Charles and Ubaldo show Rinaldo how he has become a woman’s dandy, and get him to return to the crusade with them, leaving Armida seeking her vengeance.
Crusade
Charles and Ubaldo fly across the Mediterranean in a ship, reach the island where Armida is holding Rinaldo captive in her garden, and ascend its mountain to rescue him.
The crusaders can’t replace their siege towers because the nearby wood is bewitched. Godfrey dispatches a party to retrieve Rinaldo, but he has been abducted by Armida.
Tancred loses Erminia’s trail in a wood, and is tricked into stepping into a dungeon. Battle rages outside Jerusalem, and Godfrey is forced to try to take the city, putting Clorinda at risk.
Armida takes her ten knights, while Erminia secretly leaves Jerusalem to minister to the wounded Tancred. She flees and becomes lost in the country, where she finds a family of shepherds.
The crusaders first sight of the Holy City, and an initial skirmish claiming the life of Dudon. Tancred falls in love with the Saracen knight Clorinda, and Armida the sorceress is sent to damage the crusaders from within.
The crusaders start their march on the Holy City of Jerusalem, going from Tartus to reach Emmaus, just as all able-bodied Christians are banished from the city by its ruler Aladine.
A mystic dies from burns after an ordeal by fire, Jerusalem is put under siege, then on 13 July they take the Holy City and start massacring its inhabitants. Few return alive to Europe.
Pope Urban II’s plan to maintain the Peace of God calls on the faithful to fight for their lives in Jerusalem. The rival People’s Crusade pillages and slaughters all non-Christians, and few survive by the time they’ve left Antioch for Jerusalem.
Tasso’s narrative is as complex and interwoven as these six leading characters, from the pious Godfrey to the scheming sorceress Armida.
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