charles stanley ross, the most recent translator into english of boiardo, turns out also to be a good friend of prof nohrnberg's, and one of the earliest readers of the analogy (according to nohrnberg, one of the very few people who have read it cover to cover.)

talking about fiordelisa in the front matter to the 2004 edition of his translation, charles ross points out that she is the most well-read character in the poem, and also the person with the most active love life, and remarks that "the one seems to follow from the other." heh! well, you know that dorothy parker poem, words of comfort to be scratched on a mirror? the one that goes, "helen of troy had a wandering glance/ sappho's restriction was only the sky / ninon was ever the chatter of france / but oh, what a good girl am i!" ? i think we must make lots of little bookmarks out of what charles ross says, us academic-type females, so that when we are at work we could feel hopeful about our love lives, especialy when beastly people tell us things like this. (and lucy snowe should feel better about ginevra fanshawe. yes, su-lin, i've been reading your villette essay.)