But him had glorified above the rest
Worth in the Syrian fairy’s castle shown.
Stanza xxxi. lines 3 and 4.
The account of the conquest of the arms of Hector in the Syrian fairy’s castle is to be found in the Innamorato, where Mandricardo takes the oath specified in the text.
And in the middle of the mead surveyed
Doralice (such the gentle lady’s name), &c.
Stanza l. lines 1 and 2.
Ariosto would appear to have sometimes inserted anecdotes of his age in the Furioso; but these are usually so altered that they are scarcely to be recognised. This is not the case with the present story, the rape of Doralice; in which the poet appears to have figured a similar atrocity and of recent occurrence, perpetrated by Cæsar Borgia, near Cesenna, on the shore of the Adriatic, upon an illustrious lady espoused to a Venetian captain, to whom she was journeying, under the escort of a train of nobles and ladies, who were attacked with the same violence that is described in the text. Fornari cites many circumstances in support of Ariosto’s having meant to designate the crime of Borgia in that of Mandricardo. Some of these, such as the resemblance of the place where the scene of the catastrophe is laid, are strongly corroborative of the supposition, and others again seem to savour of the perverse and wearisome subtleties of an Italian commentator.
She might a Gabriel seem who Ave said.
Stanza lxxxvii. line 4.
Dante says of this angel, whose figure is represented as sculptured in purgatory,
‘Guirato si sarìa ch’ ei dicesse Ave.’
Probably as saluting the Virgin, a favourite subject with the Italian masters.
