The
_Aminta_ of Tasso was written for the amusement and acted in
the presence of Alphonso the Second, and his sister Leonora
might apply to herself the language of a passion which
disordered the reason without clouding the genius of her
poetical lover. Of the numerous imitations, the _Pastor
Fido_ of Guarini, which alone can vie with the fame and
merit of the original, is the work of the Duke's secretary
of state. It was exhibited in a private house in Ferrara....
The father of the Tuscan muses, the sublime but unequal
Dante, had pronounced that Ferrara was never honoured with
the name of a poet; he would have been astonished to behold
the chorus of bards, of melodious swans (their own
allusion), which now peopled the banks of the Po. In the
court of Duke Borso and his successor, Boyardo Count
Scandiano, was respected as a noble, a soldier, and a
scholar: his vigorous fancy first celebrated the loves and
exploits of the paladin Orlando; and his fame has been
preserved and eclipsed by the brighter glories and
continuation of his work.
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