Orgoglio (pron. Or-goleʹ-yo)

The word is Italian, and means “Arrogant Pride,” or The Man of Sin. A hideous giant as tall as three men; he was son of Earth and Wind. Finding the Red Cross Knight at the fountain of Idleness, he beats him with a club and makes him his slave. Una, hearing of these mischances, tells King Arthur, and Arthur liberates the knight and slays the giant. Moral: The Man of Sin had power given him to “make war with the saints and to overcome them” for “forty and two months” (Rev. xiii. 5, 7), then the “Ancient of Days came,” and overcame him (Dan. vii. 21, 22). (Spenser: Faërie Queene, book i.)

⁂ Arthur first cut off Orgoglio’s left arm—i.e. Bohemia was first cut off from the Church of Rome. He then cut off the giant’s right leg—i.e. England; and, this being cut off, the giant fell to the earth, and was afterwards dispatched.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

Orgoglio (pron. Or-goleʹ-yo)

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