Renaissance in Italy Volume IV Part 32

Chivalry at no time took firm root in Italy, where the first act of the Communes upon their achievement of independence had been to suppress feudalism by forcing the n.o.bles to reside as burghers within their walls. The true centers of national vitality were the towns. Here the Latin race a.s.similated to itself the Teutonic elements which might, if left to flourish in the country, have given a different direction to Italian development. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the immense extension of mercantile activity, the formation of tyrannies, the secular importance of the Papacy, and the absorption of the cultivated cla.s.ses in humanistic studies, removed the people ever further from feudal traditions. Even the new system of warfare, whereby the scions of n.o.ble families took pay from citizens and priests for the conduct of military enterprises, tended to destroy the stronghold of chivalrous feeling in a nation that grew to regard the profession of arms as another branch of commerce. Still Italy could not wholly separate herself from the rest of Europe, and there remained provinces where a kind of semi-feudalism flourished. The most important of these undoubtedly was the kingdom of Naples, subject to alternate influence from France and Spain, and governed by monarchs at frequent warfare with their barons. The second was Ferrara, where the House of Este had maintained unbroken lords.h.i.+p from the period when still the Empire was a power in Italy. Here the ancient Lombard traditions of chivalry, the customs of the Marca Amorosa, and the literature of the troubadours still lingered.[561] Externally at least, the manners of the Court were feudal, however far removed its princes may have been in spirit from the ideal of knighthood. In Ferrara, therefore, more than in Florence and Venice, those cities of financiers and traders, could the romance of chivalry be seriously treated by a poet who admired the knightly virtues, and looked back upon the days of Arthur and of Roland as a golden age of honor, far removed but real. While the humanists of Florence indulged their fancy with dreams of Virgil's Saturnian reign, the baron of Ferrara refas.h.i.+oned a visionary world from the wrecks of old romance.[562]

Boiardo did not disdain to a.s.sume the style of a minstrel addressing his courtly audience with compliments and _conges_ at the beginning and ending of each canto. The first opens with these words:

Signori e cavalieri che v'adunati Per odir cose dilettose e nuove, State attenti, quieti, ed ascoltati La bella istoria che 'l mio canto muove.

But his spirit is always knightly, and he refrains from the quaint pietism of Pulci's preambles. He is no mere jongleur or _Cantatore da Banca_, but a new Sir Tristram, celebrating in heroic verse the valorous deeds and amorous emotions of which he had himself partaken. Nor does he, like Ariosto, appear before us as a courtier accomplished in the arts of flattery, or as a man of letters anxious above all things to refine his style. Neither the Court-life of Italy nor the humanism of the revival had destroyed in him the spirit of old-world freedom and n.o.ble courtesy. At the same time he was so far imbued with the culture of the Renaissance as to appreciate the value of poetic unity and to combine certain elements of cla.s.sic learning with the material of romance. Setting out with the aim of connecting all the Frankish legends in one poem, he made Orlando his hero; but he perceived that the element of love, which added so great a charm to the Arthurian Cycle, had hitherto been neglected by the minstrels of Charlemagne. He therefore resolved to tell a new tale of the mighty Roland; and the originality of his poem consisted in the fact that he treated the material of the _Chansons de Geste_ in the spirit of the Breton legends.[563] Turpin, he a.s.serts with a grave irony, had hidden away the secret of Orlando's love; but he will unfold the truth, believing that no knight was ever the less n.o.ble for his love. Accordingly the pa.s.sion of Orlando for "the fairest of her s.e.x, Angelica," like the wrath of Achilles in the _Iliad_, is the mainspring of Boiardo's poem. To his genius we owe the creation of that fascinating princess of the East, as well as the invention of the fountains of Cupid and Merlin, which cause the alternate loves and hates of his heroes and heroines--the whole of that closely-woven mesh of sentiment in which the adventures and the warlike achievements of Paladins and Saracens alike are involved.

