The Romance Epics of Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso: From Public Duty to Private Pleasure 9781442682245

Table of contents :
Contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
General Introduction
Part I. An Ethics of Action
Chapter One. Introduction
Chapter Two. Boiardo, Orlando Innamorato, Book One (1482-3): Romance
Chapter Three. Orlando Innamorato, Book Two (1482-3): History
Chapter Four. Orlando Innamorato, Book Three (1495): Epic
Part II. Creative Imitation
Chapter Five. Introduction
Chapter Six. Cieco da Ferrara, Il Mambriano (1509)
Chapter Seven. Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516): Didactic Allegory
Chapter Eight. Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516): Novellas of Civic Virtue
Chapter Nine. Ariosto, Cinque canti (Composed c. 1519-21)
Chapter Ten. Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1532)
Part III. The Triumph of Romance
Chapter Eleven. Introduction
Chapter Twelve. Trissino, L'ltalia liberata da' Goti (1547-8)
Chapter Thirteen. Bernardo Tasso, L'Amadigi (1560)
Chapter Fourteen. Torquato Tasso, Il Rinaldo (1562)
Chapter Fifteen. Torquato Tasso, La Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)
Conclusion
Notes
Works Cited
Index

Citation preview

THE ROMANCE EPICS OF B O I A R D O , A R I O S T O , A N D TASSO: FROM P U B L I C DUTY TO PRIVATE PLEASURE

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JO ANN CAVALLO

The Romance Epics of Boiardo, Ariosto/ and Tasso From Public Duty to Private Pleasure

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London

www.utppublishing.com University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2004 Toronto Buffalo London Printed in Canada ISBN 0-8020-8915-1

Printed on acid-free paper Toronto Italian Studies

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Cavallo, Jo Ann The romance epics of Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso : from public duty to private pleasure / Jo Ann Cavallo. (Toronto Italian studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8020-8915-1 1. Boiardo, Matteo Maria, 1440 or 41-1494 - Criticism and interpretation. 2. Ariosto, Lodovico, 1474-1533 - Criticism and interpretation. 3. Tasso, Torquato, 1544-1595 - Criticism and interpretation. 4. Epic poetry, Italian - History and criticism. 5. Romances, Italian - History and criticism. 6. Italian poetry - 15th century - History and criticism. 7. Italian poetry - 16th century History and criticism. I. Title. II. Series. PQ4117.C39 2004

851'.03209

C2004-901406-4

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).

For my parents

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Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ABBREVIATIONS

IX

xi

General Introduction

3

Part I: An Ethics of Action 1 Introduction 11 2 Boiardo, Orlando Innamorato, Book One (1482-3): Romance 15 3 Orlando Innamorato, Book Two (1482-3): History 34 4 Orlando Innamorato, Book Three (1495): Epic 45 Part II: Creative Imitation 5 Introduction 69 6 Cieco da Ferrara, // Mambriano (1509) 74 7 Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516): Didactic Allegory 82 8 Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516): Novellas of Civic Virtue 99 9 Ariosto, Cinque canti (Composed c. 1519-21) 126 10 Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1532) 134 Part III: The Triumph of Romance 11 Introduction 155 12 Trissino, L'ltalia liberata da' Goti (1547-8) 158 13 Bernardo Tasso, L'Amadigi (1560) 170 14 Torquato Tasso, II Rinaldo (1562) 178 15 Torquato Tasso, La Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

186

viii Contents Conclusion 229

NOTES 235 WORKS CITED INDEX

283

265

Acknowledgments

An earlier version of chapter 2 was published in Italian as 'L'Orlando Innamorato come speculum principis' in // Boiardo e il mondo Estense nel Quattrocento: Atti del convegno internazionale di studi, Scandiano-ModenaReggio Emilia-Ferrara, 13-17 settembre 1994, ed. Giuseppe Anceschi and Tina Matarrese (Padua: Antenore 1998), 1:297-321. Sections of chapters 3 and 4 were presented at the American Association for Italian Studies 1997 conference and published as 'From Alexander to Hector: History and Epic in Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato' in Italian Culture 16.1 (1998): 11-26. Sections of chapters 6 and 7 were presented at the Philology and Criticism Seminar at the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University, February 1994. A condensed version of chapter 8 was presented as The Unraveling of the Civic Fabric: Ariosto's Rewriting of Boiardo's Justice Trilogy' at the Renaissance Society of America Conference, College Park, Maryland, February 1998. Sections of chapters 14 and 15 have been developed from an earlier essay: Tasso's Armida and the Victory of Romance' in Renaissance Transactions: Ariosto and Tasso, ed. Valeria Finucci (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999), 77-111. A shorter version of the same essay was presented in Italian as 'Armida: la funzione della donna-maga,' at the 'II Tasso e il mondo Estense' conference in Ferrara, December 1995, and was published in the proceedings (Florence: Olschki, 1999), 99-114. A much earlier draft of this book was circulated in 1996-7 as part of my tenure review process, and I would like to take this occasion to thank the anonymous external reviewers for their patience in reading that unpolished version. I would also like to thank my students for the feedback they have provided throughout the years in my courses on the romance epic in both New York and Scandiano, Italy.

x Acknowledgments

Mirella and Carlo Gallon! generously arranged for Luca Trascinelli to photograph the fresco detail shown on the book jacket; Prof. Francesco Barocelli, director of the Settore Musei-Pinacoteca Stuard of the Commune of Parma, graciously authorized its use. Gillian Watts compiled the index.

Abbreviations

Aen. Am. AV CC Corf. Dec. GL IL Mam. Met. OF Ol Rin.

Virgil, The Aeneid Bernardo Tasso, Amadigi Boccaccio, Amorosa visione Ariosto, Cinque canti Castiglione, // libro del Cortegiano Boccaccio, Decameron Torquato Tasso, Gerusalemme Liberata Trissino, L'Italia liberata da' Goti Cieco da Ferrara, // Mambriano Ovid, The Metamorphoses Ariosto, Orlando Furioso Boiardo, Orlando Innamorato Torquato Tasso, Rinaldo

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THE ROMANCE EPICS OF B O I A R D O , A R I O S T O , AND TASSO: FROM P U B L I C DUTY TO PRIVATE P L E A S U R E

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General Introduction

This book aims to understand the romance epics of Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso within their literary contexts, with a particular focus on questions of creative imitation, genre, allegory, ideology, and politics. As I trace certain key episodes and recurring patterns within these poems, I am thinking in terms of engagement, not indebtedness. Consequently, I am not interested in poetic rivalry or the anxiety of influence, but rather in how each successive poet creatively reworks significant aspects of his predecessors' poems to give meaning to his own romance epic.1 I am concerned, moreover, with how these poets use genre - not only romance and epic, but also historical, allegorical, and novelistic episodes - to construct the ideological program of their respective poems. In the course of this contextualized reading of the romance epics of Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso, I also discuss how some of the same thematic and narrative strands are reworked in less known poems by three of their contemporaries: Francesco Cieco da Ferrara, Giangiorgio Trissino, and Bernardo Tasso. By considering how each poet uses creative imitation to develop his ideas on literary, ethical, social, and political issues, I hope to offer a fresh perspective on the romance epic in Italy during the century of its greatest development. The literary context of these poems is inextricably linked to the historical context, and thus a secondary aim of this study is to explore how the romance epic, the principal narrative mode of the day, both reflected and reflected upon the world outside the text. Although all texts, to the degree in which they participate in any given socioeconomic grouping, are perforce political, I will not be arguing here for a passive or unconscious transmittal of hegemonic values, but rather a

4 General Introduction

deliberate, albeit not always explicit, engagement with significant social and political questions of the period. Este Patronage Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso - sometimes referred to as 'the three crowns of Ferrara' - all played out their literary careers in the service of the Este family within a one hundred year span. This apparent continuity, however, is offset by the different relations of the poets with their respective patrons. The Este family, which ruled over the city and territory of Ferrara from the early thirteenth century, was one of the oldest dynastic families in Italy. The two dukes who preceded Ercole d'Este, his halfbrothers Leonello (ruled 1441-50) and Borso (ruled 1450-71), developed Ferrara as an important political and cultural capital of northern Italy. Leonello, a student of the pre-eminent humanist Guarino da Verona (in Ferrara 1429-60), promoted classical learning. Borso, while continuing Leonello's commitment to humanistic culture, was personally enamoured of chivalric narratives in the vernacular and set the Este on their way to becoming the foremost patrons of Italian chivalric literature. Boiardo Matteo Maria Boiardo (1441-1494), grandson of the humanist Count Feltrino Boiardo, nephew of the poet Tito Vespasiano Strozzi, and cousin of the philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, most likely began composing his romance epic in the final years of Borso's reign. When Ercole I d'Este (ruled 1471-1505) assumed the dukedom, Boiardo was listed as one of his close companions. In the preface to the various translations that Boiardo dedicated to Ercole he assumes the role of teacher, noting in Guarinian fashion that history teaches good government. In his romance epic, he infuses the adventures of his chivalric heroes with the civic ideology and classical scholarship of the humanists. He also provides his Este patrons with models of behaviour to emulate by designating the female paladin Bradamante and the ideal knight Ruggiero as progenitors of their family. Boiardo's unfinished romance epic numbered 35,440 verses at the time of his death in 1494, the year of the French invasion that signalled the beginning of the end of political autonomy for the Italian states.

General Introduction 5 5

Ariosto

Both humanist and chivalric interests were still very much alive in the Este court when Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533) moved to Ferrara with his family in 1484. Son of the unscrupulous Este functionary Niccolo Ariosto, Ludovico began serving Ercole I in 1498, before passing to the service of Ercole's son, Cardinal Ippolito, in 1503. It is generally thought that Ariosto began writing his continuation of Boiardo's unfinished poem in 1505 after the publication of a mediocre fourth book by Niccolo degli Agostini, and it appears that he read a portion of his poem to Isabella d'Este Gonzaga in 1507. Yet Ippolito did not seem to appreciate the poem in the same manner as his sister, and strained relations between poet and patron led to a break in 1517, when Ariosto refused to accompany Ippolito and his entourage to Hungary. (Ariosto had earlier attempted unsuccessfully to secure Medici patronage under Leo X.) Ariosto passed shortly thereafter to the service of Duke Alfonso I d'Este (ruled 1505-34), thus remaining within the Estense orbit, but he never enjoyed the kind of close tie with his patrons that bound Boiardo to Ercole. Indeed, from 1519 until his death in 1533, Ariosto was involved in a legal battle with the Este over the inheritance of his deceased cousin, and he was buried by his relatives before the Este court was even informed that he had passed from this world. Tasso Torquato Tasso, son of the courtier and man of letters Bernardo Tasso, was employed as a court poet by the grandsons of Alfonso I and Lucrezia Borgia, Cardinal Luigi d'Este (1538-1586), to whom he dedicated // Rinaldo, and Duke Alfonso II (ruled 1559-97), dedicatee of La Gerusalemme Liberata. Tasso's relations with his Este patrons were even more problematic than Ariosto's. He secretly attempted to acquire the patronage of the Medici and others, even though Alfonso had expressly banned such action, and he left the court abruptly on more than one occasion while waiting for papal authorization to publish his poem. With his relations to Alfonso II already notably deteriorated, Tasso's outburst against the Este court in 1579 led to his imprisonment in the asylum of Sant'Anna, where he was held for seven years under the allegation of insanity. Tasso left Ferrara definitively after his release in 1586, and following sojourns in various other cities he died in Rome in 1595. Este rule of Ferrera was by that date almost at an end. When

6 General Introduction

Alfonso II died two years later without an heir, Pope Clement VIII, to whose nephew Tasso had dedicated his revised Gerusalemme Conquistata, reclaimed papal possession of Ferrara and forced the remaining members of the Este family to abandon the city they had ruled for over three and a half centuries.2 The Broader Historical Context The world of Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso was not limited to the Este court, but extended to the changing intellectual and socio-political milieu of the Italian peninsula. Although the hundred-year span between the publication of the Orlando Innamorato and the Gerusalemme Liberata falls within the period most scholars refer to as the Renaissance, the differences are inestimable. Boiardo was writing at a time when humanism was still a living heritage and the Italian states constantly shifted alliances to maintain a balance of power. The political situation of the Este court and the entire Italian peninsula was irrevocably transformed by a series of invasions that swept Italy, beginning with the descent of Charles VIII in 1494. Far from participating in imperialistic endeavours after the discovery of the New World, the Italian peninsula was reduced to a colony of its European neighbours. Ariosto witnessed the progressive loss of autonomy as successive foreign invasions established the domination first of French and then of Spanish powers whose control over most of the peninsula was officially ratified under the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis (1559). At the same time, various Protestant movements challenged the hegemony of the Roman Church. The Church reacted by reconfirming its authority (the Council of Trent laboured intermittently from 1545 to 1563) and extending its surveillance over written texts. The Roman Inquisition was established in 1542 and Pope Paul IV (1555-9) instituted the first papal Index of Prohibited Books, censuring more than a thousand texts perceived as harmful to Catholic dogma and tradition, including works by humanist historians and philosophers. Ecclesiastical authorities also undertook prepublication censorship and established committees with the power to demand textual changes from prospective authors.3 By the time Tasso finished his poem, the papacy, initially hostile to the Empire, had joined forces with Spanish authorities to suppress the spirit of free inquiry that had characterized the earlier decades of the century.4 This study does not, however, take either the poets' lives or the Italian peninsula's socio-political changes as a starting point in order to

General Introduction 7

seek vestiges of historical 'reality' in the poems, but rather uses these circumstances to suggest possible reasons for the changing face of the romance epic as evidenced by a comparative reading of the texts themselves. Outline I begin with Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, 'the most innovative text in the history of Italian chivalric literature' and the point of departure for the Renaissance romance epic as we have come to know it. Although this poem has often been overlooked (from the sixteenth century Ariosto's Orlando Furioso has more commonly been seen as the model for the genre), recent critical studies have begun to revise Boiardo's place in the canon, charting both his radical break from what preceded him and his enormous influence on what followed.6 Boiardo's innovation consisted not simply in organically merging the Carolingian epic and Arthurian romance, but in creating a coherent and original poem through the rewriting of stories from sources spanning the whole of the literary canon available in his day, ranging from ancient Greek and Latin to medieval French and Italian and encompassing genres as diverse as history, tragedy, comedy, the novella, and the lyric. Creative imitation for Boiardo, however, was not simply an end in itself, but a means to establish a critical dialogue with previous poets on the human and social problems of his day. In an earlier study that read Boiardo's romance epic as an imaginative representation of humanist values, I focused on the figure of the knight/citizen who must learn to govern himself with reason in the private sphere and who must actively intervene to restore justice in the public arena (Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato). Here I am primarily concerned not with the individual, but with the ruler, as I trace a series of episodes illustrating the prince's responsibility to govern his state for the public good. My analysis of the Innamorato's political dimension will then serve as a basis to rethink the trajectory of the romance epic in the following century. To be sure, the poems discussed in the following pages all had 'una pluralita di padri' ('multiple fathers'), to use Pio Rajna's term (406), and important studies from the sixteenth century to the present have dealt in various ways with many of them. My contention, however, is that the extent to which both Ariosto and Tasso used Boiardo to create meaning in their own poems has been underestimated. While interrelated threads run throughout the text as a whole, each chapter has a particular focus. Part I is devoted entirely to Boiardo and

8 General Introduction

examines a series of didactic fictions in the Orlando Innamorato directed at providing a speculum principis. In keeping with the epideictic tradition that teaches correct behaviour through praise and blame, Boiardo juxtaposes examples of good and bad rulers and delineates the consequences of each mode of behaviour. He privileges a different genre to convey his message in each of the poem's three Books, moving from romance to history and, finally, to epic, and beginning with negative examples and concluding with positive ones. In Part II, I turn to a consideration of related episodes in Cieco da Ferrara's Mambriano, the first poem to work within the new framework provided by Boiardo's precedent. I then focus on Ariosto's creative imitation of the Innamorato as he forges his own moral and political vision in the Orlando Furioso of 1516, the Cinque canti, and the expanded third edition of 1532. In particular, these pages trace two recurring patterns in the poem: in the first, the hero is lured into a seductive site and thereby forgets his duty; in the second, he is presented with a narrative explaining the origin of an evil custom and is expected to intervene to bring about a just resolution. By addressing how Ariosto's allegories of moral improvement and novellas of civic engagement responded to a precedent set by Boiardo, I aim to map out Ariosto's evolving views as he successively rewrites his poem, and thus to provide a new context for some topics that have given rise to extensive, albeit inconclusive, debate in Ariosto studies. The humanist belief that both the political leader and the individual citizen should act for the good of society at large had lost its meaning by the mid-sixteenth century as imperial and ecclesiastic authorities actively worked to suppress freedom of thought. Moral and political issues became intrinsically entangled as poets began to ask why the hero/knight/citizen should privilege public duty over private pleasure in the interest of a repressive (and even alien) state. Part III examines Trissino's Italia liberata and Bernardo Tasso's Amadigi, examples of the contrasting narrative and ideological options available to poets at mid-century, and then moves on to Torquato Tasso's Rinaldo and Gerusalemme Liberata. Through a reading of the hero and seductress episodes in these works this third part brings together the questions of structure, allegory, and politics discussed earlier and ultimately argues that Tasso reworks material from previous poems in such a way as to throw into question the traditional ideological underpinnings of the romance epic genre.

Parti An Ethics of Action

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Chapter One Introduction

For there is no good more universally beneficial than a good prince, nor any evil more universally pernicious than a bad prince. Baldessar Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier

Tutored by the humanist educator Guarino da Verona, Leonello d'Este cultivated the image of himself as an enlightened ruler who used moral philosophy as the guiding principle of his statecraft. When his brother Borso succeeded him, he likewise fashioned himself as 'the ideal statesman, a personification of the "Buon Governo"' (Gundersheimer, Ferrara, 124).l Borso's desire to embody Good Government is conveyed in pictorial form in the Sala dei Mesi of Palazzo Schifanoia. In a fresco depicting the triumph of Minerva, the goddess of justice and wisdom is armed with a sword and a book, and she is facing the jurists and humanists of the University of Ferrara who had reformed the statutes of the state under Borso. Below, one can see Borso himself surrounded by his citizens in the act of administering justice. For anyone slow to comprehend the sense of Borso's gestures, the word lustitia is inscribed just under his breast. Hannemarie Ragn Jensen considers this fresco cycle both 'a programme intended to be read as a picture of the ideal state that Borso d'Este wished to live up to and be remembered for' and 'a programme that could form a background for the teaching on the art of government and the discussions practiced in the circle of humanists surrounding the Prince' (111). The concurrence between the values the humanists wanted to teach the ruling class and the image that the Este rulers themselves wanted to project continues when Ercole I succeeds Borso in 1471. Sabadino

12 An Ethics of Action

degli Arienti's panegyric of Ercole d'Este commends him 'for the excellent example [exemplo] that you give to your illustrious family and to those who rule and govern realms, states, and empires, and to any mortal of noble or humble fortune' (29). The De Vintegrita de la militare arte that Antonio Cornazzano dedicates to Ercole is more of an ethical treatise on good government than a manual for martial activity. As Diego Zancani notes, 'The basic values which emerge from Cornazzano's book are still directly connected to the chivalric ones: he praises justice, moderation, prudence, forgiveness, and lack of greed, all of which can be much more effective for a statesman or an army leader than violence and unnecessary plundering' (24). Matteo Maria Boiardo was not only the Count of Scandiano and one of Ercole's privileged companions, but he also actively shared in the governance of the Estense state. He occupied the two highest positions of the provinces as the military governor of Modena (1480-3) and Reggio Emilia (1487-94), positions that had previously been filled by Ercole himself and by his brother Sigismondo while Borso was Duke. Boiardo's involvement in the political problems of his day is strikingly manifested in his extant letters, many of which concern the practical application of justice. His translations consist largely of historical works intended, as his dedicatory prefaces to Ercole d'Este explain, to teach the art of good government. Noting Guarino-style didactic and moralizing tones in these prefaces, Claudia Micocci posits a similarity between Boiardo's relation to Ercole and Guarino's earlier relation to Leonello, which consisted in a 'continuous envisioning, on the part of the teacher, of an ideal republic and excellent prince' (41).2 Boiardo brings an ethical-political vision to his rewriting of Lucian of Samosata's Timone. Boiardo's play, as Marcello Aurigemma has pointed out, illustrates 'the moral principle of measure, discretion, equilibrium between two extremes, the rule of reason called to govern one's own life' (35). Boiardo identifies the need for these virtues in rulers as well as individuals. In a dialogue of his own invention between Jupiter and a personification of Wealth, he writes that whoever rules without justice is a tyrant: 'chi vole aver subietti che obediscano, / si debbe e' soi mandati temperare, / che lo equo e la ragion non preteriscano; / chi vuol sanza iustizia governare / se dimostra tiranno in fatti e in detti, / ne se deve per principe appellare' ('whoever wants to have subjects that obey / must temper his commands / so that equality and reason are not neglected. / He who wants to govern without justice / reveals himself a tyrant in deeds and in words / and must not call himself a prince'; ILL).3

Introduction 13

Despite Boiardo's engagement with political matters in both his life and his minor works, scholars have generally considered avoidance of the world of politics to be the hallmark of his romance epic. Peter Marinelli, for example, contends that The Innamorato prescinds with remarkable deliberateness from the world of historical action and event, firmly banishing the world of politics to a very remote, indeed unapproachable distance' (Ariosto and Boiardo, 20). Giovanni Ponte writes that Boiardo was not only uninterested in, but actually incapable of, thinking seriously about political issues (La personalita e I'opera del Boiardo, 18). He thereby limits Boiardo's 'political' intentions to his support of Ercole d'Este's rule ('Esigenze politiche/ 23).4 Michael Murrin, however, has uncovered political implications in Agramante's council scene as well as the episodes concerning the fairies Falerina and Morgana (see 'Agramante's War/ The Allegorical Epic, 53-8, and Trade and Fortune'). In my view, the political aspects of the poem's humanist educational program are much more pervasive than previously acknowledged. Trusting in the didactic force of fiction, Boiardo writes an outwardly entertaining and encomiastic poem with an underlying didactic intent: just as he teaches the correct hierarchy of the soul in the individual, he presents a series of lessons on good government for the ruler. As Castiglione would write a few decades later, instruction in good government need not be directly stated. On the contrary, in a work that aimed to fashion the courtier as an ethical and political adviser to the prince, Castiglione thought the courtier could best succeed in teaching the prince to rule well by adopting a 'salutary deception; like shrewd doctors who often spread the edge of the cup with some sweet cordial when they wish to give a bitter-tasting medicine to sick and overdelicate children' (Cort. 4.10). And in keeping with the humanist tradition, Castiglione's preferred manner of instilling the necessary virtues in the prince was through exempla: 'he will be able to incite his prince to these by the example of the famous captains and other excellent men' (Cort. 4.9). In my view, Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato provides just such a sweetened medicine in the form of fictional exempla. In the course of the poem Boiardo draws his exempla from a succession of genres: romance, history, and epic. The romance adventures of Book One weave together classical and medieval narratives to warn the princely reader that negligence, incontinence, fraud, and/or unjustified force will bring about a ruler's own demise as well as the destruction of his state. In Book Two, Boiardo shifts to history as he

14 An Ethics of Action

focuses more on international relations. A contrast between Alexander of Macedonia's boundless ambition and his sons' benevolent nature gives rise to two opposing chains of imitation subsequently played out in the poem by the figures of King Agramente of Biserta and the knight Rugiero. Book Three, not included in the first edition published in 1482-3 and still incomplete at Boiardo's death in 1494, turns to the genre of epic, specifically the Iliad, to provide an ideal of good leadership in the figure of Hector of Troy, now revealed to be the ancestor of Rugiero and consequently of Ercole I d'Este. Yet Boiardo does not propose a simple return to the values of classical epic; rather, he harmonizes classical and Christian-chivalric virtues as he fashions a model of behaviour for the Estense rulers.

Chapter Two Boiardo, Orlando Innamorato, Book One (1482-3): Romance

I was wondering how the labor of my studies could benefit the state when I recalled the conduct of illustrious princes. These rulers are so attracted to vice and debauchery, are so unrestrained, that it is as if they had put Fortune perpetually to sleep either with drugs or with spells ... What could be more charitable to them in their license, more useful for their eternal salvation, than to call them back to the straight road if possible? Giovanni Boccaccio, The Fates of Illustrious Men

In the opening stanzas of the Orlando Innamorato, Boiardo announces that he intends to address both the private and public dimensions of life. Immediately after his reference to Orlando's erotic desire, he directs attention to unbridled acquisitiveness in general. While anyone can fall victim to love, Boiardo singles out those in power as particularly afflicted by an insatiable desire to possess whatever they lack: E si come egli avviene a' gran signori, Che pur quel voglion che non ponno avere, E quanto son difficulta maggiori La desiata cosa ad ottenere, Pongono il regno spesso in grandi errori, Ne posson quel che voglion possedere.1 And as it happens to great lords Who only want what they can't have, The greater obstacles there are

16 An Ethics of Action To reaching what they would obtain The more they jeopardize their realms, And what they want, they cannot gain. (1.1.5)

The immediate context of this passage is King Gradasso's trip from the Far East to France, spurred on by his desire to obtain Orlando's sword Durindana and Ranaldo's horse Baiardo. Later in Book One, eros is subsumed into the inordinate acquisitiveness that plagues the rich and powerful when King Agricane of Tartaria precipitates a war in Albraca involving 2,200,000 soldiers in order to seize the recalcitrant Angelica by force. Like Gradasso's quest for material-symbolic objects, Agricane's desire for a woman leads him to abuse his power and endanger his state. Agricane, in fact, not only abandons his empire but eventually loses his life in his futile attempt to win Angelica. While this war directly illustrates the opening criticism of 'great lords who only want what they can't have/ and who 'jeopardize their realms' while 'what they want, they cannot gain/ I would like to propose that Boiardo further develops his portrait of incontinent rulers through interlaced episodes involving three of the kings drawn to Agricane's war in Albraca: Sacripante, Truffaldino, and Poliferno. Indeed, these romance adventures, as I argue below, provide a poignant critique of abusive political systems by showing how the three kings poison the body politic through a combination of incontinence, force, and fraud. Sacripante, King of Circassia As Orlando heads east seeking Angelica in the early cantos of the poem, he meets a palmer whose son was captured by an armed giant stationed at a bridge (1.5.60). In the preface to his translation of Xenophon's Cyropaedia, Boiardo explains that stories about monsters and giants are poetic fictions that refer to underlying political realities, noting that ('tutti li alti soi gesti in domatione di fabulosi monstri fur conversi'; Tutte le opere, 2: 718) ('all of [Cyrus's] great deeds were turned into victories over fabulous monsters'). With this in mind, we might ask if there is a political reality behind Orlando's first adventure. The giant's own words provide the first clue: 'Quivi m'ha posto il re di Circassia, / Perch'io non lasci alcuno oltra passare; / Che sopra al scoglio sta una fera ria' ('Look, the Circassian king himself / Has placed me here to block this road. / A squalid beast lives on this cliff; 1.5.64). This statement alerts the reader to the fact that we are not in an amor-

Orlando Innamorato, Book One

17

phous forest or desert, but in the political state of Circassia, whose king, moreover, has assigned a giant to an official post on a public roadway. This oversized public officer, however, is abusing his position for his own illegitimate ends: instead of protecting the palmer from danger, he steals what is most precious to him - "il mio bene e '1 mio desio' ('my only hope and joy' [1.5.57]). After rescuing the boy and delivering him to his father, Orlando returns to the spot. The giant is still there, and he lets Orlando pass by him rather than trying to block the road as is his stated duty. Even after Orlando has killed the 'squalid beast' there is no indication that the giant will desist from robbing and victimizing travellers on this mountain pass. Recalling also Battista Guarino's statement that poetic fiction 'consists, as Cicero says, in the exhibition of the realities of our own life under the form of imaginary persons and situations' (170), we could see the giant as representing an official who abuses his post for his own gain. Several of Boiardo's extant letters to Ercole document his concern over corrupt and abusive employees in the Estense state. In one letter Boiardo relates how Ercole's toll collectors robbed the count of Dompier (cousin of the king of France) and a small but illustrious entourage as they passed through Reggio Emilia on their way back from Jerusalem (Matteo Maria Boiardo, 305-6). A knight of Rhodes who was in their company informed Boiardo of the incident which, Boiardo is quick to add, the knight viewed as a negative reflection on Ercole himself. Boiardo tells how he immediately recovered the articles from Ercole's duty collectors and returned them to the travellers, and he then goes on to remind Ercole of previous abuses by Estense employees. If in this instance Boiardo himself assumes the role of the knight Orlando by restoring justice to the travellers, it would seem also that he wants to prevent Ercole from playing the part of the king of Circassia.2 Just as Boiardo's letter signals that the robbing of the French pilgrims was not an isolated case of abuse under the Estensi, his poem reveals that the giant's kidnapping of the palmer's son was not the only danger in the realm of Circassia. No sooner does Orlando descend the mountain than he finds another armed giant standing guard at a bridge (1.5.78). This giant, named Zambardo, explains that anyone who arrives at the bridge, which is the only means to cross the river, must fight to the death. Although Boiardo does not say whether this giant was also placed at the bridge by the king of Circassia, his permanence is indicated through the name of the site: the Bridge of Death. Could Boiardo have been alluding to the practice of exacting exorbi-

18 An Ethics of Action

tant tolls on goods passing over waterways?3 That Boiardo was sensitive to this issue is revealed not only in his various letters regarding excessive transport duties, but also by the fact that in 1486 he instituted an annual fair in Scandiano for which all goods, by special decree of Ercole, were free from duty within the Estense state on the way both to and from the fair (see Venturi 88). In a letter written while military governor of Reggio Emilia, Boiardo complains to Ercole that the Estense duty collectors had begun to disregard the decree and he announces his intention to personally guarantee the protection of the vendors against the abuses and theft of the corrupt toll collectors (Matteo Maria Boiardo, S24-5).4 Even if the Innamorato's giant bridge guardian represents not a toll collector but a brigand acting autonomously, the blame for his repeated terrorization of travellers ultimately resides with the ruler whose duty it is to insure safety in public spaces.5 In an undated letter written between 1475 and 1477, Boiardo pleads with Ercole to resolve a border dispute between Scandiano and Arceto that was a continuous source of acts of theft and violence against the residents of Scandiano (Matteo Maria Boiardo, 49-50). Boiardo attributes to Ercole not only the power but also the obligation to restore safety to the roads, and he emphatically concludes by holding Ercole accountable for both current and future injustices while the situation remains unresolved. Throughout his letters to Ercole, in fact, Boiardo reminds the duke that repeated crimes are to be blamed on the authority who did not sanction the wrongdoer after the first offence. In the Innamorato Orlando approaches the Bridge of Death as a simple traveller, and he will experience firsthand what it feels like to be victimized on the roads. The giant Zambardo is armed with an iron club and a scimitar, but when his opponents show 'ardire e forza a meraviglia' ('courage or admirable force'; 1.5.81), Zambardo's forza gives way to frode as he traps them in a metal net hidden in the sand. Even though Orlando succeeds in overpowering Zambardo, the giant manages to set off the trap as he falls to his death. Orlando is netted and left hanging in the air with his powerful arms pinned uselessly against his sides. After a day and night has passed, a friar appears. Since he is unable to free the knight - he hardly scratches the chain when he strikes it with Orlando's sword - the friar simply urges him to accept death. Given that in Boiardo's day assistance of all kinds was relegated to ecclesiastic institutions, especially monasteries, Boiardo's rendition of

