The passage in Berni runs thus:—
"Chi ruba un corno, un cavallo, un anello,
E simil cose, ha qualche discrezione,
E potrebbe chiamarsi ladroncello;
Ma quel che ruba la riputazione
E de Paltrui fatiche si fa bello
Si può chiamare assassino e ladrone."
A reminiscence also lies hidden in Othello's exquisite farewell to a soldier's life:—
"O now for ever
Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content!
Farewell the plumed troops, and the big wars,
That make ambition virtue! O, farewell!
Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife,
The royal banner, and all quality,
Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!"
It is clear that there must have lurked in Shakespeare's mind a reminiscence of an apostrophe contained in the old play, A Pleasant Comedie called Common Conditions, which he must, doubtless, have seen as a youth in Stratford. In it the hero says:—
"But farewell now, my coursers brave, attrapped to the ground.
Farewell, adieu, all pleasures eke, with comely hawk and hound!
Farewell, ye nobles all! Farewell, each martial knight!
Farewell, ye famous ladies all, in whom I did delight!"
The study of Ariosto in Italian has also left its trace. It is where Othello, talking of the handkerchief, says:—
"A sibyl, that had number'd in the world
The sun to course two hundred compasses,
In her prophetic fury sew'd the work."
In Orlando Furioso (Canto 46, Stanza 80) we read:—
"Una donzella della terra d'Ilia,
Ch'avea il furor profetico congiunto
Con studio di gran tempo, e con vigilia
Lo fece di sua man di tutto punto."