Myself I own by obstacles stronger spelled
Than in his labored theme was ever bard
Whose verses, light or grave, brought problems hard;
For, as of eyes quelled by the sun's bright burst,
E'en so the exquisite memory of that smile
Doth me of words and forming mind beguile.
Not from that day when on this earth I first
Her face beheld, up to this moment, song
Have I e'er failed to strew her path along,
But now I own my limping numbers lame;
An artist sometimes finds his powers surpassed,
And mine succumbs to beauty's lance at last.
And I must leave her to a greater fame
Than any that my trumpet gives, which sounds,
Now, hastening notes, which mark this labor's bounds.
_Wilstach's Translation, Paradiso, Canto XXX._
THE ORLANDO FURIOSO.
Ludovico Ariosto, author of the Orlando Furioso was born in Reggio, Italy,
Sept. 8, 1474. In 1503 he was taken into the service of the Cardinal
Hippolito d'Este, and soon after began the composition of the Orlando
Furioso, which occupied him for eleven years. It was published in 1516,
and brought him immediate fame. Ariosto was so unkindly treated by his
patron that he left him and entered the service of the cardinal's brother,
Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara. By him he was appointed governor of a province,
in which position he repressed the banditti by whom it was infested, and
after a successful administration of three years, returned to Ferrara to
reside.
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