Cinque Canti: this is how chivalry dies

This is one of my favourite pieces of poetry, from the purposefully abrupt ending of Ariosto's Cinque Canti, his sequel to the Orlando Furioso:

One drowns, another crosses swimming, another
the water's current drags in circles; one leaps into a
boat and leaves his horse; one makes his horse
swim behind the skiff; and where a boat appears,
the army crowds in so thickly that, full to
overflowing, the vessel either cannot leave unless it
empties or it sinks to the bottom along the way.

The crowd was no less packed at the entrance to
the bridge, which Charles was defending; and the
terrified men, for whom death weighs more than
any shame, grow to such a number that the King,
with all the forces he had with him, not only loses
the struggle but, piled together with many other
men and beasts, is himself thrown over into the
river beneath the bridge.

Charles falls into the water below the bridge, and
there is no one who stops to give him help, for
each man has so much to do to take care of
himself that there is little concern for others there:
there courtesy, charity, love, respect, gratitude for
favors received in the past, or anything else one
can say is put aside, and each one thinks only
about himself.

If Charles had found himself on any horse other

than the one on which he rode that day, he could

easily have remained in the water and never

returned to fair France again. His good horse was

white, except for some spots of black which

looked like flies and which he had about his neck

and flanks right up to the tail: by this horse

Charles was finally brought back to shore.

This is end of the chivalry. It's every man for himself now, with all of the epic grandeur drained away by the final stanza. 

The whole poem is worth a read: It features ships flying through the air, a parliament of witches and demons and evil faeries, alpine warfare, a haunted forest and a scene that Collodi would later borrow for his Pinocchio, of heroes living in the belly of a whale waiting for help to arrive.

This is from my earlier review on goodreads:

What a heartbreaking work. And incredibly powerful. A minimalist tragedy compared to Ariosto's maximalist masterpiece. The death of chivalry told through the characters who most embody it. Just about every character looks their doom in the face. Ruggiero and Astolfo in the belly of the beast, Ganelon when Orlando Incognito knocks him out and gives him as prisoner to Bradamante, Oliviero when he’s defeated in battle and taken prisoner, Charlemagne when his troops panic and he’s almost drowned in the rout. That’s the most powerful feeling I’ve ever wanted in a book, that knot in the stomach. The paladins of France will live on forever in my heart and in my dreams.