In dealing with his subject Boiardo is serious--as serious, that is to say, as a writer of romance can be.[564] His belief in chivalry itself is earnest, though the presentation of knightly prowess runs into intentional extravagance. A dash of Italian merriment mingles with his enthusiasm; but he has none of Pulci's skeptical satiric humor, none of Ariosto's all-pervasive irony. The second thoughts of the burlesque poet or of the humorous philosopher do not cross the warp of his conception, and his exaggerations are romantic. Such a poem as the _Orlando Innamorato_ could not have been planned or executed in Italy at any other period or under any other circ.u.mstances. A few years after Boiardo's death Italy was plunged into the wars that led to her enslavement. Charles V. was born and Luther was beginning to shake Germany. The forces of the Renaissance were in full operation, destroying the faiths and fervors of the medieval world, closing the old aeon with laughter and lamentation, raising new ideals as yet imperfectly apprehended. Meanwhile Boiardo, whose life coincided with the final period of Italian independence, uttered the last note of the bygone age. His poem, chivalrous, free, joyous, with not one stain of Ariosto's servility or of Ta.s.so's melancholy, corresponded to a brief and pa.s.sing moment in the evolution of the national art. In the pure and vivid beauty which distinguish it, the sunset of chivalry and the sunrise of modern culture blend their colors, as in some far northern twilight of midsummer night. Joyousness pervades its cantos and is elemental to its inspiration--the joy of open nature, of sensual though steadfast love, of strong limbs and eventful living, of restless activity, of childlike security. Boiardo's style reminds us somewhat of Benozzo Gozzoli in painting, or of Piero di Cosimo, who used the skill of the Renaissance to express the cheerful _navete_ of a less self-conscious time. It is sad to read the last stanza of the _Innamorato_, cut short ere it was half completed by the entry of the French into Italy, and to know that so free and freshly-tuned a "native wood-note wild" would never sound again.[565] When Ariosto repieced the broken thread, the spirit of the times was changed. Servitude, adulation, irony, and the meridian splendor of Renaissance art had succeeded to independence, frankness, enthusiasm and the poetry of natural enjoyment. Far more magnificent is Ariosto's Muse; but we lack the spontaneity of the elder poet. And as the years advance, the change is more apparent toward decay. The genius of Boiardo might be compared to some high-born lad, bred in the country, pure-hearted, muscular, brave, fair to look upon. That of Ariosto is studious and accomplished with the smile of worldly sarcasm upon his lips. The elegances of Bembo and the Petrarchisti remind one of a hectic scented fop, emasculate and artificial. Aretino resembles his own _barda.s.sonacci, paggi da taverna_, flaunting meretricious charms with brazen impudence. Ta.s.so in the distance wears a hair s.h.i.+rt beneath his armor of parade; he is a Jesuit's pupil, crossing himself when he awakes from love-dreams and reveries of pleasure. It was probably the discord between Boiardo's spirit and the prevailing temper of the sixteenth century, far more than the roughness of his verse or the provinciality of his language, that caused him to be so strangely and completely forgotten. In the Italy of Machiavelli and the Borgias, of Michelangelo and Julius II., his aims, enthusiasms and artistic ideals found alike no sympathy. To cla.s.s him with his own kind, we must go beyond the Alps and seek his brethren in France or England.

Boiardo's merit as a constructive artist can best be measured by the a.n.a.lysis of his plot. Crowded as the _Orlando Innamorato_ is with incidents and episodes, and inexhaustible as may be the luxuriance of the poet's fancy, the unity of his romance is complete. From the moment of Angelica's appearance in the first canto, the whole action depends upon her movements. She withdraws the Paladins to Albracca, and forces Charlemagne to bear the brunt of Marsilio's invasion alone. She restores Orlando to the French host before Montalbano. It is her ring which frees the fated Ruggiero from Atlante's charms. The nations of the earth are in motion. East, West, and South and North send forth their countless hordes to combat; but these vast forces are controlled by one woman's caprice, and events are so handled by the poet as to make the fate of myriads waver in the balance of her pa.s.sions. We might compare Boiardo's romance to an immense web, in which a variety of scenes and figures are depicted by the constant addition of new threads. None of the old threads are wasted; not one is merely superfluous. If one is dropped for a moment and lost to sight, it reappears again. The slightest incidents lead to the gravest results. Narratives of widely different character are so interwoven as to aid each other, introducing fresh agents, combining these with those whom we have learned to know, but leaving the grand outlines of the main design untouched.

The miscellaneous details which enliven a tale of chivalry, are grouped round four chief centers--Paris, where the poem opens with the tournament that introduces Angelica, and where, at the end of the second book, all the actors are a.s.sembled for the supreme struggle between Christendom and Islam; Albracca, where Angelica is besieged in the far East; Biserta, where the hosts of pagan Agramante muster, and the hero Ruggiero is brought upon the scene; Montalbano, where Charlemagne sustains defeat at the hands of Agramante, Rodamonte, Marsilio, and Ruggiero. In order to combine such distant places in one action, Boiardo was obliged to set geography and time at defiance. Between Tartary and Circa.s.sia, France and Spain, Africa and Hungary, the knights make marches and countermarches within the s.p.a.ce of a few weeks or even days. All arrive at the same dangerous gates and pa.s.ses, the same seductive lakes and gardens; for the magical machinery of the romance was more important to the poet's scheme than cosmographical conditions.

