who certainly would have ill-used, and perhaps murdered him, had not his face been known by one of the gang, who, informing his comrades that this was Signor Ariosto, the chief of the banditti addressed him with intrepid gallantry, and told him, that since he was author of the Orlando Furioso, he might be sure none of the company would injure him; but would see him, on the contrary, safe back to the castle: and so they did, entertaining him all along the way with the various excellencies they had discovered in his poem, and bestowing upon it the most rapturous praises. A very rare proof of the irresistible powers of poetry; and a noble comment on the fables of Orpheus and Amphion who drew wild beasts, and raised walls, with the enchanting sound of their lyres."

While Ariosto continued in the government of Grafagnana, Buonoventura Pistofolo often proposed to him, by letter, to go as ambassador from the duke to Clement VII. who had been a great patron of our poet, setting before him the honours and advantages that would accrue from such an employ. But Ludovico gave little heed to these solicitations; his mind being altogether detached from the views of interest or ambition. His general answer was, " that he esteemed it better to enjoy a little in peace and tranquillity, than to seek after a great deal with fatigue and anxiety." Some relate, that he had a repugnance to live at a distance from his country, on account of a lady residing at Ferrara, for whom he had conceived a violent passion; and, indeed, he plainly acknowledges this himself, in his fourth Satire, to Annibale Malaguzzi.

D

Parmi vederti qui ridere e dire,

Che non amor di patri nè di studi,

Ma de donna cè cagion che non vogl'ire,
Libero t'el confesso, or chindi

La bocca

Methinks you smile, and cry---nor love of home,
Nor study makes your friend averse to roam :
But some fair dame--I own the guilt at large;
Upbraid not him who triumphs in the charge.

The term of his government being expired, he re turned to court, where, finding the duke took great delight in theatrical representations, he applied himself to the drama; and, besides the Cassaria and Suppositi, he composed La Lena, and Il Negromante, in prose and verse, and the Scolastica in verse; though the last was left imperfect by his death, and the fifth act added by his brother Gabriele. Of these comedies, four were first printed in prose, and afterwards turned into verse. They were performed with universal applause, before many families of rank; the actors being generally persons of condition: insomuch, that when the Lena was first acted, in 1528, Signor Don Francisco of Este, afterwards Marquis of Massa, spoke the prologue himself.

A remarkable anecdote is handed down, which shews how entirely his mind was, in the early part of his life, absorbed by his favourite studies. His father having taken some offence at the conduct of Ludovico, expostulated with him, one day, with uncommon warmth; to which his son listened without the least seeming notice, or returning any answer. Nicolo being gone, his brother Gabriele, who was with him, entered upon the same subject; to whom he gave such satisfactory reasons, as entirely removed every other objection that had been

brought against him. His brother then asking why he had not made use of the same arguments to his father, he replied, that, at that time he was considering whether the scene, which passed between them, might not be of use to him in a comedy he was then writing, called the Cassaria; that he thought his father would serve as an excellent model for an old man, whom he had introduced, on a like occasion, reproaching his son: concluding, that his thoughts were so engrossed by the fiction, that he had forgot the reality.

Another anecdote is told, relative to these comedies, which shews how totally the attention of the people in Italy was taken up with the merits and reputation of the Orlando Furioso. Ricoboni conceived a design of exhibiting the Scolastica, of Ariosto on the stage at Venice; and public notice being given of the representation, the name of Ariosto drew together a prodigious concourse of spectators. But it unfortunately happened, few of them knew that this author had written comedies; and, before the piece began, Ricoboni was informed, that they had a notion the play was taken from the Orlando Furioso; and, when the performance came on, not seeing Angelica, Orlando, Bradamant, and the other personages of their favourite poem, they began to express their dissatisfaction; which increased to such a degree, that Ricoboni was obliged to drop the curtain at the end of the fourth act*.

Ariosto now appeared to lead a life of tranquillity; which was the more agreeable to him, as he was not so

* See Ricoboni.

deeply engaged by the duke, but that he had sufficient leisure to pursue his studies; the service of Alphonso being far more easy than that of Hippolito. About this time he published his Satires, besides those he had formerly written; in the whole, to the number of seven; till being again involved in family difficulties, and harassed with law-suits, he was obliged, for some time, to lay aside his compositions. At last, having brought his affairs to a happy crisis, he purchased a piece of ground opposite the church of St. Benedict, where he built a pretty commodious dwelling; which, some say, he was enabled to do by the liberality of the duke. He had a garden adjoining to this house, the usual scene of his poetical meditations. Here he passed the remainder of his life, as much as possible secluded from all public employments.

Having attained the 59th year of his age, he was seized, on the last day but one of the year 1532, with a lingering illness, though some say his illness first came upon him in October or November, about which time the ducal palace took fire, which accident consumed the superb theatre that had been built for the exhibition of his comedies; in the same year he had sent his Furioso to the press with his last improvements, corrected and enlarged as we now have it.

Some physicians attributed the cause of his malady to the custom he had of eating fast, and chewing his victuals little, that occasioned an indigestion; the means they made use of to remove this complaint, brought on a consumption, which, in spite of all the assistance of me dicine, at last put a period to his life, at Ferrara, on the 6th of June, or, as others say, on the 8th of July, 1553.

age:

Thus died Ludovico Ariosto, a man of uncommon eminence, whether we consider him as a member of the republic of society, or of the more extensive world of literature: as the first, he acquired the affection and esteem of persons of the highest consideration; he contracted the closest intimacy with the family of Medicis, and was beloved by Leo X. the Augustus of that as the second, he was one of the few great poets who see that reputation attend their works, during their lifetime, which continues to be transmitted down to posterity; and perhaps few books have been so often printed as the Orlando, which has passed through upwards of eighty editions, and not only been rendered into all the European languages, but is said to have found its way into every part of the world*. The uncommon popularity of this author may be further gathered from the numbers that have drawn their subjects from his original t.

Il Doni, an Italian writer, in a register of the manuscript works of several poets, has attributed two pieces to Ariosto, one called RINALDO ARDITO; and the other, IL TERMINE DEL DESIDERIO; neither of which appears to have been printed t. Besides the XLVI books of his ORLANDO FURIOSO, he left behind him five books on the same story, which were first printed in addition to the

* In the year 1756, a translation of the Orlando Furioso was made in Latin verse, by the Marquis Torquato Barbolani, a colonel of horse in the emperor's service.

+ See Quadrio, List of Romanzatori, continuators and imitators of Ariosto.

Mazzuchelli.