Orlando Innamorato, Book One

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this totally ineffective friar may reflect the inability of the designated social organs to provide effective aid to victims of crime.6 In the meantime, the friar tells Orlando about yet another monster terrorizing travellers in Circassia - a Cyclops. This literary descendent of Homer's one-eyed giant had forced the friar and his three companions into his cave, but subsequently let him go, deeming him too skinny to make a good meal (1.6.25). While Homer's unsociable Cyclops dwelled on a deserted island, Boiardo's Cyclops imprisons and kills all who pass through the realm of Circassia. When the Cyclops sees Orlando, he breaks the net with Durindana in order to capture the paladin, but Orlando kills the giant with one of his own spears and then goes on to free those trapped in his cave. Immediately after Orlando sets out on his way again, he meets a messenger seeking none other than the king of Circassia, Sacripante (1.6.40). At this point the reader may also be wondering about the whereabouts of this negligent king, whose realm is afflicted by such evils as a giant who steals children, a squalid beast who kills those who cannot answer her questions, and another giant who fights travellers to the death at the only bridge across a river, as well as the cannibalistic Cyclops who systematically imprisons travellers in his cave. The irony is that the messenger seeks the king of Circassia not to beseech him to put his own house in order, but to ask him to defend the damsel Angelica against King Agricane in Albraca. Giants and monsters, as it turns out, are not the only problems that plague Circassia. As soon as Orlando sets off towards Albraca in search of Angelica - indeed, in the very same stanza - he reaches the palace of the maga Dragontina and falls victim to a trap of another sort. A painted loggia showing a version of the Circe and Odysseus story indicates the type of danger that Dragontina represents.7 When Orlando drinks from Dragontina's cup he forgets his love for Angelica, his duty to Charlemagne, his entire past, and his very identity; his only thought is of the maga. Meanwhile, Angelica's messenger apparently succeeded in finding Sacripante, since the reader encounters him as he is preparing to lead his troops to Albraca to fight Agricane. Before Sacripante even enters the scene, we learn that his decision to enter the war has already had visible negative effects on the very landscape of Circassia: 'Or quella regione era in conquasso' (That region was a shambles now'; 1.9.38). Sacripante will eventually arrive in Albraca with 'infinita compagnia' ('infinite troops'; 1.10.37) which include eighty thousand of his soldiers

20 An Ethics of Action

as well as seven kings and an emperor, each with their own armed men. His retinue adds up to a total of 362,000 troops (1.10.38-41), an indication of the forces at his disposal were he to deploy them to rid his state of the evils that overrun it. From his first appearance in the poem, Sacripante personifies incontinence. Although he is supposed to be in love with Angelica 'oltra a misura' ('past measure'; 1.9.41), he suddenly craves Astolfo's horse and arms, and he abruptly leaves his troops to set out after Astolfo alone and in disguise. Upon finding Astolfo with the Saracen knight Brandimarte and the latter's beloved Fiordelisa, Sacripante just as suddenly desires the lady instead, deeming her to be a 'meglior guadagno' ('better prize') than the horse. Disregarding the laws of chivalry, he wants to fight Brandimarte, who is on foot, while he remains on horseback. When Astolfo courteously offers to take Brandimarte's place in the duel, Sacripante tells himself that he can now win it all: 'Ed ora mi guadagno in uno instante / La dama col destriero e 1'armatura!' ('And in a moment I will win / The woman and the horse and armour!'; 1.9.62). Contrary to his expectations, however, Sacripante is easily unhorsed by Astolfo and left on the ground. Astolfo's subsequent joke that Sacripante's desire for Astolfo's horse led only to the loss of his own recalls the narrator's opening statement regarding the unbridled desire of the powerful and the inevitable losses deriving from it (1.1.5). Just as Sacripante failed to acquire either Astolfo's horse and arms or Brandimarte's beloved, the reader can be sure that he will not succeed in either liberating Angelica or winning her love. Characteristically, he loses his horse again while fighting in Albraca: the little thief Brunello steals it right out from underneath him, leaving the king in a most indecorous position atop a trunk of wood (2.5.40). While this scene critiques Sacripante in a farcical vein, the consequences of his negligence are much more serious: his realm will be totally annihilated during his absence. Before this happens, however, Boiardo creates an ironic situation to illustrate Sacripante's utter uselessness. While the Circassian king is intent on liberating Angelica from the fortress of Albraca, Angelica herself falls victim to yet another death trap within Sacripante's own realm. When she arrives secretly in Circassia to free Orlando from Dragontina's spell so that he can fight for her in Albraca, she is tricked by an old man and trapped in a tower prison. Angelica may not know the motive behind her capture, but Boiardo wants the reader to be aware of it:

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Ora sappiati che il vecchio canuto, Che in quella selva stava alia campagna, Per prender qualche dama era venuto, Come se prende lo uccelletto a ragna; Per cio che ogni anno dava di tribute Cento donzelle al forte re de Orgagna. Tutte le prende con inganno e scherno, E prese poi le manda a Poliferno. Now you should be aware this gray Old man, whose home is in the woods, Comes to this field to capture maidens, As one snares birds in nets, to pay His tribute of a hundred ladies Every year to his king. He plays A trick on them, then sends them, bound, To Polifern, lord of Orgagna. (1.14.29)

The one hundred maidens per year that the old man must collect and deliver evokes an old literary motif. Unfortunately, however, Boiardo need not have relied solely on literature: in his day the Turks levied a 'tribute' of sorts by enslaving young Christian boys (ages eight to twenty).8 Here the practice is given a new twist, since the king of Circassia does not seem to be aware that these human valuables are being collected in his realm and sent to the neighbouring ruler, Poliferno. Although the reader is privy to information withheld from the characters, the story is not revealed in its entirety. The verses cited above give the impression that the old man acted alone, yet we soon find that he has a large entourage working alongside him, including doctors ('medici Li aveva, e piu persone' ['he had physicians there, and more people']; 1.14.32). Unexpectedly, and for just a moment, we are allowed a glimpse into an extensive criminal operation, the greater workings of which will remain inaccessible. This tower prison brings home another point: Sacripante's negligence of his realm could have resulted in the death of the very damsel he had assembled a massive army to defend. Angelica's travels from Albraca to Circassia are, moreover, part of a larger ironic comment at the expense of all the knights and kings who came to her aid at Albraca. While hundreds of thousands are engaged in trying to deter-

22 An Ethics of Action

mine Angelica's fate, at the moment in which she decides to leave Albraca (to seek reinforcements, no less!), she simply mounts her palfrey and rides away in the moonlight. Underscoring her freedom of movement, Boiardo tells us that Angelica does not even need to use the magic ring that would have made her invisible (1.14.25). For Angelica, then, the tower prison in Circassia presents a more serious danger than Albraca, since without the ring she would have had no means of escape. But the very fact that she possesses the ring, and, so desiring, can escape from any situation by her own means, reduces the war at Albraca to a staged exercise in absurdity. The depiction of Sacripante as a negligent king persists even as he tries to act out the role of 'knight in shining armor' at Albraca. A messenger interrupts Sacripante's duel with Marfisa to inform him that his land has been invaded. The messenger, weeping, tells how Mandricardo entered Circassia, killed Sacripante's brother with his own hands, captured a bridge, burned a town, and then, in a grand finale of destructive fury, set the whole realm in flames (2.3.10). Yet rather than ask Marfisa to give him leave to save his people, Sacripante requests that she depart from Albraca (2.3.12). When Marfisa refuses to leave before attaining her goal, Sacripante immediately forgets the dying multitudes in Circassia and refocuses all his attention on the battle at hand: 'de straccarla al tutto se destina / O ver morir per sua mala ventura' ('[he] resolves to wear her out / Or else, in his misfortune, die'; (2.3.15). Two cantos later, Angelica's father King Galafrone bluntly recalls Sacripante's neglect of his own realm when asking him to seek out the help of Gradasso: 'Ne Mandricardo, che '1 tuo regno piglia, / Ne il tuo caro Olibandro, che hai perduto, / Mai ti puote distor dal nostro aiuto' ('Not Mandricard, who rapes your land, / Nor Olibandro, your dear loss, / Inhibits you from helping us!'; 2.5.60). One could also note that Sacripante is further debased by the very nature of the request: he is not asked to defend Angelica with his sword, but to find a more worthy defender. Boiardo informs us a few stanzas later that Sacripante will not reach his goal of finding Gradasso, but will end up at the Sasso della Fonte (Stone Spring) in India (2.5.66). Later referred to as the Fountain of Narcissus, the Stone Spring is a site where all passers-by fall under the spell of dancing maidens on the fountain's surface and subsequently die of consumption. Although Sacripante (like Orlando) escapes the enchantment at the Narcissus fountain, thanks to the efforts of Queen Calidora, we next find him imprisoned at the Fonte

Orlando Innamorato, Book One

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della Fata (Fountain of the Fay), where he and others are liberated after Mandricardo's victory over a series of magical obstacles. The reader may not have forgotten that it was Mandricardo who killed Sacripante's brother and sent Circassia up in flames. Sacripante, however, apparently misses the connection and thus loses an opportunity to avenge these crimes. Soon thereafter Sacripante reappears as the victim of yet another enchantment: this time he is trapped within the Fonte del Riso (Laughing Stream), where he is oblivious to everything except for the illusion of dancing maidens. Boiardo treats the reader to a further irony: Sacripante had traversed the globe to find Gradasso, but when the latter becomes entrapped within the very same fountain, Sacripante fails to recognize him. Boiardo's first continuer, Niccolo degli Agostini, made the situation explicit in the opening canto of his continuation: 'Era con lui Gradasso in festa, & gioco, / ne lo conobbe Sacripante ardito / che mai non 1'havea visto in altro loco' ('Gradasso was with him in feasting and play, / but bold Sacripante did not recognize him / because he had never seen him before'; 4.1.58). Sacripante's attempt to bring Gradasso to Albraca was in any event futile, since Angelica had left Albraca in the company of Orlando and was being held in the Christian camp outside Paris. In the end, Gradasso, Rugiero, Brandimarte, and Orlando are all rescued from the Laughing Stream by Fiordelisa's crown of flowers, while Sacripante remains befuddled in this underwater trap at the poem's close. Boiardo has thus condemned him to a stasis of unrequited desire in an enchanted fountain, a fitting punishment for one who constantly forgot his duty as king in order to follow elusive and illusive objects of desire. It is telling that even though Ariosto rescues Sacripante from the Laughing Stream, he condemns him to repeat the pattern established by Boiardo: Sacripante is unhorsed by Bradamante, left on foot by Rinaldo, and later forced to relinquish his arms and horse to Rodomonte. He is also an easy victim of deception, finding himself impriscned in both the castello d'acciaio and palazzo incantato. He is last mentioned in Ariosto's poem on his way to Cathay to seek Angelica who has, in the meantime, married the foot soldier Medoro (OF 35.56). Truffaldino, King of Babilonia Truffaldino, ruler of Baghdad and indeed of all Babylon, is one of the kings who fight at Albraca under the command of Sacripante. His very

24 An Ethics of Action

name marks him as a little truffatore (swindler), and his deceitful behaviour is accompanied by boundless rapacity and cowardice. His first action in the poem is, in fact, to trick King Agricane: he asks Agricane to fight on foot, but as soon as the King of Kings has dismounted, Truffaldino turns and flees (1.11.23). We next meet him inside the citadel of Albraca as he surprises none other than King Sacripante in his sleep, along with King Torindo, binds them, and offers via messenger to turn them over to Agricane. Shocked and offended by such a vile act of treachery, Agricane threatens to hang both Truffaldino and his messenger, from the balcony. Truffaldino's cowardice is reflected even in his messenger, who flees from Agricane in a most degrading way: 'De altro che rose avea le brache piene' ('Something not roses filled his britches'; 1.14.55). As in the case of Sacripante, it is Truffaldino's actions outside Albraca that are most relevant to Boiardo's political lesson. Although he rules over all of Babilonia, Truffaldino constantly attempts to take over the castle of a neighbouring count. He may be motivated by envy as well as greed, since Count Orrisello's character is quite the opposite of his own: 'ardito e franco, e de virtu perfetto' ('Of perfect virtue, brave and bold'; 1.13.30). What Truffaldino is not able to accomplish by 'possanza di guerra' ('force of war'; 1.13.32), he will attempt by fraud. Since Count Orrisello's sister Albarosa is the beloved of the knight errant Polindo, Truffaldino offers Polindo one of his castles, then traps the unsuspecting couple inside and tries to force Albarosa into writing a note asking her brother to come to her aid. Truffaldino's men are waiting to ambush Orrisello and seize his castle, but Albarosa saves her brother by refusing to write the false note. His fraudulent scheme having thus far failed in the face of Albarosa's resolve, Truffaldino resorts to torture. Boiardo notes Truffaldino's use of his power base even in the presence of these two unarmed lovers; the king himself does not fetch the instrument of torture, but has it brought to him: 'II re fa incontinente qui venire / Un tormento aspro, crudo ed inumano / Che con ferro affocato e membri straccia' ('the king then quickly orders brought / A harsh, inhuman instrument / Of torture burning tongs for flaying / The limbs'; 1.13.43). Truffaldino is, however, the one who flays Albarosa's face with the burning pincers. Albarosa endures excruciating pain and death rather than submit to Truffaldino's demands. Her refusal to write a false autobiography in pen will become the final segment of a true autobiography that she writes with her own blood. And while the false story would have led to a crime, the

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true story not only transcends the silence of Albarosa's death, but leads to the eventual punishment of Truffaldino when Ranaldo reads the story and then acts to bring about justice. Throughout Albarosa's ordeal, Boiardo emphasizes the fact that the battle between inhuman cruelty and human courage is played out by a king (re, 1.13.41 and 43) and a young lady (dama, 1.13.41 and 43, fanciulla 1.13.43). What, one may ask, has become of the knight errant Polindo? Boiardo gives us a brief but sharply drawn portrait of this unfortunate knight that contributes to both the tragic sense and the political overtones of the episode. Polindo was introduced as a 'cavalliero inamorato' ('knight in love'; 1.13.35) who went about seeking adventure. Knight errancy is typically built on an ideology of action that propels the knight beyond his own boundaries, combating evil and injustice in the service of others. Yet when Polindo falls into Truffaldino's trap he cannot even protect his own lady. Boiardo's heroic knights often feel that they can take on the entire world, but in this taste of reality the forces of evil are simply too overwhelming. The naive knight, whose name suggests one who is very much (poll-) neat and clean (Undo), is unprepared for Truffaldino's treachery. Both paralysed and powerless, his only action is to collapse ('cade in terra'; 1.13.44). The fact that within Truffaldino's fortress the knight errant Polindo is subjected to the humiliation of inaction shatters the optimism underlying the chivalric myth, which cannot withstand the grim realities of political power. The tale of Truffaldino's inhumanity towards Albarosa, however, does not retreat into pessimism or advocate inaction. On the contrary, it creates in the ideal citizen/reader, personified through the figure of Ranaldo, the desire to re-establish justice by punishing the wrongdoer.9 Ranaldo eventually kills Truffaldino at Albraca in the manner traditionally reserved for traitors and, according to fifteenth-century statutes, for thieves and assassins as well (Chiappini, Gli Estensi, 135): he is dragged by the tail of a horse through a public space. Thus, while the incontinent Sacripante was left to his illusions in the Laughing Stream, the fraudulent Truffaldino is exposed and punished for his villainy before the entire gathering of knights at Albraca. Poliferno, King of Orgagna Poliferno first appears in a novella told to Ranaldo by an old widow in order to explain the custom of Rocca Crudele (Castle Cruel), originally

26 An Ethics of Action

named Altaripa. The tale begins with an extraordinary show of hospitality extended to all travellers by its lord Grifone (1.8.28); it ends with a reign of terror in which all those who approach the castle are imprisoned and devoured by a monster or dismembered by the townspeople. The turning point comes when a guest, Marchino, suddenly desires Grifone's wife Stella, murders his host in an ambush, takes over the castle without leaving anyone alive, and then attempts to court the lady. Most of the attention is devoted to the episode's escalating acts of violence: in revenge for Marchino's infidelity, his wife murders and cooks their two sons, the widowed Stella brings Marchino their heads on a plate, and in his rage Marchino ties Stella to the corpse of her dead husband and rapes her. In the midst of such bloodcurdling actions, it is admittedly easy to miss a few circumstantial details, but the conduct of Marchino's wife after she hands over her sons' heads to Stella merits notice. As she herself explains: 'Al re de Orgagna andai subitamente, / Che gia lunga stagion m'aveva amata / (Era costui della Stella parente)' ([I] quickly sought Orgagna's king / [The man was Stella's relative], / Who'd been in love with me for long'; 1.8.42). Marchino's wife ostensibly brings the king of Orgagna to Altaripa as an external figure of justice. However, the fact that he has long been in love with Marchino's wife and is at the same time Stella's relative creates the suspicion that there is more to this than meets the eye. As King Poliferno approaches with 'molta brigata' ('a large company'; 1.8.47), Marchino kills Stella, leaving the land without a legitimate ruler. A battle ensues in which the forces of Poliferno eventually seize the castle from Marchino's men ('con cruda battaglia / La forte rocca alfin pur fo pigliata'; 1.8.48). Assuming the role of a de facto ruler, Poliferno has Marchino killed and then delegates his power to none other than the woman who is both his beloved and Marchino's widow, leaving three giants with her to serve as a brute squad.10 Marchino's widow could be likened to a podesta, a sort of visiting mayor who, in the political system of the time, was appointed by the feudal lord (Badini et al. 192). It is she who orders the monster's tomb to be opened, explains to Ranaldo the origin of the cruel custom, and grants him permission to enter the tomb armed. Yet here the function of the podesta has gone awry: while it was the podesta's role to persecute those who committed criminal acts punishable by law, here Marchino's widow oversees the town's systematic murder of innocent wayfarers. While the initial portion of the novella charts the failed takeover attempt by Marchino of Grifone's castle and lady, the conclusion

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relates the successful appropriation of the castle by King Poliferno and his 'lady.' Indeed, although Marchino's widow presents Poliferno as the saviour, Boiardo shows that, at the very least, he took advantage of a power vacuum to seize control of Altaripa, delegated power to Marchino's widow, supplied her with giants to do her bidding, and allowed the site to become a death trap. The political nature of Poliferno's manoeuvres are downplayed, almost concealed, in the story told by Marchino's widow, but Boiardo has given his readers sufficient elements to infer that political intrigue lies behind this story of misplaced erotic passion. We will later discover that stories in which Poliferno figures as the rescuer are hardly reliable. It turns out that Castle Cruel is a mirror image of Poliferno's own kingdom. All travellers who approach Orgagna are systematically captured by fraud, imprisoned, and eventually fed to a carnivorous monster (this time, a serpent-dragon). And just as Poliferno left Marchino's widow in charge of Altaripa, he has left another vengeful female, Falerina, in charge of Orgagna. Like Marchino's widow, Falerina tells of the origin of the site's horrors, which involves a combination of the same private motives of betrayal and the desire for revenge. In this latter case, however, the reader is given additional information that confirms Poliferno's ultimate responsibility. I should note that although the readers are eventually able to attribute the reign of terror in Orgagna to Poliferno, the characters themselves never blame him. Iroldo tells Ranaldo that he was deceived by Falerina, and explains that she took charge of the realm when King Poliferno went to Albraca (1.17.6-7). Instead of blaming Poliferno for placing his power in Falerina's hands, Iroldo considers her an illegitimate usurper: 'quella incantatrice / Che ora de Orgagna se appella regina' ('that enchantress who / Now calls herself queen of Orgagna'; 1.17.8). Angelica similarly attributes the evil garden exclusively to Falerina and does not even mention Poliferno: 'una regina piena di magagna I ... I Ha fabricate un giardin per incanto, / Per cui destrutto e il regno tutto quanto' ('a malicious, crafty queen / ... / Has made a garden, using magic, / That is the ruin of her kingdom'; 1.28.30).n The fact that the characters are unable to see that the evil in this realm stems from the very top possibly reflects a common practice of Renaissance politics: the apparent separation of acts of extreme cruelty from the ruler who orders or allows such acts. A few decades later Machiavelli would praise Cesare Borgia for granting the savage Remirro de Oreo full power over the most tumultuous region of the

28 An Ethics of Action

Romagna and then, when excessive cruelty was no longer advisable, having him judged by a civil tribunal and executed in a public square, thus 'showing' that 'se crudelta alcuna era seguita, non era nata da lui, ma dalla acerba natura del ministro' ('if any cruelty occurred, it did not stem from him, but from the acerbic nature of the minister'); // Principe, 52). As Luigi Fiorentino notes: The populace attributes the hatefulness of a repression not to the one who ordered it, but to the one who carried it out' (// Principe, 52 n35). Yet if for Cesare Borgia extreme brutality was a means to an end, here it seems to have become an end in itself. In case the reader had forgotten the earlier reference to the tribute of one hundred damsels sent from Circassia yearly to Poliferno, Boiardo creates a new episode that reveals in explicit detail the extent of this king's treachery. The knights Aquilante and Grifone (by coincidence, the same name as that of the former courteous lord of Altaripa) arrive at a garden and are invited to enter a palace. A damsel explains that the site was formally a forest in which a giant stood on a bridge and killed all the knights and damsels who happened to pass by, until one day a brave knight killed the giant, levelled the forest, and planted a garden in its stead (2.2.40). The knight is thus credited with transforming a site of wilderness into a cultivated natural space associated with courtly society. The garden, we are told, was created 'per fare a ciascadun che passi, onore' ('to / Receive and welcome travellers'; 2.2.40). The stated reason for the courteous welcome is to promote the international reputation of the host as a paragon of hospitality: Et e cosi provisto ed ordinato, Che ciascun cavalliero ed ogni dama, Quivi passando, sia molto onorato, Accio che se oda nel mondo la fama Di quel bon cavallier, che e si cortese Che merta lodo in ciascadun paese. It is arranged and ordered so That every cavalier and maid Who passes will be entertained, In order that the good knight's fame Be known worldwide: his courtly ways In every country merit praise. (2.2.41)

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This narrative ostensibly enacts an exact reversal of the events at Castle Cruel, where a site originally characterized by extreme hospitality was transformed by the wickedness of one man into a site in which approaching travellers were systematically murdered. In both cases, the name of the place is changed to reflect the new circumstances: Altaripa became Castle Cruel, the Perilous Bridge is now called the Bridge of Roses. The absent host portrayed as so eager to build up his reputation is none other than Poliferno. According to the damsel, Poliferno's transformation of the forest into a garden leads to a transformation in his own status from a simple knight to a king: Toliferno fu bon cavalliero, / E da poi fatto re per suo valore' ('Poliferno was a good knight, and / Later, due to his courage, king'; 2.2.40). By this statement we know that at least one thing is true: Poliferno did not inherit the title of king. He would not need to tell a story to justify his current rank, nor would he allow himself to be portrayed as a simple knight, if he had been born a prince. The story follows the tradition of the myth of origins that explains the emergence of a political power. As Boiardo told Ercole d'Este in the preface to his translation of the Cyropaedia, the origins of political states are always covered in fancy fictions (Tutte le opere, 2: 718). Poliferno's particular myth relies on the notion that acts of chivalry are rewarded by social advancement. In this case, however, the story that apparently aims to account for Poliferno's rise to power turns out to be a mere ploy to advance his reign of terror. The damsels' hospitable welcome is a trap to lure unwary travellers into spending the night in the palace. Aquilante and Grifone are seized in their beds and thrown into a prison dungeon, where they are destined to be devoured by Orgagna's monster. Thus, while Poliferno presents himself in the guise of the original hospitable lord of Altaripa, he is actually responsible for a death trap similar to the one that Marchino's widow established after Altaripa was transformed into Castle Cruel. In both cases, fiercely vindictive women left in command by Poliferno snare passersby and feed them to a monster. The Bridge of Roses was not, as it seemed, a reversal of Castle Cruel, but its very equivalent. Although Poliferno is ultimately responsible for large-scale murder, he is never directly involved in the executions. On the contrary, during these systematic rituals of violence, we find him in Albraca trying to help Agricane seize Angelica. A herald in Albraca refers to him as

30 An Ethics of Action

'gran Polifermo, re de Orgagna, / Che di stato e possente e di tesoro, / Ed e gagliardo sopra a la campagna' ('Great Polifern, Orgagna's lord, / A brawny fellow in the field, / King of a vast and wealthy nation'; 1.10.11). Yet throughout the poem Boiardo warns the reader to trust deeds and not words, and the herald's praise is contradicted by the narrative that exposes Poliferno as an incompetent fighter. His few brief appearances end in quick defeat. Forty stanzas after the herald's tribute, Poliferno is knocked to the ground in the space of a single verse by none other than Sacripante (1.10.51). Poliferno's most extended appearance in the war begins with Archiloro il Negro effortlessly striking him down: 'E feri il Poliferno nella testa, / E tramortito per terra il distese' ('And [he] pounded Poliferno's head, / Leaving him on the ground, half dead'; 1.16.35). Tellingly, the period of time during which Poliferno remains unconscious on the ground lasts much longer than the combat itself. Poliferno is not only an inept warrior, but a sore loser as well. After Archiloro has been defeated by Agricane (1.16.51) and killed by 'gente villane' ('cowards'; 1.16.52), Poliferno reappears in the company of a fellow king, and together they 'De il colpo ricevuto fan vendetta' ('get revenge for blows they'd taken'; 1.16.53). In a fury of substitutional revenge, the two of them wreak havoc on a defenceless crowd (1.17.54). Poliferno is last mentioned when knocked down by Brandimarte in an encounter so brief that another knight is defeated in the space of the same verse: 'Gia prima Poliferno e poscia Uldano / Da Brandimarte fur gettati al piano' ('First Poliferno, then Uldano / Fell before Brandimarte's lance'; 1.18.28). Boiardo leaves Poliferno on the ground, debased and unhorsed, on the fields of Albraca. Although all three kings - Sacripante, Truffaldino, and Poliferno - are Eastern non-Christians, they present the same problems that plagued the feudal system of Western Christian countries. The stories of Albarosa and of the Castle Cruel, in fact, can be understood in the context of a long history of power struggles among semi-independent lords scattered throughout Europe. Truffaldino, the ruler of Baghdad and king of all of Babylon, is depicted continually trying to extricate the autonomous Count Orrisello from his castle by force. He eventually dupes a knight errant into becoming an inadvertent pawn in his nasty quest for more territory. The Castle Cruel episode is similarly set into motion when one baron decides to appropriate the castle, land, and lady of

Orlando Innamorato, Book One

31

another apparently autarchic lord. With the intervention of Poliferno, however, we sense that both small territories are under the umbrella of the greater realm of Orgagna. Poliferno's reach extends, as we recall, deep into Circassia, where one of his subjects collects a yearly tribute in human lives. The fact that Boiardo does not clearly delineate these political relations corresponds to the actual feudal system as it had evolved through the centuries. The Estense state itself provides a good example of the confusion and sometimes open conflict such a situation entailed. Ferrara owed allegiance (and a yearly tribute) to the Papal States, while Modena was under the jurisdiction of the Holy Roman Empire. In reality, both in Boiardo's day and throughout the following century, the Ferrarese dukes asserted their autonomy as much as they possibly could at the same time that the higher powers attempted to extend control over them. Before the sixteenth century was over, the papacy assumed direct control of Ferrara and forced the Estense to take up residence in Modena. Thus, while Boiardo describes the iniquitous behaviour of rulers in a non-Western setting, he informs his episodes with power struggles that would have been all too familiar to the ruling family of Ferrara. The three kings who participate in Agricane's 'love war' in Albraca can serve as extreme examples of rulers who abuse their power for personal ends. Sacripante's inordinate desire leads to his negligence of duty and, eventually, to the destruction of his realm and his own loss of identity. The other two kings, Truffaldino and Poliferno, rely on a combination of force and fraud. While Truffaldino's use of fraud could be traced to covetousness and envy, the motives behind Poliferno's evil remain unknown to the characters and inaccessible even to the reader. And while Truffaldino is exposed and killed by Ranaldo on the field of battle, Poliferno is not held accountable for his evil. The characters do not connect him with the principal death traps of the poem. The evil of Orgagna, moreover, is also the most difficult to eradicate, and it will take Christendom's two greatest heroes - Ranaldo and Orlando - to accomplish this task.12 One could argue that in these romance adventures Boiardo was not only warning the prince to avoid committing evil actions, he was also warning the rest of his reading public to guard themselves from and, when necessary, combat evil princes. This reading is suggested by the fact that stories involving Truffaldino, the Castle Cruel, and the Garden of Orgagna are related in the form of a novella to the Christian champion of justice, Ranaldo. After reading the story of Albarosa's murder,

32 An Ethics of Action

Ranaldo travels to Albraca where he finds and punishes the evildoer Truffaldino in the public space of the battlefield. After hearing the story of the Castle Cruel, Ranaldo kills first the monster and then the townspeople who attack him, thus putting an end to the evil custom. The third story actually follows the characters from the territory of Truffaldino (Babylon) to the realm of Poliferno (Orgagna). In this episode, Ranaldo, after hearing the story of Iroldo and Prasildo, liberates the latter as he is being led to his death at the hands of Orgagna's serpent-monster. These three stories comprise a trilogy of novellas that are told to Ranaldo in the course of the poem and which, as I will argue in Part Two, are rewritten by Ariosto in the Furioso. Apart from these fictional exempla condemning the praxis of bad rulers, Boiardo includes more direct reflections on the nature of the political state. In the context of the war at Albraca, he calls to mind the temporality of all earthly kingdoms: Tutte le cose sotto della luna, / L'Alta ricchezza, e' regni della terra, / Son sottoposti a voglia di Fortuna' ('All things that lie beneath the moon, / Great wealth and earthly kingdoms - all / Have been assigned to Fortune's will'; 1.16.1). He then returns to the theme in the final episode of Book One, in which the false Origille tricks Orlando into mounting thirty steps, supposedly to glimpse heaven and hell. But the vision he sees from the top of the mound is not of the afterlife, but of death itself. The site is the tomb of Ninus, founder of Nineveh (1.29.53), and it is all that remains of Ninus's once vast Assyrian empire. As Orlando realizes that he has been duped, the reader may further ponder the futility of Ninus's accumulation of territory and the fleeting nature of all such acquisitions. The sudden appearance of Ninus's tomb in a romance landscape is a prelude to Boiardo's greater use of history in Book Two. But it also foreshadows an elaborate allegorical adventure in which Orlando must challenge and conquer Morgana, or Ventura personified. If, at the end of Book One, Orlando merely peers down into Ninus's tomb, in the early cantos of Book Two he physically descends into Morgana's labyrinthine cavern. At its centre he finds a statuary scene in which a king is surrounded by a host of courtiers on foot who appear to be revering him (2.8.25). The dire reality of the situation only becomes clear as we see a sword hanging over the king's head and an unidentified figure off to the left about to shoot an arrow into his side (2.8.25).13 The visual scene is accompanied by a text (scrittura) with the following warning:

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Stato e ricchezza e tutto il mondo e vano Qual se possede con tanta paura; Ne la possanza giova, ne il diletto, Quando se tiene o prende con sospetto. Money and rank and all the world Are worthless when possessed in fear; Power and pleasure please no one When won or held with apprehension, (emphasis added; 2.8.26)

The sententia does not pertain to all kings, but specifically to those who take or hold possession of power or riches con sospetto and who therefore possess them con tanta paura. Boiardo has thus taken his readers deep below the earth's surface, to the heart of Fortune's realm, to warn them against attempting to acquire and maintain a state through illegitimate means. The romance episodes considered in this chapter reveal the extent to which Boiardo's poem is concerned with illustrating the destructive effects of incontinence, violence, and fraud in a political context. This was a frequent message in writings directed at rulers. Boccaccio, for example, had cautioned that 'those who wish to rule others, if they desire a long reign and the lasting faith of the people, should learn to suppress their desires and bridle their passions' (Fates of Illustrious Men, 51). Yet it was a message that apparently went unheeded by the principal powers of Italy during Boiardo's day. Some decades later Guicciardini (among others) would attribute the French invasion of 1494 and the end of Italian autonomy precisely to the greed and egotism of the rulers within the Italian state, and he would continue to repeat the message, writing his History of Italy with the stated aim of showing 'how pernicious, almost always to themselves but always to the people, are those ill-advised measures of rulers who act solely in terms of what is in front of their eyes: either foolish errors or shortsighted greed' (3). The next chapter examines how, in Book Two, Boiardo treats the figure of the ill-advised and pernicious ruler from a different perspective, that of the genre of history, which he uses to construct a genealogical line and thematic chain of imitation stretching back to Alexander of Macedonia.

