logues for that young duchess whose death was one
day to inspire some of his most touching verses. But the Marchesa
Isabella was the true goddess of his adoration, the mistress to whom his
heart and lyre alike were pledged, who was for him, not only "_la mia
patrona e signora_," but "_la prima donna del mondo_," "the first lady
in all the world." For her he translated Breton legends and Provencal
romances; for her he set Virgil and Petrarch to music; for her fair
sake, old and stiff as advancing years have made him, he is ready to
break a lance or join once more in the dance. At Christmas-time, in the
last days of 1491, the impatient Marchesana had written to remind him
that she had never yet received the eclogue which he had promised to
send her at her brother Alfonso's wedding, and refused to be put off
with any other verses, saying that his poems pleased her more than those
of any living bard. When in later years she found that Niccolo was
inclined to transfer his allegiance to her sister-in-law, Lucrezia
Borgia, she was sorely affronted, and after his death entered into a
long contention for the possession of the book of poems which he had
left behind.

There were many other poets of Beatrice's court whose names were famous
in their day, but have long ago been forgotten, and whose works have
passed into oblivion with all that vanished world. There was Lancino di
Corte, or, as he preferred to style himself, Lancinus Curtius, the
writer of Latin epigrams; and Antonio di Fregoso, the noble Genoese
youth who, like Niccolo, won Calmeta and Ariosto's praises, and whose
poetic disputes with Lancinus were a feature of Cecilia Gallerani's
entertainments; and Baldassare Taccone of Alessandria; and Pietro
Lazzarone of the Valtellina. There was Galeotto del Carretto, the
Montferrat poet and historian, who left his home at Casale to compose
plays and sonnets for Beatrice, and who, like Niccolo da Correggio, was
one of Isabella's favourite correspondents, and sent her eclogues and
strambotti to sing to the lute. When Beatrice died he had just finished
a comedy dedicated to this princess, which he afterwards sent to
Isabella, begging her to accept it both for his sake and that of the
lamented _Madonna Duchessa sorella_, who had taken pleasure in reading
his effusions. And there was another Tuscan poet, Antonio Cammelli of
Pistoia, who composed a whole volume of sonnets dedicated to "that most
invincible Prince, the light and splen