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ARIOSTO, LODOVICO (1474-1533)
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See also:ARIOSTO, LODOVICO (1474-1533) See also:Italian poet, was See also:born at Reggio, in See also:Lombardy, on the 8th of See also:September 1474. His See also:father was Niccolo Ariosto, See also:commander of the citadel of Reggio. He showed a strong inclination to See also:poetry from his earliest years, but was obliged by his father to study the law—a pursuit in which he lost five of the best years of his See also:life. Allowed at last to ARIOSTO follow his inclination, he applied himself to the study of the See also:classics under Gregorio da See also:Spoleto. But after a See also:short See also:time, during which he read the best Latin authors, he was deprived of his teacher by Gregorio's removal to See also:France as See also:tutor of See also:Francesco See also:Sforza. Ariosto thus lost the opportunity of learning See also:Greek, as he intended. His father dying soon after, he was compelled to forego his See also:literary occupations to undertake the management of the See also:family, whose affairs were embarrassed, and to provide for his nine See also:brothers and sisters, one of whom was a cripple. He wrote, however, about this time some comedies in See also:prose and a few lyrical pieces. Some of these attracted the See also:notice of the, See also:cardinal Ippolito d'See also:Este, who took the See also:young poet under his patronage and appointed him one of the gentlemen of his See also:household. This See also:prince usurped the See also:character of a See also:patron of literature, whilst the only See also:reward which the poet received for having dedicated to him the Orlando Furioso, was the question, " Where did you find so many stories, See also:Master Ludovic ?" The poet himself tells us that the cardinal was ungrateful; deplores the time which he spent under his yoke; and adds, that if he received some niggardly See also:pension, it was not to reward him for his poetry, which the See also:prelate despised, but to make some just See also:compensation for the poet's See also:running like a messenger, with the See also:risk of his life, at his See also:eminence's See also:pleasure. Nor was even this miserable See also:pittance regularly paid during the See also:period that the poet enjoyed it. The cardinal went to See also:Hungary in 1518, and wished Ariosto to accompany him. The poet excused himself, See also:pleading See also:ill See also:health, his love of study, the care of his private affairs and the See also:age of his See also:mother, whom it would have been disgraceful to leave. His excuses were not received, and even an interview was denied him. Ariosto then boldly said, that if his eminence thought to have bought a slave by assigning him the scanty pension of 75 crowns a See also:year, he was mistaken and might withdraw his boon—which it seems the cardinal did. The cardinal's See also:brother, See also:Alphonso, See also:duke of See also:Ferrara, now took the poet under his patronage. This was but an See also:act of See also:simple See also:justice, Ariosto having already distinguished himself as a diplomatist, chiefly on the occasion of two visits to See also:Rome as See also:ambassador to See also:Pope See also:Julius II. The fatigue of one of these hurried journeys brought on a complaint from which he never recovered; and on his second See also:mission he was nearly killed by See also:order of the violent pope, who happened at the time to be much incensed against the duke of Ferrara. On See also:account of the See also:war, his See also:salary of only 84 crowns a year was suspended, and it was withdrawn altogether after the See also:peace; in consequence of which Ariosto asked the duke either to provide for him, or to allow him to seek employment elsewhere. A See also:province, situated on the wildest heights of the See also:Apennines, being then without a See also:governor, Ariosto received the See also:appointment, which he held for three years. The See also:office was no See also:sinecure. The province was distracted by factions and banditti, the governor had not the requisite means to enforce his authority and the duke did little to support his See also:minister. Yet it is said that Ariosto's See also:government satisfied both the See also:sovereign and the See also:people confided to his care; and a See also:story is added of his having, when walking out alone, fallen in with a party of banditti, whose See also:chief, on discovering that his See also:captive was the author of Orlando Furioso, humbly apologized for not having immediately shown him the respect which was due to his See also:rank. Although he had little See also:reason to be satisfied with his office, he refused an See also:embassy to Pope See also:Clement VII. offered to him by the secretary of the duke, and spent the See also:remainder of his life at Ferrara, See also:writing comedies, superintending their performance as well as the construction of a See also:theatre, and correcting his Orlando Furioso, of which the See also:complete edition was published only a year before his See also:death. He died of See also:consumption of,. the 6th of See also:June 1533.
