That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for June 16, 2021

As always, Carlo got stuck with the lookout duty, while Rinaldo got some R&R.

Riccardo always had the help stand by to get his suit back on.

This was the haunted wood, with spirits living in the trees. Rinaldo thought it wasn’t fair that Carlo found one while he was still looking.

Lunch break, Italian style.

Lover boy is lucky that the searchers can’t see the wood for all the trees.

I think that you now ought to go, man, / before we are found by that yeoman. / My heart won’t be breakin’ / I won’t feel forsaken. / Your shield made me think “He’s a slow man.”

“I’m sorry Lance but this is not what the counselor meant when she said you should be more vulnerable and let me inside your defenses”

The other guys in the squad got suspicious when Lothario said he was going to investigate the breastworks … nobody had issued orders to build any.

Amida, Rinaldo’s seducer, / imprisoned him by being looser / than more modest maids. / “Forget the Crusades, / I’ll lay in this garden with you, sir.” /// His comrades discovered the lovers / (who weren’t much hidden by covers). / They held up his aegis, / reflecting egregious / behavior, thus ‘Naldo recovers. /// Unbound by her spell he can see / his armor festooned in a tree. / So he dons it once more / to return to the war. / Amida is left sans souci.

Their afternoon of passion now fading, for the sake of their amour he begged for a boon: “Please, Xena, just this once let me try on your armor.”

“Bed check isn’t until 10 my little (ahem) lotus flower. I brought something from the chow hall. This SOS is to die for.”

“Actually Antonio, my Italian isn’t all that great. I know you Romans are proud of your accomplishments, but I thought you asked me out here to see the aqueduct……and Julio over there….he’s not really the engineer that designed it. Is he? Oh Saint Christopher! Why does always happen to me!”

Marco was truly impressed with the army’s new leave policy.

Hoochy koochy, kissey kissey?

It’s really not much of a puzzle-/ she knows that, whatever he does’ll/ leave her in the lurch/ in her sad sylvan perch/ for he’s clueless after the nuzzle. /// But maybe if she gets lucky/ his partner will be more plucky/ and employ the techniques/ he learned midst the peaks/ and the valleys of Eastern Kentucky..

In order not to alarm’er/he slyly removed his armor/and she doffed her chiton/ so as not to frighten/ the soldier who’d once been a farmer/// his intentions were surely sincere/ but the sad story ends right here/ what she offered was nice/ but he’d not sacrifice/ his promising Army career///“I don’t understand!”, cried she./ “ O, darling,”, he said, “ can’t you see,/that though my love is true/I can’t stay with you../ and still “be all that I can be?”

Another tragic case of BIB. Breast induced blindness.

Of course they want him back—he’s the only top in their regiment.

Why is his head hanging in mid-air?

Though he makes an occasional foray/ into her realm – the realm of amore/ what he really prefers/ (like a lot of these curs)/ is a a wonderful, murderous war, eh?

Well, the date isn’t unknown at all—see https://www.gallerieaccademia.it/en/rinaldo-and-armida. The story comes from Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered — which is definitely not what the people who lived there thought about it. There are much more clothed depictions by several other artists; if you like ‘em hot, you like ’em Hayez’d.

First known discovery of an intact recruitment poster for the Roman Legion.

Frisbee anyone?

A good friend of mine looks at the stars, Venus and Mars are alright tonight…

“Where are the drugs?” “Don’t make me do a cavity search.”

As the doe said, “That’s the last time I do that for two bucks”.

Interrogating prisoners was the best job!

Nuthin’s more prestigious than an eagle on your aegis in the mornin///

When he spotted the banquet she’s laid/ in her effort to stave off his raid/ he fondled and kissed her/(and his friend got her sister !)/ and both of their blades were stayed !

He whispered and nibbled her ear/ and coerced what she held dear/ She gave him her trust/ He slaked his lust/ and was surprised when he came back next year.

Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you. — Satchel Paige

Rinaldo and Armida: 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Francesco_Hayez_051.jpg 

has info and links that point to info about this 1812-1813 painting.

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/hayez_francesco.html 

https://www.wikiart.org/en/francesco-hayez 

http://www.artnet.com/artists/francesco-hayez/ 

https://www.wga.hu/bio_m/h/hayez/biograph.html 

https://www.askart.com/artist/Francesco_Hayez/11038685/Francesco_Hayez.aspx 

http://www.all-art.org/history372-6.html 

https://prabook.com/web/francesco.hayez/3742356 

all have info, or links that point to more info, about this artist (again, askart.com can be read in full for free on Fridays), perhaps in addition to what’s pointed to by the title URL. So far, 5 works by him have been used here. 

https://www.gocomics.com/that-is-priceless/2017/08/29?comments=visible 

has the prior (my comment there had one of the artist info URLs).

Again, a larger strip image is shown by (⌘- or Ctrl-) clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #2728 (June 15, 2021) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment.

Having arrived at the correct time and space coordinates, the Terminator stealthily approached Sarah Connor just as the dreaded conception was about to take place.

soldier in right, spying on his CO, is sure to get some time off tonight,

Rinaldo: Oh … don’t mind them. They wanted to play a little game of hide and seek.

Armida: … I thought we were playing hide and seek!

Rinaldo is a fierce and determined warrior who is also honorable and handsome. Armida has been sent to stop the Christians from completing their mission and is about to murder the sleeping soldier, but instead she falls in love. She creates an enchanted garden where she holds him a lovesick prisoner. Eventually Charles and Ubaldo, two of his fellow Crusaders, find him and hold a shield to his face, so he can see his image and remember who he is. Rinaldo barely can resist Armida’s pleadings, but his comrades insist that he return to his Christian duties. At the close of the poem, when the pagans have lost the final battle, Rinaldo, remembering his promise to be her champion, prevents her from giving way to her suicidal impulses and offers to restore her to her lost throne. She gives in at this and like the other Saracen woman, Clorinda, earlier in the piece, becomes a Christian and his “handmaid”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armida

That looks uncomfortable.

I can give you so much more love and pleasure than tiny Horatio did…not…give. Oh yeah!