Chapter Three Orlando Innamorato, Book Two (1482-3): History

The friendship of a king for his subjects expresses itself in benevolence, in which he excels them, for doing good is his business. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics

Guarino da Verona was a prolific translator of history, which he considered the best way to teach the art of government. While tutor to Leonello d'Este and as founding director of the humanist studiuolo in Ferrara, Guarino continually expounded the ethical and political lessons to be gained through study of the past.1 Typical is the advice Guarino gave Leonello in the letter accompanying his translation of the Lives of Lysander and Sulla: The cruelties as well as the honorable traits of their characters I hold to you as a mirror, that you may imitate the good, when you see it, and avoid and detest the vices' (Fade 86). Boiardo similarly writes to Ercole d'Este that history is the 'maestra di tutte le cose di pace e di guerra per la copia delli accaduti esempli/ ('teacher of all things relating to peace and war, due to the copiousness of the examples') and he singles out historians, moralist authors, and translators as 'huomini eccellenti' ('estimable men') who put their intellectual energies to use 'a publica utilita' ('for the public good').2 Backing up words with deeds, Boiardo himself translated a number of histories for Ercole d'Este that he specifically stated (in the preface to each of them) should be used as moral exempla: the Histories of Herodotus, the Lives of Famous Captains by Cornelius Nepos, the Histories of Riccobaldo, and Xenophon's Cyropaedia. In his preface to the Cyropaedia, Boiardo alerts Ercole to the fact that beneath the biography of Cyrus lies the very art of government. Boiardo further explains that he

Orlando Innamorato, Book Two

35

chose to translate Xenophon's version from among the various conflicting biographies of Cyrus precisely because it aimed at verisimilitude and was the most suited to teach good government. Indeed, Boiardo states outright that he chose to translate an account that was 'assai piu utile che piacevole' ('much more didactic than entertaining'); Tutte le opere, 2: 717). Boiardo's interest in history was shared by Ercole I d'Este.3 Antonia Tissoni Benvenuti has recently argued that Boiardo completed Book One of the Innamorato under Borso's reign, and began the second book after Ercole assumed the dukedom in 1471. If this is the case, it could help to account for the sudden prominence of ancient history in a Carolingian-Arthurian romance epic. As noted in the previous chapter, at the close of Book One Boiardo turned the comical episode of Origille duping Orlando into a somber reminder of the dissolution of Ninus's Assyrian Empire. He opens Book Two with the history of another, and more famous, builder of empires - Alexander of Macedonia. Biographies of Alexander circulated widely in Boiardo's day, and the Estense library contained more than one version.4 Given the multiple histories of Alexander, it is significant that Book Two opens with two distinct histories of the Macedonian king, fifteen stanzas apart.5 The first marks the beginning of narrative in Book Two, and it is followed by a genealogy that leads up to the current King Agramante of Biserta. The second history is depicted in a fresco cycle on the walls of King Agramante's palace.6 Boiardo thus provides the reader with a 'historical' version of events against which to judge the reliability of the fresco cycle. Boiardo frames his description of the fresco history with comments that underline its artfulness and, hence, artificiality: it is painted 'con gran gloria' ('in full-fledged glory'; 2.1.21); 'ogni sua guerra ivi e depinta / Con gran ricchezza e bella a riguardare' ('each war is richly painted, / Each one remarkable to see'; 2.1.28). Rather than providing meaning underneath the surface, the fresco cycle traps the reader in its superficial splendour. Verisimilitude and moral instruction, Boiardo's two criteria for judging the usefulness of history, have no place here. The fresco cycle begins with Alexander's biological conception, depicting the Egyptian necromancer Nectanebus as he appeared before the Macedonian queen in the form of a serpent-god. Yet in the preface to the Cyropaedia, Boiardo explicitly warned Ercole that accounts of supernatural phenomena linked to Alexander's birth stemmed from the desire to imagine that great things have marvellous

36 An Ethics of Action

origins. In fact, in Turpino's historical account related a few stanzas earlier, the circumstances surrounding Alexander's conception and birth are considered so uneventful as not to merit any mention at all. The fresco cycle goes on to illustrate events from Alexander's life, from his youthful exploits to his various military conquests, related in detail for the length of six full stanzas. In his preface to the Cyropaedia, Boiardo had already cited the life of Alexander as an example of 'le antiche historic a le quali per non potere haver assai chiara notitia desse molte cose fincte visi agiungeno' ('ancient histories in which, not having very clear information, many fantastic things were added'; Tutte le opere, 2: 718). Tellingly, in Turpino's account Alexander's military exploits are reduced to a single verse in which, moreover, he is described in a rather inglorious manner: Toi che ebbe il mondo tutto quanto afflitto' ('Having afflicted all the world'; 2.1.5). The ekphrastic description includes an echo of this original verse but transforms the suffering and affliction that Alexander caused the world into an assertion of his victory over it: Tossa che fu la terra da lui vinta' ('After the world was won by him'; 2.1.28). After relating Alexander's triumph over the earth, the fresco depicts his symbolic conquest of the heavens: 'A duo grifon nel eel si fa portare / Col scudo in braccio e con la spada cinta' ('He rides two griffins through the sky, / With shield on arm and sword aside'; 2.1.28). Alexander assumes the pose of a conqueror displaying his weapons of attack and defence: his shield is on his arm and his sword is ever ready at his side. This flight into the sky, as well as the underwater excursion mentioned in the same stanza, were part of the legend of Alexander. Turpino also mentions these feats, but limits them once again to a single verse: 'E vis to il mare e il eel per sua arroganza' ('And [he] toured the sea and sky [in his arrogance]'; 2.1.5). In this historical account, Alexander has not conquered, but has simply seen (visto), the sea and sky. While the ekphrasis described Alexander's triumphant pose, Turpino draws attention instead to the character trait that motivated the action: sua arroganza. Taken together, Turpino's two verses referring to the sum total of Alexander's actions in the earth, sea, and sky (Toi che ebbe il mondo tutto quanto afflitto / E visto il mare e il eel per sua arroganza' ['Having afflicted all the world/And boldly toured the sea and sky'; 2.1.5]) suggest an interpretation through their rhyme words: afflitto refers to the dire effects of his actions on the rest of the world, and arroganza indicates the questionable motivation behind those actions. These two verses serve to further belittle Alexander's

Orlando Innamorato, Book Two 37

character by being set in a dependent clause which serves as a mere prelude to the continuation of the story in which he is in turn conquered, not by foreign troops, but by a woman named Elidonia. Turpino's account thus refutes in advance the sensationalistic claims of the ekphrasis. Both Turpino and the fresco cycle provide a sequel to Alexander's biography that focuses on his three sons. The walls of Agramante's palace display 'la guerra e la roina / Che fanno e tre germani in quel paese' ('the ruin and war / That those three brothers bring the land'; 2.1.30). Although the actions attributed to the three brothers are said to be pictured on the walls ('L'opre di lor sono ivi tutte quante'; 2.1.30), they are dismissed without any description.7 In contrast, Turpino's historical version relates the lives of the three brothers in considerable detail. Indeed, while Turpino reduces Alexander's entire story to two stanzas, he devotes six full stanzas to the story of his sons. The greater space allotted to the sons in Turpino's account allows for an explanation of the exceptional way in which they came to rule all of Africa: Non per prodezza ne per vigoria, Non per gran senno acquistar tutto il stato, Ma la natura sua, ch'e tanto bona, Tirava ad obedirli ogni persona. Perche 1'un piu ch' 1'altro fu cortese, E sempre 1'acquistato hanno a donare; Onde ogni terra e ciascadun paese Di grazia gli veniva a dimandare. E cosi subiugar senza contese Dallo Egitto al Morocco tutto il mare, Ed infra terra quanta andar si puote Verso il deserto, a lie gente remote. They did not win their state by strength, By wisdom, or by vigour, but By excellence of character, Which prompted men's obedience. Each one was courteous, and each Liberally dispensed his wealth. Thus every city and each realm

38 An Ethics of Action Approached them to request their rule. They won without belligerence The sea from Egypt to Morocco. They won as far as one can go, To dwellers in the distant sands. (2.1.11-12)

The harmony of rule is symbolized by the presence of three brothers sharing power in a city whose name (Tripoli) bears witness to their spirit of collaboration. Unlike their father, they do not cause affliction in the world through arrogance; on the contrary, 'each city and every realm' asks to be unified under them because of their good nature. The necessary goodness of the ideal ruler runs throughout the histories that Boiardo translated and dedicated to Ercole d'Este. In his preface to the Cyropaedia, Boiardo explains that Cyrus was a model leader because he was an exemplum of goodness: Et veramente se piu mai alcuna lectione de hystoria porse giovamento ali ascoltanti questa debbe essere quella che le utilitadi de laltre sopravanzi. Perche nela presente opera si discrive il vivere di quel principe che ali altri di bontade deggia essere exemplo. And truly if any lesson of history was useful to its listeners, this one must be that which surpasses the others in usefulness, because the present work describes the life of that prince which should be an example of goodness to all others. (Tutte le opere, 2:178)

In the sequel he invents following Alexander's death, Boiardo envisions an ideal state brought about by the goodness of its leaders.8 The Golden Age heralded by Alexander's sons follows a time of political upheaval and restores order out of chaos. Boiardo presents us not with a terrestrial paradise existing prior to civilization, but with an ideal society based on social harmony and peace among peoples.9 Boiardo constructs his political Utopia in opposition to the history of Alexander, a history that was part of a great chain of imitation. Alexander claimed descent from both Hercules and Achilles, and became, in turn, a model for Julius Caesar;10 Boiardo extends this chain of imitation to the African kings. The 'gran segnori' of the 'casa Africana' are, like Alexander, characterized by 'grande arroganza' (2.1.13), and they pursue a politics of offence and conquest. Boiardo uses the most recent part of the genealogy from Andrea da Barberino's Aspramonte, where

Orlando Innamorato, Book Two

39

King Agolante claimed that his descent from Alexander gave him licence to conquer the world in a gesture of imitation (II.x.20-1; repeated in III.xxxiii.27). Boiardo invents the character of Agramante as King Agolante's grandson, and endows him with the same imperialistic ambitions and desire to emulate Alexander. In this context, the ekphrasis on the palace walls highlighting Alexander's exploits is both an excuse for and a reflection of Agramante's reckless desire to invade France.11 In an effort to persuade the assembly to second his plan, Agramante states that Alexander's pictorial history on the surrounding walls is a lesson in achieving honour through violence: 'E la sua istoria, che e qui manifesta, / Mostra che al guadagnar d'onor si suda, / E sol s'acquista con la spada nuda' (His history, depicted here, / Reveals that honour is obtained / By sweat - it's gained with unsheathed blades'; 2.1.36). Agramante's reference to honor, however, is simply a cover for unchecked acquisitiveness. The key verbs are guadagnare and acquistare, which throughout the Innamorato have negative connotations. The ekphrasis's earlier reference to Alexander's 'spada cinta' is now substituted with Agramante's 'spada nuda.' Agramante recalls and goes beyond Alexander's triumphant flight into the sky by stating that once he has conquered the earth, he intends to start a war in heaven: Toi che battuta avro tutta la terra, / Ancor nel paradise io vo' far guerra' ('And after I have won the world, / I'll want to war in Paradise!'; 2.1.64).12 The idea of never being satisfied is intrinsic to the chain of imitation that finds its primary models in Alexander and Julius Caesar. The proem of canto 22 will in fact cite Julius Caesar along with Alexander of Macedonia as examples of 'quei che trionfarno il mondo in gloria' ('those who've triumphed in the world'; 2.22.1). This apparent praise of the two conquerors occurs just prior to a review of Agramante's army as it prepares to invade France.13 In the desire to go beyond bounds and, at the same time, beyond one's model, Agramante is overshadowed by his fellow African Rodamonte, who is 'ancor piu fiero' ('even fiercer'); 2.1.16). This king of Sarza not only hopes to be crowned king in France (2.3.35), but he actually tells the council that he plans to either follow or lead Agramante into both heaven and hell (2.1.65). Rodamonte is later referred to as 'Questo superbo, che ha tanta arroganza, / Pigliar soletto tutto il mondo crede' (This proud man of great arrogance / [Who] plans to subdue the world alone'; 2.5.67).

40 An Ethics of Action

If Agramante claims his descent from 'Alessandro il superbo' (2.1.24), Boiardo traces Rodamonte's genealogy to another exemplary figure of arrogance, Nimrod, who is here said to have taken part in the Gigantomachy before constructing the Tower of Babel: Nembroto il fier gigante, che in Tesaglia Sfido gia Dio con seco a la battaglia. Poi quel superbo per la sua arroganza Fece in Babel la torre edificare, Che de giongere in celo avea speranza, E quello a terra tutto ruinare. Fierce, giant Nimrod, who once challenged God to a duel in Thessaly. That orgulous and headstrong man Ordered the Tower of Babel built, Hoping that way to pass to heaven, Which he'd destroy and drop to earth. (2.14.32-3)

In this passage, Nimrod's unruly pride (quel superbo) and arrogance (arroganza), his insatiable appetite, which leads him up a vertical axis into the sky (in celo), and his desire to destroy (ruinare) link him to the mythological Titans who 'essayed the very throne of heaven, piling huge mountains, one on another, clear up to the stars' (Ovid, Met., 1.152-3). If Rodamonte evokes the gigantic, mythical extreme of unbridled acquisitiveness, the African thief Brunello provides a miniature, farcical version. The four-foot-tall Brunello asks Agramante to give him an even greater task than that of stealing Angelica's magic ring (2.3.42). Brunello's expressions may recall popular folklore rather than epic glory, yet his ambitions are analogous to those of the African kings because they cannot be contained on a horizontal axis and instead take him up into the sky and down into hell: 'tuor la luna dal eel giu mi da il core, / E robbare al demonic il suo forcone' (T could pluck down the moon from heaven, / Or steal the devil's triple fork'; 2.3.42). With such negative outside forces being unleashed against Charlemagne, it is not surprising to find that the emperor's image is rehabilitated in Book Two: Book One's fickle and credulous ruler (falling for Angelica's charm, cursing at his knights, imprisoning Astolfo unjustly, etc.) now assumes the role of a respectable statesman. Raffaele Don-

Orlando Innamorato, Book Two

41

narumma notes that in Book Two the emperor becomes 'an example of a fifteenth century lord, in which one recognizes the physiognomy of the Duke of Ferrara' (164). Yet Charlemagne is not the one destined to counter the negative chain of imitation reaching from Alexander to Agramante and from Nimrod to Rodamonte. Instead, this role is reserved for Rugiero, Ercole's progenitor. In the same opening canto of Book Two Boiardo informs us that Agramante is not the only descendant of Alexander and his sons. Rugiero is, like Agramante, a grandson of King Agolante, since his mother Galaziella was the sister of Agramante's father Troiano. Thus the example of Alexander's three sons, which was initially treated as a unique corrective to the rapaciousness of Alexander and his other descendants, will turn out instead to be the origin of a positive chain of imitation that, through Rugiero, stretches forward to the fictional present. While an initial link was created between Alexander and Agramante through their imperialistic ambitions at the opening of the canto, a second link is established between Alexander's sons and Rugiero through their parallel birth situations at the canto's close. The African king of Garamanta gives an account of Rugiero's birth that replays essential elements of the birth of Alexander's sons (2.1.69-75). Both fathers (Alexander and Rugiero II) are betrayed and killed, which results in a state of political chaos. In the first case we are told that 'II mondo tutto a guerra se ascombiglia (The earth was stirred by turmoil'; 2.1.6) and 'il mondo ... e tutto in ruina' ('the world was so confused'; 2.1.7). In the second, the sense of total destruction is repeated in Rugiero II's native city of Reggio Calabria: 'la citta de Rissa in foco ardente / Fu ru'inata con molto furore' ('the town of Reggio burned / And in tumultuous ruin fell'; 2.1.72). Both men leave behind despairing pregnant women who escape by sea to a foreign land and give birth to more than one child. The direct opposition between Agramante, modelled on Alexander, and Rugiero, modelled on Alexander's sons, is set in motion at the time of the African joust. Rugiero enters the arena, saves Agramante from an attack, and then proceeds to defeat everyone he encounters while the king looks on. Agramante, rather than feeling gratitude or admiration, is spurred by 'invidia grande' ('great envy'; 2.17.27), and he actually attacks Rugiero. Rugiero's victory over him is as swift as it is symbolic: the two verses that describe Agramante's insignia are immediately followed by two more verses that describe their destruction by Rugiero (2.17.29).

42 An Ethics of Action

Near the end of Book Two, Boiardo more directly contrasts Agramante and Rugiero as representatives of opposing chains of imitation. As the African army heads to France, Rugiero is now commander of the troops from none other than Tripoli: Da Tripoli seguia la gente franca: Non fo di questa la piu bella armata, Ne piu fiorita; e, se nulla vi manca, Da Rugier paladino era guidata. Lui ne lo azurro avea 1'acquila bianca, Qual sempre da' suoi antiqui fu portata. Bold men from Tripoli came next, And no ships were as fair as theirs, None finer, and - so nothing lacked The knight Rugier, who wore the white Eagle on blue that his ancestors Always had shown, was their commander. (2.29.18.1-6)

This passage links Rugiero to Alexander's sons, who collectively founded Tripoli, as it highlights the city's continued eminence. The stanza ends with a curt reference to Agramante's troops: 'Da poi venia la armata da Biserta, / Ove Agramante ha la sua insegna aperta' (Biserta's fleet, where Agramante's / Flag flew aloft, was sailing after'; 2.29.18). Not only do the troops from Biserta lag conspicuously behind the fleet of Tripoli, but they follow a six-line description of that fleet as the fairest and the finest. In the two verses allotted to Agramante's troops, the only adjective employed refers to Agramante's flag as being unfurled (aperta). While Rugiero paladino is depicted guiding his men, Agramante appears to be merely displaying the symbols of his power. This passage would have been especially significant for Ercole d'Este because it is the first time in which Boiardo describes Rugiero's insignia: a white eagle on a blue background. Although we do not yet know the ancestors (suoi antiqui) referred to in the passage, we do know the identity of his descendants. Boiardo had described the same white eagle with a blue background in the Estense genealogy painted in the palace of the fairy Febosilla (2.25.49). Boiardo includes the Estense family in his alternative chain of imitation both in the ekphrasis at Febosilla's palace just mentioned (2.25.4156) and in a prophecy by Rugiero's tutor Atalante (2.21.55-9). Atalante describes the first member of the Estense family to cross into Italy as

Orlando Innamorato, Book Two

43

'largo, gentile e sopramodo umano' ('generous, gentle, and [extremely] humane'; 2.21.56). The first Este depicted in the ekphrasis at Febosilla's palace (Ranaldo d'Este) is similarly characterized as 'umano' (2.25.43). Ercole's father, Niccolo d'Este, although 'una persona sopranaturale' ('someone supernatural'; 2.25.50), was 'umano, / ... 'liberale e d'amor pieno' ('humane / Liberal, and full of love; 2.25.53). This repetition of the attribute umano (human, humane) highlights the importance of a good-natured ruler for a just political system.14 Boiardo further establishes Niccolo d'Este's place in the positive chain of imitation by linking his youthful actions to those of Rugiero. Niccolo, in his youth ('in prima etate piccolino'; 2.25.51), is attacked by strange beasts ('fiere istrane'; 2.25.51). Later Rugiero will tell Bradamante that he, 'in quell'etate tenerella' ('at a tender age'; 3.5.36), fought 'fiere istrane e diversi animali' ('strange / Beasts and odd creatures'; 3.5.37). Niccolo's two lions, a dragon, an eagle, and a panther will be matched by Rugiero's serpents, dragons, griffins, and pegasi. Niccolo's animals are also allegorical representations of his political enemies, continuing a practice of Boiardo's eclogues and reminding us once again that political realities often lie just below the surface of fantastic adventures.15 Niccolo's journey to the Holy Land, moreover, is described in a spirit that explicitly counters the example of Alexander: Poi se vedea, da conti e da baroni Accompagnato, con le velle al vento Andar cercando con devozione La Santa Terra et altre regione. Next he was shown accompanied By counts and barons, setting sail Upon a sacred course: to see The Holy Land and other realms. (2.25.52)

While the Macedonian king crossed land and sea in order to conquer the world, Niccolo makes a pilgrimage to a sacred site. The opposition between Niccolo and Alexander is extended into the following stanza in which Niccolo 'se volse e, come avesse 1'ale, / Tutta la Spagna vidde e lo oceano' ('turned round, as if with wings, / And saw the ocean and all Spain'; 2.25.53). While the phrase 'come avesse 1'ale' recalls the flight of Alexander upon the two griffins, Niccolo's movement is not upward into the sky through arrogance, but westward from Jerusalem to Santiago de Compostela in devotion.

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The poem's dedicatee, Ercole d'Este, is mentioned as well on these two occasions. The ekphrastic description of him in Febosilla's palace alludes to his noble bearing, generosity, wisdom, military strength, and courage, while the writing above his head singles out the virtue in his heart (Virtu del core'; 2.25.56). Atalante's prophecy is more explicitly political: he says that if Ercole wished to increase his state, by following virtue and avoiding vice, he could gain obedience not only from people but from birds as well: E se 1'altro filiol de Amfitrione, Qual la si mostra in abito ducale, Avesse a prender stato opinione, Come egli ha a seguir bene e fuggir male, Tutti li occei, non dico le persone, Per obedirlo avriano aperte 1'ale. And if the other Hercules, Dressed in the garment of a duke, Should set his mind on conquering [As he pursues good and shuns evil], Then every bird, not only men, Would spread their wings and bow to him. (2.21.59)

As in the case of Niccolo moving 'come avesse 1'ale' ('as if with wings'), the image of birds and flying is used here in contrast to Alexander's presumptuous flight into the sky upon two griffins. Moreover, it is not Ercole who is portrayed as flying; rather, the birds themselves, the very symbol of freedom, would willingly open their wings to bind themselves under Ercole's rule. This notion of voluntary submission to the rule of Ercole brings to mind the situation of the three African brothers whose nature was so good that it 'tirava ad obedirli ogni persona' ('prompted men's obedience'; 2.1.11). But how should we interpret the intention behind Boiardo's comment that if Ercole 'set his mind on conquering ... then every bird, not only men, / Would spread their wings and bow to him' (2.21.59)? Does this hypothetical statement simply praise Ercole for governing justly, or does it encourage him to pursue an expansionist policy? This question brings us to the next chapter, which examines Boiardo's use of the epic genre in the Innamorato's third book.

Chapter Four Orlando Innamorato, Book Three (1495): Epic

La grandezza degli uomini si misura dalle virtu e non dalla fortuna. (The greatness of men is measured by virtue and not by fortune.) Cornelius Nepos, Le vite degli eccellenti capitani, trans. Matteo Maria Boiardo

In the introduction to his edition of the Innamorato, Giuseppe Anceschi writes that the Estense family was 'audaciously reaching for the conquest and organization of new territories' (1: x). Such aspirations are as possible as they are difficult to verify, since if the Este had wished to expand, they would not have announced their plans to their neighbours. Ercole's marriage to the daughter of the king of Naples did not gain him any new title or territory, but it did secure him a powerful alliance with a principal Italian state (Olivi 28). When Venice declared war on Ferrara in 1482, it was rumoured that Ercole's politically motivated marriage to Eleonora d'Aragona was the cause of the conflict. While the contemporary Venetian writer Marino Sanudo is quick to downplay this possibility by remarking that the Venetians had consented to the wedding, he nevertheless singles out Ercole's alliance with Naples as the reason for the clash between Venice and Ferrara (5). In particular, he accuses Eleonora's father of an avid desire to expand at the expense of Venice, and at the same time he accuses Ercole of having forgotten his (supposed) debt to Venice and of having secretly made political agreements with other states, that is, Naples (7). Ercole's elaborate spending on cultural patronage seems to indicate his desire to act as a principal player on the level of Italian and even

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European politics.1 In a strambotto dedicated to Ercole, the duke is not only called 'the strength and highest honor of all of Italy/ but is said to be tied 'with great love' to both France and the pope ('O Triumphale Diamante'). Realistically speaking, however, Ercole was well aware that the small duchy of Ferrara, surrounded by stronger neighbours to the east (Venice), west (Milan), northwest (France), and south (the Papal States), was hardly in a position to embrace an expansionist policy. The Este rulers had traditionally protected the interests of their state by refraining from war and trying to play the role of mediator in the murky political situation of the Italian peninsula. Boiardo's Pastoralia contrast the horrors of war with a golden age of peace under Borso and Ercole d'Este. Far from glorifying battle, Boiardo praises Borso precisely for having kept Ferrara out of war (Past. 6.61-4), and he celebrates Ercole's rule principally for its absence of violence (Past. 4.29-32). It is unlikely, then, that Boiardo would be suggesting to Ercole that he seek to enlarge his state through military conquest. Within the poem itself, those who identify with Alexander's imperialistic ambition are clearly in the wrong. But if the Estense readers are invited to identify with the Christian defenders, just whom could the Saracen aggressors represent? When Boiardo began Book Two, Turkish expansion in the Mediterranean was still the closest contemporary analogue to Agramante's invasion. The Turks captured Otranto on the Adriatic coast in 1480, and Eleonora's father called for a concentrated defensive effort. However, the death of Mehemmed II in 1481 brought about the retreat of the Turks and subsequent new aggression on the part of Venice.2 Boiardo would have been composing the latter part of Book Two while Venice was making preparations to invade Ferrarese territories, and the first edition of the poem was published during the war. It would have therefore been natural enough for early readers to associate the Saracens' unbridled acquisitiveness with the 'cupidita di Venetian!' ('cupidity of the Venetians').3 There are, in fact, similarities between the Africans' projected conquest of France and Venice's declared war against Ferrara. The Venetian Senate's plan to attack Ferrara from all sides with an army of 10,000 men would have given added poignancy to the poem's invasion of France from three separate directions (Piva 117). Moreover, the Saracen victory in Montealbano and attack on Paris at the conclusion of Book Two parallel the decisive victories of the Venetian troops in Ferrarese territory that brought them right outside the walls of Ferrara

Orlando Innamorato, Book Three 47

itself. In November 1482, after a major Ferrarese defeat in the outlying territory, Venetian troops were attacking the external defences of the city.4 Meanwhile, the long-awaited Duke Alfonso of Calabria, Eleonora's brother, was blocked in central Italy by papal forces, and an ailing Ercole d'Este was confined to his bed. Luckily for the Estensi, the tide of the war began to change that same month when the pope, distrustful of Venetian power, switched alliances, thereby allowing Alfonso to pass through Rome and reach Ferrara. Alfonso d'Aragona, significantly, figures in the latter part of the Innamorato's second book: he is celebrated on the Sybil's embroidered tent for having defended Italy from a Turkish invasion (2.27.57). At that moment, however, Boiardo was clearly less interested in Alfonso's past prowess against the Turks than in his current promise against Venice. In the summer or autumn of 1482, Boiardo wrote five eclogues invoking the arrival of the Duke of Calabria in support of the beleaguered Ferrarese state. The publication of the first two books of the Innamorato between April 1482 and February 1483 corresponds with the worst period of the war.5 Boiardo draws the fictional and contemporary historical events together in the final stanza when he attributes the interruption of the poem, and consequently the suspension of the Saracen attack on Paris, to the Venetian attack of Ferrara (2.31.49). Moreover, as Murrin has argued, the publication of the unfinished poem at the height of the war could have been an action in support of the Estense cause (History and Warfare, 22). There was an extensive literary production surrounding the events of the ongoing war, mostly presented from the Venetian point of view by minor poets tied to Venice. Neil Harris cites one such poem from 1482 that refers to Ercole as a new Gano di Maganza, thus recalling an unflattering genealogy that traced the Estensi back to the traitor Ganelon ('L'avventura editoriale/ 39).6 The author of this propagandistic poem goes on to view the Venetian invasion of Ferrara as a punishment by God for Ercole's faults. He refers to Ercole as an evil man, without virtue, a traitor and breaker of promises, and, worst of all, a tyrant who neglects reason, faithfulness, and justice, and who continually tries to harm his neighbours through fraud and evil. The author addresses the city of Ferrara, inviting it to weep for the situation of a siege that can only lead to its destruction. If the Ferrarese citizens read this vicious attack on their ruler they were apparently not impressed, since their general show of support for Estense rule remained strong during the war against Venice (Chiap-

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pini, Gli estensi 163)7 It is uncertain whether Ercole himself ever read this or similar material. What we do know is that on 28 January 1483, as soon as the most dangerous moments of the attack on Ferrara had passed, Ercole left the command of the war to the newly arrived Duke of Calabria and went to Modena and Reggio for a couple of weeks (where he evidently saw Boiardo), and that on 24 February upon his return to Ferrara, he wrote to his representative in Reggio Emilia requesting three additional copies of Boiardo's poem.8 The war, in the meantime, continued well into 1484, and Ugo Caleffini wrote in May 1484 that 'the poor Ferrarese population was crying at every corner, it was destroyed.'9 In the treaty of Bagnolo that brought an end to the war in August 1484, Ferrara was forced to cede crucial territory to Venice.10 Ferrara had been saved, but it was a defeat for Duke Ercole, nevertheless. Boiardo resumes his poem some time thereafter. The proem of Book Three gives the sense that the status quo has been re-established and the court is experiencing a revival ('E questa corte piu che mai fiorita'; 'And this court - more than ever - flowers'; 3.1.2). In reality, however, the war against Venice, referred to by Gundersheimer as Ferrara's 'greatest crisis in nearly two hundred years,' had taken its toll and the Estense state took years to recover (Ferrara, 216). Documents from Ferrara and Reggio Emilia note not only devastation resulting from the war itself, but also an extended period of famine and pestilence lasting over five years.11 Anceschi has remarked that the Innamorato 'represented without a doubt the moment of growth of a State that was revealing to itself its unexpressed potential' (introduction, Orlando Innamorato, 1: x). This may indeed have been true during the writing of the first two books, especially if the growth is understood to be cultural and political rather than territorial. Now, however, any dreams of greatness that Ferrara might have entertained would have been shattered in the wake of war. Thus, when Boiardo began Book Three, he needed to find a new perspective that could enhance the prestige of a defeated Ferrara and provide a sense of worth that was not tied to martial victory. He therefore turns to an epic hero who was greater in defeat than Alexander of Macedonia could have ever hoped to be in victory: Hector of Troy.12 In the opening canto of Book Three, a fairy pays tribute to Hector's unparalleled heroic stature and his role as Troy's pre-eminent defender:

