[节选]Jerusalem Delivered

XXIV

"What to this hour successively is done

Was full of peril, to our honor small,

Naught to our first designment, if we shun

The purposed end, or here lie fixed all.

What boots it us there wares to have begun,

Or Europe raised to make proud Asia thrall,

If our beginnings have this ending known,

Not kingdoms raised, but armies overthrown?



XXV

"Not as we list erect we empires new

On frail foundations laid in earthly mould,

Where of our faith and country be but few

Among the thousands stout of Pagans bold,

Where naught behoves us trust to Greece untrue,

And Western aid we far removed behold:

Who buildeth thus, methinks, so buildeth he,

As if his work should his sepulchre be.



XXVI

"Turks, Persians conquered, Antiochia won,

Be glorious acts, and full of glorious praise,

By Heaven's mere grace, not by our prowess done:

Those conquests were achieved by wondrous ways,

If now from that directed course we run

The God of Battles thus before us lays,

His loving kindness shall we lose, I doubt,

And be a byword to the lands about.



XXVII

"Let not these blessings then sent from above

Abused be, or split in profane wise,

But let the issue correspondent prove

To good beginnings of each enterprise;

The gentle season might our courage move,

Now every passage plain and open lies:

What lets us then the great Jerusalem

With valiant squadrons round about to hem?



XXVIII

"Lords, I protest, and hearken all to it,

Ye times and ages, future, present, past,

Hear all ye blessed in the heavens that sit,

The time for this achievement hasteneth fast:

The longer rest worse will the season fit,

Our sureties shall with doubt be overcast.

If we forslow the siege I well foresee

From Egypt will the Pagans succored be."



XXIX

This said, the hermit Peter rose and spake,

Who sate in counsel those great Lords among:

"At my request this war was undertake,

In private cell, who erst lived closed long,

What Godfrey wills, of that no question make,

There cast no doubts where truth is plain and strong,

Your acts, I trust, will correspond his speech,

Yet one thing more I would you gladly teach.



XXX

"These strifes, unless I far mistake the thing,

And discords raised oft in disordered sort,

Your disobedience and ill managing

Of actions lost, for want of due support,

Refer I justly to a further spring,

Spring of sedition, strife, oppression, tort,

I mean commanding power to sundry given,

In thought, opinion, worth, estate, uneven.



XXXI

"Where divers Lords divided empire hold,

Where causes be by gifts, not justice tried,

Where offices be falsely bought and sold,

Needs must the lordship there from virtue slide.

Of friendly parts one body then uphold,

Create one head, the rest to rule and guide:

To one the regal power and sceptre give,

That henceforth may your King and Sovereign live."



XXXII

And therewith stayed his speech.  O gracious Muse,

What kindling motions in their breasts do fry?

With grace divine the hermit's talk infuse,

That in their hearts his words may fructify;

By this a virtuous concord they did choose,

And all contentions then began to die;

The Princes with the multitude agree,

That Godfrey ruler of those wars should be.



XXXIII

This power they gave him, by his princely right,

All to command, to judge all, good and ill,

Laws to impose to lands subdued by might,

To maken war both when and where he will,

To hold in due subjection every wight,

Their valors to be guided by his skill;

This done, Report displays her tell-tale wings,

And to each ear the news and tidings brings.