Ariosto

Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533) - Ariosto is pronounced with the stress on the penultimate syllable a-ri-OS-to, IPA: /arɪ'ɔsto/ - is an Italian Renaissance poet, best known for his romantic epic poem Orlando furioso (Mad Orlando).

Although Ariosto was born in Reggio in Emilia in northern Italy, his family moved to Ferrara when he was ten, and in adulthood he always spoke of Ferrara as his native city. He enrolled as a law student at the University of Ferrara but, having little interest in this subject, was eventually allowed by his father to devote himself to the study of Greek and Latin literature. However, these studies were cut short in 1500 by his father's death, which left him, as the eldest son, with responsibility for the family. In 1502 he found employment with the rulers of Ferrara, the d'Este family, and spent almost all the rest of his life in their service - under the uncongenial patronage first of Cardinal Ippolito d'Este and then, from 1518, of the Cardinal's brother, Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara. Ariosto was employed in a variety of capacities by the d'Este: he was often sent on diplomatic missions to other Italian cities and was for a time governor of Garfagnana, a remote region in the Apennine mountains. His final years, spent in retirement in Ferrara, were partly devoted to revising Orlando furioso, which had first appeared in 1516: the final version was published in 1532 the year before his death.

Although Ariosto wrote much else besides, it is as the author of Orlando furioso that he is famous. This long romantic epic - it runs to nearly 40,000 lines - deals with the adventures which befell the emperor Charlemagne (?742-814) and his paladins, or noble companions, in their campaign against the Muslim army then threatening Europe. Ariosto does not aim at historical accuracy but weaves elements of magic and fantasy into his complex narrative, a prominent strand in which concerns Orlando, one of Charlemagne's noble companions, and his unreciprocated love for the princess Angelica. When Orlando discovers that Angelica has fallen in love with, and married, a Muslim soldier Medoro, he is overwhelmed by a mad rage and in his fury rampages through France and Spain, destroying and killing wherever he goes.

Orlando furioso is written in ottava rima, i.e., eight line stanzas exemplifying the rhyme scheme a-b-a-b-a-b-c-c. Here, as an example, is one of the stanzas from Canto XXIII, the part of the poem which describes the onset of Orlando's madness:

Pel bosco errò tutta la notte il Conte;

E allo spuntar della diurna fiamma

Lo tornò il suo destin sopra la fonte

Dove Medoro insculse l'epigramma.

Veder l'ingiuria sua scritta nel monte

L'accese sì, ch'in lui non restò dramma

Che non fosse odio, rabbia, ira e furore;

Nè più indugiò, che trasse il brando fuore.

(Translation: The Count (Orlando) wandered all night through the wood, and at the appearance of the flame of day his destiny brought him back to the spring where Medoro had carved the inscription. Seeing this insult to himself written on the mountain so inflamed him that there remained no particle in his body that was not hatred, rage, anger, and fury. Nor did he pause, but drew his sword.)