Ariosto, prior to the composition of the
Furioso, or whether (as is more probable), it
be later than the composition of the poem and
the appearance of the first edition. The frag-
ment is notable for its great limpidity and narra-
tive fluency, but one sees that if the poet had
continued in this direction, the poem would have
been nothing but an elegant book of songs;
Ariosto did not wish to be a song-writer, so he
ceased the work which had been begun. Had
he versified his mockeries of sacred things, he
would have become a wit, a collector of bur-
lesque surprises, capable of arousing laughter
about friars and saints; but Ariosto disdained
such a trade, Ariosto whose many grandiose dis-
tractions are on record, but no witticisms or
smart sayings: he was too much of a dreamer,
too fine an artist to take pleasure in such things.
His sentiment for Harmony aided him to turn
the pleasant stories of chivalry and capricious
jesting into poetry, and lesser erotic or narra-
tive and argumentative poetry into more com-
plex poetry, to accomplish the passage and as-
cent from the minor works to that which is
truly great, to mediate the immediate, by
transforming his various sentiments in the man-
ner that we are about to consider.

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