DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42863#0109
MAIDS OF HONOUR DISMISSED 87
longer possible to keep the girl in her service. Ac-
cordingly, Brognina retired to a convent near Goito,
where she lived as the recognised mistress of the
Viceroy.1 But the effects of the Marquis Francesco’s
displeasure did not end here. A few months later,
he dismissed the Marchesa’s favourite maid of honour,
Alda Boiarda, the cousin of the Ferrara poet, Matteo
Boiardo, who had lived for ten years in her service,
and was as much beloved by Duchess Elisabetta and
Emilia Pia as by Giuliano dei Medici and Bibbiena.
This time, Isabella was deeply distressed, and she
interceded in vain for this devoted servant, who had
been her companion on so many journeys, and re-
mained her friend to the end. But the Marquis
sternly refused to listen to her entreaties, declar-
ing in a letter which he wrote to Isabella that Alda
had lighted a flame of discord in his household which
would not be extinguished in his lifetime, and saying
that no person so universally hated had ever left his
court.2 The Marchesa, on her part, did not forget
her friend, and wrote sadly to Alda’s sister regretting
that she had been compelled to part from her, and
had been unable to do more for so dear and faithful a
companion.
The troubles among Isabella’s ladies were followed
by a violent quarrel between two of her favourite men
of letters, the poet Tebaldeo and Mario Equicola, her
tutor. Mario’s name, as we have seen, was frequently
linked, more in jest than earnest, with that of Isabella
Lavagnola, the sister of the Marchesa’s old dancing-
master, and one of her most trusted attendants.
Many are the allusions to Isabella’s charms and to
1 Luzio in Arch. St. Lomb., 1901.
2 Luzio e Renier, Giom, St. d. Lett. It., 1900.
longer possible to keep the girl in her service. Ac-
cordingly, Brognina retired to a convent near Goito,
where she lived as the recognised mistress of the
Viceroy.1 But the effects of the Marquis Francesco’s
displeasure did not end here. A few months later,
he dismissed the Marchesa’s favourite maid of honour,
Alda Boiarda, the cousin of the Ferrara poet, Matteo
Boiardo, who had lived for ten years in her service,
and was as much beloved by Duchess Elisabetta and
Emilia Pia as by Giuliano dei Medici and Bibbiena.
This time, Isabella was deeply distressed, and she
interceded in vain for this devoted servant, who had
been her companion on so many journeys, and re-
mained her friend to the end. But the Marquis
sternly refused to listen to her entreaties, declar-
ing in a letter which he wrote to Isabella that Alda
had lighted a flame of discord in his household which
would not be extinguished in his lifetime, and saying
that no person so universally hated had ever left his
court.2 The Marchesa, on her part, did not forget
her friend, and wrote sadly to Alda’s sister regretting
that she had been compelled to part from her, and
had been unable to do more for so dear and faithful a
companion.
The troubles among Isabella’s ladies were followed
by a violent quarrel between two of her favourite men
of letters, the poet Tebaldeo and Mario Equicola, her
tutor. Mario’s name, as we have seen, was frequently
linked, more in jest than earnest, with that of Isabella
Lavagnola, the sister of the Marchesa’s old dancing-
master, and one of her most trusted attendants.
Many are the allusions to Isabella’s charms and to
1 Luzio in Arch. St. Lomb., 1901.
2 Luzio e Renier, Giom, St. d. Lett. It., 1900.