[598] See Satire, i. 113-123, for his reasons. He seems chiefly to have dreaded the loss of personal liberty, if he took orders.
[599] Ippolito is said to have asked the poet: "Dove avete trovato, messer Lodovico, tante corbellerie?" That he did in effect say something of the kind is proved by Satire, ii. 94-99.
[600] Campori, Notizie per la Vita di L. Ariosto (Modena, Vincenzi, 1871), pp. 55-58.
[601] Ibid. p. 58.
[602] He penned the following couplet in 1503, when it is to be hoped he had yet not learned to know his master's real qualities:
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Quis patre invicto gerit Hercule fortius arma, Mystica quis casto castius Hippolyto? |
In another epigram, written on the death of the Cardinal, he pretends that Ippolito, hearing of Alfonso's illness, vowed his own life for his brother's and was accepted. See Opere Minori, i. 349.
[603] See Satires ii. vii.; Capitoli i. ii.
[604] Campori, op. cit. p. 59.
[605] See Satire iv. 67-72.