ABSTRACT
The preference accorded by romantic German men of letters to M. M. Boiardo belongs rather to the domain of anecdote than to the history of criticism. Boiardo is looked upon by them as the poet of grand heroic dreams, while Ludovico Ariosto is a mere citizen poet. Boiardo again is lauded for having better represented the logical form of the Italian poem of chivalry, prescribed according to a chemical combination drawn up in the philological laboratory of the anti-Ariostesque Professor Rajna, who is in other respects a most worthy and well-deserving person. There can be no difficulty in seeing what must be our opinion as to the confrontations and comparative judgments instituted between Ariosto and Luigi Pulci or Boiardo, and even Cieco da Ferrara, and all the other Italian poets of chivalry.
