Ludovico Ariosto

1474-1533

A member of the Este court in Ferrara and a major figure in the evolution of vernacular theater in modern Europe. He completed the first edition of the Orlando Furioso early in the sixteenth century (published in 1516) and revised it for a second edition published in 1522; major emendations and additions were incorporated into the final edition of 1532. A continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, the Orlando Furioso is recognized as the masterpiece of Italian chivalric romance, a blend of medieval Carolingian epic, matière de Bretagne, and the popular narrative traditions (cantari) of the Italian late Middle Ages.

Structured upon three basic narrative lines - the war between Christian and pagan forces; the pursuit of the elusive Angelica by the love-crazed protagonist, Orlando; and the encomiastic celebration of the Este line in the marriage of Ruggiero and Bradamante - the forty-six-canto poem in octaves (ottave) is richly imbued with the structural and thematic elements of Arthurian romance. Borrowing from Italian versions of Arthurian literature - in particular the Vita di Merlino, Palamedes, Tristan, the Tavola Ritonda, and the Prose Lancelot - the poem centers on the vagaries and vicissitudes of numerous victims of love, using the motif to underscore the multifaceted nature of human emotions and as a metaphor for the dichotomy between the ideals of chivalric tradition and the realities of a politically unstable Italy in the early decades of the sixteenth century.

The titular hero, driven mad by a frustrated love and modeled after, among others, the lover of Iseult in the Prose Tristan, embarks upon a series of quests that, like those of his combrades Rinaldo and Ruggiero, reflect a personal voyage toward understanding, maturation, and, in his particular case, disillusionment. Ariosto borrows structural techniques from Arthurian tradition, especially interlace and a complex system of thematic cross-referencing. Of particular significance is the Arthurian tradition of enchantment and magic, which in Ariosto underscores the relativity and variable nature of the world. Numerous episodes derive directly from Arthurian sources in late medieval cantari, including Rinaldo's adventures in the Caledonian Wood (Canto IV), based on Tristan's sojourn in the Forest of Danantes (Darnantes); names, such as that of the heroine Ginevra, whose story in Canto IV also contains numerous Arthurian elements; and figures with magical powers, such as the Arthurian sage Merlin.