king, Alfonso, if he wishes to save his throne. Let him say in the hearing of all the nation: "I have taken up arms not for myself alone, but for the reputation of Italy, that she may be in the hand and rule of Italians, not of foreigners." The lyrical counterpart of Pontano's letters is the virile canzone of another southern poet, his friend and colleague, Chariteo; the vanguard of the invaders had already crossed the Alps, when he exhorted the Italian states to lay aside private ambitions, and combine in the face of the common foe:—
"Quale odio, qual furor, qual ira immane,
quai pianete maligni
han vostre voglie, unite, hor sí divise?
Qual crudeltà vi move, O spiriti insigni,
O anime Italiane,
a dare il Latin sangue a genti invise?"
It was with the name of Italy, in the last stanza of the Orlando Innamorato, that Boiardo, sick to death, drops his pen, too full of apprehension for his native land to continue his story:—
"Mentre che io canto, o Iddio redentore,
vedo l'Italia tutta a fiamma e a foco,
per questi Galli, che con gran valore
vengon per disertar non so che loco." (6)
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