music, which was almost as ancient as the arts themselves, subsisted till the reign of the emperor Theodosius, when the Capitoline games, being regarded as remnants of superstition, were utterly abolished. It was not till near the time of Petrarch that poetry recovered its ancient lustre or importance, or was invested with its former prerogatives."

It may not be here altogether foreign to my subject, or unentertaining to the English reader, whose curiosity may probably be excited by the mention of so extraordinary a ceremony, to give an account of this honour, which, as we have before mentioned, was bestowed on Petrarch; the particulars of which I shall transcribe from the elegant Life of that poet published in the year

1775.

“Orso, count of Anguillara, was senator of Rome, when Petrarch arrived there in the spring of 1341, and was to continue in office but a few weeks longer. The day of the ceremony being fixed, the assembly was convoked early in the morning on Easter-day, which happened to be very serene and favourable to the solemnity. The trumpets sounded, and the people, eager to view a ceremony that had been discontinued for so many years, ran in crowds to behold it. The streets were strewed with flowers, and the windows filled with ladies dressed in the most sumptuous manner, who sprinkled as much perfumed waters on the poet, as would serve for a year in the kingdom of Spain.

"Petrarch appeared at last at the capitol, preceded by twelve young men in scarlet habits. These were chosen out of the first families in Rome, and recited his verses; while he, adorned with the robe of state which the king

of Naples had given him, followed in the midst of six of the principal citizens clothed in green, with crowns of flowers on their heads: after whom came the senator, accompanied by the first men of the council. When he was seated in his place, Petrarch made a short harangue upon a verse drawn from Virgil: after which, having cried three times, "Long live the people of Rome! Long live the senator! God preserve them in liberty !” he kneeled down before the senator, who, after a short discourse, took from his head a crown of laurel, and put it upon Petrarch's, saying, "This crown is the reward of merit." Then Petrarch recited a fine sonnet on the heroes of Rome. This sonnet is not in his works.

"The people shewed their joy and approbation by loud and repeated shouts; by clapping their hands, and crying out several times, "Long flourish the capitol ! Long live the poet!" Stephen Colonna then spoke; and, as he truly loved Petrarch, he gave him that praise which comes from the heart.

"When the ceremony in the capitol was ended, Petrarch was conducted in pomp, with the same retinue, to the church of St. Peter, where, after a solemn mass, and returning thanks to God for the honour he had received, he took off his crown to place it among the of ferings, and hung it up on the arch of the temple.

"The same day the count of Anguillara had letters patent drawn up, by which the senators, after a very flattering preface, declare Petrarch to have merited the title of a great pcet and historian; and that at Rome, and in every other place, by the authority of king Robert, the Roman senate and the people of Rome, he

should have full liberty to read and comment on poetry and history, or on any of the works of the ancients, and to publish any of his own productions, and to wear, on all solemn occasions, the crown of laurel, beech or myrtle, and the poetic dress. In fine, they declare him a citizen of Rome, with all the privileges thereof, as a reward for the affection he has always expressed for the city and republic.

"Petrarch was then brought to the palace of the Colonnas, where a magnificent feast was prepared for him, at which were assembled all the nobility and men of letters in Rome*.'

To return to Ariosto. The name of this poet is still held in that kind of veneration by his countrymen with which the English consider their Shakespeare. Antonio Zatta, in his edition of Ariosto's works of 1772, relates that a chair and ink-standish, which, according to tradition, belonged to Ariosto, were then in the possession of Il Signor Dottore Giovanni Andrea Barotti at Ferrara, and that a specimen of his hand-writing was preserved in the public library of that city. The republic of Venice did him the honour to cause his picture to be painted, and hung up with the senators and other illustrious men in the great Council Hall, which was afterwards destroyed by fire.

It appears, however, that Ariosto did not finally receive from his professed patrons those rewards, or obtain that establishment, to which he thought his merits had entitled him. Probably the government of Grafagnana added more to his reputation than his fortune; and, from

Life of Petrarch, vol. i. page 237.

what he says in several parts of his Satires, he was by
no means satisfied with his patrons of Ferrara. Nothing
particular is recorded of the benefactions of the cardinal
to him, before he incurred the displeasure of that pre-
late. The duke, indeed, gave him two assignments on
certain gabels or taxes, the first of which ceased with the
abolition of the tax; and the second, which produced
him only twenty-five crowns every fourth month, col-
lected, as he says himself, with great trouble, was con-
tested and withheld from him during the wars of Lom-
bardy;
and some say, that the cardinal, upon withdraw-
ing his patronage, deprived him of this slender advan-
tage. Ariosto himself seems to impute his loss to the
duke, and speaks thus on the subject, in his satire ad-
dressed to A. M. Sigismundo Malaguzzi.

Tu dei saper, che la mia voglia avara
Unqua non fù; ch'io solea star contento
De lo stipendio, che traea in Ferrara.
Ma non sai forse; come usci poi lento
Succedendo la guerra, e come volse,
Il duca che restasse in tutto spento.

Satire iv.

Thou know'st I ne'er was tutor'd wealth to crave,
Content with what Ferrara's patrons gave,
Th' allotted stipend--but thou'rt yet to know
Succeeding wars had made the stipend low.
At length (so will'd the duke) the gain decreas'd
To less from little, till the whole had ceas'd.

Such were the great advantages which he derived from those in whose service he had engaged, and whose names he had immortalized by his muse.

Two medals are said to have been struck, both bearing his effigies, but the devices different: on the first was figured a serpent, over which was suspended a hand, with a pair of shears ready to cut off the head or sting;

and the other representing a bee-hive, where the bees are driven from their habitation with fire and smoke, that the countryman may possess himself of their honey. The motto of both these medals was PRO BONO MALUM. Some affirm, that these devices were of Ariosto's invention; the first to express the nature of his detractors; and the second to shew that, instead of honours and rewards for his labours, he met only with scoff and derision, alluding the reception given his Orlando by the cardinal, who, having perused it, asked him, with the most tasteless indifference, where he had collected so many fooleries. Every reader of fine taste, with which fine feeling is inseparable, will form some idea of the poet's thoughts at that time, and may recollect the like illiberal reflection of the statesman Burleigh, on Queen Elizabeth's bounty to our own Spenser, All this for a song.

Dolce relates, that he caused the device of the serpent to be prefixed to the second edition of his poem; but that in the third he changed it into the bee-hive. In an edition of the Orlando, printed at Bologna in 1540, is a device in the title-page, of two serpents, with a hand and shears; the tongue of one of these serpents is cut out, with this motto round them: DILEXISTI MALITIAM

SUPER BENIGNITATEM,

With respect to Pope Leo X. the acknowledged patron of literature and arts, whom Fornari calls particularly liberal to poets, and by whom he relates that Arioste was highly esteemed, he is said to have made him a present of some hundred crowns for the prosecution of his work, though Ariosto himself is silent upon that head;