Antonio Tebaldéo, a poet in the time of Ariosto; he died of a deep melancholy. When the victorious Charles V returned from his conquest in Africa, and passed in triumph before the house of Tebaldéo, he ordered his doors and windows to be shut, that he might not see him, being offended that he had not taken vengeance for the sack of Rome. Hercules Strozza, of Ferrara, was son of Tito the poet, but excelled his father; his passion for the fair sex was the occasion of his death. He was deeply in love with a noble and beautiful widow named Taurella, whom he married, but was afterwards assassinated by order of his rival, Alphonso, duke of Ferrara. ↩
Isabella, daughter of Hercules, duke of Ferrara, and wife to the marquis of Mantua. ↩
Both named Gian Jacobi (John James), and Mantuans by birth. Calandra wrote on amorous subjects, in verse and prose. Some editions read Gran Jacobi, but Gian Jacobi is that of the authentic one. ↩
Elizabeth was sister to Francesco Gonzago, marquis of Mantua, and wife to Guidobaldo, duke of Urbino. Eleanor, daughter to the beforementioned marquis, and afterwards to Francesco Maria dalle Rovere, who was, by means of Julius II, created duke of Urbino. ↩
Sadoletto, first a bishop, and then a cardinal, created by Paul III He published many theological subjects, and was an excellent poet; Bembo called him his colleague, on account of the similarity of their manners. Bembo composed a book in praise of him and the wife of Guidobaldo. Sadoletto was secretary to Pope Leo X, and signed the diploma granted to Ariosto’s poem; he wrote two poems, called “Curtius” and “Laocoön”; he died at Rome, anno 1547, aged 70. ↩
Castiglione, of Mantua, author of the Cortegiano; he wrote also Cleopatra in heroic verse; he was sent by Clement ambassador to Charles V, and by him made a bishop. Mutio Aurelio composed many things, being an academician of Rome in the time of Leo X; he was killed by a blow given him by one of his enemies. ↩
Natural daughter of the duke of Ferrara, allied by marriage to the family of the Bentivogli of Bologna. ↩
Camillo Paleotto, a courier in the court of cardinal Bibiena, of Bologna. ↩
Apollo, who, when banished from heaven, kept sheep on the banks of the Amphrysus. ↩
The Isaurus, now called La Foglia, runs into the Adriatic near Pesaro; which, it is the vulgar opinion (says an Italian commentator), derived its ancient name of Pisaurum from the Roman gold having been weighed there. ↩
Guido Posthumus, who celebrated the praises of Lucretia Bentivoglia. ↩
Diana Este, a lady of excellent beauty, but of haughty deportment and manners. ↩
Of Ferrara, and a canon of the church, an elegant writer in prose and verse. ↩
Parthia and Mauritania. ↩
Marco Cavallo, of the city of Ancona; he composed many verses; he was extremely addicted to gaming, and was at last found dead in his bed, with five hundred crowns tied to his arm. The play on words in the original is necessarily lost. ↩
Daughter of Hercules of Ferrara. ↩
Nicolo di Correggio, held in great esteem by the Italian nobility, and chiefly by Hercules I. He wrote in octave stanzas a poem called Psyche, and another called Aurora. Correggio is the name of the castle held by the illustrious family of the Correggios of Parma. Timotheo Benedèo of Ferrara, a man of literature. ↩
The Po, and the poplars into which Phaethon’s sisters were metamorphosed. ↩
Hoole observes, hesitatingly, that some think Ariosto may have figured his mistress and himself in these nameless statues. The reader will, I dare say, very unhesitatingly come to this conclusion, But who this mistress was is a more doubtful speculation. Maffei, in his Storia della Letteratura Italiana, remarks, that Baruffaldi, in his life of the poet, and Frizzi, in his Memorie storiche delgi Ariosti, relate that he was privately married to Alessandra Benucci, the widow of Tito Strozzi, and that the verses, on which I am commenting, relate to her. ↩
The story of the enchanted cup is to be found in romances and fables; but Ariosto was the first who spiced the draught, seasoning the story with that humour and good sense which are so peculiarly his characteristics. ↩
He calls it so either because Mark of Cornwall, the husband of Yseult, was more notorious as the “cuckold king” than his cotemporary Arthur, or (what is more probable) on account of the equivocal meaning of Cornovaglia. ↩
Benaeus is the ancient name of the Lago di Garda; the city is Mantua; and the “walls founded by the Agenorian snake” those of Thebes, built by the follower of Cadmus, son of Agenor; viz. those who sprung from the teeth of the serpent which Cadmus had slain. ↩
Morgue, the fay, or Morgana, according to the romances of the Round Table, was sister to King Arthur. This story of her may be found in many romances, fabliaux, and ballads; among other collections, in Percy’s Reliques, etc. ↩
Ferrara; which, according to common opinion, was founded by fugitive Paduans, the supposed descendants of the followers of Antenor. ↩
An island on the Po termed Belvedere,
