Volume V Part 44 (2/2)

”May the s it be robbed on the way”

”No such luck, I a, I asked her to cons of my love

”No, dearest, one can love and yet be wise; the door is open”

She got down Ariosto and began to read to me the adventure of Ricciardetto with Fiordespina, an episode which gives its beauty to the twenty-ninth canto of that beautiful poeined that she was the princess, and I Ricciardetto She liked to fancy,

'Che il ciel L'abbia concesso, Bradalior sesso'

When she caetta, E dolcee, a baccia in bocca: Tu puoi pensar se allora la saetta Dirizza Amor, se in mezzo al cor mi tocca'

She wanted some explanations on the expression 'baccia in bocca', and on the love which made Ricciardetto's arrow so stiff, and I, only too ready to comment on the text, made her touch an arrow as stiff as Ricciardetto's Of course, she was angry at that, but her wrath did not last long She burst out laughing when she cao, io il sento, e a pena vero parmi: Sento in maschio in femina matarsi'

And then,

'Cosi le dissi, e feci ch'ella stessa Trovo con man la veritade expressa

She expressed her, wonder that this poe in obscenities had not been put on the ”Index” at Rome

”What you call obscenity is mere license, and there is plenty of that at Ro the censures of the Church upon you

But what do you call obscenities, if Ariosto is not obscene?”

”Obscenity disgusts, and never gives pleasure”

”Your logic is all your own, but situated as I aue your proposition I a a Spanish woe passion for Bradamante”

”The heat of the Spanish climate made him conclude that the Spanish temperament was also ardent, and consequently whimsical in its tastes”

”Poets are a kind of ive utterance to all their fancies”

The reading was continued, and I thought my time had come when she read the verses:

Io senza scale in su la rooca salto, E to stendardo piantovi di botto, E la nemica mia mi caccio sotto

I scaled the rock without a ladder, I planted my standard suddenly, and held ive her a practical illustration of the lines, but with that sensibility so natural to wooad to passion, she said,--