His more than dramatic contempt for distance was indispensable in the conduct of a romance which admitted of no pause in the succession of attractive incidents, and was also pardonable in an age devoid of accurate geography. His chief aim was to secure novelty, excitement, variety, ideal unity.

Boiardo further showed his grasp of art by the emphatic presentation of the chief personages, whose action determined the salient features of his tale. It is impossible to forget Angelica after her first entrance on the scene at Paris. In like manner Marfisa at Albracca, Rodamonte in the council-chamber at Biserta, Ruggiero on the heights of Mount Carena, Orlando entering the combat before Albracca, Mandricardo pa.s.sing forth unarmed and unattended to avenge his father's death, are brought so vividly before our eyes, that the earliest impression of each character remains with us in all their subsequent appearances. The inferior actors are introduced with less preparation and diminished emphasis, because they have to occupy subordinate positions, and to group themselves around the heroes; and thus the whole vast poem is like a piece of arras-work, where the strongest definition of form, and the most striking colors, serve to throw into relief the princ.i.p.al figures amid a mult.i.tude of minor shapes. Not less skill is manifested in the preservation of the types of character outlined in these first descriptions. To vary the specific qualities of all those knights engaged in the same pursuit of love and arms, was extremely difficult.

Yet Boiardo, sometimes working on the lines laid down by earlier romancers, sometimes inventing wholly new conceptions (as in the case of Rodamonte, Ruggiero, Marfisa, Brandiamante), may be said to have succeeded in this master-stroke of art. The Homeric heroes are scarcely less firmly and subtly differentiated than his champions of chivalry.

Orlando is the ideal of Christian knighthood, fearless, indifferent to wealth, chaste, religious, respectful in his love, courteous toward women, swift to wrath, but generous even in his rage, exerting his strength only when the occasion is worthy of him.[566] His one weakness is the pa.s.sion for Angelica. Twice he refuses for her sake to accompany Dudone to the help of his liege-lord, and in the fight at Montalbano he is careless of Christendom so long as he can win his lady.[567] Studying Boiardo's delineation of love-lunacy in Orlando, we understand how Ariosto was led by it to the conception of the _Furioso_. Rinaldo is cast in a somewhat inferior mold. Lion-hearted, fierce, rebellious against Charles, p.r.o.ne to love and hate excessively, he is the type of the feudal baron, turbulent and troublesome to his suzerain. Astolfo, slight, vain, garrulous, fond of finery and flirting, boastful, yet as fearless as the leopards on his s.h.i.+eld, and winning hearts by his courtesy and grace, offers a spirited contrast to the ma.s.sive vigor of Rinaldo. It was a master-stroke of humor to have provided this fop of a Paladin with the lance of Argalia, whereby his physical weakness is supplemented and his bravery becomes a match for the muscles of the doughtiest champions.[568] Brandimarte presents another aspect of the chivalrous ideal. Fidelity is his chief virtue--loyalty to his love, Fiordelisa, and his hero, Orlando, combined with a delightful frankness and the freshness of untainted youth. He is not wise, but boyish, amorous, of a simple, trustful soul; a kind of Italian Sir Bors.

Ferraguto, on the contrary, is all fire and fury, as petulantly fierce in love as in arms, so hot in his temerity that even at times he can forget the laws of honor.[569] Mandricardo's distinctive quality (beside that of generous daring, displayed in his solitary and unarmed quest of Orlando, and in the achievement of Hector's armor) is singular good fortune. Ruggiero has for his special mark victorious beauty, blent with a courtesy and loftiness of soul, that opens his heart to romantic love, and renders him peerless among youthful warriors. Boiardo has spared no pains to impress our imagination with the potency of his unrivaled comeliness.[570] He moves before our eyes like the angelic knight in Mantegna's _Madonna of the Victory_, or like Giorgione's picture of the fair-haired and mail-clad donzel, born to conquer by the might of beauty. Agramante, the Eastern Emperor, whose council is composed of thirty-two crowned heads, enhances by his arrogance of youth the world-worn prudence of old Charlemagne. Marfisa, the Amazonian Indian queen, who has the force of twenty knights, and is as cruel in her courage as a famished tigress, sets off the gentler prowess of Brandiamante, Rinaldo's heroic sister. Rodamonte is the bl.u.s.tering, atheistic, insolent young Ajax, standing alone against armies, and hurling defiance at heaven from the midst of a sinking navy.[571]

