designated as such, or Julius Cæsar, the preceding lover of Cleopatra. Ariosto like Shakespeare was thinking of the feasts described by Plutarch.
They form a ring, the board and festive cheer
Removed, and sitting, play a merry game:
Each asks, still whispering in a neighbour’s ear,
What secret pleases best.
Stanza xxi. lines 1, 2, 3, 4.
This would seem to have been some favourite game in Ariosto’s age, like our old questions and commands.
And when of comfits and of cordial wine
A fitting proffer has been made anew.
Stanza xxiii. lines 1 and 2.
It was the custom during the middle ages, and continued to later times, to serve cordial or spiced wine upon retiring to rest: this was drunk sometimes in the hall, and sometimes in the bedchamber. The draught was termed in French le vin de congé, and in English the wines.
Seemed of Arachne’s loom.
Stanza xxiii. line 6.
For the story of Arachne turned into a spider for her rivalry of Minerva in spinning, see again the Classical Dictionary.
At every movement heard on distant floor,
Hoping ’twas her, Rogero raised his head.
Stanza xxiv. lines 1 and 2.
Thus in Tibullus,
Dum mihi venturam fingo, quodcunque movetur,
Illius credo personuisse pedes.
