliage convolved on itself, egregiously carved. And the lattices hedged between the little altars were of finest electrum — such as was not that of which, in the form of a breast, in the isle of Lindos in the temple of Minerva, was dedicated by Helen.

Upon the flat of the little wall, for each interval between one column and the other, was set an ancient vase of fitting work to the rest recounted, with most cunning polish, varied of stone and of colour — of sphragis, of colorites, of chalcedony, of coaspites, of agate, and of many other precious and most gratifying stones — in its burnish simulating any object most cunningly, most polished and expressed, with lineaments I thought not human. Out of which were seen most admirable simples and plantlets, heaped in varied topiary shaping. Here marjoram, the aromatic and crisp sentonica, southernwood, myrtles, and others than which no more delightful object could be offered to the content of the eyes.

From the aforesaid peristyle to the banks, right up to a river, the nearest ground was occupied, grassy, with dewy grass. Here, with gracious dispensation, was the flowering xiphion, lavenders, marjorams, fleabane, white marjoram, Mint the nymph — who received the beautiful gift from Pluto — and there flowered also the tears of Helen, called helenion, salubrious to the face, and of the holy Mother Conciliatrix; and innumerable other most celebrated plantlets, aromatic, and of most acceptable fragrance; and the whitening, and cerulean hyacinths, and purple — such as in Gaul is not produced.

Now among the flower-bearing and tender little fronds, innumerable birds adorned with excellent plumage, of small and middling stature, and various little birds and fowls, flitting unstably here and there, wandering, now up, now down, leaping with delightful chatter, the sweet sonority of their song resounding everywhere — which would have had virtue to provoke any woodland and inept heart to pleasure, joy and solace, making festival with their little wings and feathers. Here the plaintive nightingale, Daedalion weeping the death of Lycaon's daughter; the spotted blackbirds, and the singing crested lark, or galerita, and the terraneola, sparrow, or lark; the solitary sparrows; the most eloquent parrot, of manifold clothing — green, white, yellow, crimson, and yellow with green; the singular (but not here) and marvellous Phoenix; most white turtle-doves; Picus, husband of Pomona, betokening the swollen angers of Circe; Aedon, tearful for her beloved husband Itylus; Asterie with feet shod in rose; and the two magpies, Procne the roof-dweller; and pious Antigone, too beautiful, without a tongue; Itys, doleful and funereal table; the gluttonous icteris; Tereus the rock-dweller, keeping the royal pomp in his feathers, seeking pou pou, pu, pu in his song, and in his head a bearer, marked with the military crest; and, by Syrinx, the drowsy shepherd; and the birds of Palamedes, and the teal, and the wanton partridge and porphyrio; Periclymenus, whose form Jupiter freely used for his loves; and the sygolis, or melancoryphos, or blackcap, changeable in autumn; likewise the robin, or redstart, and innumerable others of a lengthy telling.

(The plan-woodcut on this page is labelled, from the shore inward:)

SHORE · ENCLOSURE OF MYRTLE · ENCLOSURE OF THE GROVE · PERISTYLE
BOSCO, 20 paces · PAVING, 14 paces · THEATRE, 25 paces
FIRST MEADOWS, 58 paces · SECOND, 48 · THIRD, 38
SEMITERTIO, 166½ paces · ENCLOSURE OF THE ORANGE-GROVE · RIVER
ONE THIRD, 333 paces

For more evident demonstration: the circuit of this delightful and most pleasant island, by measurement round, stood at three miles. The figure of which gave, for its diameter, one mile. Which, divided in three parts — one third contained 333 paces, one foot, and two palms and somewhat more — from the outer lip of the shore- banks up to the orange-cloister occupied the measure of one semitertio, 166 paces and 10 palms. From this boundary began the meadows, tending toward the centre, another semitertio as much. Thus, one whole third being suitably distributed, there remains one semitertio to dispense up to the very middle, 166 paces and 10 palms. From the aforesaid peristyle, somewhat of space was granted, remaining for the contraction of the aforesaid meadows, to avoid the straitness of the squarings — which did not have their boundary up to the completion of the third; and this shrewdly happened, to proportion somewhat the last square by the lines drawn to the point. Which space, intercalated between the river and the peristyle, all —

— graciously covered, offered itself of most gratifying grassiness, as is sufficiently described and narrated before.

