fontarabbia

Updated: May 3, 2025

"O, for a blast of that dread horn, On Fontarabian echoes borne That to King Charles did come, When Rowland brave, and Olivier, And every paladin and peer On Roncesvalles died!" Marmion. "When Charlemain with all his peerage fell, By Fontarabbia." Paradise Lost. "A Roland for an Oliver!"

- Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 : A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more : than 200 of the most prominent personages in History

I am not sure that I am right in my construction of this passage. Notice. This is the "sad and fearful story Of the Roncesvalles fight;" an event which national and religious exaggeration impressed deeply on the popular mind of Europe. Hence Italian romances and Spanish ballads: hence the famous passage in Milton, "When Charlemain with all his peerage fell By Fontarabbia:"

Leigh Hunt - Stories from the Italian Poets: with Lives of the Writers, Volume 1