"You are a strange man, Ludovico," complained Alessandra Benucci. "You
say that you love me, but you care as little for me as you do for your
career." Ludovico Ariosto looked out of the window and did not reply
immediately.
Sometimes, you have to slow down
His new job as governor of Lucca was difficult and
his salary meagre, but the beauty of Tuscany never ceased to astonish
him whenever he looked outside. "Sometimes, you have to slow down to
prepare yourself for a long run," answered Ludovico, shrugging his
shoulders. "Anyway, at this moment, this was the only job I could get."
"But
you promised that we would get married soon," went on Alessandra,
walking up to him and setting her hand on his shoulder. It was June of
1516 and, in three months, Ludovico would be 42 years old. He turned
around to face Alessandra and saw his promises reflected in her eyes.
"I
am just asking you to have a little patience, my love," he said, taking
in a deep breath. "We will be married as soon as I have saved enough
money to lead a proper life." How often had he tried to explain that to
her? A hundred or a thousand times, it didn't matter.
Always moving forward
Ludovico
had changed jobs often, always moving forward, working endless days only
to be able to devote his nights to his passion. After years of efforts,
he had just completed his poem "Orlando Furioso," although he was still
planning to make some revisions.
"You should just let it go as
it is now, Ludovico," exhorted Alessandra. "Your poem is more than good,
it is even more than wonderful! It is high time for you to forget about
it and work on something else. Why don't you write a Venetian comedy to
please the Bishop? Or a song dedicated to the Duke?"
During the
following eight years, Ludovico saved as much money as he could from his
small salary. Shortly after his 50th birthday, he fulfilled his promise
and married Alessandra. The couple purchased a small farm near Ferrara
and retired to live there.
He never ceased to improve
When Ludovico Ariosto's poem "Orlando
Furioso" was published, only eighty six copies were printed. During his
retirement in the farm, his revisions of the poem never ceased. It is
believed that he rewrote parts of it at least two hundred times.
Little
by little, the reputation of "Orlando Furioso" began to grow. By the
time Ludovico was 57 years old, his poem had been already reprinted many
times and was already considered the work of a genius. Ludovico,
nevertheless, continued to make new revisions one after the other. After
his death, Alessandra Benucci published the final version. It was
absolutely perfect.
For more information about rational living and personal development, I refer you to my book The 10 Principles of Rational Living
[Text: http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com]
[Image by TravelEden under Creative Commons Attribution License. See the license terms under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us]
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