The boundary of the recounted space ended in flowering banks of a most limpid river, more so than Argyrondes in Aetolia, and more than Thessalian Peneus. The banks of which were of precious greenest Spartan stone, like the Tiberian Augustan, planked platewise, and the whole river hedged about between these marble limits. Which banks were not entangled, nor occupied by siler, nor by willow-beds, nor by osiers, nor by little reed — but the most purged and silvery waters, let in, hedged them. The surface of which appeared, with celebrated and manifold flowers, most delightful and beautiful. Which springing and flowing river, by passages and pipes underground, in diverse and constituted places gushed out in order; and then, by aqueducts of finest stone swiftly running, watered this solacing and happy site everywhere evenly with a pleasant murmur.

The waters then pouring headlong into the neighbouring sea. And in this manner the most clear river, exhausting its increment through the distributed devouring outlets, did not overabound, but persisted at a perennial evening-out and content. Which was in breadth twelve paces. The springing veins of which exceeded any celebrated fountain, and even Cabille of Mesopotamia, more excellent. Nor did the Virgin Castalia make such a one of hers. As these rendered the waters sweet, fragrant, musky, and pure, sixteen palms deep — for of so most sweet a source the fountain of Hercules in Gades did not so abundantly flow. Which were purified, limpid and subtle in such a manner that they did not occupy the medium between the sense and the object, nor make it disproportionate; but everything in the open bottom throughout, as it subsided, was seen perfect. And with mirror-emulation they rendered whole the things presented. The bottom was flattened of golden sand, full of fine pebble-stones of manifold most shining colouring.

The greening, leafy and moist banks of which were most adorned with flowering narcissi, and the emetic bulb, or water-loving sea-onion. Nor were lacking the hyacinth and the lilies of the valley, and corn xiphion, and Illyrian. Here were copious the marsh-marigold, and the horsetail, or mare's-tail, and the lion's. Infinite violets — Tusculan, marine, Callatian, autumnal — and the balm-mint, or cimiadon, or trachiotis, and other most noble riverside shoots. With innumerable little river- birds. Here the halcyon of cerulean feathers, and other sudden little water-fowl. Here the gluttonous and swimming swans, pleasing in the auspices, with the last song of the meandering waters.

Upon the aforesaid most admirable banks, on one side and the other, were inlay-wise distributed bitter-oranges, citrons and lemons. From trunk to stock the interval three paces. Which stocks, a pace high from the ground, began to spread their branches, meeting one with another, and most excellently entangling, rendered an arch, from earth to the topmost bend three paces.

The remaining branches then, from one bank to the other over the river, opposite one another, with artful conjoining and social embrace, vaulting and enveloped, pleasantly shaded — in a most excellent pergola-work. The surrounding of which, with leafy density elegantly heaped, with the show of an even shearing, or clipping, one frond not exceeding another save with utmost grace and loveliness, rendering most placid shade, and, by the sweet breath of Favonius, tremulous and fanning, full of nourishment, that made its greenery lustrous, as in the first sprouting they showed themselves — with the whitening little flowers, and pendent fruits, fit hiding-places of the plaintive Philomela, ever most sweetly lamenting, singing, perfectly without echo, by the daughter Glaucopis of high and lightning Jove made clean and most purged, resounding. Which pergola-work, from the topmost convex down to the raised water, stood seven paces. Oh, with what allurement and sweetest suggestion to its contemplation it easily drew the wandering eyes! For in that river ran certain skiffs and little boats of golden material, delightfully covered, with many long- haired girls, fair-tressed and Alphesiboean, wreathed with fragrant and various flowers, rowing — in limpid and crisp and saffron shifts, or smocks, everywhere edged with gold, over the nymphish nude, clothed and girt with a wanton adornment, not impeding the sight to offer voluptuously the rosy flesh covered; nay, by the spring breezes voluptuously impelled and pressed upon the admirable women, it excellently revealed the delightful little form and any other part according to its motion, with the whitest and half-appled breasts unclosed to the rounding of the little nipples with the greatest and voluptuous grace, elegantly girded with gemmed gold Phrygian bands — with many youths of every warlike nation, gesticulating, brawling, rushing among themselves in play, laughing at the naval fight, contending persistently against those attacking them; intently keen on the spoils, they overturned their skirts and carried them off; the girls remained despoiled and stripped in the waters without favour, nor made resistance against their harm, but festively solaced themselves. These being then left, mocking among themselves, made new fights one with another, submerging the seized little boats; and so the submerged gave work to the rams in the water of —

