of too frequent occurrence in the history of Charles the Fifth to require a comment. For the youth of Vasto[1] or Guasto, as he is usually called by tramontanes (and in the Italian text un giovane del Vasto) , I do not know how or when he deserved the praise ascribed to him in the succeeding stanza, though he certainly served with much distinction in those Italian wars. But Ariosto inserted this digression, which is a graft on the original poem, in the spirit of a courtier; and it must be recollected, that even where there are no suspicious motives for exaggeration, an extravagant value is often attached to recent actions, which are of little importance in the judgment of posterity.
“Beneath the faith, beneath the warrantry
“Of the redoubted chief, of whom I say,
“I see Charles enter fertile Italy,
“To which this captain clears the monarch’s way;
“But on his country, not himself, that fee
“Shall he bestow, which is his labours’ pay;
“And beg her freedom, where himself perchance
“Another would to sovereign rule advance.
Stanza xxxii.
The poet alludes to the emperor Charles V. having been conducted by Doria’s galleys from Barcelona to Genoa, from whence he was escorted by him to Bologna, in which town he received from Pope Clement the crown of the empire.
He might have made himself arbitrary in Genoa by the assistance of Charles.
Or in thine isle, &c.
Stanza xxxiii. line 4.
Meaning England. Astolpho was an Englishman.
- ↑ The Vasto from which he was entitled is Vasto Aimone, a city in the Abbruzzi, which was the property of the Pescara family.
