_When Oliver perceived that Forisene Accosted him with shrinking, timid grace, The pains which insupportable had been, Vanished, and to far other ills gave place: His soul is tost sweet hopes and doubts between, And you might almost 'mid these flutterings trace A dear assurance to be loved by her; For silence is Love’s best interpreter._ Not much is known of Pulci’s life except that he was the intimate friend, correspondent, and confidential agent of Lorenzo de’ Medici, and is said to have composed his poem at the request of Lorenzo’s mother, whom he celebrated after her death. The disposition of his contemporaries to attribute the finest portions of his poem to Ficino and Politian may indicate some failure on his part to sustain the poetical character in his daily walk and conversation; while the more serious passages of his poetry, especially the noble pathos of the death of Orlando, disclose an elevated soul. Orlando, standing alone among his slaughtered friends on the battlefield of Roncesvalles, is visited by the angel Gabriel, who offers him a new army, and promises that earth and sea shall tremble at his name. But Orlando prefers to follow those who are gone. The _Morgante_ was not printed till the year after Pulci’s death. His minor works include a poem of humble life, in imitation of Lorenzo’s _Nencia_, and a series of polemical sonnets against Matteo Franco, who was equally dyslogistic on his own part. Neither poet need be taken very seriously. The year preceding the appearance of the _Morgante_ (1486) saw the posthumous publication of the first part of another poem, which, from some points of view, is entitled to rank at the very head of romantic poetry. This is the _Orlando Innamorato_ of MATTEO MARIA BOIARDO, Count of Scandiano. Little is known of his life except its simple and noble outline. He was born at his family seat of Scandiano, near Reggio, in the Modenese, about 1434. Like his successors, Ariosto and Tasso, he was a favourite at the court of the Duke of Ferrara, his sovereign. He celebrated Antonia Caprara in his lyrics, and bestowed his hand upon Taddea Novellara. In his later years he was successively governor of Modena and Reggio. In his disposition he was most generous, and too clement for his arduous public duties. He composed Latin poetry, and translated several classical and other authors; and died in 1494, on the eve of the invasion of Charles VIII., prophetically bewailing the consequent ruin of Italy at the end of his unfinished _Orlando Innamorato_, which he is supposed to have begun about 1472. The greater part of this poem had been published in 1486, the continuation is said to have appeared in 1495, but the edition of 1506 is the earliest now extant.