poem those of the agreeable environs
of his chateau, and that the greater part of the names of his heroes, as
Mandricardo, Gradasse, Sacripant, Agramant and others, were merely the
names of some of his peasants, which, from their uncouthness, appeared
to him proper to be given to Saracen warriors. Be this as it may, the
_Orlando Inamorato_ deserves to be considered as one of the most
important poems in Italian literature, since it forms the first example
of the romantic epic worthy to serve as a model, and, as such,
undoubtedly produced Ariosto's _Orlando Furioso_. Gravina and Mazzuchell
have said, and succeeding writers have repeated on their authority, that
Boiardo proposed to himself as his model the _Iliad_ of Homer; that
Paris is besieged like the city of Troy; that Angelica holds the place
of Helen; and that, in short, the one poem is a sort of reflex image of
the other. In point of fact, however, the subject-matter of the poem is
derived from the _Fabulous Chronicle_ of the pseudo-Turpin; though, with
the exception of the names of Charlemagne, Roland, Oliver, and some
other principal warriors, who necessarily figure as important characters
in the various scenes, there is little resemblance between the detailed
plot of the one and that of the other. The poem, which Boiardo did not
live to finish, was printed at Scandiano the year after his death, under
the superintendence of his son Count Camillo. The title of the book is
without date; but a Latin letter from Antonia Caraffa di Reggio,
prefixed to the poem, is dated the kalends of June 1495. A second
edition, also without date, but which must have been printed before the
year 1500, appeared at Venice; and the poem was twice reprinted there
during the first twenty years of the 16th century. These editions are
the more curious and valuable since they contain nothing but the text of
the author, which is comprised in three books, divided into cantos, the
third book being incomplete. But Niccolo degli Agostini, an indifferent
poet, had the courage to continue the work commenced by Boiardo, adding
to it three books, which were printed at Venice in 1526-1531, in 4to;
and since that time no edition of the _Orlando_ has been printed without
the continuation of Agostini, wretched as it unquestionably is.
Boiardo's poem suffers from the incurable defect of a laboured and heavy
style. His story is skilfully constructed, the characters are well drawn
and sustained throughout; m