(Lodovico), the famous Italian poet, and author of Orlando Furioso, was born at the castle of Reggio in Lombardy in 1474. His father, who was major-domo to Duke Hercules, lived to the extent of his fortune, so left but little at his death. Ariosto, from his childhood, showed great marks of genius, especially in poetry; and wrote a comedy in verse on the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, which his brothers and sisters played. His father being utterly unlearned, and rather regarding profit than his son's inclination, compelled him to study the civil law, in which having plodded some years to no purpose, he quitted it for more pleasing studies; yet often lamented, as Ovid and Petrarch did before him, and our own Milton since*, that his father banished him from the mules.

At the age of 24, Ariosto lost his father, and found himself perplexed with family affairs. However, in about five years he was, for his good parts, taken into the service of Don Hippolito, cardinal of Este. At this time he had written nothing but a few sonnets; but now he resolved to make a poem, and chose Bayardo's Orlando Inamorato for a ground work. However, he was prevented writing for a great many years, and was chosen as a fit person to go on an embassy to Pope Julio II. where he gave such satisfaction, that he was sent again, underwent many dangers and difficulties, and at his return was highly favoured. Then, at his leisure, he again applied himself to his poem; but, soon after, he incurred the cardinal's displeasure for refusing to accompany him into Hungary; by which he was so discouraged, that he deferred writing for 14 years, even till the cardinal's death. After that, he finished by degrees, in great perfection, that which he began with great expectation. Duke Astolfo offered him great promotions if he would serve him; but preferring liberty to grandeur, he refused this and other great offers from princes and cardinals, particularly from Leo X. from all whom he received notwithstanding great presents. The Duke of Ferrara delighted so much in his comedies, of which he wrote five, that he built a stage on purpose to have them played in his court, and enabled our poet to build himself a house in Ferrara with a pleasant garden, where he used to compose his poems, which were highly esteemed by all the princes in Italy, who sent him many presents; but he said, "he would not sell his liberty for the best cardinal's hat in Rome." It was but a small, though convenient house: being asked, why he had not built it in a more magnificent manner, since he had given such noble descriptions of sumptuous palaces, beautiful porticos, and pleasant fountains, in his Orlando Furioso? he replied, That words were cheaper laid together than stones. Upon the door was the following inscription:

*Parva, sed opta mihi, sed nulli obnoxia, sed non Sordida, parta meo sed tamen are, domus.*

Which Mr Harrington thus translates:

This house is small, but fit for me, but hurtful unto none; But yet not fluttish, as you see, yet paid for with mine own.

In his diet he was temperate, and so careless of dainties, that he was fit to have lived in the world when they fed upon acorns. Whether he was ever married, is uncertain. He kept company with one Alexandria, to whom, it was reported, he was married privately, and a lady Genevera, whom he flily mentions in the 24th book of his Orlando, as poets are apt to intermix with their fictions some real amours of their own. He was urged to go ambassador to pope Clement, but would by no means accept this embassy. He translated the Menecmi of Plautus: and all his own comedies were so esteemed, that they were frequently acted by persons of the first quality; and when his Lena was first represented, Ferdinand of Este, afterwards Marquis of Maffa, so far honoured the piece as to speak the prologue. He began one of his comedies in his father's lifetime, when the following incident shows the remarkable talent he had for poetry. His father one day rebuked him sharply, charging him with some great fault; but all the while he returned him no answer. Soon after, his brother began on the same subject; but he easily refuted him, and, with strong arguments, justified his own behaviour. "Why then (said his brother) did you not satisfy my father?" "In truth (said Ludovico) I was thinking of a part in my comedy; and methought my father's speech to me was so suited to the part of an old man's chiding his son, that I forgot I was concerned in it myself, and considered it only to make it a part of my play." It is also reported of Ariosto, that coming by a potter's shop, he heard him singing a stave out of his Orlando, with so bad a grace, that, out of all patience, he broke with his stick several of his pots. The potter, in a pitiful tone, asking what he meant by wronging a poor man that had never injured him? "You rascal (he replied), I have not done thee half the wrong thou hast done me: for I have broken but two or three pots of thine, not worth so many halfpence; whereas thou hast broken and mangled a stanza of mine worth a mark of gold."

Ariosto was tall, of a melancholy complexion, and so absorbed in study and meditation, that he often forgot himself. His picture was drawn by Titian in a masterly manner. He was honoured with the laurel by the hands of the emperor Charles V. He was naturally affable, always assuming less than was his due, yet never putting up a known injury even from his superiors. He was so fearful on the water, that, whenever he went out of a ship, he would see others go before him; and, on land, he would alight from his horse on the least apprehension of danger. He was of an amorous disposition, and left two natural sons. He enjoyed the friendship of the most eminent men of learning of his time, most of whom he mentions with great respect in the last canto of his Orlando Furioso. His constitution was but weakly, so that he was obliged to have recourse to physicians the greatest part of his life. He bore his last sickness with great resolution and serenity; and died at Ferrara the 8th of July 1533, according to Sir John Harrington, being then 59 years of age. He was interred in the church of the Benedictine monks, who, contrary to their custom, attended his funeral. He had a bust erected to him, and the following epitaph, written by himself, inscribed upon his tomb:

Ludovici Ariosti humantur osfa Sub hoc marmore, seu sub hac humo, seu Sub quidquid voluit benignus haeres, Sive haerede benignior comes, seu Opportunius incidens viator: Nam licere haud potuit futura; sed nec Tanti erat, vacuum sibi cadaver. Ut urnam cuperet parare, Vivens ista tamen sibi paravit, Quae scribi voluit suo fulvo pulchro, Olim si quod haberet id lepulchrum: Ne cum spiritus hoc brevi peracto Precripto spatio misello artus, Quos ægre ante reliquerat, reposcat, Hac et hac cinerem huc et huc revellere Dum noceat proprium, diu vagetur.