Orlando Innamorato, Book Three 49 Ettor di Troia, il tanto nominate, Fu la eccellenzia di cavalleria, Ne mai si trovara ne fu trovato Chi il pareggiasse in arme o in cortesia. Ne la sua terra essendo assediato Da re settanta et altra baronia, Dece anni a gran battaglie e piu contese: Per sua prodezza sol se la difese. [...] Poi d'ogni altra virtu fu tanto adorno, Che il par non ebbe il mondo tutto quanto, Ne il piu bel cavallier, ne il piu gentile; A tradimento poi lo occise Achile. Come fu morto, ando tutta a roina Troia la grande e consumosse in foco. Hector of Troy - he was renowned! He was the pride of chivalry. None was, or ever will be, found Whose arms or courtesy match his! He was besieged in his town by Seventy kings and many knights For over ten years. He fought long, His strength his city's sole defence. [...] With many powers he was graced, More than the whole world had together, And none was nobler, none so fair Achilles killed him, in a snare. When he was dead, once-mighty Troy Fell, ruined and consumed by flames. (3.1.26-8) Hector is considered the hero par excellence not only because of his prowess on the battlefield, but also because of his moral character. He is described as a paragon of both 'arms' and courtesy/ adorned with every virtue.13 Boiardo would have found widespread recognition of Hector as the greatest of heroes. When, in the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle treats the virtue of courage as moral excellence, he turns to Hector twice as an

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example, and he later cites Hector again as embodying the 'superhuman virtue' which is the opposite of bestiality (98,193). In the Aeneid, Aeneas acknowledges the superiority of Hector when he calls him the 'light of Troy' and the Trojans' trusted hope' (Aen. 2.386) and tells Dido that the ghost of Hector appeared to him saying: 'could Pergamus be saved by any prowess, then my hand would have served' (Aen. 2.399-400). Although Boiardo could perhaps not have found a hero more fitting than Hector to embody the ideals he wished to instil in his fifteenthcentury readers, he does not seem to have had any intention of associating Ercole d'Este with this epic figure of defeat prior to the final cantos of Book Two.14 On the contrary, going back as far as the Carmina (written 1463-4), Ercole is identified with the slayer of Hector, Achilles.15 In the Innamorato, the plot lines earlier in Book Two link Ercole's literary ancestor Rugiero to Achilles, as Fausto da Longiano pointed out in his 1542 introduction to the Orlando Furioso (3). Near the end of Book Two, however, Achilles suddenly becomes a model for Orlando, who withdraws from the war hoping for a Christian defeat so that he can enter at the last moment and win Angelica (2.30.61). Not only is the imitation of Achilles transferred from Rugiero to Orlando, but the scene itself sheds a negative light on Achilles, whose absorption with a private affair risks endangering the collective effort. Hector is mentioned briefly on three occasions in the first two books. He is first named in a list along with three other heroes whom Agricane boasts he could singlehandedly overpower (1.16.6). Some cantos later, the narrator includes Hector in an expanded list of great heroes who nevertheless cannot match the valour of Ranaldo and Orlando (1.27.28). It is only near the end of Book Two that Boiardo evokes Hector alone. It is, significantly, the courteous Brandimarte - the knight who prefigures Rugiero - who refers to Hector as he greets Agramante: Se non e falsa al mondo quella fama La qual per tutto tua virtu risuona, E per valore un altro Ector ti chiama, Perche hai de ogni prodeza la corona, Onde per questo ti verisce et ama Tal che giamai non vidde tua persona. If the report of your great force Is not false - it's heard through the world

Orlando Innamorato, Book Three 51 And says you are another Hector, Valorous, and the crown of prowess, And that you are revered and loved By men who've never seen your face. (2.28.2)

In this greeting, Brandimarte begins by acknowledging that Agramante's fame does not necessarily coincide with reality. He then proceeds to ignore Agramante's self-appointed model, Alexander, and proposes instead Hector as a model to emulate. The point, however, is lost on this self-aggrandizing king. Agramante's failed association with Hector is found in 2.28; Orlando's negative association with Achilles occurs in 2.30. Significantly, in the intervening canto, Boiardo suggests for the first time Rugiero's genealogical association with Hector when he cryptically notes that Rugiero's white eagle on a blue background was always worn by his ancestors (2.29.18). In Book Three we discover that these ancestors were of the house of Troy. In the opening canto of Book Three, Hector's arms, including a shield with the future Estense insignia, are displayed in the inner courtyard of a huge castle. The surrounding frescoed walls depict the abduction of Ganymede by Jupiter in the form of a white eagle (3.2.6). This story of a human raised to the heavens by the gods provides another contrast to Alexander, who had ascended into the sky through his arrogance. Boiardo uses this story to explain the origin of the insignia of the white eagle. Ganymede was said to be the son of King Tros and the brother of Ilion, grandfather of Priam, thus a member of the ruling family of Troy three generations before Hector. Rugiero's genealogical link to Hector is finally explained in OI 3.5, when Rugiero relates his personal history to his future bride, Bradamante. While, in OI 2.1, the priest of Apollino had traced Rugiero's genealogy on his mother's side to Alexander of Macedonia and his son Argante, Rugiero now traces his ancestry on his father's side to Hector of Troy and his son Astyanax (3.5.18-37). This comes as a surprise, since the history of Hector in OI 3.1 did not mention the survival of his son. It is also a reversal of the dominant literary tradition surrounding Astyanax. Homer last mentions the young boy in the arms of Andromache, who tells him that he will either follow her into slavery, 'or else some Achaian will take you by hand and hurl you from the tower into horrible death, in anger because Hektor once killed his brother, or his father, or his son' (24.733-7). Euripides, followed by Seneca and Ovid,

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chose the latter fate. In Seneca's Trojan Women, Andromache attempts to save Astyanax's life by hiding him in Hector's tomb, but Odysseus finds him and takes him away (1.457). A soldier later reports that Polyxena was stabbed by Pyrrhus over Achille's grave and that Astyanax leapt to his death from the one tower left standing in Troy. Andromache's lot is to be the slave of Pyrrhus. In OI 3.5, Rugiero confirms the death of Polyxena, but then reverses the fate of mother and son. In his account, Andromache is murdered after she hides Astyanax in an unspecified tomb, and the boy is discovered not by Odysseus, but by a friend of Hector.16 The figure of Astyanax is pivotal in Boiardo's poem, since he will look both back to Hector and forward to Rugiero. Boiardo carefully constructs a biography for Astyanax that combines the virtues of the classical world with the medieval chivalric code; indeed, it merges the two worlds by alternating epic and romance characteristics every other stanza. In stanza 21, when Astyanax emerges from the tomb in which his mother placed him, he is reborn as a knight errant. As he crosses a shady forest (selva oscura) with a knight (cavallier) who was also his father's friend, Astyanax symbolically brings the moral world of Hector's Troy into the open space of chivalric romance. He sets out with his new companion in the typical guise of medieval knights seeking adventure ('Che se pose con esso in aventura'; 3.5.21), and the stanza ends with their arrival on the romance-sounding 'Isold del Foco' (Island of Fire). In stanza 22, however, this fantastic site turns out to be the historical island of Sicily, where Aeneas had also stopped after leaving Troy and had found his old friend and Trojan ally Acestes. Some of Aeneas's weary men remained in Sicily (Anchises died and was buried there), while Aeneas headed off for uncharted territories. If Astyanax is contrasted to Aeneas by remaining in Sicily, he does not do so, however, out of a desire to settle down. On the contrary, from his new base in Sicily, Astyanax continues to wage war against the Greeks. After defeating Argos and Corinth, he becomes the ruler of Messina, and finally dies at the hands of Aegistus (3.5.22). Thus, although Boiardo's version prolongs Astyanax's life, it does not alter his epic fate to be killed by a Greek. Boiardo, however, has not yet finished establishing Astyanax's equal standing in the world of romance. Stanza 23 returns to the atmosphere of medieval chivalry, and relates that before his death, Astyanax had taken 'Una dama gentile e pellegrina, / Che la vinse in battaglia per

Orlando Innamorato, Book Three

53

amore' ('a noble, striking lady, / Whom he'd won - for love - in a battle'; 3.5.23). In the best courtly romance tradition, Astyanax killed in a duel a giant who was persecuting the damsel, and then he married her. Stanza 24 returns to Astyanax's epic struggle against the Greeks and tells of his death a second time, now specifying that he was killed by treachery (a tmdimento) during the siege of Messina. The circumstances surrounding Astyanax's death draw Boiardo's Trojan history into the chain of imitation presented at the opening of Book Two through parallel stories linking rulers, their widows, and their children. After Astyanax's betrayal and death, we learn that his widow is six months pregnant. Like Alexander's Elidonia and Rugiero II's Galaziella, she escapes by crossing the sea in a tiny boat, alone and in the hands of fortune. Fortune plays an even greater role in the voyage of Astyanax's widow: she arrives safely despite the fact that she took the dangerous route, while the Greeks who pursue her via the safest route go down in a storm (3.5.27). Three months later, she, too, gives birth. Her son is named Polidoro for his blonde hair (3.5.27), but the name also evokes Polydorus, the youngest of Priam's sons, thus suggesting a continuation of the house of Troy in a new world. Death by betrayal (tradimento) is not only the fate of Alexander (2.1.29), Hector (3.1.27), and Astyanax (3.5.24), but also of Rugiero's grandfather and his father.17 Rugiero tells Bradamante that his grandfather Duke Rampaldo ruled in Reggio Calabria 'a bon governo e bona guisa' (Their rule and government were good'; 3.5.30) until he was betrayed and killed along with his children: 'il duca Rampaldo e' soi figlioli / A tradimento for morti con doli' ('Duke Rampaldo and his sons / Were sadly - treacherously - slain'; 3.5.30). Rugiero shortly thereafter specifies that his father (Rugiero II) and grandfather Rampaldo were killed by his uncle in the 'maggior tradimento' ('greatest betrayal'; 3.5.33) the world had seen. Throughout the Innamorato, moreover, we are forewarned that Rugiero's death will come about by betrayal as well. The first prophecy comes at the opening of Book Two: 'Pur gli fece fortuna estremo torto, / Che fu ad inganno il giovanetto morto' ('Yet Fortune wronged him terribly: / He met his death through treachery'; 2.1.4). Atalante situates the treachery in the context of a war - 'Che in guerra serai morto a tradimento' ('you will die, betrayed, in war!'; 2.16.35) - and then repeats the foretold betrayal underlining Rugiero's suffering - 'Che a tradimento fia occiso con pene' ('He / Will be betrayed and die in grief; 2.16.53). Later in the poem, Atalante identifies Rugiero's

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betrayer as belonging to the traitorous Maganza clan (2.21.54). At the opening of Book Three, Boiardo identifies the betrayer as Gano himself and promises to tell: Come Rugier, che fu nel mondo un fiore, fosse tradito; e Gano di Maganza, pien de ogni fellonia, pien de ogni fele, lo uccise a torto, il perfido crudele. ... how Rugiero was betrayed The flower of earth - and murdered by One who committed every crime: That traitor from Maganza, Gan. (3.1.3)

It is perhaps not surprising that Boiardo treated tradimento as an evil present across literary time and space, since ascendancy to power through treachery was all too common in late-fifteenth-century Italy. Looking no further than the Estense court, Ercole d'Este's nephew Niccolo, son of Leonello, had plotted a coup d'etat in 1476. Ercole later tried to have Niccolo poisoned in retaliation, although the would-be assassin, Niccolo Ariosto (father to the poet Ludovico), was unsuccessful. Boiardo's own aunt, Taddea dei Pii di Carpi, and her son, Giovanni Boiardo, attempted to poison him, but a servant alerted him to the plot.18 The sequel to this real-life story is much grimmer, however. In 1499, Boiardo's only son and heir, Camillo, was poisoned, possibly by the same Giovanni, who immediately had Boiardo's widow and four daughters expelled from the Rocca in Scandiano and occupied it himself.19 He then refused to give back their possessions, despite letters from King Louis XII of France and Isabella d'Este Gonzaga to Ercole on their behalf (Monducci and Badini, 439 and 441). A subsequent letter from Boiardo's widow to Alfonso d'Este shows that the matter remained unresolved at Ercole's death in 1505. The theme of treachery, then/falls heavily on Boiardo's life as well as his poetry. In the fictional world of the Innamorato, however, betrayed heroes are blessed with brave widows and sons to carry on, and thus death is balanced by a sense of continuation. As we have already seen, four cantos after the account of Hector's death we discover that his son survived him. In fact, in each of the instances discussed earlier, the death of the hero - Alexander, Astyanax, Rugiero II - is reported first, and the reader subsequently learns of a pregnant widow who gives

Orlando Innamorato, Book Three 55

birth on a foreign but hospitable shore. Hope is reborn with each generation as death is replaced with new life. Boiardo also pays tribute to the courage and tenacity of mothers. The three pregnant women are linked through narrative parallels and rhyme scheme in an intricate way. Boiardo begins the pattern with Turpino's account of Elidonia's flight: Stava in Egitto alora \afantina, Che fu nomata Elidonia la bella, Gravida de sei mesi la meschina, Quando sentitte la trista novella, Veggendo il mondo che e tutto in ruina, Intro soletta in una navicella (2.1.7; emphasis added)20 In Egypt lived his lady, known By name as lovely Elidonia. Pregnant six months, in misery, After she heard the sorry news And saw the world was so confused, She boarded, by herself, a boat.

The rhyme words fantina and meschina keep the focus on the woman, while ruina sums up the world she is leaving behind. The ekphrastic account on the walls of Agramante's palace condenses Turpino's threestanza account of Elidonia's giving birth in a new land, but reproduces the main features and repeats the rhyme '-ina': Fugge la dama misera tapina, Ed e ricolta dal vecchio cortese, E parturisce in ripa alia marina, Tre fanciulletti alle rete distese; Ed evi ancor la guerra e la roina Che fanno e tre germani in quel paese (2.1.30; emphasis added) The sad and sorry damsel flees, Finds refuge with a kind old man, And she gives birth to three small boys On nets spread out beside the sea. There, also, are the ruin and war That those three brothers bring the land.

56 An Ethics of Action Rugiero's subsequent accounts of Astyanax's widow and his own mother Galaziella not only use the same rhyme, but actually repeat the rhyme words marina and ruina from the earlier stanza describing Elidonia's flight. In the case of Astyanax's widow, ruina now refers to the treacherous strait and serves to highlight the woman's courage: Ma essa, quella notte, sola sola Sopra ad una barchetta piccolina, Passo nel stretto, ove e 1'onda che vola E fa tremare e monti alia ruina, Ne si potrebbe odire una parola, Tant'alto e quel furor de la marina (3.5.26; emphasis added) Since she, that night, and all alone, Crossed the straits in a little boat And navigated waves that swept And crashed upon the mountain slopes, And not a word could be heard, so Powerful was the water's roar. The woman, rowing like the wind, Landed in Reggio, safe in harbour. Ruina (the one rhyme word repeated in all the accounts) begins the series in Rugiero's story of his mother Galaziella, and it refers, as in Turpino's account, to the chaos that necessitated the woman's departure: Risa la terra ando tutta a ruina, Arse le case, e fu morta la gente; La moglie di Rugier, trista, tapina, Galaciella, dico, la valente, Se pose disperata alia marina E gionta sendo al termine dolente (3.5.34; emphasis added) He let the enemy take Reggio, Burn its homes, slay the population. Rugiero's heavy-hearted wife I mean the priceless Galaciella Desperately travelled to the shore, And, pregnant, sorrowful, reached term.

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Rugiero's version, moreover, repeats and corrects the king of Garamanta's earlier account of Galaziella's escape and giving birth. The king had used the same rhyme words gente and dolente of the abovecited stanza, but in the opposite order: E la sua matre misera, dolente, Da poi che fu tradito quel signore, E la citta de Rissa in foco ardente Fu ruinata con molto furore, Torno la tapinella a nostra gente, E parturi duo figli a gran dolore. (2.1.72; emphasis added) His mother, miserable and sad After that baron was betrayed, After the town of Reggio burned And in tumultuous ruin fell Returned - the wretched girl - to us And bore two children with great pain.

The central rhyme word of his series, however, focused on the city going up in flames (ardente). Rugiero replaces this image of destruction with an assertion of his mother's active virtues (valente). These five separate accounts of three women who, faced with the death of their husbands and the destruction of their homeland, set out alone to give birth on an unknown shore, provide a poignant contrast to the acquisitiveness, treachery, and aggression that made their exile necessary. Boiardo thus counters stories of male betrayal and death with stories of female courage and new life. Rugiero The patterned movement from death by betrayal to birth in a new land suggests both the inevitability of evil and the unrelenting presence of good. This theme, as it turns out, is central to the character of Rugiero, who consistently counters evil with good actions. Rugiero combines the virtues of Hector's son Astyanax from his father's side with those of Alexander's son Argante from his mother's side, suggesting his potential as both an ideal knight and a just ruler. At the same time, he

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exhibits his own distinguishing characteristic: courtesy. Rugiero not only epitomizes the courteous knight, he illustrates the compelling, even contagious, power of courtesy in a world otherwise dominated by violence and unbridled ambition. When Rugiero enters the African joust and finds five kings attacking Agramante (2.17.15), he immediately comes to the aid of the king and quickly disperses his assailants. He later descends into the chivalric arena a second time to save Brunello from an unjust death (2.21.40-8). During the war in France in Book Three, Rugiero's courtesy extends to his Christian opponents. After wounding Olivieri, 'cortese' ('courteous'; 3.4.22) Rugiero dismounts, takes the injured knight in his arms, and calls for medical assistance. Later, as he is chasing (on foot) Turpino, who has in the meantime taken his horse, the latter falls into a swamp. Rugiero runs down the hill, saves Turpino from drowning (3.4.44), and takes back his horse only to offer it freely to the Christian bishop. As he did when helping Olivieri, Rugiero physically descends in order to save his enemy. Turpino's subsequent exclamation, Tu non nascesti mai di Saracino'; ('You were not born a Saracen'); 3.4.44), expressly aligns Rugiero's chivalric 'courtesy' with the Christian virtue of caritas or benevolence. These actions prepare the reader for Rugiero's extraordinary display of courtesy to Bradamante and Rodamonte. When Rodamonte refuses to give Bradamante leave to follow Charlemagne in retreat, Rugiero takes her place against the 'discortese' ('discourteous'; 3.4.58) Saracen. Rodamonte at first calls him crazy for his willingness to die on behalf of another, but when Rugiero gives a second demonstration of courtesy, stepping aside while Rodamonte is unarmed and unconscious, Rodamonte is finally moved by his example. Although a personification of unbridled arrogance from the outset of the poem, Rodamonte now readily acknowledges that he is defeated by the superior moral character of his opponent: 'Non sono io vinto gia di cortesia?' ('Has not your courtesy just won?'; 3.5.13). Rodamonte's last words to Rugiero are an expression of his newfound humility: E sempre, quanto io possa e quanto io vaglia, Di me fa il tuo parere in ogni banda, Come il maggiore al suo minor comanda. Anywhere you see fit, you may Order my service - always - as Masters command subordinates. (3.5.13)

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This is a dramatic reversal of Rodamonte's haughty statements made during Agramante's council in OI 2.1. Rodamonte's new attitude of voluntary submission to Rugiero returns to that canto in another way as well. Just as the good nature of Alexander's sons succeeded in unifying Africa, now Rugiero's goodness prompts the uncontainable Rodamonte to spontaneously declare his obedience. What Alexander's sons had accomplished earlier on a large scale, Rugiero has begun to do one individual at a time. Boiardo develops further Rugiero's role as peacemaker in the following canto. When Rugiero encounters Mandricardo in the company of Gradasso near the Laughing Stream, the two knights discover that they bear the same insignia. Their imminent contest is deferred, however, as Gradasso and Mandricardo begin to attack each other with tree branches over the rights to Orlando's sword. When Brandimarte arrives on the scene, he and Rugiero recognize each other and embrace (3.6.52). Boiardo not only contrasts the conflict of the first two knights with the friendship of the latter two, he then goes on to show Rugiero and Brandimarte actively intervening to make peace. When Orlando is subsequently freed from the Laughing Stream and begins to fight Gradasso for the rights to Durindana, Rugiero intervenes again in order to prevent another clash: 'Rugiero allora, el giovane fiorito, / Fra lor se pose con parlare umano, / Cercando de accordargli ogni partito' ('At that, the valiant youth, Rugiero, / With civil speeches interposed / To try to mend their rivalry'; 3.7.54). With the help of a dwarf, Rugiero succeeds in quelling the violence: 'E tanto seppon confortare e dire, / Che tra lor fu la zuffa raquetata' (These two knew how to talk, to calm / Those two: they quieted the brawl'; 3.7.55). Rugiero is thus depicted bringing about peace not only through the example of his actions, but also through the power of his words. Rugiero versus Orlando In Book One Boiardo contrasted Orlando, the slow reader who failed to apply the didactic fictions he encountered to his own situation for his moral improvement, and Ranaldo, the ideal reader who consistently applied the lessons of literature to life in the interest of the public good. In the course of Book Two, Boiardo develops instead a contrast between the 'old' hero Orlando, degraded by his continuous neglect of duty while under the sway of passion, and the 'new' hero Rugiero, dedicated to upholding the values of the chivalric code. The contrast begins with two interlaced jousting episodes: Orlando's joust

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in Cyprus (2.19.52-2.20.44) and Rugiero's joust in Biserta (2.16.512.21.61). In both instances, the element of play (or of simulated reality) associated with the joust is overshadowed by the larger issues of the 'outside' world. The joust in Biserta is an expedient designed by Brunello on the spot to coax Rugiero away from Atalante's magic garden. But when Brunello tells Rugiero that the joust is in preparation for Agramante's invasion of Christendom, his lie reveals a greater truth. The imminent war between Christian Europe and Muslim Africa looms over the joust in Biserta, and the joust itself, improvised in order to bring Rugiero into the African army, is the most crucial step in preparation for that war. By contrast, the context of the joust in Cyprus, legendary homeland of the goddess Venus, is love and marriage. King Tibiano of Cyprus has called a tournament to marry his daughter Lucina, and King Norandino of Damascus is on his way with twenty knights in the hope of winning her hand. This setting, which recalls the courtly love themes of the Arthurian cycle, and where the prize of valour is a young maiden, could not be any further thematically from the joust in Biserta, where epic conquest is in the foreground. On the contrary, it takes place while Charlemagne is preparing to defend himself against the combined forces of Africa and Asia, and thus represents Orlando's evasion from duty. The development of both jousting episodes exploits these opposing contexts as it spotlights the contrasting actions of the knights. Rugiero emerges from his protective isolation when the joust turns into a blood match (2.16.39). Although completely inexperienced, he fights valorously in the name of justice. Boiardo then interrupts this joust-turned-real-battle in order to follow Orlando on his way to France with Angelica, Brandimarte, and Fiordelisa (2.17.38). When they encounter King Norandino on his way to the joust in Cyprus, Orlando readily offers his allegiance and identifies himself as a Saracen knight from Circassia (2.19.59). In a single gesture, Orlando relinquishes his identity, denies his faith, and places himself under the command of a king whose name indicates his Muslim identity.21 Norandino is the enemy of the Christian Costanzo, son of the Byzantine emperor whose name recalls both the emperor Constantine and the city of Constantinople. Orlando is thus allied with Muslim Syria against the Holy Roman Empire. At the same time, it should be noted that although Boiardo uses this incongruous situation to highlight the

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sorry state of his paladin in love, he does not impose a Crusading ideology on his narrative. On the contrary, the Muslim Norandino is the epitome of courtesy, while the Christian Costanzo is a figure of fraud. Orlando spends most of the day fighting his fellow Christians Aquilante and Grifone; with the coming of night he sinks so low that he even abandons his characteristic refusal to retreat from danger. When Grifone tells Costanzo that the mysterious knight who tipped the scales in favour of Norandino was Orlando in disguise, the guileful Greek devises a plan to remove Orlando from the scene. He tells him that a messenger of Gano is after him and that King Tibiano of Cyprus is arming men to capture him. Instead of confronting this apparent danger with his habitual self-confidence, Orlando flees from Cyprus with unprecedented haste (2.20.39). In the space of a single stanza, Orlando awakens Angelica from her sleep and they set sail (2.20.40). Orlando's precipitous escape from apparent danger will be contrasted with the valour of Rugiero when facing real danger in the following canto. When Rugiero sees that Brunello is about to be executed, he descends unarmed onto the field and rescues him from Agramante's men. The still unknighted Rugiero then states that 'il primo officio di cavalleria / Sia la ragione e il dritto aver diffeso' ('chivalry, as its first office, / Has the defence of truth and right'; 2.21.51). After King Agramante knights Rugiero, his tutor Atalante foretells his conversion to Christianity and death through betrayal by a member of the Maganza clan (2.21.54). While Orlando has just fled in fear due to a false rumour about Gano di Maganza, Rugiero is now destined to assume the part of Roland in the Carolingian epic. Boiardo's unfinished poem foreshadows Rugiero's death by betrayal, confirming his thematic link to his ancestors, as well as to the Carolingian Roland, but the poem would presumably not have ended on this tragic note. The first extant edition of the Innamorato (Venice: Piero de' Piasi, 1487) contains the following title and description following Book Two, canto 21: 'Libro Tercio De Orlando Inamorato ove sono descrite le maravigliose aventure & le grandissime bataglie e mirabil morte del paladino Rugiero e come la nobeltade e la cortesia ritornarno in Italia dopo la edificatione de Moncelice' (Third Book of the Orlando Innamorato which relates marvelous adventures and great battles and the extraordinary death of the paladin Rugiero and how nobility and courtesy returned to Italy after the founding of Monselice'; Harris, Bibliografia, 1: 18). The reflowering of the Golden Age that would have concluded the poem was announced as taking place

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at Monselice, a town located next to Este in the Veneto. The Estensi, as their name suggested, were said to have arisen from the town of Este. Thus, in the future of the poem, the fictional Golden Age of Monselice was destined to merge with the historical origins of the Estense family. Boiardo provides the Estense court with a model of conduct who is not a king, but a simple knight who acts in the service of others. Their ancestor Rugiero, standing midway in a chain of imitation stretching back to the sons of Alexander of Macedonia and Hector of Troy and forward to Ercole I d'Este of Ferrara and his sons, combines the epic virtues of fortitude and responsibility with the chivalric and Christian values of courtesy and benevolence. Mandricardo and the Fountain Fay Despite the genealogical and thematic ties between Hector and Rugiero, the opening cantos of Book Three enigmatically link Hector to a completely different hero, Mandricardo. Although this knight was mentioned in Book One as razing Sacripante's kingdom, he does not appear directly in the poem until he heads from Tartaria to France to avenge the death of his father Agricane (3.1.6). The emergence of Mandricardo at this late stage is at first glance puzzling. The fact that he provides the third threat to Christendom, following Gradasso and Agramante, who opened the first two books respectively, is not enough to account for the distinctive adventures that he undertakes. These final pages of the chapter aim to map out the larger implications of Mandricardo's Book Three adventures, which further develop the epic theme as well as the political undercurrent running throughout the poem. Mandricardo is introduced as a Saracen who 'pose quasi lo universe al fondo' ('almost ruined all the world'; 3.1.5), suggesting that Boiardo intended to use him as one of the principal enemies of Christendom. As the narrative begins, this 'superbo ed inumano' ('proud and inhuman'; 3.1.6) king is venting his cruelty on his own subjects by executing those unfit to be soldiers. But after a desperate old man being led to his death yells out that Agricane's soul cannot pass into the underworld because his son has not avenged his death (3.1.8), Mandricardo leaves his kingdom in better hands than his own and sets out alone and unarmed in search of Agricane's killer. Along the way, Mandricardo embarks on a series of romance adventures at the Fountain of the Fay. He is surrounded by a magic fire, sinks

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down into an enchanted fountain in the company of a fairy, fights the guardian-knight Gradasso, slays a giant who regularly besieges maidens in a castle, battles with enchanted animals, and, as a result, not only liberates a group of imprisoned knights but wins the armour and shield that once belonged to Hector of Troy. As the episode unfolds, each step seems to be staged in an artificial or pre-planned manner. When Mandricardo enters a tent to search for armour or a horse, he happens to find both, as though they were there waiting for his arrival: L'arme a un tapete tutte eran distese, Cio che bisogna aponto a un cavalliero; E li fuori ad un pino in su quel sito Legato era un ronzon tutto guarnito. He found, laid on a tablecloth, All of the arms a knight might need, And a horse that was fully armed Tied to a pine tree's trunk outside. (3.1.17)

Mandricardo dons the armour without giving it a second thought (senza pensare; 3.1.18), a dangerous thing to do in the world of the Innamorato. As he tries to take the horse, fire breaks out and he is forced to jump into the nearby fountain to escape the magic flames. He begins to swim about with his clothes singed off, and suddenly finds himself in the arms of an unclad damsel who takes him in her arms and kisses him. The appearance of the full set of armour and horse in the tent, and of the naked female in the fountain, are wish-fulfilment scenarios. The first is straightforward, since Boiardo specifically states that Mandricardo was searching for arms upon entering the tent. The second is evoked through the sensual description of the naked knight frolicking with pleasure in the water before the sudden appearance of the damsel: 'a diletto il baron drudo / Per la bella acqua se solaccia e pesca' ('that lusty baron plays, / Sporting and bobbing in the water'; 3.1.21). The damsel explains that many knights are imprisoned in the depths of an enchanted fountain and that Hector's arms are nearby in the Fountain Fay's castle. After a pause for lovemaking so vigorous that it collapses the tent, the fairy dresses the knight in ornate armour and explains that the adventure consists of winning Hector's armour by fortune or virtii (3.1.40). Throughout the adventure, however, fortune

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and not virtue will be the decisive factor, as though an unseen hand were tipping the scales in Mandricardo's favour.22 Mandricardo is declared the victor over Gradasso because, when they both fall, Mandricardo happens to land on top. Later, when fighting the enchanted animals, Mandricardo throws a stone that, to his surprise, makes the fierce animals turn against each other. He then achieves victory by falling into a hole in the earth and unintentionally landing on the head of a serpent, thereby killing it. The whole atmosphere has something dreamlike about it. At one point the narrator remarks, 'A Mandricardo tal ventura par / Vera e non vera, si come si sogna' (To Mandricardo, this quest seemed / True and not true, as if he dreamed'; 3.1.33). Everything seems planned so that he will experience the utmost in armi and amore. To the adventures described above, one could add that after he easily frees a castle of damsels from a giant who had been besieging it, Mandricardo gets to spend the rest of the night with one of the damsels who seconds his every desire. Why is such a fuss being made over this particular knight? It is only after his acquisition of Hector's arms that the Fountain Fay summons him and reveals her intentions: he must swear to take the sword Durindana from Orlando by force of arms ('mi giurarai su la tua fede: / Che Durindana, lo incantato brando, / Torai per forza de arme al conte Orlando'; 'On your faith you must swear to me / That you'll win magic Durindana / From Count Orlando in a duel'; 3.2.35). Thus, behind all the marvels lies the fairy's scheme to send Mandricardo to defeat Orlando in combat. This fairy's mission against Orlando reminds us that the paladin has made considerable trouble for other fairies in the course of the poem. With the help of Angelica's spell-breaking ring, Orlando deserted Dragontina's magic palace and convinced his fellow prisoners to follow him. With the help of a book of answers, he destroyed Falerina's enchanted garden. He twice caught Morgana by the forelock, freeing all her prisoners and finally making her swear that she would never try to harm him again (2.13.29). She did not promise, however, that her sister fairies would adhere to the conditions imposed upon her. The Fountain Fay created a magic adventure with some of the features used earlier by Morgana and Falerina, suggesting that maleficent fairies have a standard repertoire that might make their schemes recognizable to the discerning knight.23 In these prior cases, the fairy's motives are not disclosed until after the conclusion of the adventure. When her garden is destroyed, Falerina explains to Orlando that she

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had created a death trap in order to capture Ariante and Origille. She later reveals to him that Morgana had first aimed to destroy the world through her magic adventure of the horn, and then created an underwater prison to avenge Orlando after he had broken that spell by his refusal to pursue her promise of riches. Morgana's sister Alcina is equally pernicious to the Christian knights: she sweeps Astolfo away on her island/whale and attempts to drown Ranaldo and Dudone at sea by conjuring up a tempest. Unlike Falerina, the sisters Morgana and Alcina do not disclose their plans or motivations to the Christians. We may suspect, however, that the evil they espouse may reach beyond them, since all fairies are subject to a higher diabolical force. When Orlando makes Morgana swear by the Demogorgon that she will no longer seek to harm him, Boiardo states that all fairies are under his authority (2.13.26-9). Even more inaccessible than Poliferno of Orgagna, the Demogorgon is nevertheless already known outside the poem as the archenemy of the Christians and the equivalent of the devil.24 The poem is broken off before Boiardo reveals either Alcina's or the Fountain Fay's hidden agenda, and thus we cannot verify whether or not they are allies of the now powerless Morgana.25 What is clear, however, is that the Fountain Fay aims to eliminate Christianity's greatest knight and that, unlike the other fairies, she remains behind the scenes and seeks a human agent to do the dirty work. Mandricardo is, as one might say, the right man for the job, since his thirst for adventure and glory is matched by his rancour against Orlando. Nevertheless, the fairy does not reveal her hand until after Mandricardo has been offered illustrious arms, copious sex, the chance to win glory through romance adventures, and a good steed. Once Mandricardo is completely won over to her side, the fairy exacts from him a sworn oath to carry out her wishes (3.2.37). If, on the one hand, Mandricardo was already seeking out Orlando to avenge his father's death, on the other hand, this quest was not self-initiated, but was rather suggested to him by an old man. Indeed, Mandricardo's resolve seems far from steadfast - he gave no thought to avenging his father's death as he undertook the various adventures provided by the Fountain Fay. It is the fairy who transforms Mandricardo's initial impulse into a sworn mission. Where was all this leading? By this point in the third book, Orlando, Rugiero, and Mandricardo all have a claim to part of Hector's heritage. Orlando has Hector's sword Durindana, Rugiero has his insignia, and Mandricardo has his armour and shield. The issue of Hector's arms

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begins to take shape in Book Three's episode of the Laughing Stream, discussed above in the context of Rugiero's compelling courtesy. It is here that Rugiero and Mandricardo first contest the rights to Hector's insignia (3.6.40-9). Then Gradasso joins in to fight Mandricardo for Orlando's (i.e., Hector's) sword - which neither of them has at hand. While the other knights undertake the Laughing Stream adventure, Mandricardo is left out and joins forces with Agramante in the Battle of Paris. One could thus expect that at some point Mandricardo would fight Orlando over Hector's sword and Rugiero over Hector's arms and insignia. The victor of the latter combat, at least, was certain. By overcoming Mandricardo, Rugiero would be a step closer to recovering his past and rendering more tangible his association with his ancestor, Hector of Troy. In Part I, I have argued that, in line with Guarino's humanist educational program, Boiardo aimed to form good individuals and just rulers through his poetic fictions. This sense of engagement that Boiardo shares with the humanists situates him in a time in which 'patriotism, self-sacrifice, courage, restraint, and the active virtues, were regarded as amongst the most important fruits of a sound education' and Aristotle's Politics was still considered 'the soundest manual of statecraft' (Woodward 184 and 188). It is now time to turn to the Orlando Furioso to see how Ariosto wove his own ideological and political message into the threads that he picked up from Boiardo's poem.

