The courtier

Ludovico Ariosto became a paid courtier of Duke Ercole I, albeit with scarce recompense, in 1497. In October 1503 he entered the service of  Cardinal Ippolito d’Este, brother and heir to Duke Alfonso I. The role of courtier for the cardinal  pushed Ludovico to become a cleric with minor orders. This condition allowed him to obtain ecclesiastical benefices without embarking upon a full ecclesiastical career.  The role of courtier meant that Ludovico had a series of assignments and tasks, from political and diplomatic to administrative and practical. Ariosto was called to organise courtly entertainments and events, that cost him time and energy he would have gladly dedicated to his poetry. Ludovico had a subordinate role within the court, as he was not a feudal lord and thus did not have full noble rights. It is thus that Ariosto did not write poetry for the purpose of  the ‘embellishment’ of his noble condition but rather as a contribution to be made to his lord. His literary and theatrical activities within the court did not bring Ariosto the hoped for rewards, he being continually sidetracked by practical and administrative tasks until well on in life. After falling out with the Cardinal when he refused to got to Hungary with him, Ariosto entered the service of Duke Alfonso I on 23 April 1518. In this new post he was much freer but continued to suffer practical problems and was indeed  in some sense humiliated when he was sent for three long years to Garfagnana as commissioner for the Duke, as he could no longer be kept as a literary courtier, and was thus ‘unproductive’ from a practical point of view. He managed to stick to his intellectual interests by refusing to go to Rome as ambassador in 1524, although he did continue to cover various posts for Alfonso I till 1532.