ol. p. 51.]

[Footnote 22:

"La novita del loco e stata tanta,
C' ho fatto come augel che muta gabbia,
Che molti giorni resta the non canta."

For the rest of the above particulars see the fifth satire, beginning
"Il vigesimo giorno di Febbraio." I quote the exordium, because these
compositions are differently numbered in different editions. The one I
generally use is that of Molini--_Poesie Varie di Lodovico Ariosto, con
Annotazioni_. Firenze, 12mo, 1824.]

[Footnote 23: _Italian Library_, p. 52. I quote Baretti, because he
speaks with a corresponding enthusiasm. He calls the incident "a very
rare proof of the irresistible powers of poetry, and a noble comment on
the fables of Orpheus and Amphion," &c. The words "noble comment" might
lead us to fancy that Johnson had made some such remark to him while
relating the story in Bolt Court. Nor is the former part of the sentence
unlike him: "A very rare proof, _sir_, of the irresistible powers of
poetry, and a noble comment," &c. Johnson, notwithstanding his classical
predilections, was likely to take much interest in Ariosto on account
of his universality and the heartiness of his passions. He had a secret
regard for "wildness" of all sorts, provided it came within any pale
of the sympathetic. He was also fond of romances of chivalry. On one
occasion he selected the history of Felixmarte of Hyrcania as his course
of reading during a visit.]

[Footnote 24: The deed of gift sets forth the interest which it becomes
princes and commanders to take in men of letters, particularly poets,
as heralds of their fame, and consequently the special fitness of the
illustrious and superexcellent poet Lodovico Ariosto for receiving from
Alfonso Davallos, Marquess of Vasto, the irrevocable sum of, &c. &c.
Panizzi has copied the substance of it from Baruffaldi, vol. i. p. 67.]

[Footnote 25: _Orlando Furioso_ canto xxxiii. st. 28.]

[Footnote 26:

"Inveni portum: spes et fortuna valete;
Sat me lusistis; Indite nune alios."

My port is found: adieu, ye freaks of chance;
The dance ye led me, now let others dance.]

[Footnote 27:

"The great Emathian conqueror bade spare
The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower
went to the ground," &c.]

[Footnote 28: This medal is inscribed "Ludovicus Ariost. Poet." and has
the bee-hive on the reverse, with the motto "Pro bono malum." Ariosto was
so fond of this device, that in his fragment called the _Five Cantos_ (c.