Ariosto's studies of Greek and Latin literature were cut short by Spoleto's move to France to tutor Francesco Sforza.

Este compensated Ariosto poorly for his efforts; the only reward he gave the poet for Orlando Furioso, dedicated to him, was the question, "Where did you find so many stories, Master Ludovico?"

Ariosto later said that the cardinal was ungrateful, that he deplored the time which he spent under his yoke, and that if he received some small pension, it was not to reward him for his poetry – which the prelate despised – but for acting as a messenger.

Hercules' daughter, Isabella hight, In whom Ferrara deems city blest, Much more because she first shall see the light Within its circuit, than for all the rest Which kind and favouring Fortune in the flow Of rolling years, shall on that town bestow.

The fatigue of one of these journeys brought on an illness from which he never recovered, and on his second mission he was nearly killed by order of the Pope, who happened at the time to be in conflict with Alfonso.

The province was distracted by factions and bandits, the governor lacked the requisite means to enforce his authority and the duke did little to support his minister.

Ariosto's government satisfied both the sovereign and the people given over to his care, however; indeed, there is a story about a time when he was walking alone and fell into the company of a group of bandits, the chief of which, on discovering that his captive was the author of Orlando Furioso, apologized for not having immediately shown him the respect due his rank.

The play, which was translated by George Gascoigne and acted at Gray's Inn in London in 1566 and published in 1573, was later used by Shakespeare as a source for The Taming of the Shrew.

[9] For example, in Canto II, stanza 30, of Orlando Furioso, the narrator says: But I, who still pursue a varying tale, Must leave awhile the Paladin, who wages A weary warfare with the wind and flood; To follow a fair virgin of his blood.

In explaining this humor, Thomas Greene, in Descent from Heaven, says: The two persistent qualities of Ariosto's language are first, serenity – the evenness and self-contented assurance with which it urbanely flows, and second, brilliance – the Mediterranean glitter and sheen which neither dazzle nor obscure but confer on every object its precise outline and glinting surface.

In doing so, Byron connected Ariosto and the Italian Renaissance with early-nineteenth century Scottish and British Romantic writing, emphasising an enduring European literary tradition.

[11][12] The paperback edition of Orlando Furioso can be briefly glimpsed on table in the dinner scene of the episode "A Ghost" in Jim Jarmusch's film Mystery Train (1989).