136 ITALIAN WARS. II. PART and fiction. The chronicler might innocently en- croach sometimes on the province of the poet, and the poet occasionally draw the theme of his visions from the pages of the chronicler. Such, in fact, was the case ; and the romantic Muse of Italy, then coming forth in her glory, did little more than give a brighter flush of color to the chimeras of real life. The characters of living heroes, a Bayard, a Paredes, and a La Palice, readily supplied her with the elements of those ideal combinations, in which she has so gracefully embodied the perfec- tions of chivalry.'* 32 Compare the prose roman- ones of Ariosto, Berni, and the ces of D'Auton, of the " loyal like. serviteur" of Bayard, and the " Magnanima menzogna ! or quando d no less loyal biographer of the ilvero Great Captain , with the poetic ^' ""°' =*•" " P"""' " '" P'^p°"* '
