ARIOSO AR1STJDES. 



253 



ARIOSO, in music. See Air. , 



ARIO.STI, Attilio ; a composer of eminence, born at 

 Bologna. He is said to have given lessons to Handel 

 in his childhood, in conjunction with whom, and with 

 the celebrated Bononcini, he afterwards produced 

 the opera of Muzio Scevola ; Ariosti setting the 

 first act, Bononcini the second, and Handel the third. 

 He likewise composed several other operas in Eng- 

 land about the year 1721, at which time the royal 

 academy of music was established ; and is said to have 

 introduced into that country, for the first time, the 

 instrument called the viol d'amour, on which he per- 

 formed a new symphony at the sixth representation of 

 Handel's Amadis, on the 12th July, 1716, soon after 

 -his arrival. He then went abroad, but again returned 

 in 17^0, and composed several operas. He once 

 more left England, after publishing a book of canta- 

 tas by subscription ; and the place and date of his 

 death are unknown. 



ARIOSTO, Ludovico, one of the most celebrated 

 poets of Italy, was born at Reggio, in Lombardy, 

 Sept. 8, 1474, of a noble family. His father was a 

 member of the first judicial court at Ferrara. He 

 w as the eldest often children. Even in his childhood, 

 lie prepared tragedies, which he acted with his 

 br others ; among others, one founded on the story of 

 P yramus and Thisbe. In the school of Ferrara, he 

 distinguished himself in his studies. His father de- 

 signed him for the profession of the law ; but, after 

 five years of fruitless application to it, the young man 

 renounced the study, that he might devote himself to 

 literature. He enjoyed the instructions of the learned 

 Gregory of Spoletto. Plautus and Terence, whom he 

 studied with this teacher, furnished thoughts for two 

 comedies, the Cassandra and the Supposti, which he 

 there planned. His lyric poems, in the Italian and 

 Latin languages, distinguished for ease and elegance 

 of style, introduced him to the notice of the cardinal 

 Ippolito d' Este, son of duke Ercole I. In 1503, 

 Ippolito fixed him at his court, used his counsel in the 

 most important affairs, and took him with him on a 

 journey to Hungary. After the death of Ercole, 

 Alfonso, his son and successor, put the same confi- 

 dence in A. At this court he began and finished, 

 amid distractions of every kind, in ten or eleven 

 years, his immortal poem, the Orlando Furioso. In 

 1516, the printing of it was finished. When Ariosto 

 gave a copy to the cardinal, the latter said, " Master 

 Louis, where did you pick up all this trumpery ?" In 

 1517 or 1518, A. was invited to accompany the car- 

 dinal Ippolito d' Este on a second journey to Hungary. 

 The unhealthy climate and the infirm health ot the 

 poet appeared to him no sufficient apology ; and, on 

 declining to attend him, therefore, A. lost for ever the 

 cardinal^ favour, which gradually passed from cold- 

 ness and indifference to settled hatred. A. was now 

 received by the noble duke Alfonso, a lover of the 

 arts, who put much confidence in him, but bestowed 

 on him only trifling rewards, and (what seemed more 

 like a punishment than a mark of favour), in 1521 

 and 1522, commissioned him to quell the disturbances 

 that had broken out in the wild and mountainous 

 Garfagnana. He successfully accomplished this dif- 

 ficult enterprise, and, after three years, returned to 

 Ferrara, where he employed himself in the composi- 

 tion of his comedies, and in putting the last touches 

 to his Orlando. He died June 6, 1533, at the age of 

 58. A. had a good figure, a gentle character, po- 

 lished manners, and an amiable disposition. He had 

 been rich, and he loved splendour. He was obliged 

 to content himself, however, with a small, but con- 

 venient and pleasant house, over which he caused the 

 following verses to be inscribed : 



IViwa Red aptamilii, snl nulli obnoxia, *ed non 

 SurdiJa, parta meu ud tameu sere doiuus. 



