BOH.
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BOISE
vanni di Feltrino and Lucia Strozzi, he was of noble
lineage, ranking as Count of Scandiano, with seigni-
orial power over Arceto, Casalgrande, Gesso, and
Torricella. Boiardo was an ideal tj^pe of the gifted
and accomplished courtier possessing, at the same
time, a manly heart and deep humanistic learning.
Up to the year of his marriage to Taddea Gonzaga,
the daughter of the Count of Novellara (1472). he
had received many marks of favour from Borso
d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, having been sent to meet
Frederick III (1469), and afterwards visiting Pope
Paul II (1471), in the train of Borso. In 1473 he
joined the retinue which escorted Eleonora of Aragon,
the daughter of Ferdinand I, to meet her spouse,
Ercole, at Ferrara. Five years later he was invested
with the governorship of Reggio, an office which he
filled with signal success till his death, except for an
interval (1481-86) during which he was governor of
Modena.
His great poem of chivalrj' and romance "L'Or- lando innamorato" (Scandiano, 1495). consisting of sixty-eight cantos and a half, was begun about his thirty-eighth year, interrupted for a time by the Venetian war, then resumed, to be left unfinished on account of the author's death. To material largely quarried from the Carlo\'ingian and Arthurian cycles the Count of Scandiano added a gorgeous superstructure of his own. As the plot is not woven around a single pivotal action, the inextricable maze of most cunningly contrived episodes must be linked, first, with the quest of beautiful Angelica by love- smitten Orlando and the other enamoured knights, then with the defence of Albracca by Angehea's father, the King of Cathay, against the beleaguering Tartars, and, finally, with the Moors' siege of Paris and their struggle ■nith Charlemagne's army. The whole, in spite of a lack of finish and sundry rhj'th- mical deficiencies, formed a magnificent work of art, echoing from everj- ottava the poet's ardent devotion to Love and Loyalty, shedding warmth and sunshine wherever the lapse of ages had rendered the legends colourless and cold, and opening a path which Ariosto and Tasso were soon to tread. Still, the poem, after sixteen editions, was not to be repub- lished for nearly three centuries. Francesco Bemi's rifacimento, or re-casting of " L'Orlando " appeared in 1542, and from that date till 18.30. when Panizzi revived it, Boiardo's name was well-nigh forgotten. A similar fate had befallen the count's "Rime" (Scandiano, 1499), which Panizzi's edition (London, 1835), snatched from obh\-ion. In his youth Boi- ardo had been a successful imitator of Petrarca's love strains. E\"idence of his more severe attain- ments is furnished in an " Istoria Imperiale", some versions from Nepos, Apuleius, Herodotus, Xenophon, etc., and by his Latin Eclogues. A comedy, "II Timone" (1487?), adds little to his credit. See Berni.
SoLERTl, Le Poesie volgari e latine di Malteo Maria Boiardo (Bologna, 1894); Solerti, Orlando Funoso di Ariosto, ed. Antonio Panizzi (London, 1830); Ferrari, Campanini. and OTHERS, Studi au Matteo Maria Boiardo (Bologna. 1894); Tappert, Bilder und Vergleiche au8 dem Orlando innamorato (Marburg. 1886); Neppi, La pluraHta degli amori cantali dal Boiardo net canzoniere, in Giomate etorico di left. Ital., XLII, 360-373; Razzoli, Per U fonti dell' Orlando innamorato (Milan, 1901). Ugo Foscolo's views on the poet are found in Q. Rev., n. 62. 527; and Leigh Hunt's in Stories from the Italian PoeU (London. 1846). Aesop (New York, 1806) and Rose (Edinburgh, 1823) have published fragmentary translations of Bemi's recast.
EdO.UIDO S.4N GlOV.\NNI.
Boil, Bern.irdo. See Buil, Bernardo.
Boileau-Despre'aux, Nicholas, French poet, b. at Paris, 1 November, 1636; d. there, 13 March, 1711. He was educated at the college of Beauvais and was at first destined to enter the Church, but poon abandoned the study of theology and, to please his father, prepared himself for the Bar. Though
admitted as coimsellor-at-law (December, 1656), he
never practised and his father having died lea\'ing
him enough to satisfy his wants, he devoted himself
entirely to poetrj-. He was then twenty-one years
old. Four years later he published his first satirical
poem: "Adieux d'un poete a la vil'.e de Paris";
immediately after this he published six others:
"Les embarras de Paris", "La satire a Moliere",
"Le repas ridicule", "La noblesse", and two others
of minor importance. In these satires not only did
Boileau parody and attack such ^Titers as Cotin,
Chapelain, and Le Voyer. but he also developed the
practical capabilities of the French language. Prose,
in the hands of such writers as Descartes and Pascal,
had proved itself a flexible instrument of expression,
while with the exception of Malherbe, there had been
no system in French versification.
Enfin Malherbe vint et, le premier en France,
Fit sentir dans les vers une juste cadence.
Above all, these satires inaugurated in France a sj'stematic literary criticism for art's sake, where previously criticism had been nothing but the ex- pression of envy or anger. Indeed, in these imitations of Juvenal and Horace, one recognizes a judge of his own masters, who judged them by a higher standard than his personal tastes. In 16G0 Boileau pubhshed the "Epistles", more serious ii. tone and also more polished in style. In 1674 appeared "Le lutrin" which, lighter in tone, still deserves a certain degree of admiration. It furnished the model for the "Rape of the Lock", but the English poem is superior in richness and imagination. His master- piece, however, and that of the didactic school in French, was without doubt, "L'art po^tique". This was also the first code of French versification. It comprises four books, the first and the last con- taining general precepts; the second treating of the pastoral, the elegj', the ode, the epigram, and the satire; and the third of tragic and epic poetrj'. His later publications were chiefly poems which he com- posed to defend himself against the numerous enemies his satires had raised up against him.
The end of Boileau's life was sad. He suffered a great deal from an operation which he underwent while 3'oung, and which, together with deafness, obliged him to retire from public life and even from the society of his friends. The death of Racine, his verj' best friend (1699), affected him deeply and his thoughts turned strongly towards religion. He was preparing a new edition of his works when death called him away. He holds a well-defined place in French literature as the first to introduce a regular system into its method of versification.
Desmaiseaux, La vie de BoUeau-Despriaus (1712); Alem- BERT. Eloge de Despreaux (1779); Chaufepie. Dictionrusire, s. V. Boileau; Garnier, (Eunes completes (I860): Fabre, Eloges de Boileau Despreaux (1805): Portien, Essai sur Boi- leau Despreaux (1805)
M. DE MOREIRA.
Boise, Diocese of (Xyhpolitana), created by Leo XIII, 25 August, 1893, embraces the whole State of Idaho, L^. S. A., an area of 84,290 square miles. In 1842 a mission was started among the Coeur d'Altoe Indians (whom Father De Smet, S.J., had recently ^^sited) by Father Nicholas Point. S.J. , and Brother Charles Huet, S.J. Father Joset followed next. The first CathoUc church in Idaho was built sixteen miles from Coeur d'Alene Lake by the Jesuit Fathers Gazzoli and Ravalh, aided by the red men. In its construction wooden pegs were used instead of nails. In 1863. the pioneer secular priests, the Rev. Tous- saint Mespli^, a Frenchman, and the Rev. A. Z. Pou- lin, a Canadian, were successively sent to the placer miners of Bois6 Basin by .Archbishop F. N. Blanchet, first administrator of Idaho Territorj'. Within six months they built the first churches erected for white people in Idaho City, Placerville, Centerville, and Pioneer; and later, a school at Idaho City, of
