Ariosto’s comedies must be considered along with the Italian drama in general. The most important of his minor poetical works are the Satires, rather in the vein of Horace than of Juvenal, and, in truth, hardly satires at all in any proper sense of the term. They are good metrical talk on light subjects, elegant, chatty, and discursive. His own disappointments are alluded to very good-humouredly. His lyrical pieces are not remarkable, except one impressive sonnet, in which he appears to express compunction for the irregularities of his life: _How may I deem That thou in heaven wilt hear, O Lord divine, my fruitless prayer to Thee, If for all clamour of the tongue Thou see That yet unto the heart the net is dear? Sunder it Thou, who all behold’st so clear, Nor heed the stubborn will’s oppugnancy, And this do Thou perform, ere, fraught with me, Charon to Tartarus his pinnace steer. By habitude of ill that veils Thy light, And sensual lure, and paths in error trod, Evil from good no more I know aright. Ruth for frail soul submissive to the rod May move a mortal; in her own despite To drag her heavenward is work of God._ Late in life the poet married; whether he also reformed seems doubtful. His amours, however, were unaccompanied by tragedy or scandal. In fact, this most wildly imaginative of the Italian poets seems to have had less than most poets of the poetic temperament, and the amiability for which he is universally praised was not accompanied by any remarkable acuteness of feeling. His virtues were those of an excellent man of the world; he was liberal, courteous, sensible, just, and sincere.