Part II Creative Imitation

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Chapter Five Introduction

Ariosto was very certain that, with Boiardo's book having completely overshadowed all the great talents and annulled the name of every other writer of Romance up until his day, one could not make a mistake about which wars, which events, and what author Ariosto was following in his own book. Girolamo Ruscelli, introduction to Orlando Furioso (1556)

According to the Orlando Furioso's sixteenth-century editor, Girolamo Ruscelli, when Ariosto decided to compose a chivalric poem, the only viable model was the Orlando Innamorato. Neil Harris, having documented frequent reprintings of Boiardo's poem in addition to five continuations by three different authors (excluding Ariosto), with only one definitely appearing after the first edition of the Furioso, notes the continued appeal of Boiardo's poem throughout the Cinquecento: 'Whoever takes into consideration the frequency of printings of the Innamorato before the appearance of the Furioso in 1516, and then including the rifacimenti - up until the end of the century, will realize that Boiardo's presence does not wane at all; on the contrary, it is increased' (Bibliografia, 2: 96-7, and 'L'avventura editoriale/ 80-4). In light of the poem's success, various poets set out to render it in Tuscan guise during the subsequent period of increasing linguistic rigidity. Elissa Weaver notes that translations of Boiardo's poem were attempted not only by Francesco Berni, whose rifacimento became the standard version published in the following centuries, but also by the likes of Teofilo Folengo, Pietro Aretino, Lodovico Dolce, and the Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici ('"Riformare" I'Orlando Innamorato'}. Others have documented the impact of the Innamorato on the

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course of chivalric literature in the sixteenth century. Marina Beer finds that previously written romances are republished with new titles in order to capitalize on Boiardo's success, while new poems adopt the innovative structure of Boiardo's romance epic (Romanzi di cavalleria, 155). Alberto Casadei's study of the chivalric romance between 1505 and 1521 shows that these years 'were marked by the Boiardan style, so much so that the Innamorato constituted the point of reference for a good number of new poems, and not just the continuations' ('Riusi/ 87). Giuseppe Sangirardi has documented the influence of the Innamorato in the cultural circles of the courts and universities: 'the prestige of the Innamorato was immediately considerable, and if the translation of this prestige into imitative practices was above all the work of the intellectuals of the court and printing houses, along with those tied to the world of universities and academies, inclined toward other kinds of cultural undertakings, they rendered a significant tribute to Boiardo' (Boiardismo Ariostesco, 37). Marco Villoresi, in fact, considers Boiardo's poem to be 'one of the works in [the Italian] literary tradition that most stimulated the fantasy of successive generations of writers' (172). Yet moving into the field of Ariosto studies, we often find scholars advancing theories regarding various aspects of the Orlando Furioso, including irony, allegory, didacticism, history, love, war, character development, and gender roles, without considering their relation to the poem Ariosto set out to complete. For example, E.M.W. Tillyard credits Ariosto rather than Boiardo as the poet who established 'the multiple plot' in serious narrative verse. Daniel Javitch argues that Ariosto uses multiple (classical) sources in order not to be indebted to a single (classical) author, yet he does not address Ariosto's response to Boiardo or Boiardo's technique of creative imitation (The Imitation of Imitations'). Both Javitch ('Rescuing Ovid') and Peter DeSa Wiggins debate the Furioso's use of allegory without considering the role of allegory in Boiardo's poem. Marianne Shapiro flatly refuses to read Ariosto in the context of his immediate predecessors, including Boiardo, stating: 'it is important that the Orlando Furioso, which towers over the poems of other chivalric Italian poets, be freed from the comings and goings of comparison that would result in a leveling of his achievement' (10). Albert R. Ascoli treats the theme of moral education through literature in Ariosto without taking into account the centrality of this humanist method for Boiardo (Ariosto's Bitter Harmony).1 Jane Tylus poses the problem of belatedness in the Furioso, but with refer-

Introduction 71 ence to the earlier tradition, not to Ariosto's most recent predecessor (The Curse of Babel'). At the same time, many critics who do acknowledge Boiardo's precedent seem to use the Innamorato simply to highlight Ariosto's superior art. Peter Brand, who finds the Innamorato to be 'a long poem with a confused action/ contrasts Boiardo's 'lack of planning' with the 'coherent, unified, harmonious effect' of Ariosto's poem (Ludovico Ariosto, 51 and 55). Although Graham Hough credits Boiardo as 'the inventor of the genre,' he states that while Boiardo 'tells his story carelessly/ 'any appearance of artlessness [on Ariosto's part] is the result of a free but consummate art' (viii-ix). Robert Durling states that 'the complex interlocking of episodes of the Orlando furioso is entirely foreign to the Orlando innamorato/ in which there is just a 'confusing proliferation of incident' (98).2 Michael Sherberg, agreeing with Riccardo Bruscagli's assessment of Boiardo's poem as the representation of a 'world without memory/ states that Ariosto 'could not adopt Boiardo's poetics, however vague those may have been. This was no one's fault but Boiardo's, since at the root of the Innamorato lies a rejection both of the idea of poetic limitations, i.e., of structures of closure, and of the faithful imitation of sources' (13-14).3 Vincent Cuccaro calls Boiardo 'a mere point of departure for Ariosto' and completely ignores Boiardo's humanist program while trying to build a case for humanism in the Furioso (136). Peter Marinelli incorporates the language of a contest into his comparison: 'Still another of the ways in which [the Furioso] surpasses its predecessor is in immediately establishing a set of images, concepts, actions, and thematic strands that it afterward transforms and elaborates' ('Shaping the Ore/ 43). David Quint finds the Innamorato narrative potentially endless and escapist as compared to the epic seriousness of the Furioso: 'From the perspective of the Furioso, the endless fiction of the Innamorato falls into the category of escapist literature; its thematic content conforms to its function as literary pastime' (The Figure of Atlante/ 84). Part of the problem, in my view, is precisely that many critics tend to read the Innamorato 'from the perspective of the Furioso' rather than the other way around.4 There have also been, from the early sixteenth century on, those who have considered Boiardo's poem superior to that of Ariosto. Paolo Valesio reminds us that Teofilo Folengo, under the pseudonym Merlino, provokingly wrote in his Baldus: 'And truthfully [Ariosto] should have more worthily titled his Furioso and called it: The end of Orlando Innamorato, by the great Boiardo, composed by his disciple Master

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Ludovico Ariosto' (Preface, xv). More recently, Emilio Zanette has remarked: 'every time I passed from Ariosto to Boiardo, I found Boiardo superior to Ariosto' (11). Nevertheless, treating the two works as a competition (regardless of which poet is proclaimed the victor) does not take us very far in uncovering meaning in Ariosto's poem. A minority of critics has recognized Ariosto as a profound reader of Boiardo. Giovanni Ponte notes the required careful attention necessary for Ariosto to continue Boiardo's poem: Tor Ariosto to take up, in order to complete it, the very vast story line, meant also to meditate on Boiardo's opus, to confront it and measure himself against it' ('Boiardo e Ariosto,' 170). Zanette writes that after completing his edition of the Furioso, he came to the conclusion that 'nobody read, admired, and loved Boiardo's poem as much as Ludovico Ariosto' (60). Cesare Segre writes: 'One can say that Boiardo's volume was for Ariosto a friend continuously interrogated, a standard of excellence for the new poem' (Esperienze ariostesche, 50). Antonio Franceschetti has proposed that 'the point of departure for every study of Ariosto should be his use of Boiardo' ('II Boiardo e 1'avvio del Furioso/ 130), and he has followed this practice in his essays on the Furioso.5 Peter Brand, Andrea Di Tommaso, David Quint, and Marco Dorigatti have also studied particular aspects of the Furioso in relation to Boiardo's precedent.6 The most comprehensive work to date along these lines is Giuseppe Sangirardi's Boiardismo ariostesco. Showing 'how Ariosto was able to construct a detailed grammar of romance narrative precisely through the continuous working in close contact with Boiardo's hypotext,' Sangirardi posits that 'the Innamorato is capable by itself of covering even the "grammatical" needs of Ariosto, and that the concomitance with other sources, when it is verified, can serve to qualify the nature of the reference to Boiardo rather than delegitimize it' (Boiardismo ariostesco, 202 and 204)7 Aiming to correct a misperception dating at least as far back as Pio Rajna's source studies, Sangirardi spells out that Ariosto's 'frame of reference is not "the chivalric romance" per se, but the chivalric romance as Boiardo had conceived it' (Boiardismo ariostesco, 299 and 313).8 At the same time, however, Sangirardi is interested primarily in documenting Ariosto's narrative and linguistic borrowings from Boiardo rather than in uncovering meaning in the Furioso through a creative rewriting of the earlier poem. That is what I propose to do in the following pages. Part II follows two themes, didactic allegory and civic engagement, across Ariosto's three separate reworkings of the Orlando Furioso: the

Introduction 73 1516 edition; the projected continuation now referred to as the Cinque Canti; and the episodes added to the 1532 edition. After a brief excursus into Cieco da Ferrara's Mambriano, I examine the two themes separately with regard to the 1516 Furioso: the first chapter traces the allegorical education of Ruggiero and Astolfo beginning on Alcina's island, focusing on Ariosto's reworking of episodes from both the Innamorato and the Mambriano; the subsequent chapter investigates Ariosto's strategy of incorporating civic themes into episodes with inserted novelle, following the example of the Innamorato while calling into question its underlying humanist program. In the final two chapters I discuss how these threads come together in distinct ways in the Cinque canti and 1532 Furioso.

Chapter Six Cieco da Ferrara, II Mambriano (1509)

The Innamorato is populated with dangerous, seductive females, from the alluring Angelica to enchantresses like Dragontina and Alcina. Yet Boiardo blurs the conventional distinction between woman and maga by having Angelica make use of both feminine and magical arts and by linking her through allusion to both human and supernatural figures from classical through medieval literature. When Angelica falls in love with Ranaldo, Boiardo likens her to a deer wounded in a hunt (Ol 1.5.14), a metaphor that Virgil had employed to describe Dido's love for Aeneas (Razzoli 31). But when she tries to win him over by magic, she assumes the role of a Circe-like enchantress. An unmanned boat transports Ranaldo to Angelica's splendid Pleasure Palace (Palazzo Zoioso) on a deserted island, and, while attractive maidens provide him with every luxury at table, she waits offstage for her cue to approach this Carolingian Odysseus.1 Angelica's magical site, however, cannot override the effects of the Fountain of Merlin, and Ranaldo departs at the mere mention of her name. Angelica's failure as a would-be Circe keeps her one step this side of a maga like Dragontina, who offers all knights who arrive at her magical palace a potion that immediately causes them to fall into a state of erotic enchantment and makes them forget their public duty, their past, their very identity. As mentioned earlier, Dragontina's affinity to Circe is emphasized through the depiction of the story of Circe and Odysseus on the walls of her palace. In Boiardo's version of the story, Circella is blinded by her love for Ulisse, drinks from her own cup, turns into a deer, and is captured in a hunt (1.6.52). Circe's own subjection to the spell of love, not present in the traditional versions of Circe's story, suggests an affinity with Angelica and Dido, who were turned metaphorically into wounded deer as a

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result of their love. Angelica eventually proves stronger than Dragontina when she frees Orlando with her spell-breaking ring and takes him to Albraca under the spell of her feminine charm. The episodes of Angelica's Palazzo Zoioso and Dragontina's enchanted palace, described in successive cantos, also serve to contrast the knights Orlando and Ranaldo. Ranaldo, immune to eros throughout much of the poem, thanks to Merlin's fountain, resists the magic of Angelica's palace. Orlando, by contrast, a total victim of his senses, falls immediately under Dragontina's spell. The Innamorato presents additional seductive sites that tempt knights to forsake their duty. Morgana captures Brandimarte in her underwater realm, Alcina lures Astolfo to her island/whale, the dancing maidens in the Narcissus fountain mesmerize King Larbino, and the naiads in the Laughing Stream induce a number of knights, including Orlando, to plunge into their aquatic palace. In instances in which knights forget themselves (literally) under the spell of pleasure, the weakness of the human will is demonstrated by the ease with which they fall into the seductive trap and by the fact that they cannot free themselves.2 Francesco Cieco da Ferrara's Mambriano, begun around 1490 and originally intended for Isabella d'Este, was completed in 1502 for her brother Ippolito (Everson, The Italian Romance Epic, 19,126). Its immediate popularity was attested to by its frequent reprintings - ten editions appeared between the first (posthumous) edition of 1509 and 1527 and by the status that Cieco was accorded by contemporaries (Villoresi 179). Praloran considers the Mambriano to be 'the first text in which the organization of the narrative is rich in themes and above all in formal innovations that explicitly recall the Innamorato' ('Maraviglioso artificio/ 77). This is particularly true for the episode of Carandina's island, in which a seductive enchantress lures knights away from their martial activities. Like Angelica at the Palazzo Zoioso, Cieco's Carandina presides over an island pleasure palace complete with a fountain and a garden that resembles a terrestrial paradise (Mam. 1.46). She is attended by maidens who resemble sirens (Mam. 1.30), the prototype for alluring and elusive females who lead male heroes to perdition. Yet whereas in Boiardo's poem Angelica's initial link to Dido through her lovesickness gave way to situational links to Circe at the Pleasure Palace, here Cieco initially states Carandina's affinity with Circe through her magical powers (Mam. 1.32), but then, as I argue below, fashions her closer to Virgil's Dido than to a supernatural enchantress, as he turns Boiardo's Virgilian allusions into a creative rewriting of Aeneid IV.

76 Creative Imitation Dido herself was often interpreted allegorically as a figure of concupiscence in the line of the enchantresses Circe and Calypso. In his Genealogia deorum gentilium, Boccaccio read Aeneid IV as the story of Aeneas's temporary subjection to the enticement of lust: '[Virgil] presents Concupiscence as Dido and the attracting power of Love armed with all that is needed; and in Aeneas, a figure ready for such acts and succumbing. But after showing the enticement of Lust, he demonstrates how we are led back to Virtue by bringing in Mercury, interpreter of the gods, to reprove Aeneas for his vanity and lasciviousness and remind him of glory' (Allen 218). Boccaccio's handbook of classical literature and mythology and other allegorical commentaries of the Aeneid were authoritative interpretative tools which figured among the first texts printed in latefifteenth-century Italy. Humanist scholars, moreover, continued the moralizing and allegorizing tendencies of previous centuries. In his De laboribus Herculis, Coluccio Salutati wrote that the story of Aeneas and Dido 'shows what happens when the will is temporarily seduced by the sensual appetite and rebels against the rule of reason' (Kallendorf 95). The episode of Aeneas and Dido therefore provided an apt model for poets who wanted to represent the struggle between public duty and private desires, or between reason and the senses. At the same time, however, Dido's differences from enchantresses like Circe and Calypso are equally significant. As Judith Yarnall has pointed out, of Circe's three functions in the Odyssey, that of enchantress, lover, and prophetess/guide, Virgil's Dido assumes exclusively the human role of lover, while his Circe and the Sybil take on the first and third roles respectively. Dido is the queen of Carthage, a strong political leader and chaste widow, who becomes the host and protector of Aeneas when his shipwrecked crew lands on her shore. Much of the episode prior to Mercury's descent is seen from her point of view. Although Cieco's Carandina is introduced as a maga with greater magical abilities than Circe or Medea (Mam. 1.32), she is also, like Dido, the queen of a territory (the Isold del Faggio or Beech-tree Island). In the course of the episode she replays Queen Dido's deeply human predicament - twice. The first hero to play the part of Aeneas at Carthage is the Saracen Mambriano, who is shipwrecked on Carandina's island while heading west to kill Rinaldo in revenge for his father's death. Although Mambriano finds personal happiness through his love of Carandina, he regrets that the time on her island keeps him from fulfilling his higher mission. Carandina thinks she

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can avoid Dido's fate of abandonment by luring Rinaldo from France to her island so that Mambriano can fight him on the spot, but she then falls in love with Rinaldo and thus relegates to Mambriano the role of Dido's forsaken Sychaeus, even though he is still living on her island. Rinaldo's stay on Carandina's island recalls the fate of heroes trapped in the enchanted sites of the Innamorato. Just as Dragontina's potion removes men from their own minds ('tra' 1'omo a se stesso de la mente'; OI 1.9.65), Carandina's palace takes Rinaldo out of himself ('Rinaldo usciva di se stesso'; Mam. 1.81). Yet the basic pattern is Virgilian: Rinaldo is not only subjected to Carandina's allure, he becomes her lover. She, in turn, like Dido, had no recourse to magic to win his affection and is equally in love with him. The account of Rinaldo's liberation from Carandina is a creative rewriting of Aeneas's abandonment of Dido in Aeneid IV. When Rinaldo's homeland of Montealbano is under attack, his older cousin and father figure Malagigi sets out to liberate him, thus re-enacting the role of Virgil's Mercury, albeit with fewer powers.3 The omniscience, speed, and directness of the Olympian god have been replaced with the limited knowledge and reduced power of the Christian magus. The winged-footed Mercury sees Aeneas as soon as he approaches Carthage and 'attacks at once' (Aen. 4.353). Malagigi, on the other hand, whose demons have been sequestered by Carandina, must travel by ship, and then hide and wait until the following morning before even starting to look for Rinaldo. Even then he cannot approach Rinaldo directly, and he disguises himself as a merchant so that Carandina will not recognize him. The disguise nevertheless retains perhaps a vestige of Mercury, whom Bernard Silvester referred to as the god of merchants in his commentary on the Virgilian episode.4 Like Mercury, the god of eloquence, Malagigi relies on rhetoric to liberate the hero. Indeed, he expands Mercury's succinct command into an exercise in the art of persuasion. After evoking the suffering of his fellow countrymen (Mam. 7.83), Malagigi reminds Rinaldo of his failings towards his wife Clarice (Mam. 7.84). When Rinaldo seems persuaded, Malagigi asks to gain access to Carandina's magic study. Rinaldo, however, refuses, and even after Malagigi resorts to the promise of glory (Mam. 7.88), he remains recalcitrant. Malagigi then plays his final rhetorical card, restating the climactic moment of Mercury's speech. In the Aeneid, Mercury turns one of Jupiter's rhetorical questions into the following imperative:

78 Creative Imitation if the brightness of such deeds is not enough to kindle you - if you cannot attempt the task for your own fame - remember Ascanius growing up, the hopes you hold for lulus, your own heir, to whom are owed the realm of Italy and land of Rome. (Aen. 4.364-9)

Referring to Aeneas's son by his two names, Mercury both elicits the feeling of the private, paternal love of a father for his young son ('Ascanius growing up') and reminds Aeneas of the mission of a ruler who must pass on a kingdom to his descendants ('lulus, your own heir'). Malagigi imitates both the structure and the content of Mercury's imperative: Ma se Clarice tua non ti commove, La qual sta cinta da tanti perigli, Commover ti dovriano i cari figli. But if your own Clarice does not move you, Who is surrounded by so many dangers, Then you should be moved by your dear children. (Mam. 7.89)

Malagigi, like Mercury, accords the highest priority to the knight's progeny, but he replaces the duty to found an empire with the duty to defend one's family and home. Accordingly, here it is Rinaldo's wife rather than the thought of glory that Malagigi deems the second highest priority. Cieco also privileges immediate familial ties and omits dreams of succession when he evokes Rinaldo's children. His words succeed in strengthening Rinaldo's resolve. The primary focus in both scenes, however, is not the liberator's rhetorical skills, but the hero's state of mind. Both Virgil and Cieco portray a turning of the will in which reason and a sense of duty struggle to regain the upper hand over the passions and private pleasure. In the Aeneid, the stunned Aeneas wants to leave Carthage, and we are later told that 'the god [Mercury] makes deaf the hero's kind ears' to Dido's pleas (Aen. 4.606-7).5 And yet, despite both the authority and the support of the gods, Aeneas's decision to depart is dependent upon his will, and it is far from easy. Aeneas must struggle to press care back within his breast, and his words come haltingly (Aen. 4.447-8). After

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his conversation with Dido, Aeneas is 'groaning long and shaken in his mind because of his great love' (Aen. 4.542-3). Virgil describes the hero's internal conflict by comparing him to a stout oak tree in the mountains blasted by north winds: As when, among the Alps, north winds will strain against each other to root out with blasts - now on this side, now that - a stout oak tree whose wood is full of years; the roar is shattering, the trunk is shaken, and high branches scatter on the ground; but it still grips the rocks; as steeply as it thrusts its crown into the upper air, so deep the roots it reaches down to Tartarus: no less than this, the hero; he is battered on this side and on that by assiduous words; he feels care in his mighty chest, and yet his mind cannot be moved; the tears fall, useless. (Aen. 4.607-17)

This supremely expansive tree, reaching from the underworld to the upper atmosphere, represents the great force of will needed as Aeneas fights against a storm of feeling.6 As the simile nears its conclusion, Aeneas's own passions - the care in his chest - are presented together with the pleas of Dido's sister, as though both were equally external and his unmovable will alone defined his essence. Tellingly, Virgil does not specify to whom the tears belong, and Servius (3.39) notes that they could belong to Aeneas, Dido, or Anna - or to all three.7 Yet Aeneas is still not obeying the god's orders quickly enough. He sleeps as preparations for departure continue, and Mercury has to appear a second time, now in a dream, to urge him on his way. Even as Book 5 opens and the Trojan fleet moves towards Italy, Aeneas is depicted 'gazing back - watching where the walls of Carthage glowed with sad Elissa's flames' (Aen. 5.3-5). In his analysis of this episode, Thomas Greene wrote: 'Of all the celestial descents in the classical epic, none symbolizes so strong a pressure on the human will as Mercury's descent to Aeneas at Carthage' (The Descent from Heaven, 99). In the Mambriano as well, the outcome depends upon the hero's will. After hearing of his countrymen's danger, Rinaldo repents on the spot ('Io me ne pento'; Mam. 7.84), but, as in the case of Aeneas, reservations surface almost immediately. Rinaldo's inner struggle, which Cieco

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characterizes as a battle between reason and the appetites, is more prolonged than that of his classical counterpart, but reason eventually triumphs: Al fin piu puote la ragion che il senso, E questa non fu piccola vittoria Che il vincer se medesmo e un atto immenso E sopra gli altri degno di memoria. In the end, reason won out over the senses, And this was no small victory Since overcoming oneself is a great act And, above all others, worthy of remembrance. (Mam. 7.88)8

When Rinaldo nevertheless continues to lament his departure from Carandina, Malagigi fears that he will be unable to free himself from her: Dubitavasi assai che il fio d'Amone Non ritornasse come il cane al vomito. He was plenty worried that the son of Amone Would return like a dog to its vomit. (Mam. 7.98)

Cieco's comparison of Rinaldo to a dog ingesting its vomit marks a jarring drop in register from Virgil's epic simile of a cosmic tree, but there are other differences that affect meaning. The possible return to something that has already been rejected points to a split within the self: the appetite perceives as good something that is in reality revolting. Malagigi is afraid that the hero's senses will triumph over his higher faculties, reducing him to the level of an animal who acts out of instinct.9 At the same time, the very repulsiveness of the simile forces us to distance ourselves from the temptation of the hero. Cieco continues to emphasize the difficulty of combating the unruly appetites as he narrates Rinaldo's departure from the island: whereas Aeneas gazed back in silence, Rinaldo openly laments the loss of Carandina. Yet Rinaldo does eventually turn his mind to his besieged homeland. Although Cieco repeatedly doubts the power of reason over the appetites, he follows Virgil in attributing the hero's renunciation of pleasure to an act of willpower, and this resolution separates the

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episode from the seductive sites of the Innamorato in which knights were freed only by external, magical means. At the same time, Cieco's Carandina is more than a seductress who temporarily entraps the hero. She reappears several cantos later as she leaves her island to seek out Rinaldo. After a series of adventures, she encounters him in the midst of a battle against her former lover Mambriano (Mam. 24). At this point Cieco enacts two reversals: 1) whereas earlier Carandina was responsible for bringing the knights together in battle, she now puts an end to their fighting; and 2) whereas earlier she abandoned Mambriano for Rinaldo, she now returns to the Saracen prince. As a result, the two former enemies make peace, and Carandina's subsequent marriage to Mambriano establishes them as ruling monarchs friendly to the Christian West. In the course of this extended episode, Carandina has moved from a dangerous maga who rules an island to the wife of Mambriano who rules along with him in his vast Eastern kingdom. In this way Cieco has provided a happy ending for his heroine that contrasts with the suicide of Dido, but he does not alter the destiny of his Christian hero. The episode presents a double perspective that some readers have detected in Virgil's original: 1) a moralistic stance with regard to the hero, who must learn to put public duty before private pleasure, and 2) a sympathetic treatment of the woman who has temporarily detained him.10 Cieco's double perspective offers two different directions for future poets who will rewrite this narrative situation into their own romance epics. Whereas Ariosto takes the first direction in his depiction of the enchantress Alcina, some of the episodes examined in Part III go even further than Cieco in the positive portrayal of the seductress. In the following chapter, I examine how Ariosto rewrites material from both Boiardo and Cieco as he constructs his own allegory of moral education.

