than they have themselves." The surname of the Learned was
afterwards given to him from the circumstance that, like his
rival Rene of Anjou, he personally cultivated letters, and
also protected many of the leading learned men of Italy.
Alfonso was fond of strolling about the streets of Naples
unattended, and one day, when he was cautioned respecting
this habit, he replied, "A father who walks abroad in the
midst of his children has no cause for fear." Whilst
possessed of many remarkable qualities, Alfonso, as Muratori
and other writers have shown, was of an extremely licentious
disposition. That he had no belief in conjugal fidelity is
evidenced by his saying that "to ensure domestic happiness
the husband should be deaf and the wife blind." He himself
had several mistresses, and lived at variance with his wife,
respecting whom some particulars are given in a note on page
69. He died in 1458, at the age of seventy-four, bequeathing
his Italian possessions to Ferdinand, Duke of Calabria, his
natural son by a Spanish beauty named Margaret de Hijar. It
may be added that Brantome makes a passing allusion to this
tale of the _Heptameron_ in his _Vies des Dames Galantes_
(Disc, i.), styling it "a very fine one."--L. and Ed.

3 Meaning that he employed his sovereign authority for the
accomplishment of his amorous desires.--M.

She vied with her husband in grace and comeliness, and there was great
love between them, until a certain day in Carnival time, when the King
went masked from house to house. All strove to give him the best
welcome they could, but when he came to this gentleman's house he
was entertained better than anywhere else, what with sweetmeats,
and singers, and music, and, further, the fairest woman that, to his
thinking, he had ever seen. At the end of the feast she sang a song with
her husband in so graceful a fashion that she seemed more beautiful than
ever.

The King, perceiving so many perfections united in one person, was not
over pleased at the gentle harmony between the husband and wife, and
deliberated how he might destroy it. The chief difficulty he met with
was in the great affection which he observed existed between them, and
on this account he hid his passion in his heart as deeply as he could.
To relieve it in some measure, he gave many entertainments to the lords
and ladies of Naples