That Ariosto was honoured and respected by the first men of his age is a fact; that most of the princes of See also:Italy showed him See also:great partiality is equally true; but it is not less so that their patronage was limited to See also:kind words. It is not known that he ever received any substantial See also:mark of their love for literature; he lived and died poor. He proudly wrote on the entrance of a See also:house built by himself,
" Parva, sed apta mihi, sed nulli obnoxia, sed non
Sordida, parta meo sed tamen aere domus;"
which serves to show the incorrectness of the assertion of flatterers, followed by See also:Tiraboschi, that the duke of Ferrara built that house for him. The only one who seems to have given anything to Ariosto as a reward for his poetical See also:talent was the See also:marquess del See also:Vasto, who assigned him an See also:annuity of Too crowns on the revenues of Casteleone in Lombardy; but it was only paid, if ever, from the end of 1531. That he was crowned as poet by See also: He had no issue by his wife, but he See also:left two natural sons by different mothers. His Latin poems do not perhaps deserve to be noticed: in the age of Flaminio, See also:Vida, See also:Fracastoro and See also:Sannazaro, better things were due from a poet like Ariosto. His lyrical compositions show the poet, although they do not seem worthy of his See also:powers. His comedies, of which he wrote four, besides one which he left unfinished, are avowedly imitated from See also:Plautus and See also:Terence; and although native critics may admire in them the elegance of the diction, the liveliness of the See also:dialogue and the novelty of some scenes, few will feel See also:interest either in the subject or in the characters, and it is hard to approve the immoral passages by which they are disfigured, however grateful these might be to the audiences and patrons of theatrical representations in Ariosto's own See also:day. Of all the See also:works of Ariosto, the most solid See also:monument of his fame is the Orlando Furioso, the extraordinary merits of which have See also:cast into oblivion the numberless See also:romance poems which inundated Italy during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. The popularity which an earlier poem on the same theme, Orlando Innamorato, by See also:Boiardo, enjoyed in Ariosto's time, cannot be well conceived, now that the See also:enthusiasm of the See also:crusades, and the interest which was attached to a war against the Moslems, have passed away. Boiardo wrote and read his poem at the See also:court of Ferrara, but died before he was able to finish it. Many poets undertook the difficult task of its completion; but it was reserved for Ariosto both to finish and to surpass, his See also:original. Boiardo did not, perhaps, yield to Ariosto either in vigour or in richness of See also:imagination, but he lived in a less refined age, and died before he was able to recast or even finish the poetical romance which he had written under the impulse of his exuberant See also:fancy. Ariosto, on the other See also:hand, See also:united to a powerful imagination an elegant and cultivated See also:taste. He began to write his great poem about 1503, and after having consulted the first men of the age of See also:Leo X., he published it in 1516, in only 40 cantos (extended afterwards to 46); and up to the moment of his death never ceased to correct and improve both the subject and the See also:style. It is in this latter quality that he excels, and for which he had assigned him the name of Divino Lodovico. Even when he jests, he never compromises his dignity; and in pathetic description or narrative he excites the reader's deepest feelings. In his machinery he displays a vivacity of fancy with which no other poet can See also:vie; but henever lets his fancy carry him so far as to omit to employ, with an See also:art See also:peculiar to himself, those simple and natural See also:pencil-strokes which, by imparting to the most extraordinary feats a See also:colour of reality, satisfy the reason without disenchanting the imagination. The death of Zerbino, the complaints of See also:Isabella, the effects of discord among the See also:Saracens, the See also:flight of Astolfo to the See also:moon, the See also:passion which causes Orlando's madness, teem with beauties of every variety. The supposition that the poem is not connected throughout is wholly unfounded; there is a connexion which, with a little See also:attention, will become evident. The love of Ruggero and Bradamante forms the See also:main subject of the Furioso; every See also:part of it, except some episodes, depend upon this subject; and the poem ends with their See also:marriage.
The first complete edition of the Orlando Furioso was published at Ferrara in 1532, as noted above. The edition of Morali (See also:Milan, 1818) follows the See also:text of the 1532 edition with great correctness. Of See also:editions published in See also:England, those of See also:Baskerville (See also:Birmingham, 1773) and See also:Panizzi (See also:London, 1834) are the most important. The indifferent See also:translations into See also:English of See also:Sir See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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