Chapter Seven Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516): Didactic Allegory

Ulysses moves in thought, a kindly soul: His faithful wife entreats him to return, But ardent Circe will not let him go. Petrarch, I Trionfi 3.22-4

From the sixteenth century until a couple of decades ago, the moral allegory in the extended episode of Ruggiero and Astolfo at Alcina's island was taken for granted, yet this episode has recently become the focus of debate, especially among American Ariosto critics, some of whom have pointed out its anti-allegorical strategies and even considered it a parody of allegory.1 Recognizing that valid points can be found on both sides of the debate, Ascoli has argued that Ariosto deliberately presented both an allegory and a demonstration of the inadequacies of allegorical literature when confronting real-life experiences (Ariosto's Bitter Harmony, especially chapter 3). Although these recent critical studies have revealed the complexity of Ariosto's art, in my view they have not taken sufficiently into account the episode's relation to Boiardo's prior poem. Perhaps the precedent was set by Pio Rajna's influential study, which linked Alcina to Circe, Panfile (Apuleius), Uriella (Mambriano), and Labee (1001 Nights), but not to the enchantresses of the Innamorato.2 Among recent critics, Giamatti (Earthly Paradise) examined sources in classical and medieval enchanted gardens, Javitch ('Rescuing Ovid') was primarily concerned with medieval allegorizations of Ovid's Metamorphoses, while Ascoli (Ariosto's Bitter Harmony), Parker, and Verdicchio have treated Dante as the episode's major intertext. Although the principal themes of the

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Alcina episode can indeed be found in innumerable texts from Homer to Boccaccio and beyond, in the following pages I aim to show that Ariosto's particular treatment of these themes comes into clearer focus when viewed in response to the recurrent allegorical sites of the Innamorato as well as the more recent example of Carandina's island in the Mambriano. The Laughing Stream The various enchanted sites that entrap Ruggiero in Ariosto's poem (the castello d'aciaio, the island of Alcina, and the palazzo incantato) are devised by Atlante to keep Ruggiero away from his heroic but tragic destiny. The first site that entraps Ruggiero, however, is found not in the Furioso but in Book Three of the Innamomto. Atalante had sent Orlando to the Laughing Stream to interrupt his battle against Rugiero, but Rugiero too falls prey to the fountain's magic. This adventure, which brings together for the first time these two previously contrasted knights, has important implications for Ruggiero's development in the Furioso.3 The Laughing Stream and the surrounding magic wood contain various spells that tempt each knight at his weakest point. While Orlando, in keeping with his poem-long infatuation with illusory females, is drawn into the stream by the image of dancing naiads, Gradasso is flung into it by a flying horse, a symbol of his unthinking pursuit of glory. Rugiero's entrapment combines his inability to recognize female deceit with his blind adherence to the tenets of courtesy. After he fells a laurel tree, which could suggest his quest for honour, a naiad emerges from its trunk and tells him that she is doomed to return to wood unless he accompanies her to the stream (OI 3.7.18). Rugiero courteously complies and, falling under the spell, jumps into the fountain with the naiad still at his arm (OI 3.7.22). Although Boiardo points to the chivalrous impulse behind Rugiero's gesture by referring to him as 'giovanetto pien di cortesia' ('the young Rugiero, courteous'), his assertion that Rugiero should be excused because women trick both wise and foolish men ('Che il saggio e il paccio e da le dame gionto'; OI 3.7.21) suggests the allure of feminine beauty as a corollary factor. When Brandimarte frees Rugiero and Orlando (along with Gradasso) with Fiordelisa's spell-breaking crown, a dwarf appears and asks the knights to accompany him on a new adventure. Boiardo con-

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trasts Orlando's new wariness with Rugiero's unconditional availability. After comparing himself to a bird that has been freed from one trap and fears another, Orlando proclaims his long overdue awareness of deceptive illusion (Ol 3.7.39). Without giving any thought to Angelica, he heads to Paris with the intention of saving Christendom from a Saracen attack. Rugiero, on the other hand, blindly follows the dwarf into another trap. In the poem's final complete canto, Boiardo jumps from an epic duel between Orlando and Rodamonte in Paris to a hermit's account of a vision in which a demon boasted of Rugiero's departure from France and imminent return to the errors of Mohammed (3.8.S7).4 If Orlando, the Innamorato's designated 'slow learner,' finally seems to have returned to the role of paladin, it is now the ideal knight Rugiero who is in need of instruction. Indeed, Rugiero's entrapment in rapid succession by a nymph and (as it appears) a dwarf sets him up as one who, by unconditionally observing the rules of chivalry, is helpless against the insidious traps of others. The poem is interrupted before Boiardo shows how he intends to teach Rugiero to distinguish illusion from reality. This may be a lesson that is impossible to master, however, as Rugiero's foretold death through the treachery of Gano da Maganza suggests. If this is the case, then Boiardo has created an ideal hero who is unequipped to survive in a world in which evil operates from behind the shield of fraud. Ariosto, in my view, not only understood Boiardo's program of moral education through literature, but addresses the same issues in his continuation. As Orlando's education was already played out at length in the course of the Innamorato, Ariosto assigns the role of 'slow learner' to Ruggiero, a role the knight had already begun to play at the Laughing Stream. In developing the character of Ruggiero in this new direction, Ariosto turns to the only Boiardan enchantress who was not involved in some way with Orlando - Alcina. In the Innamorato, Alcina, like her sister Morgana, possesses the more sinister connotations of the enchantress figure. Boiardo tells us that Alcina magically created a marble pleasure palace surrounded by a beautiful garden (OI 2.13.55), but she initially appears along the coast as she is drawing fish out of the water with 'charms and spells' (OI 2.13.56). When Alcina sees Astolfo's beauty, she falls in love with him as quickly as Circella fell for Ulisse in Dragontina's ekphrasis, and she invites him to her little island (isoletta) with the excuse that one can see a siren just beyond (OI 2.13.62). When Astolfo steps onto her island, which turns out to be

Orlando Furioso, (1516): Didactic Allegory 85

a whale that now moves away from shore, Alcina conjures up a fierce storm to prevent Ranaldo from rescuing his companion. Ariosto would have been familiar with Niccolo degli Agostini's continuation of the Alcina episode, which combined elements from several seductive sites of the Innamorato. In the course of Astolfo's liberation, Rinaldo falls from a bridge into an underwater fairyland (Orlando at Morgana's realm), is transported by an unmanned boat to Alcina's island (Ranaldo at the Pleasure Palace), fights a faun, while his new companion Scardasso fights a giant, and finally fells a tower as though it were a tree (Orlando in Falerina's garden). Alcina responds exactly as she did in the Innamorato: she conjures up a storm by magic to prevent the knights from rescuing Astolfo. The episode, in fact, focuses primarily on the liberators, as the valour of Rinaldo and his new companion Scardasso is pitted against Alcina's magic. Astolfo is a passive object to be rescued - like Orlando at Dragontina's palace and the Laughing Stream. This medley of Boiardan motifs underlines the thematic continuity: the seductress diverts the Christian knight from his path, the entrapped knight cannot free himself, and his companions must come to his aid. In Ariosto's continuation of the episode, Astolfo has already been abandoned by Alcina and transformed into a myrtle plant. The narrative then proceeds not with a liberation, but with a second entrapment. Astolfo, who has learned through experience about the dangers of erotic enchantment, attempts to teach the unwary Ruggiero through an autobiographical narration. Here Ariosto does not merely summarize Alcina's entrapment of Astolfo the way he summarizes other Innamorato events, he gives a lengthy paraphrase with a substantial number of identical words and phrases (OF 6.34^2 corresponds to OI 2.8.54-66 and 2.14.3-8).5 As a result, the Innamorato episode serves as a didactic novella that warns the 'reader' Ruggiero to avoid the dangers that lie ahead. Astolfo doubts, however, that his tale will have any effect (OF 6.53), and when Ruggiero meets a sun-woman (donna sole), he does not suspect that she may be linked to Circe, daughter of Helios, the Sungod.6 Two maidens subsequently trick Ruggiero by combining the demands of chivalry with feminine charms - the same ploy the naiad had used on Rugiero at the Laughing Stream. Even the excuse that Ariosto makes for Ruggiero ('ne maraviglia e se Ruggier n'e preso'; 'Little wonder that Ruggiero was ensnared'; OF 7.16) echoes Boiardo's earlier one: 'Ne vi doveti gia meravigliare / Se colto fu Rugiero' ('You must not wonder, here, that he / Was taken in by her'; OI 3.7.21)7 Once

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under Alcina's spell Ruggiero forgets his past identity, like the knights at the Laughing Stream. Ariosto initially patterns the liberation of Ruggiero from Alcina's island on the liberation of Orlando from the Laughing Stream. Bradamante wanders about in search of him as earlier Brandimarte and Fiordelisa had done for Orlando. While the earlier couple learned of Orlando's predicament from a Saracen seer, Bradamante hears about Ruggiero's whereabouts from a devotee of the Christian wizard Merlin (Melissa). But at this point Ariosto turns to the precedent of the Mambriano.8 It is not Bradamante, but Melissa, who travels to Alcina's island to free Ruggiero, assuming the role of Cieco's Malagigi. She even appropriates his customary means of travel when she flies on the back of a horse that the poet suspects is really a demon (OF 7.49-50). Like Malagigi, she is forced to hide upon her arrival and wait for the right moment, and then to disguise herself in order to facilitate her approach. In the Mambriano Rinaldo's father-figure Malagigi provided real help; here Melissa disguises herself as Ruggiero's father-figure Atlante, even though he was the very character who sent Rugiero to Alcina's island in the first place. Like Malagigi, Melissa appropriates the climactic moment from Mercury's speech to Aeneas as she asks Ruggiero: Se non ti movon le tue proprie laudi, e 1'opre escelse a chi t'ha '1 cielo eletto, la tua succession perche defraudi del ben che mille volte i' t'ho predetto? [If] you care nothing for your own renown, and for the shining deeds for which Heaven has appointed you, why must you defraud your own posterity of all the good which I have a thousand times predicted to you? (OF 7.60)

Yet whereas Malagigi intensifies the sense of paternal love inherent in Mercury's verses, Melissa focuses exclusively on Ruggiero's dynastic prospects. And rather than end the exhortation here, Ariosto tacks on an encomiastic passage about the Estense family that continues for another three and a half stanzas. Ariosto can take the time to flatter his patrons because Melissa's speech has a merely preparatory function. Ruggiero's attraction to Alcina will immediately evaporate when Melissa places Angelica's spell-breaking ring on his finger (OF 7.74).

Orlando Furioso, (1516): Didactic Allegory 87 By using a magic device to resolve the episode, Ariosto abandons Cieco and his Virgilian model and returns to the resolution adopted at the Innamorato's enchanted sites. Indeed, Boiardo's Orlando is freed from Dragontina's palace by the same ring. In a narrative twist found in neither Boiardo nor Cieco, the magic ring exposes Alcina as a decrepit old hag and Ruggiero is repulsed by her newly revealed ugliness. Ariosto describes Ruggiero's state of mind at this point through a two-stanza simile involving a boy who finds that his ripe piece of fruit has turned rotten: Come fanciul che corruttibil frutto ripone, e poi si scorda u' 1'ha riposto, e dopo molti giorni e ricondutto la dove truova a caso il suo deposto, si maraviglia a rivederlo tutto putrido e guasto, e non come fu posto; e dove amarlo e caro aver solia, 1'odia, sprezza, n'ha schivo, e getta via: cosi Ruggier, poi che Melissa fece ch'a riveder se ne torno la fata con quel annello inanzi a cui non lece, quando s'ha in dito, usar opra incantata, ritrova, contra ogni sua stima, invece de la bella, che dianzi avea lasciata, donna si laida, che la terra tutta ne la piu vecchia avea ne la piu brutta. If a child sets aside a ripe fruit and then, forgetting where he put it, is brought to the very place many days later and happens upon his fruit, he is amazed to find it all rotten and putrid, and not at all as he had left it; and though he normally had a weakness for that sort of fruit, he throws it away in loathing and revulsion so it was with Ruggiero: once Melissa had made him set eyes again upon Alcina, but this time wearing the ring that makes the wearer, while he has it on his finger, totally immune to magic, he was astonished to find that in place of the beauty he had just parted from, he was confronted with a woman so hideous that her equal

88 Creative Imitation for sheer ugliness and decrepitude could be found nowhere on earth. (OF 7.71-2)

By presenting the delectable fruit and its rotten state in succession, Ariosto acknowledges both Alcina's past attractiveness and her present repulsiveness in Ruggiero's eyes. There can be regret, disappointment, confusion, and a lack of understanding, but there is no longer any desire that the will must overcome. Indeed, the struggle of the will as experienced by Aeneas and Cieco's Rinaldo has no place here, and Ruggiero does not even participate in the battle against Alcina's forces. Instead, Ariosto provides his hero with the opportunity for moral instruction on the island of Alcina's virtuous sister, Logistilla. Her palace contains a jewelled wall resembling a mirror in which Tuom sin in mezzo all'anima si vede; / vede suoi vizii e sue virtudi espresse' ('a man sees right into his own soul; he sees there reflected his vices and virtues'; OF 9.47; 10.59). Diametrically opposed to the Narcissus fountain and the Laughing Stream, which trick the individual into losing himself by means of a superficial illusion, this mirror provides self-knowledge, which in turn leads to prudence (OF 9.47; 10.59). Ariosto never actually states whether Ruggiero made use of the mirror or not; however, the knight's subsequent actions seem to indicate that he missed this chance for selfscrutiny and self-improvement. Later in the canto, Ariosto specifically draws attention to a missed opportunity for Ruggiero to forge a stronger moral character. Passing over Ireland on the hippogriff, he comes upon the cave of St Patrick, 'in che tanta merce par che si trove, / che 1'uom vi purga ogni sua colpa prava' ('wherein such grace is - it seems - to be found, that the visitor there can cleanse himself of all his iniquity'; OF 9.80; 10.92).9 Yet Ruggiero does not stop at this site of spiritual cleansing, bypassing an occasion to reflect on his past failings and gain the necessary wisdom to avoid future pitfalls. It is significant that the same stanza which notes his flight over St Patrick's cave brings him to 'Angelica legata al nudo sasso' ('Angelica chained to the bare rock'; OF 9.80; 10.92), suggesting that his failure to stop at this site may have led him straight to his next fall. After rescuing Angelica from the Orca, his sexual appetite subverts his higher faculty of reason and, forgetting his chivalric duty, he intends to rape her. Using the magic ring he has handed her, however, Angelica disappears before his eyes and escapes. Ruggiero's unchivalrous actions in this episode recall another char-

Orlando Furioso, (1516): Didactic Allegory 89

acter from the Mambriano: not any of its valiant knights in this instance, but rather the foolish squire of Astolfo. The squire magnifies the defects of his master, who in Cieco's poem is both a buffoon and a womanizer. When Malagigi gives the squire a magic belt that will render him invisible and allow him to rescue Astolfo, he specifically warns him: 'E guarda ben che il sensual talento / Non ti trasporti fuor del primo intento' ('And watch that your sensual appetite / Does not lead you away from your mission'; Mam. 41.81). The squire is nevertheless overcome by desire for the princess Argonetta and, forgetting his rescue mission, attempts to rape her. In the process, he foolishly hands over to her his magic belt (Mam. 41.99). She immediately uses it to disappear into thin air, while the squire is left to suffer a beating at the hands of her maidens. Malagigi, in the guise of a shepherd, considers the squire justly punished for having allowed reason to give way to the appetites ('Per sottopor la ragione al talento'; Mam. 42.43). Although Ruggiero escapes the beating, he cuts an equally ridiculous figure as he blindly gropes the air seeking Angelica: 'brancolando n'andava come cieco / ... abbraccio 1'aria vana' ('he went groping round the spring like a blind man'; OF 11.9). In this way Ruggiero acts out literally the moral blindness that Cieco attributes to those overcome by passion: 'Che chi e retto d'amor lume non vede' ('He who is ruled by passion does not see the light'; Mam. 41.99). Whereas Cieco places the blame squarely on the shoulders of the squire for not having known how to control himself (Mam. 41.102), Ariosto playfully allows Ruggiero to blame Angelica for her ingratitude (OF 11.7-8). Yet the terminology that Ariosto uses to apparently 'excuse' Ruggiero is precisely the moralistic terminology of the higher and lower faculties: Quantunque debil freno a mezzo il corso animoso destrier spesso raccolga, raro e pero che di ragione il morso libidinosa furia a dietro volga, quando il piacere ha in pronto ... A mettlesome charger will often suffer himself to be reined in from a full gallop, however gentle the hand on the rein. Seldom, however, will the bridle of Reason check rabid Lust once it scents its quarry ... (OF 11.1)

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The unbridled horse was a common trope for referring to the appetites not under the control of reason. Ariosto then employs a second simile comparing Ruggiero to a wild animal. He is now like a bear who, having known the smell or taste of honey, cannot be held back ('a guisa d'orso / che dal mel non si tosto si distolga, / poi che gli n'e venuto odore al naso, / o qualche stilla ne gusto sul vaso'; OF 11.1). This latter image suggests that Ruggiero has been metaphorically transformed into what Cieco's Malagigi only feared would become of Rinaldo, indicated in the simile of the dog and his vomit - an unruly animal guided solely by appetitive impulses and instinct. Ruggiero's rejection of Alcina clearly did not represent for him the overcoming of the irrational pull of the appetites. While Aeneas and Cieco's Rinaldo look back in full awareness of what they have given up, Ruggiero flies up and away on the hippogriff not only without regret, but, more dangerously, without any indication of having learned the need for greater self-control. His encounter with Angelica reveals him to be just as susceptible to erotic enchantment now as he was when he arrived at Alcina's island. And this time there is no longer the excuse of a supernatural spell wrought by an enchantress. Confronted with Angelica's naked beauty, he forgets both his knightly responsibilities to a damsel in distress and his declared love for Bradamante (OF 10.2; 11.2). Instead of following Aeneas or Cieco's Rinaldo, who emerge from the experience with strengthened higher faculties, Ruggiero resembles Boiardo's Orlando who, when freed from one seductive trap, falls almost immediately into another. If Ruggiero was trapped at Alcina's island in part because of his adherence to the chivalric code, here his intention to ravish a damsel he has just rescued is a most severe violation of that code. After showing that Ruggiero had the opportunity to learn to exercise his higher faculties during his stay with Logistilla, Ariosto tests his self-control in an adventure which involves the very same Angelica who had presented such a problem for Boiardo's pupil. Reduced to a creature ruled by his appetites in this scene, Ruggiero is no longer the antithesis of Boiardo's Orlando, but the incarnation of a slow learner who fails to translate insights from his own experience into an ethics of action. Due to his lack of control, he loses the hippogriff as well as the ring, and subsequently falls victim to the spell of Atlante's palazzo incantato.

Orlando Furioso, (1516): Didactic Allegory 91 Astolfo versus Ruggiero

Before we blame the education rather than the pupil, we should note that Ariosto contrasts Ruggiero's behaviour with that of Astolfo, who emerges from Alcina's seduction and Logistilla's instruction with increased self-control and a new sense of his chivalric calling.10 Astolfo has already been transformed by Alcina into a myrtle plant when Ruggiero approaches her island abode. Although Astolfo could at first be mistaken for a character from the wood of suicides in Inferno 13, the time he spends in this lower form functions instead as a purgatorial experience. Unlike the damned in Dante's Inferno, he recognizes his own shortcomings and acknowledges his fault ('al fin me solo offesi'; OF 6.33). Astolfo undergoes a more extended instruction on Logistilla's island than Ruggiero. He not only arrives long before Ruggiero ('Gran pezzo inanzi Astolfo era arrivato'; OF 9.52; 10.64), but Ariosto creates the impression that he remains longer as well. While Ruggiero leaves Logistilla's island in OF 9.57 (10.69), it is not until OF 13.13 (15.13) that we are told that Logistilla gives Astolfo permission to depart. Moreover, while Ruggiero appears to have passed a couple of days simply resting on the island (OF 9.53; 10.65) before he learns to use the hippogriff and departs, Ariosto emphasizes the extensive instruction that Astolfo undergoes with Logistilla (OF 13.13; 15.13). The different outcomes of their education are reflected first of all in the manner of their departure. While Ruggiero speeds away through the sky alone on the hippogriff, Astolfo travels by sea under the protection of two of the four virtues: Andronica (Fortitude) and Sofrosina (Temperance). The remaining two virtues, prudence and justice, are given to Astolfo by Logistilla in the form of a magic book and a magic horn.11 He then continues by land, that is, with his feet firmly on the ground, still armed with the book of prudence and the horn of justice (OF 13.18; 15.37). Ariosto contrasts Ruggiero's irresponsible and random wanderings with Astolfo's 'longer and more arduous' return to Charlemagne (OF 9.56; 10.68). While Ruggiero flies over the globe aimlessly for months, travelling as a well-to-do tourist (OF 9.61; 10.73), Astolfo moves with a strong sense of religious and civic obligation in two highly symbolic directions, first east and then west. Before heading to France to defend the Church and Empire, he first visits the 'canti luochi ove Dio in carne

92 Creative Imitation vinse' ('holy places where God lived as man'; OF 13.73; 15.92). In contrast to Ruggiero, who passes by St Patrick's cave without stopping, Astolfo deliberately makes a pilgrimage to 'la santa terra, ove il superbo Amore / lato col proprio sangue il nostro errore ('the holy land where the Supreme Love / washed away our sins in His blood'; OF 13.75; 15.94). Ariosto underscores the sense of the trip as an expiatory experience by noting that Astolfo and his companions are first purged of their sins (OF 13.80; 15.99) and then visit the temples to contemplate the mysteries of Christ's passion.12 Astolfo and his companions are hosted by Sansonetto da Mecca, a character who, as Ariosto later notes, had been converted to Christianity by Orlando (OF 16.97; 18.97). Sansonetto, whose religious conversion parallels Astolfo's moral conversion, gives the paladin the spurs of St George, the legendary knight who freed the damsel from the dragon (OF 13.79; 15.98). Astolfo thus now possesses not only the cardinal virtues given him by Logistilla, but the other-regarding attributes of Ferrara's patron saint and quintessential personification of Christian chivalry. After participating in the joust at Damascus, Astolfo's sense of duty leads him steadily west to France (OF 16.133,18.133). Despite obstacles along the way, Ariosto reminds the reader of the direction and goal of Astolfo the paladin, who 'ver Ponente avea preso il amico' ('had set out for the West'; OF 20.4; 22.4) and who 'andar subito in Franza se ripone' ('decided to go to France [at once]'; OF 20.8; 22.8). Ariosto not only contrasts Astolfo with Ruggiero, however, but measures the new Astolfo against the principal Christian knights of the Innamomto. Astolfo versus Boiardo's Orlando Even prior to Astolfo's purificatory experience in Jerusalem, Ariosto demonstrates the positive effects of his moral education in two episodes that directly compare him to Boiardo's Orlando. In the first, Astolfo's encounter with Caligorante replays Orlando's battle against Zambardo.13 In Boiardo's episode, Orlando was holding a book with the answers to all questions when he comes upon Zambardo at the Bridge of Death, but he does not think to use it and instead tries to fight his way across the bridge. In the ensuing battle, discussed earlier, Orlando is caught in a net hidden just under the sand of the riverbank,

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93

and a friar who passes by cannot liberate him. Ariosto transforms Orlando's failure into Astolfo's success. First, he replaces Boiardo's cowardly and ineffective friar with a caring hermit who warns Astolfo in advance to avoid a giant that lies in wait to imprison travellers. But rather than deterring Astolfo, the hermit's warning spurs him to want to rid the roads of this danger, risking his own life for the benefit of future travellers (OF 13.28; 15.47-8). With Astolfo having deliberately and selflessly sought out a menace akin to the one Orlando stumbled upon by chance, Ariosto then reverses the outcome: while Orlando, having failed to use the book, is caught by Zambardo's net, Astolfo makes use of the magic horn to send Caligorante running straight into his own hidden net. In the second instance, Ariosto links Astolfo to Boiardo's Orlando not by inventing a new adventure for him, but by having him successfully complete an episode begun in Book Three of the Innamorato. As Astolfo continues along his way with the defeated giant, he hears of a brigand who captures or kills all who approach the Nile riverbank (OF 13.45-7; 15.64-6), and he sets out to rid the territory of this curse at the risk of his own life. He thus comes upon the battle between Orrillo and the brothers Grifone and Aquilante interrupted in OI 3.3.21. There the brothers' attempts to stamp out Orrillo's evil had been unsuccessful because his body parts magically reconnected themselves each time they were severed. Ariosto brings the episode to a resolution by developing its links to an earlier Innamorato adventure which marked the second time in which Orlando received the aid of a book, in the garden of Orgagna. On this occasion, Orlando successfully overcame the garden's monsters because he consulted the book repeatedly and followed through on its advice.14 Ariosto picks up the episode's final segment, in which Orlando needed to remove a certain branch from a tall tree in order to destroy the magic garden. Now Astolfo must pull out a particular strand of hair from Orrillo's head that keeps the enchanted evildoer immortal.15 The parallels extend to the type of problem solving required. Both heroes consult their books, which describe the situation and offer guidance, but stop short of providing a full answer. Orlando cuts down the entire tree instead of attempting to reach the top branch (OI 2.5.13). Astolfo, after beheading Orrillo, proceeds to cut off all the hairs with his sword rather than looking for the fatal strand. His action is equally

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successful. After the crucial strand is removed from the head, Orrillo's body falls dead in its tracks. The language that Ariosto uses to describe its demise even suggests a tree being felled and collapsing: 'e '1 busto che seguia troncato al collo, / da caval cade, e da 1'ultimo crollo' ('And the headless trunk which galloped in pursuit [falls] from the saddle and [gives] a final shudder'; OF 13.68; 15.87). Whereas the Caligorante episode contrasted Astolfo with Orlando prior to his allegorical education, the Orrillo episode creates a parallel between Astolfo and Orlando in the very adventure in which Boiardo's hero was learning (albeit, with only temporary success) to privilege reason over the senses. Thus, while Ruggiero, as mentioned above, takes over the role of Boiardo's Orlando as one slow to master the lessons of moral allegory, Astolfo, by contrast, represents an 'enlightened' Orlando in two episodes that replay key episodes of the earlier poem. Astolfo and Boiardo's Ranaldo I have argued that Boiardo contrasted Orlando and Ranaldo not only as knights, but also as readers, with Ranaldo distinguishing himself by first hearing a novella about an injustice and then acting to bring about a just outcome of that story in the body of the poem. Ariosto now casts Astolfo in the role of Boiardo's Ranaldo, as he is on his way from Jerusalem to France and his ship is blown off-course to the island of the killer-women. The Innamorato episode that this adventure replays is that of Castle Cruel, in which the desire for revenge eventually leads to a custom in which innocent wayfarers are either murdered or must battle a monster to the death. Although in the earlier episode Ranaldo thought that killing the monster would be sufficient to end his ordeal, he found that the only way he could halt the cycle of violence was to defeat the community that perpetuated the murders. At the island of the killer-women, Astolfo and his companions hear a tale of violent revenge that replays some essential features of the Castle Cruel episode. The plan that the knights originally devise is likewise insufficient, and Astolfo subsequently uses the magic horn to bring about the total desertion of the island (OF 18.87-8; 20.87-8). This episode will be discussed in greater depth below. The point I am making here is that the killer-women episode establishes a link between Astolfo and Boiardo's civic-minded Ranaldo as it continues to portray Astolfo as a successful pupil of Logistilla.

Orlando Furioso, (1516): Didactic Allegory 95 Astolfo versus Boiardo's Astolfo While Astolfo has thus far replayed the adventures of Orlando and Ranaldo, at Atlante's palazzo incantato - the final enchanted site of the Furioso - he is measured against his own character in Boiardo's poem. Overcome by heat and thirst, Astolfo approaches a clear fountain in the midst of a forest (OF 20.10-11; 22.10-11). The wary reader may suspect that he has entered an enchanted site along the lines of the Innamomto's Fountain of Love, Fountain of Narcissus, or Laughing Stream. The space does, in fact, turn out to be enchanted and, just as at the Laughing Stream, it contains a custom-made spell that entraps each individual by seeming to offer what he or she desires most. Astolfo, however, is not deceived for very long before he realizes that the object he pursues is an illusion, and he thus consults his book of answers. The book explains that in order to break the spell, he must lift a stone under which a spirit is buried. Yet lifting the stone does not resolve the situation. Like Ranaldo facing the mob at the Castle Cruel, Astolfo must now deal with an onslaught of knights set against him by Atlante. Whereas Ranaldo used his sword to disperse his assailants, Astolfo turns to Logistilla's gift of the magic horn, which sends the knights fleeing in terror. He then completes the destruction of the enchanted castle by following the book's instructions. Although Astolfo's two-step solution recalls Ranaldo's actions at the Castle Cruel, this episode is most closely linked to Astolfo's own adventure at Dragontina's palace. There, when Astolfo tried to destroy the spell and free Orlando, the enchanted knights also began to attack him. In Boiardo's poem, however, Astolfo was forced to flee in order to save himself. Now it is Astolfo who frightens the other knights and actually frees them from the spell by causing their flight. Astolfo's failed liberation attempt at the Innamorato's first enchanted site has been replaced by his successful one at the Furioso's final enchanted site, thus marking the distance between his old and new self. The continued relevance of Logistilla's instruction is evidenced by his combined use of both her gifts. Astolfo and Ruggiero: Comparing Grades After Astolfo has destroyed Atlante's spell, Ariosto invites the reader to reflect on how he has fared in comparison to his fellow student,

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Ruggiero. Astolfo's encounter with the hippogriff provides an occasion to contrast the history of two knights. Beginning with the moment Atlante gave the hippogriff to Ruggiero, Ariosto takes the reader from Ruggiero's erotic subjection on Alcina's island to his instruction on Logistilla's, and from his travels around the globe to Angelica's disappearance before his lustful eyes. Then, with the excuse of accounting for Astolfo's familiarity with the hippogriff, Ariosto notes that Astolfo had been transformed into a myrtle bush by Alcina and returned to human form by Melissa, that he had observed carefully how Logistilla controlled the hippogriff and had also paid attention when Ruggiero was taught to ride it. Taking the comparison to its logical conclusion at the adventure of the palazzo incantato, we could add that Ruggiero, having lost the spellbreaking ring and the hippogriff due to his appetites (libidinosa furia; OF 10.1; 11.1), falls victim to the illusion of the enchanted palace, whereas Astolfo, in possession of Logistilla's magical horn and the book, not only escapes the spell, but frees all the other knights (including Ruggiero) and destroys Atlante's enchanted palace. The transfer of the hippogriff from Ruggiero to Astolfo, then, is significant: while Ruggiero loses the horse because he is incapable of exercising control, Astolfo gains possession of the animal because he has made good use of the virtues he acquired on Logistilla's island. Before Astolfo flies away on the hippogriff, he gives Bradamante not only the horse Rabicano but also Argalia's lance - thus relinquishing the two magical aids which originated in Boiardo's poem. Although he retains his sword, Ariosto remarks that Logistilla's horn is sufficient to protect him from all danger. Thus will begin a new series of adventures for Astolfo that will take him temporarily beyond the limits of the earth and the model of Boiardo's heroes. Indeed, Astolfo's next adventure presents him as the model of conduct that Orlando, due to his unruly passions, never succeeds in becoming. It does so not by replaying another Innamorato episode, but by giving Astolfo a new adventure modelled on a classical story, that of Phineus freed from the Harpies.16 This story was included in some accounts of the labours of Hercules, and the Estensi would have read in Andrea Di Bassi's Fatiche d'Ercole that 'whenever Phineus wished to eat, three hideous birds called Harpies would appear and foul his table and every dish upon it with their dung' (80). After Phineus had suffered many years, Hercules arrived in Arcadia and drove away the Harpies, pursuing them as far as the Islands of Piote, where the God-

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dess Iris commanded him to let them remain undisturbed. In the Furioso Astolfo plays out the role of a classical hero, thanks to the horn and the hippogriff that he will use to chase the Harpies from Senapo's table in Ethiopia and into the pit of Hell.17 This episode, moreover, has greater historical connotations. Not only is Senapo identified as Prester John, but, as Rajna noted, his character is modelled on none other than Alexander of Macedonia (Rajna 52834). Senapo's unrestrained ambition recalls as well Alexander's various African counterparts in the Innamorato. Or rather, in keeping with the idea of going beyond the bounds of one's predecessors, the Ethiopian king turns the desire of Rodamonte, Agramante, and Brunello to conquer the heavens into an outright attack on the Terrestrial Paradise.18 Before Astolfo's arrival, God had already condemned Senapo to a double contmppasso: the loss of his eyesight to punish his moral blindness and perpetual hunger to punish his inordinate craving for greater power. The Harpies, which Dante had located in the Wood of Suicides of Inferno XIII, here seem to replay their role ad infinitum. For Senapo, however, as for Astolfo earlier in Alcina's island, the suffering turns out to be more purgatorial than infernal. Unlike the damned of Dante's Inferno, but like Astolfo, Senapo acknowledges his faults and speaks words of repentance to the newcomer. Astolfo's subsequent actions serve to reintegrate Senapo into human society so that he may live out his moral conversion. Astolfo is thus the knight of second chances, not only with regards to himself, but also in relation to other former transgressors. Ariosto warns us that Astolfo will fail again at some point in the future, yet from the time of his moral instruction at Logistilla's island to the poem's conclusion, Astolfo acts consistently as an exemplary Christian knight, using his newfound virtues in the service of humanity. His education on Logistilla's island can thus be considered a successful one. What one ultimately decides about the moral education of Ruggiero, on the other hand, has much to do with where one places the endpoint. If the episode and its themes are considered to end with the intended rape of Angelica, then it is a blatant failure. Ariosto, however, returns to the theme of Ruggiero's moral education later in the poem. After Ruggiero's conversion, which occurs when he is in danger of dying at sea, he is baptized and instructed by a hermit.19 This time Ruggiero is shown to be a more willing student: his earlier haste to leave Logistilla's island is replaced with a desire to remain with the hermit, while

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the impatience to leave is transferred to the 'uninitiated' boatsmen (OF 40.23; 44.15). At the same time, however, while Ruggiero's instruction on Logistilla's island was followed by a test of self-control (which he failed miserably), here after his conversion and instruction by the hermit, Ruggiero simply returns to France to marry Bradamante. Without a subsequent test of Ruggiero's virtue, the reader cannot verify the successful outcome of his moral education.20 Ariosto returns to the issue of Ruggiero's moral progress both in the Cinque canti and in the final added episode of the 1532 Furioso. We will therefore come back to the question of Ruggiero's educational itinerary in the final two chapters of Part II. The following chapter turns to the broader ethical and political dimensions of the Furioso by tracking Ariosto's creative rewriting of a trilogy of Innamorato civic virtue novellas.