His Orlando Furioso, which is a continuation of Bo> 

 ardo's Orlando Innamorato, and cannot be perfectly 

 understood without it, is a perfect epic romance, full 

 of the fairest flowers of poetry, and of freshness and 

 spirit, in which A. far excels even Tasso. The Or- 

 lando displays a splendid and inexhaustible richness 

 of invention, an ever-changing variety of incidents 

 connected with the talent of fively narration. The 

 activity of a youthful fancy animates the whole work. 

 A. exhibits, also, a wonderful skill in interweaving 

 the episodes, which he continually interrupts, and 

 again takes up with an agreeable, and often imper- 

 ceptible art, and so intwines them with one another, 

 that it is difficult to give a connected history of the 

 contents of the poem. These qualities place him 

 among the great masters of poetry, and have gained 

 for him, among his countrymen, the appellation of 

 divine. Besides this great epic, we have some come- 

 dies, satires, capitoli and sonnets by A., and a collec- 

 tion of Latin poems, in all of which the richness of 

 his genius shines with more or less brightness. 



ARIST^EUS, in mythology, son of Apollo and Cyrene, 

 was brought up by the Nymphs. The introduction 

 of the use of bees is ascribed to him (hence he is called 

 Meliss&us), and gained for him divine honours. H is 

 love of Eurydice, the young bride of Orpheus, caused 

 her death ; for, as she fled from him, along the side 

 of a river, she received a mortal bite from a poisonous 

 snake. He was punished by the loss of his bees. 

 The loss, however, was repaired by new swarms, pro- 

 duced, after nine days, in the bodies of some cattle 

 which he had slain. He was the son-in-law of Cad- 

 mus, and father of Actaeon. He has been confounded 

 with the Proconnesian Aristzeus, who appeared on 

 earth from time to time, e. g., as the instructer of 

 Homer, and, afterwards, as a scholar of Pythagoras. 

 This is explained by the fact, that there was a scholar 

 of Pythagoras of this name, who succeeded that phi- 

 losopher, and whose whole life was afterwards in- 

 volved in fable. 



ARISTARCHUS ; a Greek grammarian, who criticised 

 Homer's poems with the greatest severity, and esta- 

 blished a new text ; for that reason, severe and just 

 critics are often called Aristarchi. He was born in 

 the island of Samothrace, and lived at Alexandria 

 about B. C. 150. Ptolemy Philometor, who highly 

 esteemed him, confided to him the education ot his 

 children. After having spent his life in criticising 

 Pindar and other poets, especially Homer, he died at 

 Cyprus, aged 72. 



ARISTARCHUS OF SAMOs,born B.C. 267, was a famous 

 astronomer, who first asserted the revolution of the 

 earth about the sun. His work on the magnitude 

 and distance of the sun and moon is still extant. He 

 is also regarded as the inventor of the sun-dial. 



ARISTIDES, for his strict integrity surnamed the Just, 

 was the son of Lysimachus, and descended from one 

 of the most honourable families of Athens. He was 

 one of the ten generals of the Athenians, when they 

 fought with the Persians at Marathon. According to 

 the usual arrangement, the command of the army was 

 held by each of the generals, in rotation, for one day. 

 But Aristides, perceiving the disadvantages of such a 

 change of commanders, prevailed on his colleagues 

 each to give up his day to Miltiades ; and to this, 

 in a great measure, must be ascribed the victory 

 of the Greeks. The year ensuing, he was archon, 

 and, in this office, enjoyed so universal a popu- 

 larity, that he thereby excited the jealousy of The- 

 mistocles. This ambitious man, not daring, openly, 

 to attack his rival, contrived to spread a report, that 

 A. was aiming at a kind 'of sovereignty, and, at last, 

 succeeded in procuring his banishment by the ostra- 

 cism. It is said, that a rustic citizen, who happened 

 to stand near A. in the public assembly which decreeO 