— to recover and renew the playful battle, with festive and pleasing solace, with the gracious cheeks laughing girlishly, mingled, and sharp cries leaping and gesticulating.

Moreover the water was copious with manifold fishes, of form beautiful, and various, and outstanding, with their scaling of golden and grey-green colour; nature, reluctant, opposed nothing here, so that they were secure and did not flee timid. Some of such bigness that, as bearers, they conveniently bore the girls, mounted, to the solacing battle — embracing with their snowy calves and comely little feet the scaled and yielding bodies, which without any fishy stink swam softly, and here and there twisting, and willing to do the women's bidding, one drawing the other. Heaped together were the white swans, with the voice sent forth with the tears poured out for beloved Phaethon; and otters and beavers, with other water-animals, all most joyously beneath the topiary covering made festival to voluptuous delight, without other pondering — so that nothing arose to cause molestation to their pleasure and solace, nor anything displeasing to oppose it — a silent desire sprouting again in my soul. In this happy place I would willingly still, with my goddess Polia, wish to dwell eternally. But then, every other roving desire extinguished and repudiated, without delay I fell back to my most firm intent, in the unique love of my most beloved Polia. Nonetheless I judged this without doubt a thing super-excellent, and super-delightful, above any delight, above every sweetness of pleasure.

Likewise, in the first circular and wooded enclosure of the groves, creatures of the one and the other sex, ever within that same hedge, dwelt with those animals appointed to pleasure. In the greening meadows within the peristyle, by another turning, I saw innumerable youths and outstanding girls, intent on solaces, on sounds, and songs, on dances, and delightful conversations, and pure and sincere embraces, given over to adornment and personal cultivation, to compose muse-songs, and to various works the studious and devoted damsels — where I judged virtue to be more affected than any other lascivious pleasure.

Beyond then this most clear and delightful river, with a continuous circling, was a grassy meadow as great as that which stretches from the peristyle to the river. This river was passable by symmetrical bridges, built with wondrous and exquisite skill, delineated of most excellent marble, alternately one of porphyry and the other of serpentine, shining with splendid brightness, preserving the lineament of the roads tending toward the middle navel of that mysterious island, verdant with every fecundity of delights.

After the aforesaid meadow began seven steps, level and pedal in front, circling continuous; in height they climbed seven feet, and in breadth —

— as much, of marble work, one of red streaked triglia, and one of blackish stone, blacker than the chisel could withstand, and of greater hardness than the most illustrious Paduan of its own nature — without the rubbing of a cylinder, or with fine powder and soot; excluding the rule of the sextant or the dodrans thickness, nor with a foot-and-a-half's setback, nor two feet, but as is recounted above, and by such measuring all the rest.

Upon the topmost step of the blackest stone stood forward an encompassing and elegant little colonnade of pycnostyle spacing, its continuity interrupted, or intervalled, by the rule of the breadth of the bridges, which observe that of the roads. These excellent bridges were duly roofed by the immaculate pergola over the river; and although the roads tended directly to the centre, the steps were not on that account cut through from their whole circling. Then, as just said, above the ascent of the steps there was, of the little columns, as much opening as the width of the paths afforded. But the royal way tending straight to the gate of the wondrous circus, opportunely excluded from the narrowing of the lines toward the centre, stood alone, even, and uniform in its breadth, and its rise over the steps sloped most conveniently walkable; and so in this place the stairs were necessarily found discontinuous.