Agricane is distinguished as the knight who loves fighting for its own sake, and disdains culture; Sacripante, as the gentle and fearless suitor of Angelica; Grada.s.so, as the hyperbolical champion of the Orient, inflamed with a romantic desire to gain Durlindana and Baiardo, the enchanted sword and horse. Gano and Truffaldino, among these paragons of honor, are notable traitors, the one brave when he chooses to abandon craft, the other cowardly. Brunello is the Thersites of the company, a perfect thief, misshapen, mischievous, consummate in his guile.[572] Malagise deals in magic, and has a swarm of demons at his back for all exigences. Turpin's chivalry is tempered with a subtle flavor of the priest, exposing him to Boiardo's mockery. Of Oliver and Ogier we hear, accidentally perhaps, but little. Such are some of Boiardo's personages. Not a few were given to him by the old romancers; but these he has new-fas.h.i.+oned to his needs.[573] Others he has molded from his own imagination with such plastic force that they fall short in no respect of the time-honored standard. It is no slight tribute to his creative power that we recognize a real fraternity between these puppets of his fancy and the mythic heroes with whom they are a.s.sociated. As Boiardo left the actors in his drama, so Ariosto took them up and with but slight change treated them in his continuation of the tale.

Women, with the exception of Marfisa and Brandiamante, fare but ill at Boiardo's hands. He seems to have conceived of female character as a compound of fickleness, infidelity, malice, falsehood, and light love.

Angelica is little better than a seductive witch, who dotes on Rinaldo, and yet contrives to make use of Orlando, luring him to do her purpose by false promises.[574] Falerina and Dragontina are sorceresses, apt for all iniquity and guile. Morgana and Alcina display the capricious loves and inhuman spites of fairies. Origille is a subtle traitress, beautiful enough to deceive Orlando, but as poisonous as a serpent. Even the ladies who are intended to be amiable, show but a low standard of morality.[575] Leodilla, princess of the Far Isles, glories in adultery, and hates Orlando for his constancy to Angelica in absence.[576]

Fiordelisa is false in thought to Brandimarte, when she sees Rinaldo sleeping in the twilight. The picture, however, of the slumbering warrior and the watchful maiden is so fresh and true to Boiardo's genius that it deserves quotation[577]:

Upon his steed forthwith hath sprung the knight, And with the damsel rideth fast away; Not far they fared, when slowly waned the light, And forced them to dismount and there to stay.

Rinaldo 'neath a tree slept all the night; Close at his side the lovely lady lay: But the strong magic of wise Merlin's well Had on the baron's temper cast a spell.

He now can sleep anigh that beauteous dame; Nor of her neighborhood have any care; Erewhile a sea, a flood, a raging flame Would not have stayed his quick desire, I swear: To clasp so fair a creature without shame, Walls, mountains, he'd have laid in ruins there; Now side by side they sleep, and naught he recks; While her, methinks, far other thoughts perplex.

The air, meanwhile, was growing bright around, Although not yet the sun his face had shown; Some stars the tranquil brows of heaven still crowned; The birds upon the trees sang one by one: Dark night had flown; bright day was not yet found: Then toward Rinaldo turned the maid alone; For she with morning light had cast off sleep, While he upon the gra.s.s still slumbered deep.

Beauteous he was, and but a stripling then; Strong-thewed and lithe, and with a lively face; Broad in the chest, but in the haunches thin; The lady gazed, smit with his manly grace: His beard scarce budded upon cheek and chin: Gazing, she almost fainted in that place, And took such pleasure in so sweet a sight That naught she heeds beyond this one delight.

Love, as conceived by Boiardo, though a powerful and steadfast pa.s.sion, is not spiritual. The knights love like centaurs, and fight like bulls for the privilege of paying suit to their ladies. Rinaldo and Orlando meet in deadly duel for Angelica; Rodamonte and Ferraguto dispute Doralice, though the latter does not care for her, and only a.s.serts his right to dwell in thought upon her charms. Orlando and Agricane break their courteous discourse outside Albracca to fight till one of them is killed, merely because the name of Angelica has intervened. For Boiardo's descriptions of love returned, and crowned with full fruition, the reader may be referred to two magnificent pa.s.sages in the episodes of Leodilla and Fiordelisa.[578] Poetically n.o.ble in spite of their indelicacy, these pictures of sensuous and natural enjoyment might be paralleled with the grand frankness of Venetian painting. It is to be regretted for Boiardo's credit as an artist in expression, that more than a bare reference to them is here impossible.

