The older comedies of Italy become a subject of interest to us, for one of the earliest was written by Bernardo Bibbiena, a friend of Guidobaldo I.,[95] and was first performed in the palace of Urbino. The revival of the comic drama may be traced to Ferrara; and, though the pieces originally represented there before Duke Ercole I. were translations from Plautus and Terence,[96] Ariosto made several boyish attempts to vary the entertainment by dramatic compositions of his own. This was just before 1500, and to about the same time Tiraboschi ascribes the comedies of Machiavelli. There is thus much probability that these attempts preceded the _Calandra_ of Bibbiena, which has, however, been generally considered the oldest regular comedy in the language. It seems also to have been the first that attracted the notice of his patron Leo X., whose delight in comic performances was excessive; and, although now superseded by pieces more in accordance with the age, it long enjoyed a continued popularity. Giovo celebrates its easy and acute wit, and the talent of its mobile and merry author for scenic representation, which must have greatly tended to ensure its success. It is doubtful in what year it was played at the Vatican in presence of his Holiness, on the visit of Isabella, Marchioness of Mantua, when the decorations painted by Baldassar Peruzzi obtained unbounded applause. But this probably happened after its performance at Urbino, which collateral evidence discovered by Pungileone, has fixed as taking place in the spring of 1513.[*97] This gorgeous entertainment, and the scenery executed for it by Timoteo della Vite and Girolamo Genga, are commemorated in a letter of Castiglione, which throws light upon the manner of such festivities in that mountain metropolis. [Footnote 95: See above, pp. 65-69.] [Footnote 96: See these described, vol. I., App. xiii.] [Footnote *97: Cf. VERNARECCI, _Di Alcune Rappresentazioni Drammatiche alla Corte d'Urbino nel 1513_ in the _Arch. St. per le Marche e per l'Umbria_, vol. III., p. 181 _et seq._] "The scene was laid in an open space between a city-wall and its farthest houses. From the stage downwards, there was most naturally represented the wall, with two great towers descending from the upper part of the hall, on one of which were bagpipers, on the other trumpeters, with another wall of fine proportion flanking them; thus the hall figured as the town-ditch, and was traversed by two walls to support the water. The side next the seats was ornamented with Trojan cloth, over which there projected a large cornice, with this Latin inscription, in great white letters upon an azure ground, extending across that part of the theatre:-- "'BOTH WARS ABROAD AND SPORTS AT HOME GREAT CÆSAR PATRONISED; LIKE DOUBLE CARE BY MIGHTY MINDS 'MONGST US SHOULD STILL BE PRIZED.'