As to Augustus is a Maro given.
Stanza lvi. last line.
The Maro (Marone), celebrated in the same stanza, in whom Ariosto might seem to have prefigured himself, is averred by a commentator to have been Andrea Marone, a Ferrarese poet of that day, and the conjecture appears strengthened by the honourable mention made of him in the last canto of the Furioso.
Backed by few foot, and fewer cavaliers,
He homeward barks, and fifteen galleys steers.
Stanza lvii. lines 7 and 8.
Barks and galleys taken by horse and foot sound oddly in an Englishman’s ears. The passage alludes to the following exploit. The Venetians going up the Po with a fleet against Alphonso, Cardinal Ippolito went out of the city with some horse and foot, and coming to Volona, a castle near the river, and finding the enemy’s galleys unprovided, most of the crews being on shore, he sank four of them, and took fifteen, with other smaller craft.
This is the second Hercules.
Stanza lviii. line 5.
Hercules the second, fourth Duke of Ferrara.
Ah! luckless youths, with vain illusions fed.
Stanza lxi. line 7.
Ferrante of Este, natural brother to Alfonso and Ippolito, had conspired with Giulio, his natural brother, to assassinate the duke; but the plot being discovered, they were condemned to perpetual imprisonment.
