' Instead of which he goes to work like the visual
artists of his own day, not caring for originality in our sense of the
word, simply reproducing a familiar circle of figures, and even, when
it suits his purpose, making use of the details left him by his
predecessors. The excellence which, in spite of all this, can
nevertheless be attained, will be the more incomprehensible to people
born without the artistic sense, the more learned and intelligent in
other respects they are. The artistic aim of Ariosto is brilliant,
living action, which he distributes equally through the whole of his
great poem. For this end he needs to be excused, not only from all
deeper expression of character, but also from maintaining any strict
connection in his narrative. He must be allowed to take up lost and
forgotten threads when and where he pleases; his heroes must come and
go, not because their character, but because the story requires it. Yet
in this apparently irrational and arbitrary style of composition he
displays a harmonious beauty, never losing himself in description, but
giving only such a sketch of scenes and persons as does not hinder the
flowing movement of the narrative. Still less does he lose himself in
conversation and monologue, but maintains the lofty privilege of the
true epos, by transforming all into living narrative.
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