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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=531490" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Jerusalem Delivered - Book 02 - part 06</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">LXVI<br>&quot;True labour in the vineyard of thy Lord,<br>Ere prime thou hast the imposed day-work done,<br>What armies conquered, perished with thy sword?<br>What cities sacked? what kingdoms hast thou won?<br>All ears are mazed while tongues thine acts record,<br>Hands quake for fear, all feet for dread do run,<br>And though no realms you may to thraldom bring,<br>No higher can your praise, your glory spring.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">LXVII<br>&quot;Thy sign is in his Apogaeon placed,<br>And when it moveth next, must needs descend,<br>Chance in uncertain, fortune double faced,<br>Smiling at first, she frowneth in the end:<br>Beware thine honor be not then disgraced,<br>Take heed thou mar not when thou think'st to mend,<br>For this the folly is of Fortune's play,<br>'Gainst doubtful, certain; much, 'gainst small to lay.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">LXVIII<br>&quot;Yet still we sail while prosperous blows the wind,<br>Till on some secret rock unwares we light,<br>The sea of glory hath no banks assigned,<br>They who are wont to win in every fight<br>Still feed the fire that so inflames thy mind<br>To bring more nations subject to thy might;<br>This makes thee blessed peace so light to hold,<br>Like summer's flies that fear not winter's cold.<br>LXIX<br>&quot;They bid thee follow on the path, now made<br>So plain and easy, enter Fortune's gate,<br>Nor in thy scabbard sheathe that famous blade,<br>Till settled by thy kingdom, and estate,<br>Till Macon's sacred doctrine fall and fade,<br>Till woeful Asia all lie desolate.<br>Sweet words I grant, baits and allurements sweet,<br>But greatest hopes oft greatest crosses meet.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">LXX<br>&quot;For, if thy courage do not blind thine eyes,<br>If clouds of fury hide not reason's beams,<br>Then may'st thou see this desperate enterprise.<br>The field of death, watered with danger's streams;<br>High state, the bed is where misfortune lies,<br>Mars most unfriendly, when most kind he seems,<br>Who climbeth high, on earth he hardest lights,<br>And lowest falls attend the highest flights.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">LXXI<br>&quot;Tell me if, great in counsel, arms and gold,<br>The Prince of Egypt war 'gainst you prepare,<br>What if the valiant Turks and Persians bold,<br>Unite their forces with Cassanoe's heir?<br>Oh then, what marble pillar shall uphold<br>The falling trophies of your conquest fair?<br>Trust you the monarch of the Greekish land?<br>That reed will break; and breaking, wound your hand.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">LXXII<br>&quot;The Greekish faith is like that half-cut tree<br>By which men take wild elephants in Inde,<br>A thousand times it hath beguiled thee,<br>As firm as waves in seas, or leaves in wind.<br>Will they, who erst denied you passage free,<br>Passage to all men free, by use and kind,<br>Fight for your sake? Or on them do you trust<br>To spend their blood, that could scarce spare their dust?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">LXXIII<br>&quot;But all your hope and trust perchance is laid<br>In these strong troops, which thee environ round;<br>Yet foes unite are not so soon dismayed<br>As when their strength you erst divided found:<br>Besides, each hour thy bands are weaker made<br>With hunger, slaughter, lodging on cold ground,<br>Meanwhile the Turks seek succors from our king,<br>Thus fade thy helps, and thus thy cumbers spring.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">LXXIV<br>&quot;Suppose no weapon can thy valor's pride<br>Subdue, that by no force thou may'st be won,<br>Admit no steel can hurt or wound thy side,<br>And be it Heaven hath thee such favor done:<br>'Gainst Famine yet what shield canst thou provide?<br>What strength resist? What sleight her wrath can shun?<br>Go, shake the spear, and draw thy flaming blade,<br>And try if hunger so be weaker made.<br>LXXV<br>&quot;The inhabitants each pasture and each plain<br>Destroyed have, each field to waste is laid,<br>In fenced towers bestowed is their grain<br>Before thou cam'st this kingdom to invade,<br>These horse and foot, how canst them sustain?<br>Whence comes thy store? whence thy provision made?<br>Thy ships to bring it are, perchance, assigned,<br>Oh, that you live so long as please the wind!