[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. v. st. 26), the Paladin Rinaldo wears it embroidered on his mantle.]
[Footnote 29: