Nunc passim vix reliquias, vix nomina servans,
Obruitur propriis non agnoscenda ruinis.
Et querimur genus infelix, humana labare
Membra aevo, cum regna palam moriantur et urbes."

_De Partu Virginis_, lib. ii.

The commentators trace the conclusion of this passage to Dante, where he
says that it is no wonder families perish, when cities themselves "have
their terminations" (termin hanuo): but though there is a like germ of
thought in Dante, the mournful flower of it, the word "death," is not
there. It was evidently suggested by a passage (also pointed out by the
commentators) in the consolatory letter of Sulpicius to Cicero, on the
death of his daughter Tullia;--"Heu nos homunculi indignamur, si quis
nostrum interiit, aut occisus est, quorum vita brevior esse debet, cum
uno loco tot oppidorum cadavera projecta jaceant." (Alas! we poor human
creatures are indignant if any one of us dies or is slain, frail as are
the materials of which we are constituted; and yet we can see, lying
together in one place, the dead bodies of I know not how many cities!)
The music of Tasso's line was indebted to one in Petrarch's _Trionfo del
Tempo, v. 112

_" Passan le signorie, passano i regni;"

and the fine concluding verse, "Oh nostra mente," to another perhaps
in his _Trionfo della Divinita, v. 61_, not without a recollection of
Lucretius, lib. ii. v. 14:

"O miseras hominum menteis! o pectora caeca!"]

[Footnote 7: A fountain which caused laughter that killed people is in
Pomponius Mela's account of the Fortunate Islands; and was the origin of
that of Boiardo; as I ought to have noticed in the place.]

[Footnote 8: All this description of the females bathing is in the
highest taste of the voluptuous; particularly the latter part:

"Qual mattutina stella esce de l'onde
Rugiadosa e stillante: o come fuore
Spunto nascendo gia da le feconde
Spume de l'ocean la Dea d'Amore:
Tale apparve costei: tal le sue bionde
Chiome stillavan cristallino umore.
Poi giro gli occhi, e pur allor s'infinse
Que' duo vedere, e in se tutta si strinse:

E 'l crin the 'n cima al capo avea raccolto
In un sol nodo, immantinente sciolse;
Che lunghissimo in giu cadendo, e folto,
D'un aureo manto i molli avori involse.
Oh che vago spettacolo e lor tolto!
Ma mon men vago fu chi loro il tolse.
Cosi da l'acque e da capelli ascosa,
A lor si volse, lieta e