Ludovico Ariosto, an Italian poet, born in Reggio, near Modena, Sept. 8, 1474, died in Fer-rara, June 6, 1533. His father was a member of the highest tribunal of Ferrara, and a friend of the duke. Ludovico was the eldest of ten children. He manifested even when a boy great ability in composition, and wrote several little comedies of some merit. At his father's wish he undertook the study of the law, though the profession was most irksome to him. After five years of study he abandoned the trial and devoted himself entirely to literature. He read the best Latin authors, under the tuition of Gregorio da Spoleto, with such assiduity that he soon became an accomplished Latinist. From ideas suggested by Plautus and. Terence he wrote two dramas, La cassaria and I sup-positi. His lyric poems were much admired by Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, son of Duke Er-cole I. of Ferrara; and in 1503 the cardinal took him permanently into his service, and intrusted him with many important affairs, allowing him a small pension. A few years after this Ariosto began- his poem of Orlando furioso, the composition of which occupied him, for ten years or more. At the age of 24 he had become by his father's death the sole guardian and support of his nine brothers and sisters.

He was obliged to fulfil the duties of a courtier and to obey the constant and petty exactions of his patron, to undertake now and then an embassy or a journey, and to take charge of much of the business correspondence of the cardinal. But while discharging all his duties faithfully, he worked constantly at his poem, and was rewarded, on its publication in 1516, by almost immediate fame. Only his patron, whom he had extravagantly praised in it, treated the work with contempt; and soon after its publication he dismissed Ariosto from his service because the poet refused on account of his health to go with him to Hungary. He soon afterward entered the service of the cardinal's brother Alfonso, then reigning duke, who treated him with generosity, but conferred upon him afterward what seemed a most inappropriate honor, in appointing him governor of the district of Carfagnana, which was everywhere infested by banditti. With unlooked-for ability in this new sphere, Ariosto soon restored order, and after three years returned to Ferrara and established himself in a pleasant home. He repeatedly revised the Orlando, making of it 46 cantos instead of the original 40, and greatly changing the whole. During the last years of his life he also wrote comedies and satires.

The large theatre built by the duke for the performance of Ariosto's comedies was burned in 1532. The poem of Orlando furioso is in part of its plot almost a sequel to the Orlando innamorata of Boiardo, but the lesser poem did little more than suggest the greater. The Orlando is a fantastic story, involving a thousand interwoven episodes besides the plot from which it takes its name - a plot which follows the fortunes of.Orlando made mad by love of Angelica; but so rich was its author's fancy and so bright his narrative, that even now the poem stands in Italy at the head of all poems of chivalry. It has been translated into almost every language. The principal ancient editions of the Orlando furioso are those of Ferrara, 1516, 1524, and 1532, published under the superintendence of the author, and the Aldine edition of 1545. The best modern edition is that of Morali (4to, Milan, 1818), which follows the original text of 1532. Of the English translations by Harrington, Hoole, and Rose, the last is by far the best.