In poetry alone did the age of the della Rovere excel that of the Montefeltri, and among the great names whom it was their pride to shelter were Ariosto and Tasso, the only ones worthy to rival those of the bards of Hell and of Love. [Illustration: SUPPOSED PORTRAIT OF ARIOSTO _After the picture by Titian in the National Gallery_] LUDOVICO ARIOSTO[*157] was born of noble parentage at Reggio, in 1474, and, after a precocious struggle against the uncongenial legal career for which he was intended, was left by his father to follow the bent of his genius in favour of general literature.[*158] From an early age he had composed dramas on Thisbe and similar themes, and had secretly drilled his brothers and sisters to perform them; but when about seventeen, his youthful inclination was gratified by accompanying Duke Ercole I. to Pavia and Milan, for diversion, and to enact certain comedies. These boyish efforts have not been preserved, but the Cassaria and Suppositi, composed in 1494, engraft upon classic models the licentious speech of his age. Though well-born, he had the double misfortune to require a patron, and to find an ungrateful one in Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, whose ferocious character and lax morals exceeded even the ordinary licence then permitted to members of the Sacred College, and whose taste for literature, or perhaps emulation of a prevailing fashion, led him to favour men of genius. The services of Ariosto were invoked, as a soldier and diplomatist, when Ferrara was exposed to imminent danger in the wars following the League of Cambray. As ambassador to Julius II. in 1512, he braved perils greater perhaps than those of the field; but his fine temper and knowledge of the world ensured his safety, and bespoke the regard even of that domineering Pontiff, whose threats mellowed into favours before his conciliatory bearing. [Footnote *157: I shall not attempt to give a bibliography, however scanty, of Ariosto. He has really nothing to do with Urbino, and the work done concerning him would fill a library. The best life after those of Baretti, Campori, and Baruffaldi is that of Cappelli prefacing the _Lettere_ (Hoepli, Milano, 1887). The best edition of his poems is that of PAPINI (Firenze, Sansoni, 1903). For _Bibliographia Ariostesca_, see FERRAZZI (Bassano, Pozzato, 1881). For the controversy, Ariosto-Tasso, see VIVALDI, _La Più Grande polemica del Cinquecento_ (Catanzaro, Caliò, 1895). Consult also EDMUND GARDNER, _Dukes and Poets at Ferrara_ (Constable, 1904), a charming and a learned book.] [Footnote *158: Ariosto has told us in great part his own life in his _Satire_; best edition that of Tambara (Livorno, 1903).]