Chapter Eight Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516): Novellas of Civic Virtue

And that end, in politics as well as in ethics, can only be the good for man. For even if the good of the community coincides with that of the individual, the good of the community is clearly a greater and more perfect good both to get and to keep. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics

All our affairs, public or private, civil or domestic, our personal conduct, our social transactions, inevitably fall within the province of duty; in the observance of duty lies all that is honourable, and in the neglect of it all that is dishonourable. Cicero, On Moral Duties

Traditionally assumed to be apolitical and escapist, Ariosto is increasingly seen as an author who brought the political issues of his day to bear in his narrative.1 As I aim to show below, we can glean added insight into this aspect of Ariosto's art if we examine how he proceeds through a dialogue with his predecessor, using the narrative strategies of the Innamomto even as he moves away from Boiardo's humanist ideology. Ariosto challenges the seeming optimism of Boiardo in his creative imitation of a trilogy of episodes that Boiardo uses to illustrate his civic philosophy. Boiardo introduces novellas into his romance epic, turning characters into readers.2 As noted earlier, the Innamorato's civic virtue trilogy centres on the knight Ranaldo, who hears or reads stories that take the form of an inserted novella, and then acts to bring about a just conclusion to the novella in the actual body of the poem. In the 1516 edition

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of the Furioso, Ariosto devises a new trilogy in which characters hear a novella that likewise requires a response in the frame story. The first, the tale of Polinesso's injustice to the lovers Ginevra and Ariodante (cantos 4 and 5), is patterned on the novella of Truffaldino, Albarosa, and Polindo. The second, the episode of the killer-women (cantos 19 and 20), is patterned on the tale of the Castle Cruel. In these instances, an ongoing negative situation whose origin is explained through a novella is resolved by a positive act on the part of the 'reader.' In the third novella of Boiardo's trilogy, the reciprocal acts of courtesy on the part of Prasildo and Iroldo provide a model to be imitated by the reader. Thus instead of the relation between novella and frame story being 'negative' to 'positive/ we have a case of 'positive' to 'positive.' In Ariosto's stories involving Gabrina (canto 21), however, the equation is abruptly reversed, and a 'negative' pattern within the novella is followed by a corresponding series of 'negatives' in the body of the poem. After a brief discussion of the first two novellas of the respective trilogies, I will undertake a close reading of the third novella which, in abruptly reversing the pattern, collapses the foundation of Boiardo's moral universe. From Truffaldino to Polinesso Ariosto opens his counter-trilogy with an episode in which the fictional 'reader' is still Rinaldo. As he travels to Britain on Charlemagne's orders, his ship is blown off course and he lands at the Caledonian forest, the locus of Arthurian romance (OF 4.51-3). After hearing from a group of monks that Princess Ginevra has been sentenced to death for sex outside wedlock under the harsh law of Scotland, Rinaldo decides to act on her behalf. Although the monks' story and Rinaldo's subsequent comments would seem to anticipate an episode pitting the severity of social institutions against the natural impulse of the senses, the story, as it turns out, is about ambition and fraud rather than eras. On his way to take up Ginevra's defence, Rinaldo encounters Dalinda, who becomes both narrator and character in a novella that accounts for the current situation of injustice. She tells how her paramour Polinesso brought about the (apparent) death of Ariodante and the (imminent) death of Ariodante's beloved Ginevra. While the narrative details are refashioned from other sources (see Rajna 149-53; Valesio, 'Genealogy of a Staged Scene'), the basic pattern of this story is the

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Innamorato novella in which Albarosa and Polindo are tricked by Truffaldino. In that story, as discussed above, an evil king takes advantage of the credulousness of a courteous knight in a scheme to procure greater wealth and power. In Ariosto's tale the king becomes an inept and rigid ruler enslaved to an unjust law, while Truffaldino's evil nature is transferred to a sordid, simulating courtier. In both cases, the motivation behind their contemptible actions is ambition mixed with envy, and their means is fraud. 3 Both novellas present a pair of young lovers who possess all the essential characteristics dictated by the courtly code. The princess Ginevra is as beautiful and unblemished as Albarosa (OI 1.13.31 and OF 5.61), while Ariodante and Polindo are appropriately noble, courteous, and handsome (OI 1.13.31 and OF 5.16). In poems that abound in unrequited and betrayed love, these two couples are paragons of faithfulness. Yet neither their courteousness nor their constancy is sufficient to protect them from the evil intentions of others; in fact, the two knights are singularly unequipped to recognize fraud. Although both Truffaldino and Polinesso are universally despised for their evil and fraudulent nature (OI 1.13.37 and OF 5.87), they nevertheless succeed in gaining the trust of Polindo and Ariodante respectively (OI 1.13.367 and OF 5.27). In both novellas, the code of chivalry, in principle designed to combat evil, turns out to provide insufficient preparation for either detecting or opposing evil when it proceeds through disguise. Yet whereas in the earlier story the fraudulent intentions were confined to the single evil character of Truffaldino, Ariosto adds an accomplice, Dalinda. This new element draws attention to the spread of corruption in the court: Albarosa refuses to tell a false story even to save herself, but Dalinda readily agrees to assume a false identity simply to please her lover. Her disguise begins a series of false appearances and illusions that reaches even Ariodante, Polinesso's victim, who resorts to deception in camouflaging his feelings to his brother, in allowing himself to be believed dead, and finally in assuming the disguise of an unknown knight upon his return.4 Despite the greater extension of fraud, the ending replicates that of the Truffaldino story: the civic-minded reader Rinaldo brings about a just conclusion by exposing and then killing the evildoer in public combat. Ariosto softens the fate of the couple: while Albarosa is killed by Truffaldino, Ginevra is united to Ariodante in marriage rather than in death.

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From Castle Cruel to the Island of the Killer-women The Innamorato's Castle Cruel episode appropriates well-known revenge plots from classical literature. When Marchino's wife kills her two sons in order to avenge her husband's infidelity, she replays the part of Medea and Procne, who in like manner punished their sons for the misdeeds of the fathers. When Stella offers the gruesome meal to Marchino, she recalls not only Procne but also Atreus, who served Thyestes's murdered children to him at a banquet table. Like Atreus, moreover, she sets in motion a cycle of revenge. Whereas the revenge stories in Aeschylus's Oresteia concern one family, the 'house' of Atreus, Boiardo extends the contamination to an entire community. Revenge, which begins as the response to an individual action, is codified into an unending cycle of violence that entraps all those who approach the infected area. Ariosto evokes the aura of classical theatre at the outset of the killerwomen episode, when Astolfo and his friends arrive at a coastal city said to resemble an amphitheatre (OF 17.64; 19.64). The novella that accounts for the island's cruel custom (to be discussed below) provides a direct link to Greek theatre. Boiardo evokes classical tragedy in the Castle Cruel episode; Ariosto actually brings on stage principal characters from the Oresteia: Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, and Aegisthus. Yet if in Aeschylus, as well as in Euripides and Seneca, the dominant theme was revenge, Ariosto initially thwarts our expectations. In his novella, the Greek husbands returning from the Trojan War find that their wives have taken lovers and conceived illegitimate children. Recognizing that their wives could not 'fast' for ten years, they simply send the illegitimate children away to avoid the added financial burden of raising them. The novella continues to work against its classical precedents when Falanto, the exiled son of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, and his young companions become the lovers of the women of Dictea. Given the episode's subsequent links to the Castle Cruel episode, Ariosto's tongue-in-cheek description of Dictea's famous hospitality (thanks to its beautiful and amorous women it was known for the 'caressing' of foreigners; OF 20.15) can be read as an ironic twist on the Castle Gruel's original model of supreme hospitality under Grifone's rule. Moreover, the one hundred women of Dictea who lust after their one hundred guests comically plays on Boiardo's account of a guest who lusts after the host's wife.

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When the young men take the overly hospitable women of Dictea away with them, the husbands seek neither to retrieve their wives nor to exact revenge. It is only when the young men subsequently abandon these women that Ariosto reintroduces the theme of revenge. Orontea, as bloodthirsty and frenzied as Marchino's wife, likewise conceives a plan of substitutional murder: she proposes to kill all the men who approach the island. When her proposal becomes law and she becomes queen, we find the same pattern of desire, betrayal, and revenge that was at work in the Castle Cruel episode. Both novellas depict a precipitous decline from a situation of hospitality to the creation of a death trap in which all approaching travellers are systematically murdered. The law, after having undergone further modifications, demands that all newcomers be killed unless one of their company can defeat ten knights in battle during the day and satisfy ten women in bed that same night. Orontea is a descendant of Minos, the king who had innocent Athenian youths devoured by the Minotaur in retaliation for the death of his son. Unlike the other classical revenge stories thus far cited, in which injury is limited to the individuals involved and their families, the death trap initiated by King Minos entails a potentially unending sacrifice of innocent foreigners, and thus provides an apt precedent for both the Castle Cruel and the island of the killer-women. In the case of Minos, the resolution comes about through the collaboration between Theseus and Ariadne. Boiardo alludes to this ending in the Castle Cruel episode, when Angelica gives Ranaldo the tools necessary to disarm the monster, and he later pictures the classical tale itself on the walls of Morgana's mountain cavern. Ariosto creates the false expectation that the killer-women episode will likewise find its resolution through collaboration between males and females. First, Astolfo acquires male and female friends on his way to the island: Aquilante and Grifone near the Nile, Sansonetto in Jerusalem, and Marfisa on the way to Damascus. Once on the island, Marfisa prefers to remain with her male friends rather than reveal herself as a woman to this Amazon-like group. The designated opponents Marfisa and Guidon Selvaggio treat each other with utmost courtesy and respect. Later in the episode, one of the island women (Guidon Selvaggio's girlfriend) is ready to assist the group in their planned escape. In the end, however, this collaborative effort between the sexes is not sufficient to defeat two thousand women serving a twothousand-year-old custom, and Ariosto returns to the ending of the

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Castle Cruel episode. Astolfo was earlier singled out as the reader/listener of the tale explaining the evil custom ('Astolfo stette a udire'; OF 18.65; 20.65), and he was the one who identified the storyteller as Rinaldo's half-brother Guidon Selvaggio. When the group's plan to escape fails, it is the 'reader' Astolfo who ends the unjust situation by sounding his magic horn and chasing everyone from the island. Like Boiardo's Ranaldo, Astolfo destroys an evil custom by completely dispersing the community that had been carrying it out. In both cases, the homicidal inhabitants flee from the site and virtually out of the poem. As in the Ginevra and Ariodante episode, Ariosto initially expands the negative aspects of Boiardo's precedent, but then provides a 'softer' ending. Marchino's desire for Grifone's wife is turned into three distinct collective acts of betrayal, and the revenge cycle that is thereby set into motion is not confined to a single life span, but continues for two millennia. The ending, however, is less severe than Boiardo's original: while Ranaldo kills the townspeople who attacked him, here Astolfo's horn causes the entire group to flee without need for further bloodshed. At the same time, Astolfo's resolution has a negative consequence as well: the further dismantling of the friendship that had proven ineffective in countering the island's hateful custom. Astolfo's horn disperses his friends along with his enemies, and he finds himself alone on the island. When his former companions arrive in Marseille, Ariosto remarks on Bradamante's absence as a missed occasion for developing the bond of friendship through hospitality. Marfisa then abruptly departs from the rest of the company with the excuse that great knights travel alone (OF 18.103^4; 20.103-4). As if to underscore the negative ramifications of this break-up, within one stanza the remaining knights are captured by fraud and drawn into yet another evil custom, albeit of much more recent origin. In fact, as we find out only later, this new custom was instituted in response to an action by Marfisa after she left the group. Before continuing this thread, however, we need to turn to the third episode of the trilogy, which transforms the positive parallel set up thus far into a negative reversal. From Tisbina, Iroldo, and Prasildo to Isabella and Zerbino The Innamorato's final story of the trilogy portrays the transformation of a rivalry into a friendship through the catalytic power of benevolence. The Furioso's counter-episode shows instead how eras can trans-

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form friends into deadly rivals. This process of inversion, moreover, is highlighted as Ariosto turns Boiardo's own sources against him. As I will discuss below, while Boiardo weaves two stories from Decameron 10, the day of magnanimity, into his episode, Ariosto counters with stories from Decameron 2, the day of fortune, and Decameron 4, the day of tragedy. And while Boiardo imitates the happy ending of one novella from Apuleius's Metamorphoses, Ariosto replays instead the tragic ending of the novella that directly follows it. In Boiardo's novella, Prasildo desires Tisbina, the beloved of Iroldo, and after failed attempts to win her over, plans suicide. Iroldo, moved by pity, devises a plan to extricate the passion from Prasildo's heart, but the plan backfires and Tisbina finds herself bound to an amorous rendezvous with Prasildo. She and Iroldo ingest what they believe to be a slow-acting poison, and then Tisbina goes to Prasildo's house. When Prasildo learns of her desperate act, he courteously absolves her of her promise. When the poison turns out to have been merely a sleeping potion, Iroldo is prompted to cede Tisbina to Prasildo in response to his prior act of courtesy. Compared to Decameron 10.5 (and Filocolo 4.4), also illustrating the workings of reciprocal benevolence, Boiardo's tale places greater emphasis on the power of courtesy to override selfinterest and to actually turn rivals into friends. Shortly after Fiordelisa narrates this story to Ranaldo, the paladin encounters the 'character' Iroldo, who continues the story in the first person. In the sequel, Iroldo travelled to Orgagna and was destined to be devoured by Falerina's serpent-monster, but Prasildo freed him by taking his place. Iroldo is waiting for Prasildo to be led to the monster so that he may free his friend or die. Like Decameron 10.8's account of Tito and Gisippo, this story celebrates the highest form of friendship, that in which one puts the good of another before one's own life. Whereas in Boiardo's narrative friendship surpasses even erotic love, in the first part of Ariosto's counter-episode eros proves to be friendship's undoing. Isabella tells Orlando that she was on her way to her beloved Zerbino when her escort Odorico, overcome by desire for her, set aside his friendship with Zerbino and attempted to rape her (OF 11.20; 13.20). Odorico then attacked his childhood friend and companion after the latter tried to dissuade him from his criminal intentions. In demonstrating how eros breaks the bonds of friendship and society, Ariosto also turns to two Boccaccian novellas. Isabella's story recalls Decameron 4.4, in which the Christian knight Gerbino, grand-

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son of the king of Sicily, is in love with the daughter of the Saracen King of Tunis.5 Gerbino plans, in accordance with his beloved's wishes, to seize her from her guardians. When he finds out that she is sailing towards Granada, where she is to be married, Gerbino disregards his grandfather's promise to the king of Tunis that his daughter's ship would be safe and he attempts to kidnap her at sea. The attempt ends in disaster. As Gerbino sets fire to the Saracen ship, the crew butchers the maiden and throws her body overboard. Upon Gerbino's return home, he is beheaded on the command of his grandfather, who would rather remain without heirs than be held up as a faithless king. The name of Ariosto's Christian protagonist, Zerbino, is an Emilian rendering of Gerbino.6 He, too, is in love with a Saracen princess and decides to elope with her. He sends his friend Odorico in his place because he is serving Charlemagne. Isabella succeeds in slipping away from her homeland without confrontation, but things go awry at sea all the same. Their ship goes down by itself in a storm, killing all but a few who manage to reach the shore. At this point Ariosto picks up elements from another Decameron tale, that of Alatiel (Dec. 2.7). Odorico's desire for Isabella after the shipwreck recalls the uncontrollable passion of the various men who came into contact with Boccaccio's maiden. In both cases, desire turns friends into murderous rivals and women into stolen property. Like Alatiel, Isabella is shifted from one keeper to another: while Odorico is attempting to rape her, a band of thieves frightens him off, then abducts her and places her in a cave under the care of an old hag, Gabrina. Both Boccaccian novellas tell of the abduction of Saracen princesses in the Mediterranean on their way to arranged marriages, and they are linked thematically through the theme of desire and broken faith. In Decameron 4.4, a tragedy ensues when the male protagonist's desire leads him to break faith with his grandfather's promise; in Decameron 2.7, the tragedy is multiplied by the number of male characters who break the bonds of fealty and friendship because of their passion. Both novellas provide a contrast to the Decameron tales used by Boiardo, in which maintaining promises (10.5) and friendship (10.8) triumph over unruly desire. Upon hearing Isabella's tale of woe, Orlando takes on the role of the civic-minded reader. Just as Boiardo's Ranaldo frees Fiordelisa and Prasildo at Orgagna and attacks the mob that had been leading them to

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their death, Ariosto's Orlando frees Isabella from the cave and attacks the thieves. Isabella, moreover, remains in the company of Orlando after her rescue, just as Iroldo and Prasildo had remained with Ranaldo. This resolution, however, turns out to be merely provisional and illusory. Like the Boiardan tale of Iroldo and Prasildo, Ariosto's episode is developed in two separate but related parts. In the first, Isabella tells Orlando of her failed elopement with Zerbino and how she came to be guarded by Gabrina in the thieves' cave. In the second part, a knight tells Isabella's beloved Zerbino about Gabrina's past.7 In both poems, there is a shifting of roles that dissolves the barrier between 'novella' and 'frame story.' In the Innamorato sequel, the character Iroldo becomes a storyteller, while the storyteller Fiordelisa appears alongside the character Prasildo. In the Furioso, the frame-story guard Gabrina becomes a character in the second novella, while the original 'character' Zerbino becomes the 'reader.' This latter novella is told to Zerbino by the knight he has just fatally wounded in defence of Gabrina. With his dying breath, Ermonide tells Zerbino that his brother Filandro had left Holland to serve the emperor of Constantinople and had become close friends of a courteous baron named Argeo. When Gabrina, Argeo's wife, made unwanted covetous advances towards Filandro, he decided to leave the territory. Gabrina then told Argeo that Filandro had raped her, and with his love for his friend transformed into hate (OF 19.24; 21.24), Argeo intercepts Filandro and imprisons him within the walls of his castle. Gabrina subsequently tricks Filandro by telling him that an impertinent knight plans to assault her honour while her husband is away and challenges him to kill the intruder to prove his loyalty to Argeo. Echoing Boiardo's Iroldo as he says that he is ready to go to his death (OF 19.45; 21.45), Filandro unwittingly mistakes Argeo for the presumed intruder as he enters the bedroom, and kills him. Fearing public infamy and retribution, Filandro then gives in to Gabrina's demands and satisfies her sexual appetite even before they leave her dead husband's castle (OF 19.55; 21.55). This act, which requires Filandro's complicity, obliterates his moral separation from her and refashions him as her accomplice and companion. Filandro then takes Gabrina to his homeland, where she eventually tires of him and has him killed. Right up to the end, faithfulness (fede) proves to be Filandro's undoing. When Gabrina finds a dishonest physician to administer poison instead of medicine and then forces the doctor to drink some to prove

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it is not harmful, the sick Filandro, 'seguendo una tal fede' (emphasis added; OF 19.62; 21.62), drinks down the remainder. Like Odorico's attempted rape of Isabella, this novella reverses the Prasildo and Iroldo tale by relating the disintegration of a friendship because of lust - not for a woman, this time, but of a woman. It also contains a series of direct reversals with respect to Boiardo's precedent. Whereas Prasildo frees Iroldo from prison, here Argeo imprisons Filandro. Whereas Prasildo relieves Tisbina of her promise to have sex with him, Gabrina forces the unwilling Filandro to have sex with her. Whereas Tisbina in the end is left alone while the two friends roam the globe, here Argeo is left dead while Filandro and Gabrina go off together. The fake poison that is a central motif in the earlier tale is turned into the actual poison that finally kills Filandro. In Boiardo's tale the male friends take turns saving each other from death; here they are both murdered by the time Ermonide tells his tale. All three of Boiardo's characters place the highest value in maintaining one's promise; Filandro's faithfulness is repeatedly made to seem ridiculous when it comes up against Gabrina's total lack of faith. And finally, whereas Boiardo's episode reaches a happy conclusion because the knights act 'come tra due cortesi usar se suole' ('as / Courteous men are wont to do'; OI 1.12.87), Ariosto presents the demise of both Filandro and Zerbino for acting precisely 'come pur tra cavallieri s'usa' ('as knights are wont to do'; OF 19.68; 21.68). That the Gabrina novella is a deliberate inversion of Boiardo's Iroldo and Prasildo episode can further be seen through their different use of Metamorphoses, Book 10.8 In Apuleius's novella of the wicked stepmother, a woman's unrequited libidinous desire for her stepson eventually turns into hate.9 She has her servant buy poison with the intention of killing him, but a wise old doctor gives her a sleeping potion instead. This saves the life of the woman's own son, who drinks the liquid by mistake. The doctor's subsequent appearance before the court also saves the stepson, who has been accused by the woman of having poisoned his stepbrother. In the end, thanks to the good sense and right conduct of the doctor, the two innocent stepbrothers are spared and the evil woman is punished. In Boiardo's story, Tisbina has her servant request poison so that she and Iroldo can commit a double suicide. An elderly doctor (Ol 1.12.80) also sells her a sleeping potion instead of poison, and then acts in the interest of justice by stepping forward to find out the facts and to warn Prasildo of potential danger. When he says to Prasildo that 'zelosia,

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sdegno ed amore, / E de una dama il mobile appetite I ... I Possono indurre ad ogni estremo male' ('jealousy, love, and disdain / [and women's changing appetites / Can induce them] to do great evil'; Ol 1.12.82), he is speaking through the experience of Apuleius's physician. In Boiardo's tale, however, not only is the doctor conscientious, but the woman is now also free of evil intent. After replaying the first part of this Apuleian tale in which a woman's unrequited desire leads to hate and murder, Ariosto switches to the final segment of Apuleius's subsequent novella, in which a jealous wife poisons her husband. The wife finds 'a certain traitorous physician' who sells her poison. The doctor is not only unethical, he is stupid as well, and he ends up dying along with the husband when the wife forces him to ingest the poison and then refuses to let him leave until it is too late for him to administer an antidote (Metamorphoses, 517-21). While the women in Apuleius's two novellas are equally evil, the doctors are diametrically opposed.10 Ariosto first fashions Gabrina after the evil stepmother in the same Apuleian novella used by Boiardo, and then substitutes the forthright doctor who intervenes to re-establish justice with the corrupt doctor from the subsequent tale. While Boiardo uses the civic-minded doctor in a novella that presents the compelling nature of good and ends in friendship, Ariosto chooses the evil doctor in a novella in which fraud and malice destroy the social fabric. Ariosto's inversion of Boiardo's episode continues outside the boundaries of the novella. In the Innamorato, the 'reader' Ranaldo vows to rescue Prasildo in imitation of the two knights' reciprocal benevolence, thereby bringing the driving force of the novella into the frame story. Ariosto will likewise create an identification between the 'reader' Zerbino and the 'character' Filandro, but it will not be to Zerbino's credit or in the interest of justice. Zerbino has already mortally wounded Filandro's brother by preferring a rule of courtesy over the demands of justice. After learning of Gabrina's treachery, he perpetuates the injustice that existed within the novella by repeating Filandro's mistake. He, too, considers himself bound to keep faith with a totally faithless woman. Not only does Zerbino fail to punish Gabrina, but he does not even free himself from her clutches as the dying knight had urged him to do. On the contrary, he re-enacts Filandro's earlier departure in Gabrina's company (OF 19.70; 21.70). Following a novella that illustrates the danger of making an idol of faithfulness in a faithless world, Zerbino foolishly persists in maintaining his word to

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Gabrina at all costs. The educational value of the narrative is lost on him. Ariosto refers to Zerbino ironically as 'instrutto e saggio' ('learned and wise'), echoing the earlier reference to Ruggiero as 'dotto e instrutto' ('wise and learned'; OF 6.56) just as he was about to fall victim to Alcina's spell. Ariosto not only overturns Boiardo's use of Apuleius and Boccaccio by replacing positive narrative elements with negative ones, but he also subjects the Innamorato to the same process. In reversing Boiardo's tale of the friendship between Iroldo and Prasildo, Ariosto turns to the Innamorato itself for an episode that illustrates the undoing of friendship through the treachery of a woman. That woman, Origille, was 'malici'osa e di losinghe piena' ('false, malicious, full of lies') and she never kept a promise ('promessa non fie' mai con veritate'; OI 1.29.45). Gabrina shares with Origille a malicious and fraudulent nature that wreaks havoc on the world of chivalry. Both switch their affections, make false promises, and create discord. They dupe credulous knights into situations of disguised or mistaken identities, causing one knight to overpower another unawares of the real identity of his opponent. While Origille had made one of her suitors hide in a tomb, Gabrina goes further by transforming her bedroom into her husband's sepulchre. And while the violence unleashed by Origille resulted in one knight being captured by another, Gabrina's manipulations bring about the murder of a knight by his best friend.11 The links between Origille and Gabrina extend into the surrounding frame stories, where both women take objects that do not belong to them (Orlando's horse and sword, Pinabello's belt) and surrender their escorts (Orlando, Zerbino) to imprisonment and probable death. Of interest, therefore, is the role that both the Origille and the Gabrina novellas play in the economy of their respective poems. The Origille novella was supposed to teach the 'reader' Orlando a lesson in female treachery, but he disregards its message, kills her guardians as they attempt to carry out justice, and then foolishly becomes Origille's escort. Orlando's response is replayed in the Furioso: Zerbino kills Ermonide as he was seeking justice, he disregards the message of a tale about female treachery, and then he continues to act as the treacherous woman's escort. In upholding misplaced notions of courtesy, both Boiardo's Orlando and Ariosto's Zerbino go against justice. Origille's guards have already explained to Orlando that she is being punished 'Ben iustamente e per dritta ragione' ('both properly and lawfully'; OI 1.29.5). Ermonide tells

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Zerbino that Gabrina merits death at his hand ('di mia man secondo il merto pera'; ['she shall die at my hand as she deserves'] OF 19.7; 21.7) and the account of Gabrina's actions supports his statement. Orlando's justification for freeing Origille simply because she was a woman (OI 1.29.3) is repeated by Zerbino when he says that 'a cavalleria non corrisponde / che cerchi dare ad una donna morte' ('it was ... scarcely consonant with chivalry, to contrive the death of a woman'; OF 19.8; 21.8). Both authors make clear, however, that these two knights who insist on upholding one aspect of chivalry unconditionally (whether it is a protective attitude towards women or the ideal of faithfulness) are actually guilty of violating the basic principle of justice. The ideological distance Ariosto has travelled from Boiardo (and Boccaccio, for that matter) can be seen in the treatment of the central notion of the promise. The need to keep one's promise unconditionally resonated throughout the Prasildo and Iroldo episode. The term promise, as noun or verb, and its synonyms are repeated seventeen times in forty-six stanzas.12 Iroldo pleads with Tisbina, for instance, to keep her promise to Prasildo: 'Ma pregoti, per tua faccia serena / E per lo amor che un tempo m'hai portato, / Che la promessa attendi integra e piena' ('by your gentle face and by / The love you had for me, I ask / That you do not break your promise'; OI 1.12.50). Such an appeal was quite unnecessary, however, since Tisbina had already realized that even suicide could not relieve her from her promise: 'Che se io mi uccido e manca la mia fede, / Non se copre per questo il mio fallire' ('If I should kill myself and break/ My word, it does not hide my lie'; OI 1.12.45). The two Boccaccian novellas that Ariosto weaves into his counter-episode likewise show the importance of faithfulness by recounting the disasters that result when an individual breaks a promise (the Gerbino novella) or breaks the bonds of family, friendship, and duty (the Alatiel novella). Gerbino's broken faith brings about the death of his beloved as well as his own death. Alatiel's lovers create an ever-widening circle of death and destruction as their own breach of faith is imitated at their expense by each successive rival.13 In apparent agreement with his literary predecessors, Ariosto prefaces the Gabrina episode with a two-stanza tribute to the keeping of promises unconditionally, followed by praise for Zerbino for maintaining his promise to be Gabrina's escort. However, in the novella that follows, faithfulness is shown to be misguided and even harmful when pursued as an end in itself without regard to justice. The underlying lesson is that justice must be actively and unremittingly pursued, even

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when it comes into conflict with other aspects of the chivalric code. This notion, moreover, would not have been foreign to humanist readers, since no less an authority than Cicero had placed justice over faithfulness in his treatise on moral duties: 'It may at times be just... not to keep a promise ... It is obvious that we are not bound to fulfill promises extorted by fear or won from us by craft' (De Officiis, 15). Ariosto is not content to simply expose Zerbino as a poor reader of the Gabrina novella: he goes on to show the consequences of Zerbino's failure to learn from Filandro's mistake in an extended episode that recombines the themes discussed thus far. Boiardo's Trilogy Revisited at Pinabello's Castle In Boiardo's poem private actions carry immense public consequences. Like pebbles dropped into a pool of still water, simple acts of either good or evil reverberate across the expanse of the poem. A hurtful action leads to a vengeful response, and this reciprocity in malo can continue indefinitely, as when a series of vengeful acts turns the hospitable Altaripa into the death trap that is Castle Cruel. By the same token, Boiardo shows positive actions to be just as compelling, as when the incipient rivalry between Prasildo and Iroldo is not only thwarted, but is transformed into the highest form of friendship through an initial act of courtesy. Moreover, by bringing inserted novellas to a just conclusion in the frame story through human intervention, Boiardo portrays a world that at first seems random and out of control, but is shown to be malleable and capable of betterment through highminded, other-regarding actions. Ariosto also illustrates the chain between actions and their consequences. In the world of the Furioso, however, a good action can also trigger an evil response, as Ariosto's motto, 'pro bono malum/ warns.14 We have just seen how Gabrina, a personification of perfidy, turned the Furioso's creative imitation of Boiardo's trilogy into a direct reversal. Below I discuss how Ariosto unleashes Gabrina into the frame story in a narrative sequence that critically rewrites all three of Boiardo's civic virtue novellas and undermines the Innamorato's faith in an ethics of action in a treacherous world. Soon after Marfisa bids her travelling companions farewell, she encounters Gabrina and becomes her escort. When Pinabello and his lady ridicule the old woman, Marfisa deprives Pinabello of his arms and horse, and his girlfriend of her fancy clothes (OF 18.115-16; 20.115-

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16). Given the comic tone of the episode, it comes as a surprise to later find that Marfisa's penalty has given rise to an evil custom. Prompted by his lady, Pinabello institutes a law whereby all knights who approach his castle are deprived of their arms - and ladies of their clothing - unless the knight can defeat Pinabello's four champions. Since Pinabello cannot take revenge on Marfisa, he forces innocent travellers to relive his own humiliation ad infinitum. The initial situation incorporates elements from the Castle Cruel and Truffaldino episodes. Pinabello's castle is named Altaripa, the original name of Castle Cruel. In both places, substitutional revenge harms all travellers. The four knights compelled to fight on the side of Pinabello because of their promise to him recalls the situation at Albraca, in which knights were bound to protect the evil Truffaldino. In fact, two of the knights - Grifone and Aquilante - appear in both episodes, and, although they are deeply ashamed of upholding evil at the expense of justice, they nevertheless abide by their promise to fight (see OI 1.21.8 and OF 20.76-9; 22.76-9).15 The resolution that brings an end to Pinabello's evil custom likewise draws on both the Castle Cruel and Truffaldino episodes. Ruggiero ends the evil custom by overpowering the defenders with his shield, paralleling Ranaldo's victory over his Castle Cruel assailants. Bradamante chases and kills the evildoer Pinabello, replaying Ranaldo's punishment of Truffaldino at Albraca. Bradamante, moreover, pursues Pinabello not so much for instituting the evil custom as for having tried earlier to kill her through treachery, an action that exposes him as an apt counterpart of Truffaldino. The double resolution gives a temporary sense of closure and justice. Yet the harm caused by Gabrina is far from over, and Ariosto wastes no time in spelling out the consequences of Zerbino's failure to act on the lesson of Ermonide's novella. When Gabrina and Zerbino shortly thereafter discover Pinabello's corpse in the woods, Gabrina accuses Zerbino of murder before the townspeople, who consequently plan to execute him. Zerbino's failure to punish Gabrina for the evil she committed has given her the power to have Zerbino 'punished' for something he did not do, thereby reinforcing his link to the hapless Filandro. Yet just as Zerbino is being led to his death, Orlando, in the company of Zerbino's beloved Isabella, rescues him from the mob. This liberation not only restores a sense of justice to the world of Ariosto's poem, it also closely follows the conclusion of the third novella of Boiardo's

