CRITICAL NOTICE OF HIS LIFE AND GENIUS

Olindo and Sophronia

Tancred and Clorinda

Rinaldo and Armida;

With the adventure of the enchanted forest: 
Part I. Armida in the Christian Camp
ii.  Armida’s Hate and Love
iii.  The Terrors of the Enchanted Forest
iv.  The Loves of Rinaldo and Armida
V. The Disenchantment of the Forest, and the Taking of
Jerusalem, &c.

Appendix.

I. The Death of Agrican
ii.  Angelica and Medoro Translation
iii.  The Jealousy of Orlando
iv.  The Death of Clorinda
V. Tancred in the Enchanted Forest

BOIARDO: 

Critical Notice of his Life and Genius.

Critical Notice

Of Boiardo’s life and genius.[1]

While Pulci in Florence was elevating romance out of the street-ballads, and laying the foundation of the chivalrous epic, a poet appeared in Lombardy (whether inspired by his example is uncertain) who was destined to carry it to a graver though still cheerful height, and prepare the way for the crowning glories of Ariosto.  In some respects he even excelled Ariosto:  in all, with the exception of style, shewed himself a genuine though immature master.

Little is known of his life, but that little is very pleasant.  It exhibits him in the rare light of a poet who was at once rich, romantic, an Arcadian and a man of the world, a feudal lord and an indulgent philosopher, a courtier equally beloved by prince and people.

Matteo Maria Boiardo, Count of Scandiano, Lord of Arceto, Casalgrande, &c., Governor of Reggio, and Captain of the citadel of Modena (it is pleasant to repeat such titles when so adorned), is understood to have been born about the year 1434, at Scandiano, a castle at the foot of the Apennines, not far from Reggio, and famous for its vines.

He was of an ancient family, once lords of Rubiera, and son of Giovanni, second count of Scandiano, and Lucia, a lady of a branch of the Strozzi family in Florence, and sister and aunt of Tito and Erole Strozzi, celebrated Latin poets.  His parents appear to have been wise people, for they gave him an education that fitted him equally for public and private life.  He was even taught, or acquired, more Greek than was common to the men of letters of that age.  His whole life seems, accordingly, to have been divided, with equal success, between his duties as a servant of the dukes of Modena, both military and civil, and the prosecution of his beloved art of poetry,—­a combination of pursuits which have been idly supposed incompatible.  Milton’s poetry did not hinder him from being secretary to Cromwell, and an active partisan.  Even the sequestered Spenser was a statesman; and poets and writers of fiction abound in the political histories of all the great nations of Europe.  When a man possesses a thorough insight into any one intellectual department (except, perhaps, in certain corners of science), it only sharpens his powers of perception for the others, if he chooses to apply them.