Boiardo's conception of friends.h.i.+p or fraternity in arms is finer. The delineation of affection generated by mutual courtesy under the most trying conditions of intercourse, which binds together the old rivals Iroldo and Prasildo, has something in it truly touching.[579] The same pa.s.sion of comrades.h.i.+p finds n.o.ble expression in the stanzas uttered by Orlando, when he recognizes Rinaldo's s.h.i.+eld suspended by Aridano near Morgana's Lake.[580] It must be remembered that the cousins had recently parted as foes, after a fierce battle for Angelica before Albracca:

Hearing these dulcet words, the Count began Little by little of his will to yield; Backward already he withdrew a span, When, gazing on the bridge and guarded field, Force was that he the armor bright should scan Which erst Rinaldo bore--broad sword and s.h.i.+eld: Then weeping, "Who hath done me this despite?"

He cried: "Oh, who hath slain my perfect knight?

"Here wast thou killed by foulest treachery Of that false robber on this slippery bridge; For all the world could not have conquered thee In fair fight, front to front, and edge to edge: Cousin, from heaven incline thine ear to me!

Where now thou reignest, list thy lord and liege!

Me who so loved thee, though my brief misprision, Through too much love, wrought 'twixt our lives division.

"I crave thy pardon: pardon me, I pray, If e'er I did thee wrong, sweet cousin mine!

I was thine ever, as I am alway, Though false suspicion, or vain love malign, And jealous blindness, on an evil day, Brought me to cross my furious brand with thine: Yet all the while I loved thee--love thee now; Mine was the fault, and only mine, I vow.

"What traitorous wolf ravening for blood was he Who thus debarred us twain from kind return To concord sweet and sweet tranquillity, Sweet kisses, and sweet tears of souls that yearn?

This is the anguish keen that conquers me, That now I may not to thy bosom turn, And speak, and beg for pardon, ere I part; This is the grief, the dole that breaks my heart!"

Scarcely less beautiful is the feeling which binds Brandimarte to the great Count, the inferior to the superior hero, making him ready to release his master from Manodante's prison at the price of his own liberty.[581] Boiardo devotes the exordium of the seventh Canto of the third Book to a panegyric of chivalrous friends.h.i.+p:

Far more than health, far more than strength is worth, Nay more than pleasure, more than honor vain, Is friends.h.i.+p tried alike in dole and mirth: For when one love doth join the hearts of twain, Their woes are halved, their joys give double birth To joy, by interchange of grief and pain; And when doubts rise, with free and open heart Each calls his friend, who gladly bears a part.

What profit is there in much pearls and gold, Or power, or proud estate, or royal reign?

Lacking a friend, mere wealth is frosty cold: He who loves not, and is not loved again, From him true joys their perfect grace withhold: And this I say, since now across the main Brave Brandimarte drives his flying s.h.i.+p To help Orlando, drawn by comrades.h.i.+p.

Next to bravery the poet's favorite virtue is courtesy. It is enough to mention Orlando's gentle forbearance with Agricane at Albracca, their evening conversation in the midst of a b.l.o.o.d.y duel, and the hero's sorrow when he has wounded his opponent to the death.[582] Of the same quality is the courteous behavior of Rinaldo and Grada.s.so before a deadly encounter, the aid afforded to Marfisa by Rinaldo in the midst of their duel, and the graceful sympathy of Astolfo for Brandimarte, whom he has unhorsed.[583] But the two pa.s.sages which ill.u.s.trate Boiardo's ideal of the chivalrous character, as blent of bravery and courtesy, of intelligence and love, are Orlando's discourse with Agricane and his speech to Morgana's maiden. In the first of these the Count and King had fought till nightfall. Then they agree to sleep together side by side, and to resume the combat at daybreak. Before they settle for the night, they talk[584]:

After the sun below the hills was laid, And with bright stars the sky began to glow, Unto the King these words Orlando said: "What shall we do, now that the day is low?"

Then Agrican made answer, "Make our bed Together here, amid the herbs that grow; And then to-morrow with the dawn of light We can return and recommence the fight."