Which pycnostyle, with its doubled little columns, the plinths of the bases — of which, by an ant-like distribution, one made mutual contact with another at the angles by a diagonal line, set into the straight faces with successive coupling — between every two, one of alternated colouring of most shining outstanding jasper, and between every seven, one square of red, capped with a translucent gilt-bronze sphere; and the others likewise, bound and girt with a little architrave, frieze, and cornice of the material and colour of the square one, with most decent lineaments. Above the little columns' capitals, the interspaces were of chalcedony, six in number, one between two of green jasper spotted with manifold flecks, with due and companionable distance.

Upon which most pleasant pycnostyle I saw, wantonly running about and pausing, innumerable peacocks — whitening, red, and some fanned with their own colour, and others with their much-admired feathers let down — and there, intermixed here and there, all the species of parrots, with no mediocre adornment and delightful show upon the said work.

The fronts of the steps were seen carved wonderfully with noble and Assyrian knotwork; and for its greater relief, the intercarving was gracefully stuffed full of material, in the red ones azure, and in the black ones with a whitening filling.

From this much-admired colonnade up to the following steps, it was levelled into a circling marble path, six feet in breadth. Where immediately began another seven steps to climb, with the aforesaid work, measure, and material, and colouring — and all this was kept entire in what follows.

Upon the topmost was a box-like excavation, four feet in opening. The hollow of which was sufficiently deep, and so in those that follow. In which grew a hedge of box, of a glassy sheen, most pleasingly greening. And, level with the bridges and roads, I beheld a tower of the said greenery, raised nine feet, and five wide, with an open door gaping three feet, and six high, and so the following ones.

This first hedge, of three feet's thickness, and six high — and so those that follow — was seen of densest foliage, and was so disposed of the feathering of its own tree-growth. Between one tower and the other I saw excellently made a triumph, with horses drawing a chariot, and preceding the one who triumphs certain sword-bearing soldiers, and with triumphal spears artfully compacted, varying most beautifully the works. In another space between towers stood forth a naval Enyo. Between two other towers, a fleet-battle on land. Between two others, a hunt, and antique fables of love. With most diligent relief, and most exquisite fashioning. Such an order going round, varying in its sequences.

Within this first rampart, after an encompassing path — like the lower one, between the colonnade and the steps, of marvellous tessellation, which offered itself to great admiration, and an excessively delightful artifice, without doubt to weary all human sight and sense. Which, at first aspect, I readily judged to be charaine carpets laid out and spread flat upon the level, with all manners of colouring, which for such a show it fittingly served to express — in the manner of a gracious painting, conducted into more varied and manifold groupings and figures and signs, with the fit diversity of colourings, of little pot-herbs, to the required distinction of the feigned work. Some full of colour, others of dark colouring, some middling; some clearer and gayer, some leek-green, others of a pale verdure, some less so, and of a somewhat reddish colouring, with a most pleasant reconciling. The principal figures, containing in themselves manifold designs, were: between two rhombs, a circle; and a rhomboid between two circles, alternating continuously in a ring — except in that part where the ways were providently left to intercalate. Which paths always passed between two uniform figures.

Which fashionings stood hedged in a circular lineament, imitating (as is said) the island's figure. And first they were surrounded by the encompassing path next to the box-cloister, joined mosaic-wise with the straight ones tending to the centre. These roads were paved: the middle part, of seven partitions, took three for itself, of blackest hard and mirror-like stone — of such-made blackness that a touchstone in the river Oxus would not be found; and here and there, joined immediately, was one partition of milky stone, of such whiteness as the compounded milk-glass of Murano — most obstinate and translucent — was never seen; the outermost were two other portions, one here and one there, of finest stone reddest more than streaked coral; and among the black were most excellently driven the tessellations. This comely disposition, observed, is continued through all the following ones, of the following cloisters.

