e. From the quiet regularity of the sheltered life which
she had led at Ferrara by her mother's side, she suddenly found herself
transplanted to the gayest and most splendid court in Italy, surrounded
by every luxury that wealth could give and every beautiful object that
taste could devise. The bravest captains and the most accomplished
artists of the day were at her feet, ready to obey her orders and
gratify her smallest fancy. Leonardo and Bramante were at hand to
arrange pageants and masquerades, to paint _amorini_ on her mantelpiece
or mythological fables along the frieze of her rooms, to build elegant
pavilions, or lay out labyrinths and lakes in her garden. Bellincioni
and a dozen other poets celebrated her name and recorded her words and
actions in verse; learned scholars and commentators read Dante to her
when she cared to listen. Niccolo da Correggio not only wrote sonnets
and canzoni for her to sing but invented new patterns for her gowns; and
Cristoforo Romano laid down the sculptor's chisel to play the lyre or
viol for her pleasure. For her the wise man of Pavia, Lorenzo Gusnasco,
fashioned cunningly wrought instruments, lutes and viols inlaid with
ebony and ivory, and organs inscribed with Latin mottoes; and the
wonderful tenor, Cordier, the priest of Louvain, sang his sweetest and
most entrancing strains in the ducal chapel. For her amusement the court
jesters laughed and chattered and played their foolish tricks--Diodato,
who had followed her from Ferrara, and the witty clown Barone, the
petted favourite of Isabella d'Este and Veronica Gambara and a dozen
other great ladies. And Messer Galeazzo was ready to risk his life and
ruin his best clothes, all for the sake of his duchess. From the moment
of Beatrice's arrival at the Milanese court she won all hearts, less by
her beauty than by her vivacity and high spirits, her bright eyes and
ringing laugh, her frank gladness and keen enjoyment of life. How
favourable was the first impression which the young duchess made upon
those around her, we learn from the letters which the Ferrarese envoy
and ladies-in-waiting addressed almost daily to her anxious parents,
during the first few weeks after her marriage. Every little incident,
each word or act that is likely to please Duchess Leonora, is faithfully
reported by these good servants, in their eagerness to allay the natural
fears of the loving mother for the absent child in her brilliant but
difficult position. The