The astronomical year beginning with the entrance of the sun into Aries. ↩
The island of Phoeacia. ↩
Alphonso the first was son of Hercules the first, and father of Hercules the second, dukes of Ferrara. ↩
Manto, the daughter of Tiresias, is not represented in mythology as the foundress of Mantua, but as the mother of Ocnus or Bianor, who built, and named, it after her. ↩
Not the more famous emperor of that name, but the successor of Justinus the younger, and famous for his immense treasures. ↩
Is a torrent that flows into the Reno; which river in this place occupies the ancient channel of that branch of the Po called Primaro, or Po di primaro. ↩
This is the navigable canal mentioned by Pliny which was fed by the waters of the Po, and ran from that river to the port of Ravenna. It seems to have been gradually filled up, and no trace of it is found in modern maps. ↩
To wit, the garden of Falerina; the destruction of which forms one of the wildest and most beautiful episodes of the Innamorato. ↩
Orlando. ↩
The Roman emperors were deified as soon as dead; and, as the Grecian emperors were their successors, Ariosto makes Rogero destine the same honours to Leo. ↩
Croesus, Dionysius, and Polycrates. ↩
Mathias Corvinus. ↩
So I translate Novengrado, as this city is called in the original; but I cannot conjecture what place is meant by Beleticche, which is mentioned in the succeeding stanza; and leave it as I find it. ↩
Leo’s romantic generosity to Rogero, and injustice and cruelty to his jailer, will, perhaps, to many, hardly seem, consistent with the chivalric character with which Ariosto has invested him; I think, however, to speak familiarly, that the poet knew what he was about, and that the conduct of Leo is not to be considered as unnatural; indeed it differs little from that of the most chivalric of our monarchs upon a very memorable occasion. Leo honours and benefits the knight who has waged desperate war upon his father and himself, and murders the burgher-Castellain, against every principle of justice and humanity. Edward III threatened with death, with the apparent intention of executing his threat, six citizens of Calais, who had done their duty by assisting in the defence of their town against him in legitimate warfare; and afterwards honoured and rewarded a troop of knights who treacherously attacked it, and failed in their enterprise; men whose conduct might have justified his severest rigour on their falling into his power. ↩
Pegasus. ↩
Cillarus was the horse of Castor, and Arion that of Adrastus. ↩
My friend, Mr. Panizzi, has furnished me with most of the following notes. But notwithstanding his learning and industry, well proved by his excellent work on the romantic narrative poetry of the Italians, some of the persons celebrated have escaped even his researches. ↩
Of these ladies I know nothing. ↩
Veronica da Gambera was daughter of Count Gian-Francesco Gambera, and married to Giberto X, Lord of Correggio, whom she lost nine years after their marriage, when she was scarcely thirty-three years of age. She caused to be engraved on the door of her apartment the two beautiful lines,
“Ille meos primus qui me sibijunxit amores
Abstulit, ille habeat secum servetque sepulcro.”
Virgil, Aeneid IV 28.
“No! he who had my vows, shall ever have;
Dryden.
For, whom I lov’d on earth, I worship in the grave.”
And she was more firm of purpose than Dido. She governed Correggio during the minority of her two sons, Girolamo and Ippolito. Her letters are remarkable for their easy elegance, and her poetry for its loftiness and vigour of ideas. Her conduct was irreproachable; and she held a literary correspondence with the greatest men of her age, of whom she was a generous patroness. Charles V visited her twice at Correggio. ↩
Hippolita Sforza, married to Alessandro Bentivòglio, of Ferrara, and is praised by Bandello (who dedicated to her the first of his novels) as a beautiful and learned woman, capable of appreciating the merit of Latin poetry. He also mentions the literary meetings which were held in her gardens at Milan, her native place.
Damigella or Domitilla Trivulcia was wife of Francesco Torello, Lord of Montecchiarugolo. She was renowned for her talents, her sweet voice, her knowledge of music, her grace, and her learning, as well as for her rare beauty. ↩
Emilia Pia was one of the brightest ornaments of the court of Urbino when it was the asylum of the muses under the Duke Guidobaldo da Montefeltro. Pia was married to Antonio, Count of Montefeltro, the duke’s brother, who left her a widow when very young. She continued to reside at the duke’s court in the most intimate friendship with Elizabetta, his wife, who also was left early a widow. Of the elegance of that refined court, of the accomplishments, beauty, and purity of morals of these two ladies, Castiglione’s Cortigiano may give an idea. See also above, canto XXVI stanzas 49 and 50, and canto XLIII stanza 148.
I do not know who Margherite, Angela Borgia, and Graziosa were. Since this was written, Mr. Panizzi has added the following note to his edition of Ariosto, published 1834.
“I am now enabled to give some particulars respecting these ladies of the Correggio family, from the splendid work of Litta Famiglie celebri Italiane. Mamma (see stanza III)
