Chapter V: Part THE SECOND (3)

_Satira_ vi.

This satire was addressed to Bembo. The cardinal is said to have asked a visitor from Germany whether Brother Martin really believed what he preached; and to have expressed the greatest astonishment when told that he did. Cardinals were then what augurs were in the time of Cicero--wondering that they did not burst out a-laughing in one another's faces. This was bad; but inquisitors are a million times worse. By the Nicoletto here mentioned by Ariosto in company with Luther, we are to understand (according to the conjecture of Molini) a Paduan professor of the name of Niccolò Vernia, who was accused of holding the Pantheistic opinions of Averroes.]

[Footnote 42: Take a specimen of this leap-frog versification from the prologue to the _Cassaria_:--

"Questa commedia, ch'oggi _recitàtavi_
Sarà, se nol sapete, è la _Cassària_,
Ch'un altra volta, già vent'anni _pàssano_,
Veder si fece sopra questi _pùlpiti_,
Ed allora assai piacque a tutto il _pòpolo_,
Ma non ne ripostò già degno _prèmio_,
Che data in preda a gl'importuni ed _àvidi_
Stampator fu," &c.

This through five comedies in five acts!]

[Footnote 43: In the verses entitled _Bacchi Statua_.]

[Footnote 44: Essays and Letters, _ut sup._ vol. ii. p. 125.]

[Footnote 45:

"Le lacrime scendean tra gigli e rôse,
Là dove avvien ch' alcune sè n' inghiozzi."

Canto xii. st. 94.

Which has been well translated by Mr. Rose

And between rose and lily, from her eyes
Tears fall so fast, she needs must swallow some."]

[Footnote 46: Essay on the _Narrative and Romantic Poems of the Italians_, in the _Quarterly Review_, vol. xxi.]

[Footnote 47:

"Vengono e van, come onda al primo margo
Quando piacevole aura il mar combatte."

Canto vii. st. 14.]

[Footnote 48:

"Con semplici parole e puri incanti."

Canto vi. st. 38.]

[Footnote 49: Canto xiv. st. 79.]

[Footnote 50: Canto xxviii. st. 98.]

[Footnote 51: Canto XV. st. 57.]

[Footnote 52: _Id_. st. 23.]

[Footnote 53: Canto xvi. st. 56.]

[Footnote 54: Canto xviii. st. 142.]

[Footnote 55: Canto XVII. st. 12.]

[Footnote 56: _Essay_, as above, p.534.]

[Footnote 57: _Boiardo and Ariosto_, vol. iv. p. 318.]

[Footnote 58: _Life_, in Panizzi p. ix.]

[Footnote 59: _Opere di Galileo_, Padova, 1744, vol. i. p. lxxii.]

THE

ADVENTURES OF ANGELICA.

Argument.

PART I.--Angelica flies from the camp of Charlemagne into a wood, where she meets with a number of her suitors. Description of a beautiful natural bower. She claims the protection of Sacripant, who is overthrown, in passing, by an unknown warrior that turns out to be a damsel. Rinaldo comes up, and Angelica flies from both. She meets a pretended hermit, who takes her to some rocks in the sea, and casts her asleep by magic. They are seized and carried off by some mariners from the isle of Ebuda, where she is exposed to be devoured by an orc, but is rescued by a knight on a winged horse. He descends with her into a beautiful spot on the coast of Brittany, but suddenly misses both horse and lady. He is lured, with the other knights, into an enchanted palace, whither Angelica comes too. She quits it, and again eludes her suitors.

PART II.--Cloridan and Medoro, two Moorish youths, after a battle with the Christians, resolve to find the dead body of their master, King Dardinel, and bury it. They kill many sleepers as they pass through the enemy's camp, and then discover the body; but are surprised, and left for dead themselves. Medoro, however, survives his friend, and is cured of his wounds by Angelica, who happens to come up. She falls in love with and marries him. Account of their honeymoon in the woods. They quit them to set out for Cathay, and see a madman on the road.