Between the recounted roads, hedged round in the intervals, were the aforewritten figures. Within the rhomboids, circles. Within the circles, rhombs. Then various figures interwoven, of most fecund and gracious contrivance. In the navel of the round ones, planted, rose up a tall cypress. In the middle of the rhombs, a most straight and tufted pine. Likewise in the circling friezes between the boundaries of the roads, at the one and the other extreme — with the moderate distribution of various works, and figures egg-shaped and half-round — at the mid-point rose up greenest vrathe (savin), corresponding through the intervening cypress and pine, and with the summit even, and of uniform bigness. Of branches thick and of cypress-order, used by the divine mother to hide the calumny. Then, in the fit places, the much-admired flowers were skilfully imparted, of whatever colour dispensed, with most elegant harmony and redolent fragrance.

Of the one and the other sex, in these most beautiful and most pleasant greeneries, intervalled, they applied themselves solely, devoted to the work of fostering nature, and content with cultivation, labouring at the conservation of such garden-works. Nor did the most just king of the Phaeacians, Alcinous, show such diligence about the custody of his kitchen-gardens as here was observed — with wondrous and sedulous —

— study, every thing applied in pairs, appearing born in its destined place. Illumined by the marbles with distinct splendour, and so the circlings that follow.

THE SECOND kitchen-garden cloister follows immediately after the just-recited work. At the edge of which, in order, the other seven steps toward the centre began. Upon the last was compacted a varied close of tree-colouring, most highly to be admired, with towers, or watch-turrets, most excellently heaped up of orange-trees; and, flanking the door, were planted in order two jambs — that is, between the wall of the tower and the opening, or door-leaves, those rising out beyond the top of the tower mutually joined themselves into one, lifted three feet above the tower's summit. Then the thick foliage began, fashioning itself into a moderate cypress. And so, in circuit through all, of two paces its height. The between-tower hedge varied in colour, and in tree-kind: between two it was woven of juniper. Between two others, of mastic. Then of arbutus, of privet, of dendrolibanum (rosemary-tree), of dog-thorn, of olive, of laurel. Ever in one fashion in its fresh green foliage. Reiterating, after the last, the first successively — most beautiful of topiary work, free of any tow-stuffed show, with never-perishing fronds.

Where, between two towers, upon the level, in the middle a wondrous pinnacle stood out. For, in the intervals of the wall-hedge, sprang up plants of box, with exquisite artifice led into symmetrical crescent-horns, to the completing of the between-tower space, with its hollow, or upturned gap, fashioned with singular diligence. In the middle, between the two horns, rose a juniper, step by step declining in tiers, up to the top attenuating, as if they had been turned whirling on the lathe, and the pricking little fronds made even. The thickest set in the middle gap. Between the horn-work ascended, upright, a stalk, mounting a foot and a half, where a box-sphere rounded itself, most justly proportioned.

Within this close, between the boundaries of the ways, were kitchen-garden squares of wondrous make, dissimilar in the plotting of the herb-work, alternating to the completing of all this admirable circuit.

The first quadrangle, marked off from the other by the roads — by which the illegitimate squares came out — was a knotwork of the square lineament, fashioned by little bundles, with the greatest polish, three palms wide. The first band in the middle passed off into a circle, and from the two angles the bands met again at the rounding, one above the other. Which ring knotted within itself another band, divided from the first, inclusive, four feet. And that part —

— of the circle that was uppermost was subjected to the other band, and so now one, now the other, alternating under and over. And this second squaring, at its angle, ringed itself, occupying from angle to angle, ever alternately keeping the band-lineament, now uppermost, now undermost, to the regulation of the knots.

The first rings widened out within the second square, making a circling rotundation to the capacity of that square. Then there was caused another square, equidistant from the second as that second from the first; and this likewise ringed its angle toward the angle of the second, upon the diagonal line, entangling itself with the rounding, climbing and passing under. Within this newest square a figure went rhomb-wise. The angles of which, with tight volutes, knotted the middle of the band of the last inner quadrangle.