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">LXXVI<br>&quot;Perhaps thy fortune doth control the wind,<br>Doth loose or bind their blasts in secret cave,<br>The sea, pardie, cruel and deaf by kind,<br>Will hear thy call, and still her raging wave:<br>But if our armed galleys be assigned<br>To aid those ships which Turks and Persians have,<br>Say then, what hope is left thy slender fleet?<br>Dare flocks of crows, a flight of eagles meet?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">LXXVII<br>&quot;My lord, a double conquest must you make,<br>If you achieve renown by this emprize:<br>For if our fleet your navy chase or take,<br>For want of victuals all your camp then dies;<br>Of if by land the field you once forsake,<br>Then vain by sea were hope of victories.<br>Nor could your ships restore your lost estate:<br>For steed once stolen, we shut the door too late.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">LXXVIII<br>&quot;In this estate, if thou esteemest light<br>The proffered kindness of the Egyptian king,<br>Then give me leave to say, this oversight<br>Beseems thee not, in whom such virtues spring:<br>But heavens vouchsafe to guide my mind aright,<br>To gentle thoughts, that peace and quiet bring,<br>So that poor Asia her complaints may cease,<br>And you enjoy your conquests got, in peace.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">LXXIX<br>&quot;Nor ye that part in these adventures have,<br>Part in his glory, partners in his harms,<br>Let not blind Fortune so your minds deceive,<br>To stir him more to try these fierce alarms,<br>But like the sailor 'scaped from the wave<br>From further peril that his person arms<br>By staying safe at home, so stay you all,<br>Better sit still, men say, than rise to fall.&quot;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">LXXX<br>This said Aletes: and a murmur rose<br>That showed dislike among the Christian peers,<br>Their angry gestures with mislike disclose<br>How much his speech offends their noble ears.<br>Lord Godfrey's eye three times environ goes,<br>To view what countenance every warrior bears,<br>And lastly on the Egyptian baron stayed,<br>To whom the duke thus for his answer said:</div><div style="margin:10px 0">LXXXI<br>&quot;Ambassador, full both of threats and praise,<br>Thy doubtful message hast thou wisely told,<br>And if thy sovereign love us as he says,<br>Tell him he sows to reap an hundred fold,<br>But where thy talk the coming storm displays<br>Of threatened warfare from the Pagans bold:<br>To that I answer, as my cousin is,<br>In plainest phrase, lest my intent thou miss.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">LXXXII<br>&quot;Know, that till now we suffered have much pain,<br>By lands and seas, where storms and tempests fall,<br>To make the passage easy, safe, and plain<br>That leads us to this venerable wall,<br>That so we might reward from Heaven obtain,<br>And free this town from being longer thrall;<br>Nor is it grievous to so good an end<br>Our honors, kingdoms, lives and goods to spend.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">LXXXIII<br>&quot;Nor hope of praise, nor thirst of worldly good,<br>Enticed us to follow this emprise,<br>The Heavenly Father keep his sacred brood<br>From foul infection of so great a vice:<br>But by our zeal aye be that plague withstood,<br>Let not those pleasures us to sin entice.<br>His grace, his mercy, and his powerful hand<br>Will keep us safe from hurt by sea and land.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">LXXXIV<br>&quot;This is the spur that makes our coursers run;<br>This is our harbor, safe from danger's floods;<br>This is our bield, the blustering winds to shun:<br>This is our guide, through forests, deserts, woods;<br>This is our summer's shade, our winter's sun:<br>This is our wealth, our treasure, and our goods:<br>This is our engine, towers that overthrows,<br>Our spear that hurts, our sword that wounds our foes.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">LXXXV<br>&quot;Our courage hence, our hope, our valor springs,<br>Not from the trust we have in shield or spear,<br>Not from the succors France or Grecia brings,<br>On such weak posts we list no buildings rear:<br>He can defend us from the power of kings,<br>From chance of war, that makes weak hearts to fear;<br>He can these hungry troops with manna feed,<br>And make the seas land, if we passage need.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Torquato+Tasso">Torquato Tasso</a><div class=q>
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&quot;True labour in the vineyard of thy Lord,
Ere prime thou hast the imposed day-work done,
What armies conquered, perished with thy sword?
What cities sacked? what kingdoms hast thou won?
All ears are mazed while tongues thine acts record,..."></div>
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