The Orlando Furioso was completed and published shortly after Ariosto's visit to Florence; and this passage must have been written apparently not only before his marriage with Alessandra, but before he was even secure of her affection; perhaps he read it aloud to her, and while his stolen looks and faltering voice betrayed the true object of this most beautiful and refined homage, she must have felt the delicacy which had suppressed her name. In such a moment, how little could she have heeded or thought of the voice of future fame, while the accents of her lover thrilled through her heart! Alessandra removed from Florence to Ferrara, about 1519, and inhabited the Casa Strozzi, in the street of Santa Maria in Vado. The residence of Ariosto was in the Via Mirasole, at some distance. Both houses are still standing. She died in 1552, having survived the poet about nineteen years; and she was buried in the church of San Rocco at Ferrara. She bore no children to Ariosto; and her son, by her first marriage (Count Guido Strozzi), died before her. * * * * * Ariosto left two sons, whom he tenderly loved, and had educated with extreme care. The eldest, Virginio, was the son of a beautiful Contadinella, whose name was Orsolina; the mother of the youngest, Giovanbattista, was also a girl of inferior rank; her name was Maria. Neither are once mentioned or alluded to by Ariosto; but the mischievous industry of the poet's commentators has immortalized their names and their frailty. FOOTNOTES: [75] ----Non ebbe unqua pastore Di me più lieto, o più felice amore! See the canzone to Ginevra, quoted by Baruffaldi. Vita, p. 148. [76] Monti. Poesie varie, p. 88. [77] Translated by a friend. [78] Sonnet 27. [79] Stewart Rose's translation. [80] The 26th, 27th, and 28th. [81] Lycurgus, King of Thrace. [82] Ariosto. Rime. [83] The proofs may be consulted in Baruffaldi, "Vita di M. Ludovico Ariosto," published in 1807; and also in Frizzi, "Memorie della Famiglia Ariosto." [84] Baruffaldi gives some family reasons, but they are far from being satisfactory.--See VITA, in p. 159. [85] Ruscelli, Fabroni, Baruffaldi, and the late poet Monti, are all agreed on this point. [86] Orlando Furioso, c. 42, st. 93. CHAPTER XIV. SPENSER'S ROSALIND AND SPENSER'S ELIZABETH. Pass we from the Ariosto of Italy, to Spenser, our English Ariosto; the transition is natural:--they resemble each other certainly, but with a difference, and this difference reigns especially in their minor poems. The tender heart and luxuriant fancy of Spenser have thrown round his attachments all the strong interest of reality and all the charm of romance and poetry; and since we know that the first developement of his genius was owing to female influence, his Rosalind ought to have been deified for what her beauty achieved, had she possessed sufficient soul to appreciate the lustre of her conquest.