The author, a descendant of the princely house of Correggio, was born about 1450, and married the daughter of the famous condottiere Bartolommeo Colleoni.  He lived for some years at Milan at the court of Lodovico Sforza; later he migrated to that of the Estensi.  In 1493 he sent an allegorical eclogue to Isabella Gonzaga at Mantua, which may possibly have been represented, though we have no note of the fact, and the poem itself has perished[163].  He died in 1508.

After a prologue which resembles that of the Orfeo in giving an argument of the whole piece, the first act opens with a scene in which Aurora seeks the love of Cefalo.  Offended at finding her advances repulsed, the goddess hints that the wife to whom Cefalo is so careful of his faith is, for her part, more free of her favours; and upon Cefalo indignantly refusing credence to the slander, suggests that he should himself in disguise make trial of her fidelity.  This the unfortunate youth resolves to do.  He approaches Procri in the habit of a merchant, with goods for sale, and takes the opportunity thus afforded of declaring his love.  She turns to fly, but the pretended passion of his suit stays her, and she is brought to lend an ear to his cunning.  He retails the commonplaces of the despairing lover: 

    Deh, non fuggire, e non si altiera in vista;
      Odime alquanto, e scolta i preghi mei. 
      Che fama mai per crudelta se acquista? 
      Bellissima sei pur, cruda non dei. 
      Non sai che Amor non vol che se resista
      A colpi soi? cosi vinto mi dei
      Subito ch’ io ti viddi; eh, non fuggire,
      Forza non ti faro; deh, stammi audire.

Not Jove or Phoebus he to assume strange shapes for her love; he is but her slave, and can but offer his pedlar’s pack; but he knows of hidden treasure in the earth, and hers, too, shall be vesture of the fairest.  After gold and soft raiment comes the trump card of the seducer—­secrecy: 

    Cosa secreta mai non se riprende;
      El tempo che si perde mai non torna;
      Qui non serai veduta, or che se attende
      Quel se ha a dolere, che al suo ben sogiorna. 
      Secreto e il loco, el sol pur non vi splende;
      Bella sei tu, sol manca che sii adorna
      Di veste come io intendo ultra il tesoro. 
      Deh, non mi tener piu; vedi ch’ io moro.

She is almost won; one last assault, and her defences fall.  Why, indeed, should she hesitate—­

    Poi ch’ Amor dice, ogni secreta e casta?

This stroke of cynicism is put forward as it were but half intentionally, and with no appreciation of its intense irony in the mouth of the husband.  Throughout the scene indeed he appears merely as a common seducer, and the author seems wholly to have failed to grasp the real dramatic value of the situation.  On the other hand, the lesser art of the stage has been mastered with some success, and there is an adaptation of language to action which at least argues that the author had a vivid picture of the staging of his play in his mind when he wrote.