Bradamant is also a character in the Innamorato, and her story, which forms one of the prettiest episodes in the work, is afterwards taken up where it was dropped by Boiardo. ↩
Bayardo, the famous steed of Rinaldo, is said to have been found by Malagigi, the wizard knight, and cousin to Rinaldo, in a grotto, together with a suit of arms and the sword Fusberta, under the watch of a dragon, whom he charmed. Having obtained the prize, he bestowed it upon Rinaldo. ↩
Angelica, then in love with Rinaldo, through the influence of the fountain of Love, and into whose hands Bayardo fell at Albracca, took care of him, and afterwards returned him to his master, who was among her enemies, he being then under the influence of the Fountain of Hate, as is seen in the text.
One source of love and one of burning hate.
The idea of these two fountains is perhaps taken from Claudian’s picture of the gardens of Venus (De Nupt. Honor. et Mar. l. 69.):
Two fountains glitter to the solar beam;
This spouts a sweet, and that a bitter stream;
Where Cupid dips his darts, as poets dream.
The idea of miraculous fountains, (originating probably in the physical effects of some waters,) seems to have been a favourite classical fiction, as exemplified in the two springs in Boeotia, of which one was supposed to increase, and the other to take away, the memory. The belief in these was rife during the middle ages, and indeed extended to a later period; as we find the early discoverers reported, among other wonders, a fountain of youth.
It is possible, moreover, that with the idea of Claudian’s two fountains may have been mixed up that of Cupid’s two arrows, one of lead and the other of gold; of which the golden one was supposed to instil love, and the leaden hate. ↩
Such accusations are frequent in the Innamorato, and seem, as well as the adventure in the Fata Morgana’s garden, where Rinaldo’s rapacious conduct is contrasted with the disinterestedness of Orlando, to justify Sancho in stigmatizing the son of Aymon and his followers as “greater thieves than Cacus.” In fact, Renaud de Montauban, or Rinaldo di Mont’ Albano, appears to have been the governor of a fortress on the Spanish frontier, and was probably distinguished by what may be considered as the most characteristic attribute of a borderer. ↩
Fusberta is the name of Rinaldo’s sword. ↩
Bradamant. ↩
The story of Merlin is so familiar that it stands in no need of comment, and it is scarcely necessary to add, that the account given here of his death does not vary from the ancient romancers’ relations, except in that Ariosto has changed the scene from Britain, the original seat of all sorcery and chivalry, to France. ↩
The beginning of this pedigree is, of course, purely ideal. ↩
A five-sided instrument, as the name imports, constructed with some mystical reference to the five senses, and considered as the best defence against demons in the act of conjuration, etc. It is termed signum Salamonis by the cabalists, (the Solomon’s seal of which we hear so many wonders in Eastern tales,) and is still relied upon for its powers by the ignorant in Italy, and, probably, elsewhere: though in England it is only known through books. ↩
This Rizieri, whom Ariosto calls Ruggiero, died without a son. ↩
Pope Adrian called in Pepin to his assistance against Desiderius, the last of the Lombard kings, who was expelled from Italy; and it is for supposed services in this warfare that Rogero, who lived before the time of Charlemagne, is rewarded by that sovereign with the fiefs of Calaon and Este. ↩
Uberto, Count of Este and Commacchio. ↩
Alberto defeated the Emperor Berengarius the first, who had taken Milan. Hugh, spoken of as bearing the serpents, afterwards the symbol of the duchy, was the son of Albert, as stated in the text. ↩
The district of Lombardy, in which are situated Milan, Como, Pavia, Lodi, Novara, and Vercelli, the ancient possessions of the Insubri. Azzo the first succeeded to the government of Milan, but was obliged to fly the persecution of Berengarius, and take refuge with Otho the first Duke of Saxony, taking with him his wife, then big with Albertazzo. ↩
Albertazzo is said to have counselled the calling in of Otho, mentioned above, to the attack and discomfiture of the third Berengarius and his son. He married Alda, the daughter of Otho. ↩
Gregory V having fled from Rome, where he was insulted by the citizens, took refuge with the Emperor Otho, whereupon another pope was elected, who, in his turn, retired from this Hugh (Ugo), Otho’s general, into the castle of St. Angelo. Hugh replaced Gregory in the papal chair. I cannot, however, explain how he could be said to take Otho as well as Gregory out of the hands of the Romans, as Otho was besieging the castle of St. Angelo. He may indeed be said to have broken up the siege, by removing the cause of it. ↩
Hugh and Fulke (Ugo and Fulco) were sons of Albertazzo and Alda, to whose duchy of Saxony, which had devolved to her at the death of her father Otho, Fulke succeeded, making over his possessions in Italy to his brother Hugh. It is from this sucker that the present royal family of England is derived. ↩
Azzo II had sons Bertoldo and Albertazzo, who resisted Henry II; in opposition to whom, Rodolph, Duke of Saxony, was
