helmet, and with the feet in the likeness of an eagle; and
Vengeance, with a bloody scimitar in the hand, and with buskins and
helmet all woven of vipers; and two Anthropophagi, or Lestrigonians, as
we would rather call them, who, sounding two trombones in the form of
ordinary trumpets, appeared to be seeking with a certain bellicose
movement (besides the sound) to excite the audience of bystanders to
combat. Each of these was between two Furies, horrible companions,
furnished with drums, whips of iron, and various arms, beneath which
with the same dexterity had been hidden various musical instruments. The
above-named Furies could be recognized by the wounds wherewith their
whole persons were covered, from which were seen pouring flames of fire,
by the serpents with which they were all encircled and bound, by the
broken chains that hung from their legs and arms, and by the fire and
smoke that issued from their hair. And all these, having sung the
following madrigal all together with a certain fiery and warlike
harmony, performed in the manner of combatants a novel, bold, and most
extravagant Moorish dance; at the end of which, running here and there
in confusion about the stage, they were seen finally to take themselves
in a horrible and fearsome rout out of the sight of the spectators:

In bando itene, vili
Inganni; il mondo solo ira e furore
Sent' oggi; audaci voi, spirti gentili,
Venite a dimostrar vostro valore;
Che se per la lucerna or langue amore,
Nostro convien, non che lor sia l' impero.
Su dunque ogni piu fero
Cor surga; il nostro bellicoso carme
Guerra, guerra sol grida, e solo arm', arme.

FIFTH INTERLUDE.

Poor simple Psyche, having (as has been hinted in the last interlude)
injured her beloved spouse with the torch by her rash and eager
curiosity, and being abandoned by him, and having finally fallen into
the hands of angry Venus, provided most convenient material for the
fifth and most sorrowful interlude, accompanying the sadness of the
fourth act of the comedy; for it was feigned that she was sent by that
same Venus to the infernal Proserpine, whence she should never be able
to return among living creatures. And so, wrapped in despair and very
sad, she was seen approaching by one of the passages, accompanied by
hateful Jealousy, who had an aspect all pallid and afflicted, like her
other followers, and was known by the four heads and by the dress