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62 George Neilson
FAIRFAX'S TASSO.
The Egyptian Argantet.
For he was stout of courage, strong of
hand,
Bold was his heart, and restless was his
sprite,
Fierce, stern, outrageous, keen as
sharpened brand. ii. 59.
[There is an altercation, in which
Argantes taunts the crusader Tancred
with reluctance to : fight]
[Tancred answers] :
The killer of weak women thee defies.
xix. 5.
[Tancred, in order to settle matters
by single combat, conducts Argantes
through the crusading host to the
appointed place of duel] :
And thus defending 'gainst his friends
his foe
Through thousand angry weapons safe
they go. xix. 7.
[The journey to the place of duel] :
They left the city, and they left behind
Godfredo's camp, and far beyond it
passed,
And came where into creeks and bosoms
blind
A winding hill his corners turned and
cast ;
A valley small and shady dale they find
Amid the mountains steep, so laid and
placed
LADY OF THE LAKE.
Canto V.
Like the Egyptian, Roderick Dhu, as
his name implies, was dark. Mention
is made of his ' sable brow '
(stanza 9).
His 'dark eye' is named in a variant
MS. reading of stanza 14. The
'gloomy, vindictive, arrogant, undaunted'
Roderick, to quote a reviewer's
description approved by Lockhart (note
to stanza 14), is one in character with
Argantes.
In a like altercation with Fitzjames
Roderick holds the latter's ivalour light
Yet shalt thou not escape, O conqueror
' As that of some vain carpet knight.'
strong
Of ladies fair,
that wrong.
sharp death to avenge
xix. 3.
(st. 14.)
He had just told him, too,
*
My clansman's blood demands revenge.*
(st. 14.)
Compare Roderick's corresponding
play on the taunt about the head of a
rebellious clan, etc.
same retort.
(st. 12).
It is the
While not claiming for Tasso or
Fairfax the splendid picture of * Benledi's
living side' one of the most
gorgeous ever achieved by Walter Scott
or any other poet one may be permitted
to say that the thousand angry
weapons, stilled by request of Tancred,
so that he and Argantes alone may try
their quarrel hilt to hilt, have obvious
possibilities of relation to the pageant
of bonnets and spears, lances, axes, and
brands, of Scott's plaided warriors in
stanza 9.
Along a wide and level green (st. 1 1).
. .
The Chief in silence strode before
(st. 12). ..
For this is Coilantogle ford.
(st. ii and 12).
Observe that in both duels there is a