No sooner said, than straight they were agreed: Each tied his horse to trees that near them grew; Then down they lay upon the gra.s.sy mead-- You might have thought they were old friends and true, So close and careless couched they in the reed.

Orlando nigh unto the fountain drew, And Agrican hard by the forest laid His length beneath a mighty pine-tree's shade.

Herewith the twain began to hold debate Of fitting things and meet for n.o.ble knights.

The Count looked up to heaven and cried, "How great And fair is yonder frame of glittering lights, Which G.o.d, the mighty monarch, did create; The silvery moon, and stars that gem our nights, The light of day, yea, and the l.u.s.trous sun, For us poor men G.o.d made them every one!"

But Agrican: "Full well I apprehend It is your wish toward faith our talk to turn: Of science less than naught I comprehend; Nay, when I was a boy, I would not learn, But broke my master's head to make amend For his much prating; no one since did yearn To teach me book or writing, such the dread Wherewith I filled them for my hardihead.

"And so I let my boyish days flow by, In hunting, feats of arms, and horsemans.h.i.+p; Nor is it meet, meseems, for chivalry To pore the livelong day on scholars.h.i.+p.

True knights should strive to prove their skill, say I, And strength of limb in n.o.ble fellows.h.i.+p; Leave priests and teaching men from books to learn.

I know enough, thank G.o.d, to serve my turn."

Then spake the Count: "Thus far we both agree; Arms are the chief prime honor of a knight.

Yet knowledge brings no shame that I can see, But rather fame, as fields with flowers are bright; More like an ox, a stock, a stone is he Who never thinks of G.o.d's eternal light; Nor without learning can we rightly dwell On his high majesty adorable."

Then Agrican, "Small courtesy it were, War with advantage so complete to wage!

My nature I have laid before you bare; I know full well that you are learned and sage; Therefore to answer you I do not care.

Sleep if you like; in sleep your soul a.s.suage; Or if you choose with me to hold discourse, I look for talk of love, and deeds of force.

"Now, I beseech you, answer me the truth Of what I ask, upon a brave man's faith: Are you the great Orlando, in good sooth, Whose name and fame the whole world echoeth?

Whence are you come, and why? And since your youth Were you by love inthralled? For story saith That any knight who loves not, though he seem To sight alive, yet lives but in a dream."

Then spake the Count: "Orlando sure am I Who both Almonte and his brother slew.

Imperious love hath lost me utterly, And made me journey to strange lands and new; And, for I fain would thus in amity Prolong discourse, therefore I tell you true, She who now lies within Albracca's wall, Gallafron's daughter, holds my heart in thrall."

This unlucky mention of Angelica stirs the rage of Agricane, and the two men fight in the moonlight beneath the forest-trees till the young King is wounded to the death--a splendid subject for some imaginative painter's pencil. We may notice in this dialogue the modification of chivalry occasioned by Italian respect for culture. Boiardo exalts the courage of the educated gentleman above the valor of a man-at-arms. In the conversation between Orlando and Morgana's maiden he depicts another aspect of the knightly ideal. The fairy has made Orlando offer of inestimable treasures, but he answers that indifference to riches is the sign of a n.o.ble heart[585]:

Orlando smiling heard what she would say, But scarce allowed her time her speech to end, Seeing toward riches of the sort the fay Proffered, his haughty soul he would not bend; Wherefore he spake: "It irked me not to-day My very life unto the death to spend; For only perils and great toils sustain Honor of chivalry without a stain.

"But for the sake of gold or silver gear, I would not once have drawn my brand so bright; For he who holds mere gain of money dear Hath set himself to labor infinite; The more he gets the less his gains appear; Nor can he ever sate his appet.i.te; They who most have, still care for more to spend, Wherefore this way of life hath ne'er an end."

Having seen the knights in their more generous moments, we ought to bear in mind that they are capable of bl.u.s.tering, boasting, and exchanging foul abuse like humanists. One reference will suffice.

Orlando and Rinaldo quarrel at Albracca and defy each other to combat.

Before fighting they indulge in elaborate caricatures and vilifications, from which it would appear, to say the least, that these champions of Christendom were the subject of much scandalous gossip.[586]

Human nature, unsophisticated and unqualified, with the crude impulses and the contradictions proper to an unreflective age, has been studied by Boiardo for his men and women. His power of expressing the pa.s.sions by natural signs might win for him the t.i.tle of the Homer of Chivalry.