In the triangular space between the rhomb and the square interval, upon the diagonal lines, as a filling, was a free circle. Within the rhomb was a circle, unknotted to the capacity of the rhombic figure. In the middle of which circle was an eight-petalled rose. In the centre of which was set an empty altar, rounded, of stone of tawny Numidian (marble), with three head-bones of oxen; and between the one and the other, of daring carving, hung little bundles of fronds and fruits, swelling in the middle, with wandering thongs bound in knots about the heads, and girding the bundles, with choice lineament — at the socle and the abacus, with most beautiful cyma-moulding, and other adorning ornaments. Out of which altar grew a savin, in compact cypress-form, the opening of the altar stuffed with manifold chervil.

The kitchen-garden expression of the picture of the preceding square — thus was the colouring distributed. And first, the first band was most densely of marjoram. The second of southernwood. The third of ground-pine. The rhomb of mountain thyme. The rounding contained in the rhomb, of germander. The rose, of amethystine violets. In the circuit of the rose, and outside its bound, were sweet-scented violets, densely flowering. The four circles within the last square, in the triangles made by the rhomb and enclosed by the square, were of melanthium, that is gith (love-in-a-mist), within yellow violets. All the hedging in these triangles, of cyclamen. The circles between the first and second square were filled with rue. The circles of the third, with flowering primrose. In the first bound, between the first and second square, were plotted acanthus-leafings, one opposed between two, of mountain polium, bordered with maidenhair. In the centre of the circles set upon the diagonals, for each, was raised about a foot and a half a sphere, with an even law kept in all — of height and spherical girth and placing — excepting the four caused by the interposed square at the diagonal angles. In which, at the centre, rose up three-cubit stalks of purple and mallow-coloured hollyhock, many-leaved and five-leaved, with a large flowering yield. In the first, santonica (wormwood). In the second, rosemary-tree. In those fashioned by the circular figure contained with the outer and first square band, at the centre were spheres of hyssop. From the encompassing roads, both the straight ones to the centre and the transverse ones near the green hedge, and near the steps the excluded — such was the squaring, and of the rest.

The other companion square of this close, of most pleasant and comely and wondrous work, and device, and marvellous kitchen-garden distribution, and most noble knotwork, distinguished in the colouring of various simples. Next to the marble limits of the encompassing roads, in the square — fashioned by the interval left from those — a band went round, a foot and a dodrans wide. From which, conjoined, departed all the bands, uniform, to the composition of the work of this square, marked off from the other by the interposed road. There were nine squares, equidistant, to the compass of the principal square. Which, from every angle to angle, coupled one with another, with a mid-section, one band with another meeting justly; and such a lineament filled the square, ending and coinciding with the outermost band. By which plotting, between these squares an octagon was caused, the squares including one another. Between the angles of the squares, equally formed, was another square, set with its sides toward the said angles. Upon each meeting-section, in —

— a rhombic demonstration knotted, with its angles too, and these — both, and the transverse, and perpendicularly conjoined — and by such mutual commerce, and likewise these, another octagon within the first they prettily formed, companionably encloistering the nine squares.

Wherefore all these figurations, joining one with another, under and over and alternating, rendered graciously an elegant knotwork of manifold figuring. All this square completely figuring. Which fashionings were lined by plates fixed in the ground, of whitest marble, a half-dodrans their surface thickness, and here and there walling round the simples. Within which stony enclosure, between the bounds, the little herb-varieties, most evened and thickly, germinated together to the perfect expression of the figuring; and all this likewise observed throughout every such composite artfully stood. A show, by Jove, conspicuous, and to the senses supremely most pleasant.

The pictorial kitchen-garden distribution stood thus: every free square enclosure was clothed with flowering cyclamen. Its bands, of myrsinites (butcher's-broom). The band-bounds of the others, knotted with the meeting-section, were herbaceous of mountain polium. The four little squares of the crossed section, joined within the square, were all covered with thyme. The octagons walling round the free squares, with the requisite allotment of little herbs, stood thus greening: one of laurentia. One of tarragon. The third of yarrow. The fourth of groundsel. The fifth of diosmo (buckthorn). The sixth of terrambula. The seventh of baccar (sowbread). The eighth of marjoram-gentle. The ninth of maidenhair. These two recounted squares, alternately in a ring, filled up this close most admirably.

But for the completing of the preceding squares, there remains to tell of this just-described —