While he was in the government of Rheggio, in Lombardy, he espoused Daria de Malaguzzi, a lady of wealth and family, descended from one of the first houses in Rheggio. By this marriage he had five sons, Ludovico, Gabriele, Carlo, Galasso, and Alessandro; and the same number of daughters. Ludovico was born on the eighth of September, in the year 1474, in the fortress of Rheggio, where his father was governor; as Galasso and Alessandro were born while he was in the government of Modena. These sons were all well accomplished, and, for their many excellent qualities, patronised by several princes. Gabriele gave himself up to literary pursuits, and is said to have arrived at great excellence in Latin poetry, but to have been too close an imitator of Statius: he died at Ferrara. Carlo, who was of a disposition more inclined to dissipation and gaiety, led the life of a courtier, and died at the court of Naples. Galasso embraced the profession of the church, was employed in several important offices, and, at last, ended his days, ambassador from the duke of Ferrara, at the court of Charles V. Alessandro, who was of an inquisitive and enterprising genius, having spent great part of his time in visiting foreign countries, at last finished his life in Ferrara.

To return to Ludovico, the subject of our present inquiry; as he was the first-born of his father's children, so he is reported to have surpassed the rest in the endowments of the mind; giving, from his tender years, uncommon presage of a future genius. Being yet in his rudiments, he composed a kind of tragedy from the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, which he caused to be represented by his brothers and sisters.

He applied himself very early to the study of the Latin, in which he made greater progress than almost any one of his age; and, in the very beginning of his studies, he composed and recited an elegant oration in that language, which gave the highest expectations of him. Tito Strozza, a man of great learning and consummate knowledge, took particular delight to hear him, and to propose difficult questions for his solution; often encouraging a dispute, on literary subjects, between him and Hercules his son, a youth whose age and studies agreed with Ariosto.

But it happened to our Poet, as to Ovid, Petrarch, Tasso, and,others, that his father Nicolo, having little taste for literature, and therefore disinclined to encourage his son in pursuing the bent of his genius, was rather desirous, that, as his eldest-born, he should endeavour to establish his fortune in the world, by taking some lucrative profession; and sent him to Padua, to apply himself to the study of the Civil Law, under Angelo Castrinse and Il Maino; in which employment he spent five years, highly disagreeable to one of his disposition: which circumstance he laments in one of his satires addressed to Bembo.

Ahi lasso! quando ebbi al Pegaseo melo
L'età disposta, e che le fresche guancie
Non si vedeano ancor fiorir du'n pelo ;

Mio padre mi cacciò con spiedi e lancie,
(Non che con sproni) a volger testi e chiose;
E m'occupò cinque anni in quelle ciancie.

Ere yet my cheeks were fledg'd with rising down,
When, smit with love of verse, I sought renown
On sweet Parnassus' hill; my sire's command
Compell'd me to forsake that happy land,
And chain'd me five long years to hear disputes
Of brawling lawyers and litigious suits.

Satire vi.

So Ovid complains that his father compelled him to study the law: De Tristibus, Lib. iv. Eleg. x.

At mihi jam puero cœlestia sacra placebant,
Inque suum furtim Musa trahebat opus.
Sæpe Pater dixit, Studium quid inutile tentas?
Moonides nullas ipse reliquit opes.

Motus eram dictis: totoque Helicone relicto,
Seribere conabar verba soluta modis.
Sponte suâ carmen numeros veniebat ad aptos,
Et quod tentabam dicere, versus erat.

While yet a boy, sweet verse my genius fir'd;
The secret Muse her pleasing task inspir'd.
My sire oft cry'd, This useless trade give o'er;
For Homer left behind no golden store,
Mov'd at his words, I Pindus' hill resign'd,
And strove to write, by metre unconfin'd:
In vain--the Muse spontaneons verse bestow'd,
And all I wrote in tuneful numbers flow'd.

Milton, in like manner, desires his father to let hina pursue the Muses :

Tu, tamen, ut simules teneras odisse Camœnas
Non odisse reor; neque enim, pater, ire jubebas
Quà via lata patet, quà pronior area lucri,
Certaque condendi fulget spes aurea nummi :
Nec rapis ad leges, malè custoditaque gentis
Jura, nec insulsis damnas clamoribus aures.

Ad Patrem:

Thou canst not sure the gentle Muses hate,
Or bid me change, O sire! my peaceful state,
To tread the sordid path, that open lies
To fields of wealth, where golden harvests rise.
Thou wilt not force me to th' ungrateful bar,
Where ill-kept laws supply the constant jar;
Or fix me there, long tedious days, to hear
Those sounds of discord to a poet's ear.

But although Ariosto durst not openly disobey his father, he could not so far conquer his inclinations, but that, during the course of this time, he found leisure to peruse many authors, particularly French and Spanish

romances, with which languages he was well acquainted, having translated two or three of these authors himself into his native tongue; of which kind of performances he availed himself in his future works, making use of every beauty that occurred in these wild productions of imagination. Nicolo, at last, perceiving the aversion his son had to the profession of the law, and the little progress he made therein, resolved no longer to combat his desires, but permit him to obey the strong propensity of genius, which evidently pointed to what Nature had designed him. This indulgence of Nicolo is said to have been, in a great degree, owing to the good offices of Pandolfo Ariosto, a youth of excellent endowments, and a near kinsman to Ludovico.

Ludovico, being now left at liberty, applied himself with unwearied assiduity to recover the advantages he had necessarily lost. He had now put himself, at the age of twenty, under the tuition of Gregorio de Spoleti, a person of admirable taste, and well versed in the Latin and Greek tongues, who then resided in the family of Rinaldo of Este, at Ferrara. Gregorio, observing the avidity with which Ariosto applied himself to study, took every possible care to cultivate his genius; and, by his instructions, his pupil soon made himself master of the most excellent Latin authors, particularly the poets, among whom Horace appears to have been his favourite. He explained many difficult and obscure parts in that author, which were never before understood. His intention was, in like manner, to have gone through a course of Greek literature; but as he was first desirous of perfecting himself in the Latin, he suddenly lost the assistance of his preceptor Gregorio, who was constrained

to take a journey into France, at the desire of Isabella, daughter to Alphonso of Naples, as tutor to her son; where he soon after died, to the inexpressible grief of Ariosto.

About the same time died Nicolo Ariosto, the father of Ludovico, leaving behind him a numerous offspring. Ariosto, then only twenty-four years of age, found himself at once involved in the cares of a family, and obliged to take upon himself the management of domestic concerns, to introduce his brothers into the world, provide fortunes for his sisters, and, in every respect, supply to them the place of a father, who had left them but a very slender patrimony.

Mi more il padre e da Maria il pensiero
Prieto a Marta bisogna ch'io rivolga,
Chi'o muti in squarci e in vacchette Omero;
Trovi marito e modo che si tolga

Di casa una sorella e un' altra appresso,
E che' l'eredita non se ne dolga :

Co' piccioli fratelli a' quai successo
Ero in luoco di padre far l'uffizio
Che debito e pieta m' avea commesso.

My father dead, I took the father's part,
And chang'd for household cares the Muse's art;
For tuneful verse, each thoughtful hour I spent,
To husband well the little heaven had sent:
Each sister claim'd, by turns, my guardian hand,
To watch their youth, and form their nuptial band:
While piety and love my heart engage,

To rear my helpless brethren's tender age.

Satire vi.

He was now so wholly engrossed by a multiplicity of cares, as not only to give over his intended prosecution of the Greek language, but almost to abandon the Latin, which he had but lately recovered, had not Pandolfo Ariosto so far stimulated him, that he still continued,