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"A most curious thing at this point was the sight of people appearing at the
mouth of this barren and empty cave at such a considerable height. This was a
most astonishing spectacle and we were able to try out the effect at the very
moment of Diversi's appearance at the hole. We called out to him as he popped
out with a cap on his head, wearing glasses, with a mattock in one hand and a
piton in the other, but it no longer seemed to be him; there was something
strange, something fantastical, something idealized about him. Magri, who went
up there and saw him inscribe our names, painted a verbal picture of him as a
kind of wizard. The idea never went away and our friends christened the cave
The Palace of Ismeno."
Note : Ismeno is the Counsellor and Wizard of the King of Jerusalem who stars in Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata and in Milton's Paradise Lost. |
The Palace of Ismeno
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Cave entrance »