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trilogy. The rescue from impending execution of an innocent victim who was previously introduced in the context of an inserted novella is precisely what occurred when Ranaldo liberated Prasildo as he was being led to his death in the company of Fiordelisa at Orgagna. Ariosto repeats a series of details from Ranaldo's liberation of Prasildo. Both scenes take place on an open plain ('quel piano' in OZ 1.17.26; 'nel pian' in OF 21.53; 23.53) where a crowd is seen leading the knights to their death. In the Innamorato: 'Una gran gente viddero apparire ... E due persone menano a morire' ('A large brigade of men appeared ... Leading two people to be slain'; OI 1.17.23). In the Furioso, Orlando Vede la gente / che a morir mena il cavallier dolente' (saw the folk ... leading the dejected knight to his death' (OF 21.53; 23.53). In both cases, the prisoners are tied up and on horseback (OZ 1.17.29 and OF 21.52; 23.52). Both groups, although quite numerous (OZ 1.12.23 and OF 21.52; 23.52), are lax in appearance and discipline. The disorder suggested in Boiardo's use of chi ('some') in 'Chi senza usbergo, chi senza gambiera, / Chi senza maglia si vedea venire' ('Some had no hauberks, some no mail, / And some had unprotected legs'; OZ 1.17.23) is similarly conveyed in Ariosto's Tl sciocco volgo 1'accompagna fuora, / senza ordine, chi a piede e chi a cavallo' (The mindless rabble escorted him out, / some mounted, some on foot'; OF 21.52; 23.52). The ensuing battle continues to repeat details from the Innamorato episode. After a first quick bout against the leader (Rubicon is replaced by a Maganzese), both paladins continue to fight an indiscriminate and unequipped multitude. Although Boiardo's Ranaldo does not care to kill (OZ 1.17.28) while Ariosto's Orlando does not want to leave anyone alive (OF 21.61; 23.61), the descriptions of their hacking off heads and limbs give the impression that we are witnessing the same scene. Ariosto's 'a chi fece due parti de la testa, / a chi levo dal busto il capo netto' ('Here he split a crown in two, there he sliced a head off its shoulders'; OF 21.60; 23.60) echoes Boiardo's 'Ma pur a quattro getto via la testa, / Due ne partite insino alia cintura' ('He did remove the heads of four / And sever to the waist two more'; OZ 1.17.28). Similarly, Boiardo's 'tagliando gambe e braccia' ('slashing legs and arms'; OZ 1.17.28) is expanded into 'e taglia e fende e fere e fora e tronca' ('he harried, slashed, and sliced, skewered, speared, and lopped'; OF 21.61; 23.61). Ariosto even narrates the events following the liberation along parallel lines. If earlier Iroldo ran (corse) to the two prisoners and hugged (abraccia) Prasildo; now Isabella runs (corre) to and hugs (abbraccia) Zerbino (OF 21.68; 23.68). Neither Iroldo nor Isabella can speak, but

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their copious tears compensate for the lack of words (OI 1.17.30 and OF 21.68; 23.68). The Innamorato's two freed knights fall to their knees and worship Ranaldo (OI 1.17.32). Ariosto first tells us that Zerbino would have prostrated himself if he had not been tied to the horse (OF 21.62; 23.62), but then, in fact, replays the Boiardan scene as Zerbino 'si getta a' pie del conte, e quello adora' ('threw himself at the count's feet and worshipped him'; OF 21.69; 23.69). This is the first time in his rewriting of the Innamorato's trilogy that Ariosto has closely followed an episode's narrative details rather than broadly retracing its general structural pattern with material taken from other (or the same) sources. Significantly, the passage that Ariosto is so closely rewriting is the resolution to the final story of Boiardo's trilogy - precisely the one that he had inverted in his own counterepisode of Isabella and Gabrina. The links are present at a structural level as well: if earlier Iroldo had already told Ranaldo the story of his friendship with Prasildo, here Isabella has already told Orlando the story of her love for Zerbino. Moreover, when Isabella and Zerbino remain in Orlando's company, their developing friendship repeats the pattern of Ranaldo's friendship with Iroldo and Prasildo after his rescue of the latter. In fact, because Isabella's tale had described a friendship destroyed (against Boiardo's account of a friendship created), Orlando is not simply emulating the friendship of his characters, as Ranaldo did when he vowed to liberate Prasildo, but actually initiating the first friendship born of reciprocal benevolence in the course of Ariosto's poem. Even the fact that Isabella was - like Iroldo, Prasildo, and Fiordelisa - a Saracen would allow the theme of conversion to eventually enter into the picture. We begin to think that although perhaps justice is harder to achieve and evil is more rampant than in Boiardo's poem, thanks to the knight-reader's ethics of action things will turn out all right in the end. Following these characters a bit further, however, will dispel that notion. Zerbino has an opportunity to punish the evildoers of the Isabella and Gabrina novellas when they are brought before him at the same time. He commands Odorico to be Gabrina's escort for one year (OF 22.40; 24.40). Although Odorico swears to observe this pledge, he kills Gabrina the first chance he gets. Masciandaro notes the irony of this resolution: 'Justice is done by virtue of a negation of the chivalric ideals upheld by Zerbino and categorically described in the exordium to Canto XXI' (71). At the same time, one could say that justice is only halfdone, since Odorico remains unpunished for attempted rape and

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murder. Zerbino is simply not in tune with reality if he thinks that the faithless Odorico will obey a pledge that not even Zerbino himself should have honoured. In this context, the episode anticipates the more radical break between the world of chivalry and the real world that is enacted in Cervantes' Don Quixote. Don Quixote mistakenly thinks that the code of chivalry has binding power in the real world, and several characters, himself included, pay repeatedly for such madness.16 It is, ironically, Orlando's madness that brings about the tragic and definitive conclusion of the Isabella and Zerbino story. After the mad Orlando dispenses with his armour and sword, Zerbino dies defending his friend's sword against the stronger Mandricardo and then a bereaved Isabella dies defending her honour from Rodomonte. Thus, after Orlando had seemingly provided a happy ending by rescuing first Isabella and then Zerbino, he becomes the indirect cause of the death of both of them. Ariosto even finds a way to combine Boiardo's sources, Apuleius and Boccaccio, in the death of Isabella: her interaction with Rodomonte repeats Charite's strategies in The Metamorphoses, Book 8,17 and the manner of her death recalls Gerbino's death by beheading in Decameron 4.4. Thus, after temporarily renewing the reader's faith in justice by replaying Ranaldo's liberation of Prasildo and Fiordelisa, Ariosto counters definitively the happy resolution of the Innamorato trilogy by bringing the episode to a close with tragic material from their two common source-texts. Yet just at the moment in which Boiardo's fictional world seems to have been dismantled beyond repair, Ariosto pulls the reader back once more to the greater optimism of the Innamorato through his account of Orlando's recovery. Just as Fiordelisa and Brandimarte needed the aid of other knights to liberate Orlando from the Laughing Stream (OI 3.6.56), Astolfo could not have restored Orlando's wits without the assistance of other knights to hold him down. One of these knights is, significantly, Brandimarte himself (OF 35.61; 39.50), who has just reappeared in the poem and been reunited with Fiordiligi. The reunion of this couple, along with the subsequent recovery of Orlando, brings us back to the theme of friendship that runs through the Laughing Stream episode. Although Isabella and Zerbino are now dead, the original friendship between Brandimarte and Orlando has come to the fore for the first time in Ariosto's poem. The subsequent combined effort of Astolfo, Orlando, and Brandimarte in attacking Biserta recalls the fundamental role of the latter two in defending Paris (OI 3.8.3-50). Since we have known from the start that Biserta is destined for destruction (O7 2.1.19), the reader nears the end of Ariosto's poem with the

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anticipation of a successful collective battle. But Ariosto is preparing another swing of the pendulum. In the preceding pages I have discussed the contrasting trajectories of friendship in the Innamomto's two-part story of Iroldo and Prasildo and of the Furioso's two-part counter-episode of Isabella and Gabrina. Here I would like to argue that Ariosto further undercuts the underlying civic ideology of Boiardo's poem by once again inverting this theme. In Boiardo's poem, Iroldo and Prasildo's progression from rivalry to friendship inspires Ranaldo to express his desire to join them: 'un par de amici al mondo tanto certo / Ne ora se trova, ne mai se e trovato; / S'io fossi il terzo, io me terria beato' ('you two are the truest pair / Of friends the world knows, or has known! / I would be honoured to be third'; OI 1.17.21). After Prasildo's liberation, the three friends remain together for a series of episodes: from Orgagna they travel to the former site of Dragontina's garden with the intention of liberating Orlando, then to Albraca, where they fight against the evil Truffaldino, then to Morgana's realm and Manodante's kingdom, where they are imprisoned and freed together, and they are last seen in the poem having avoided Alcina's snare. The same reciprocal benevolence and companionship that characterized Iroldo, Prasildo, and Ranaldo is played out in the Innamorato's other principal friendship, that of Brandimarte and Orlando. After Brandimarte is freed from Dragontina's spell, he follows Orlando to - and then out of - Albraca. Orlando comes to his rescue in a struggle against three giants, and then later rescues him and others from Morgana's underworld realm. Brandimarte accompanies Orlando back towards Albraca, and when they are caught in Balisardo's tower, Brandimarte rescues Orlando (OI 2.11.34-44). Boiardo remarks, in fact, that Brandimarte would never abandon his friend (OI 2.13.53). In Manodante's dungeon, Orlando converts Brandimarte to Christianity, and in turn Brandimarte risks his life to free Orlando. The ongoing story of Brandimarte and Orlando's friendship reaches its culmination in the poem when Brandimarte, under the guidance of Fiordelisa, liberates Orlando from the Laughing Stream. This action prompts the poet's two-stanza proem celebrating friendship as superior to all the goods that Fortune has to offer: Piu che il tesoro e piu che forza vale, Piu che il diletto assai, piu che 1'onore, II bono amico e compagnia leale; E a duo, che insieme se portano amore, Maggior li pare il ben, minore il male,

118 Creative Imitation Potendo apalesar 1'un 1'altro il core; E ogni dubbio che accada, o raro, o spesso, Poterlo ad altrui dir come a se stesso. Che giova aver de perle e d'or divizia Avere alta possanza e grande istato, Quando si gode sol, senza amicizia? Colui che altri non ama, e non e amato, Non puote aver compita una letizia; E cio dico per quel che io vi ho contato Di Brandimarte, che ha passato il mare Sol per venire Orlando ad aiutare. Worth more than treasure, more than strength, More than delight and high repute, Are friends, companions who are true. For two whose love is mutual, The good seems greater, evil less, Because they can reveal their hearts, And every rare or frequent care Can be discussed with someone else. What use is wealth in pearls or gold, Great power, or a noble rank, Enjoyed alone, without a friend? Those who don't love are never loved, Nor can they find felicity. I mention this for what I've said Of Brandimarte, who crossed the sea Only to bring Orlando help. (OI 3.7.2) Friendship is thus both a stimulus to virtue and a guarantee of justice, representing the ability to consider the needs of others above one's own self-interest. While Ariosto may not doubt the value of friendship, he calls into question its very existence. His proem to canto 17 (19) stresses the impossibility of knowing who one's friends really are: Alcun non pud saper da chi sia amato, quando felice in su la ruota siede: pero c'ha i veri e i finti amici a lato, che mostran tutti una medesma fede.

Orlando Furioso (1516): Civic Virtue 119 A man riding high on Fortune's wheel cannot tell who really loves him, for his true and his spurious friends stand side by side and show him equal devotion. (OF 17.1; 19.1)

This proem is a prelude to the introduction of Medoro and Cloridano, the two Saracens who prove the exception to the rule. These lowly foot soldiers, exemplifying loyalty to one's leader and to one's friend, enter and exit in the same canto: Cloridano dies defending Medoro, and Medoro leaves for the East with Angelica. There is, it would seem, no place for them in Ariosto's poem. Regarding the two clusters of friends that Ariosto inherited from Boiardo, the first has no development at all in the Furioso. Rinaldo goes it alone, while Prasildo and Iroldo are simply mentioned as victims of enchantment. The second friendship, that of Brandimarte and Orlando, is alluded to only briefly in canto 8 and then completely ignored until Orlando's recovery of his wits in the latter part of the poem. At this point, however, the theme suddenly takes centre stage. When Brandimarte is told that his father has died and left him heir to the immensely wealthy kingdom of the Isole Lontane, he states that duty to Charlemagne and friendship with Orlando are his first priorities (OF 35.74; 39.63). The final battle at Lipadusa has a positive side, since Orlando's triumph over Gradasso and Agramante symbolizes the definitive overcoming of the perils that arose at the opening of Innamorato Books One and Two, respectively. (Ruggiero had already killed Mandricardo, the peril from the opening of Book Three.) Yet when Brandimarte is treacherously slain by Gradasso in the course of the battle, he becomes the second of Orlando's friends to be killed by his sword Durindana (the first, we recall, was precisely Zerbino). Orlando's subsequent eulogy of Brandimarte on the occasion of his funeral (OF 39.167-71; 43.170-4) is a sad sequel to the Innamorato's joyful hymn to friendship as Brandimarte was headed to free Orlando from the Laughing Stream (OI 3.7.2; cited above). Brandimarte's death not only pre-empts any further development of his friendship with Orlando, but with Fiordiligi's subsequent entombment alongside her husband, the two exemplary figures of reciprocal love and loyalty permanently disappear from the world of Ariosto's poem.18 Fully aware of having obliterated in one sweep both a friendship and a love relation that had stretched back to the first book of the

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Innamorato, Ariosto immediately suggests a replacement. The same stanza that recounts Fiordiligi's wilful death brings Rinaldo, Ruggiero, and others together at the hermit's island and relates Rinaldo's approval of Ruggiero's upcoming marriage to Bradamante. Ariosto draws further attention to this newly formed bond through the following canto's proem devoted to the theme of friendship. At the same time, however, while Boiardo's hymn to friendship emphasizes its inestimable value, Ariosto once again chooses to focus on its rarity. Elaborating his proem to canto 17 (19) cited above, Ariosto follows an initial evocation of friendship in difficult material conditions with a longer lament on the complete lack of friendship in the world of the courts and European politics, 'dove la charitade e in tutto extinta, / ne si vede amicitia, se non finta' ('where charity is extinct / and friendship not to be found, other than counterfeit'; OF 40.12; 44.1). In the poet's real world, not only friendship, but all forms of communication are characterized by falseness ('mai senza fittion non si favella'; ['all discussion ... is artificial'] OF 40.14; 44.3). Even within the fictional space of the Furioso, however, friendships are notably scarce. After representing the virtue and goodness of Orlando's friends, first Zerbino and Isabella, then Brandimarte and Fiordiligi, Ariosto removes them from the world of his poem. Although he relates the budding friendship of Marfisa and Bradamante, and of Ruggiero and Rinaldo, he stops short of creating relationships that could replace what was lost through the deaths of Zerbino, Isabella, Brandimarte, and Fiordiligi. Ruggiero's subsequent marriage celebration to Bradamante, presumably an occasion for further bonding, is marred by the reappearance of Rodomonte and the duel to the death that provides the final note of the poem. In essence, then, I agree with A. Bartlett Giamatti that Ariosto's poem records 'the gradual deepening of man's sense of bewilderment and despair as he attempts to reconcile the values of the past with the implications of the present and future' (Exile and Change, 138). Ariosto's negative rewriting of Boiardo's civic virtue trilogy and its surrounding narrative context not only casts doubt on the Innamorato''s essentially humanist belief in the ability of literature and history to promote justice in the civic arena, but also questions the power of good actions to make a difference for the better. In this light, it is telling to see what has happened to Rinaldo, the civic-minded reader par excellence in Boiardo's poem. As noted above, in the early cantos of the Furioso he fulfilled that same role by bringing

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about a just conclusion to Ginevra's story. In the poem's penultimate canto, however, he finds himself once again in the role of the reader of two separate but thematically linked novellas, and he displays instead a new attitude of cynical resignation to human depravity. He hears both novellas as he is travelling along the Po valley on his way towards Lipadusa, and Ariosto's references to the future Estense state brings Rinaldo's fictional universe suggestively close to the world of sixteenth-century Italy. When Rinaldo stops at an inn, the host relates a novella in the first person about how his own jealousy and irrational need to test his wife's virtue eventually led her to abandon him for another man. Rinaldo did not need to learn the novella's lesson, however; he had previously refused to test his own wife's fidelity by drinking from a magic cup. In fact, the host tells the novella to confirm the sagacity of Rinaldo's refusal, and its moral seems to be the inevitability of corruption and thus the need to avoid putting anyone's virtue to the test. Rinaldo's response to the story is to throw into doubt the host's own steadfastness (OF 39.49; 43.49). The second story that Rinaldo hears on his Po journey is pointedly referred to as an example (essempio; OF 39.66; 43.70), thus recalling the novella's didactic potential. A boatman tells how a woman, accused by her husband of having been seduced by the allure of riches, gains the upper hand when she catches her husband in an even more repugnant trap, allowing himself to be sodomized by a grotesque brute in return for profit. This exemplum presents a picture of a fallen humanity with no hope of improvement and no possibility for the reader to intervene to bring about justice. Rinaldo's praise of Argia (OF 39.141; 43.144) for throwing her husband into a lower moral ditch than the one into which she herself had fallen is a far cry from Ranaldo's expression of praise for Iroldo and Prasildo's reciprocal benevolent actions and his desire to risk his life to join in their ideal friendship. The moral virtues sustaining Boiardo's poem have been completely redefined. Prudence, as the Po journey's first novella and surrounding narrative context show, no longer means acting according to the dictates of reason, but rather choosing a veneer of false seeming over an unpleasant truth. Wisdom, in the second novella, has lost its ethical purpose and has been turned into the cleverness of a wife setting a trap for her husband. Finally, justice no longer entails combatting evil, but simply proving to our neighbour (or spouse) that he is more degenerate than we are. The reversal in Rinaldo's attitude from civic-minded engagement to

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cynical resignation thus nullifies his role as a reader who interprets a story and then acts on his knowledge.19 At the same time, however, we are at a loss to find an alternative response to Rinaldo's aloofness, since the very idea of bringing about a change for the better in such a morally corrupt universe seems untenable. Genealogies Before moving on to see how Ariosto reworks these themes in the Cinque canti, I would like to bring this chapter to a close with another case in which Ariosto presents a counter-reading to the Innamorato this time involving the genealogical line running from the poem's fictional characters to the 'reality' of the Estense patrons. As in Boiardo's poem, Ruggiero is the central focus of the genealogy, since his story goes back to the sons of Alexander of Macedonia and Hector of Troy, and forward to the sons of Ercole I d'Este of Ferrara. In OI 3.5, Rugiero narrates his family history to his future consort Bradamante. Ariosto's Ruggiero retells his history more briefly to his newly discovered sister Marfisa. The Furioso's condensed version adheres to, and in fact extends, the negative thematics of Ruggiero's genealogical line by fashioning it as a history of betrayals, while at the same time it eliminates both the positive role played by the women and the sense of hope reborn with each new generation. Andromache, who in the Innamorato was responsible for saving Astyanax by hiding him in a tomb, is omitted and now it is Hector who saves Astyanax from Ulysses (OF 33.74; 36.70). Ruggiero's mother Galaziella is turned from an active subject - 'Galac'iella, dico, la valente, / Se pose disperata alia marina' ('the priceless Galaciella [/] desperately travelled to the shore'; OI 3.5.34, emphasis added) - into a passive object: 'Agolante e i figli iniqui e felli / poser Galaciella, che di sei / mesi era grave, in mar senza governo' ('Agolant and his cruel, evil sons put Galaciella, six months pregnant, in a boat adrift in the sea' (OF 33.78; 36.74, emphasis added). Changing se pose (she placed herself) to poser (they placed [her]), Ariosto's summary does not convey the sense of the widow's courage and initiative. He thereby not only removes the agency that Boiardo attributes to his female characters at the moment of crisis, but he eliminates the model of an active response that counters acts of treachery and sheer brutality. Ariosto continues to develop the theme of treachery running through the genealogical passages of the Innamorato. Boiardo's depic-

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tion of Hector 'occiso ... nel campo a tradimento' ('betrayed / In war and killed'; OI 3.2.6) is echoed in Ariosto's 'a tradimento hebbe la morte' ('he was treacherously done to death'; OF 40.54; 46.82). Ariosto even adds a more recent history of betrayal, that of Ercole I d'Este's own sons against each other (OF 3.60-1 and 40.68; 46.95).20 As discussed in Part I, Boiardo provides a sense of hope through successive generations when the deaths of Alexander of Macedonia, Astyanax, and Rugiero II are followed by the tenacity of their widows and the births of their children. Ariosto chooses not to highlight these events, and in the 'present' of the Furioso he contradicts this pattern when the deaths of Zerbino and Brandimarte are followed by the deaths of their widows. The prophecy of Ruggiero killed by betrayal even before his son is born - leaving a pregnant Bradamante to give birth in a forest - acknowledges and replays the Boiardan pattern without extending the sense of hope that the birth of children has in the earlier poem. Indeed, because the theme of hope through birth is not developed in Ariosto's poem, its sudden introduction in the final canto - in a genealogical context, no less - merits our attention. As a wedding gift to Ruggiero and Bradamante, Melissa has magically flown in from Constantinople the embroidered tent that Cassandra had made twenty centuries ago for her brother Hector. Rajna (377) notes its relation to the prophetic tent set up by Brandimarte at Biserta in which a Sybil of Cumae had depicted twelve Alfonsos of the Aragon family (Ol 2.27.5061). The genealogical prophecy of Cassandra's tent, by contrast, will focus on a single descendent: 'il piu cortese cavallier che mai / devea del ceppo uscir del suo germane' ('the most gallant knight who was ever to issue from her brother's stock'; OF 40.53; 46.81). After recounting the famous (or rather, infamous) hands through which the tapestry passed, Ariosto goes on to describe its first scene - the birth of a baby to a queen. This baby is treated as truly unique throughout the ages: 'si bello infante n'apparia, ch'el mondo / non hebbe un tal dal secol primo al quarto' ('A babe is born, of such beauty the like of which the world has never seen from the First Age to the Fourth'; OF 40.57; 46.85). The gods themselves celebrate this wondrous event: Vedeassi love, e Mercuric facondo, Venere e Marte, che 1'haveano sparto a man piene e spargean d'eterei fiori, di dolce Ambrosia e di celesti odori.

124 Creative Imitation Jupiter, eloquent Mercury, Venus, and Mars are there: with a generous hand they scatter over him celestial flowers, sweet ambrosia and heavenly perfumes. (OF 40.57; 46.85)

The reader is thus led to expect a saviour figure, someone capable of restoring a golden age in a time of decadence. The identity of this miraculous babe is finally revealed with the initial word of the following stanza: Ippolito. An ekphrastic biography of Ippolito d'Este subsequently extends for twelve stanzas in which he is proclaimed the saviour of Duke Alfonso and of the city of Ferrara, and identified with Cicero, the saviour of Rome. Of course, Ariosto cannot expect his readers to take seriously the hype in this ekphrasis, any more than he expects them to believe the other adulatory passages that he interjects throughout the poem.22 As Ascoli has noted, Ippolito's association with Julius Caesar later in this passage links him to ambitious tyrants, in direct contrast with the earlier link to Cicero.23 In the Innamorato, we recall, Caesar is one of the figures comprising the negative chain of imitation. Thus, whereas Boiardo's brief encomiastic passages align the Estense family with the virtues he extolls in the poem's fictional characters, Ariosto's extensive sections flattering his Estense patrons are not only unconnected to the ideal actions of his characters, but even directly antithetical to them. To leave no doubt as to his implied meaning, Ariosto has Ruggiero recall that 'fra i nepoti suoi gli solea Atlante / commendar questo Hippolyto sovente' ('frequently Atlas had commended this Hippolytus among his descendants'; OF 40.73, 46.99). Readers could imagine that the Saracen magus Atlante, who spent the greater part of both poems trying to protect Ruggiero from his destined conversion, would have been the last person to lavish praise on a Christian enemy of future centuries! Cassandra, as Ascoli noted in his discussion of this passage, was a prophet of doom who spoke the truth but was not believed (Ariosto's Bitter Harmony, 390).24 In this new context, Ariosto has aligned Cassandra instead with the liars who write poetry for tyrants. By warning us that poets are liars, and that even prophets are false, Ariosto is inviting his more perceptive readers - not Ippolito, who reportedly dismissed the poem as mere idle ramblings (De Sanctis 1:410), but the cultural elite he evokes at the opening of the final canto - to be suspicious of the lavish flattery of his Estense patrons interspersed throughout the poem.

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I now turn to the Cinque canti, in which the portrayal of the court and the world beyond becomes even more negative, and where the chances for achieving a just society through civic-minded commitment are very slim indeed.

Chapter Nine Ariosto, Cinque canti (Composed c. 1519-21)

As 'dark' as the 1516 Furioso seems in relation to the Innamorato, the Cinque canti make Ariosto's first edition appear sunny by comparison. When Orlando disguises himself, it is not for love, but to prevent being delivered over to Charlemagne, who wants to imprison him. Bradamante believes that she is embracing Ruggiero, when suddenly the face before her reveals itself as Gano's (CC 3.73). Orlando and Rinaldo fight a battle, no longer for love or justice, but because they have been tricked by Gano's falsehoods (CC 5.55). This chapter looks at how some of the themes discussed in the previous pages take a new turn in the Cinque canti, originally intended as a continuation of the 1516 Furioso.1 Specifically, I argue that Ariosto picks up and develops two negative episodes from Boiardo's poem: first, the covert political machinations suggested in the Mandricardo and Fountain Fay episode undergo extensive elaboration in the alliance between Alcina and Gano; and second, the exemplum of the suspicious tyrant in Morgana's underground treasure field is expanded into the personification of Suspicion in the tyrant Desiderius. Additionally, I argue that Ariosto reverses the contrast between Ruggiero and Astolfo, recasting Astolfo in the role of an evildoer from one of Boiardo's civic-virtue novellas and at the same time proclaiming retrospectively that Ruggiero's moral education was successfully completed in the Furioso. The five cantos open with a council of fairies that structurally parallels the council that Agramante called in Biserta prior to launching his attack on Christendom (O7 2.1). Both council scenes signal a new major threat to Charlemagne's hegemony after a break in the narrative.2 As the arch devil Demogorgon assumes the role of Agramante, and an international array of fairies takes the place of the African kings, the

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motivation for this new attack will be the desire for revenge.3 Explicitly picking up the threads of Morgana's defeat by Orlando in OI 2.13.23-9, in which the fairy had sworn by the Demogorgon that she would not seek revenge for Orlando's destruction of her underwater prison, Ariosto depicts Morgana calling for revenge not in words but through her mournful appearance. Since we had not seen or heard from Morgana since Book Two of the Innamorato, her reappearance catches the reader by surprise and suddenly reintroduces the idea of a network of negative supernatural forces hostile to Christianity. As Falerina had explained to Orlando, Morgana had magically created a horn that was intended to destroy the world (OI 2.7.42). The knights who undertook the adventure met with certain death until Orlando broke the spell by refusing to pursue the promise of wealth. In retaliation, Morgana devised an elaborate trap beneath her lake to capture him. Falerina was well-versed in revenge herself, since she had worked seven months to set up her own elaborate death trap in Orgagna simply to capture Ariante and Origille. Although Morgana's sinister plan was not further developed in the Furioso, her sister Alcina was used by Atlante as a tool to keep Ruggiero out of harm's way, and a third sister, Logistilla, was introduced to counter the evil of the other two. In the council scene of the Cinque canti, Logistilla, the one who could counteract the sense of common hostility against the Christians, does not even seem to be present.4 All the other fairies from the Innamorato, however - with an important exception to be addressed below - are present and indeed dominate the gathering.5 They are, moreover, united by their grievances against Charlemagne's paladins. Since Orlando had sworn Morgana to silence, it is Alcina who speaks in her place. She seeks revenge against Orlando as well as her ex-lover Ruggiero, and soon the desire for personal vengeance is translated into a collective call to annihilate Christendom. The fairies who support Alcina's plan provide biased and/or false accounts of the Innamorato adventures to which they refer. When Falerina 'pianse il drago morto / e la distruzi'on del suo bell'orto' ('lamented her slain / dragon and Orlando's destruction of her lovely bower'; CC 1.24), she not only negates the regret she earlier expressed for her creation of the evil garden of Orgagna (OI 2.5.16-23), but she fallaciously refers to her death trap as a 'lovely bower/6 Dragontina devises a flagrant lie, saying that 'Astolfo et alcun altro di sua setta / fatto le avea dentro alle proprie case / de' suoi prigion, si ch'un non vi rimase' ('Astolfo and

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certain others of his band had robbed / her of her prisoners, leaving her nary a one'; CC 1.25). In truth, Astolfo had barely escaped alive from Dragontina's palace. Her prisoners were freed and her palace destroyed much later, not by the valour of a Christian paladin, but by Angelica's spell-breaking ring. Ariosto counts on his readers' memory of events from the Innamorato to show how little the fairies can be trusted.7 The Demogorgon pronounces a decree issuing from the council that Orlando, Charlemagne, and the whole French lineage and empire must be annihilated (CC 1.30). While the hostile intention is not new, the method employed deserves our attention. Whereas the aforementioned fairies were personally involved in the capture, imprisonment, and/or death of knights, the current plan calls for the use of intermediaries. It is this change in strategy that creates an unexpected situational and thematic link to Book Three of the Innamorato.8 Although Morgana provides the original model of a fairy who offers knights a romance adventure that is merely a cover for a malevolent political plot, her strategy is continued most explicitly in the Innamorato by the Fountain Fay. As discussed in Part I, the adventures she sets up for Mandricardo are an elaborate ploy to persuade him to become the agent of her mission against Orlando. Mandricardo acquires Durindana in the 1516 Furioso, but not in a battle against Orlando. Instead, he comes upon it hanging on a tree, a situation that recalls his discovery of Hector's arms in OI 3.1.17. Yet the fairy who made him swear to seize Orlando's sword is not mentioned, nor are the diabolical implications of Boiardo's episode played out elsewhere in the 1516 poem.9 This threat of powerful behind-the-scene forces fomenting violence against Christendom finally returns to the fore in the Cinque canti. It is striking that the Fountain Fay was omitted from the list of fairies present at the Great Council, since she could have expressed her animosity towards the Christian knight Orlando. Ariosto has not forgotten this fairy, however. Indeed, as I argue below, she serves as the prototype for Alcina's subsequent actions in the five cantos. At first glance, the Fountain Fay shares characteristics with the Innamorato's other fairies. Like Falerina and Morgana, she has entrapped vast numbers of knights by magic, she uses the marvellous as a cover for evil destructive intentions and, although she amasses prisoners indiscriminately, her target is one knight - in this case, Orlando. Given that Boiardo's fairies had a propensity for devising

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mind-boggling revenge plots for single offences, the Fountain Fay's desire to destroy Orlando could have been set up along these lines. Moreover, the fact that Boiardo's fairies have similar characteristics and use the same tactics may also suggest that they share a common mission. In this light, it may not be coincidental that Morgana's sister Alcina mysteriously appears after Morgana has promised not to harm the Christian knights. Despite the Fountain Fay's similarity - and possible plot connection - to Boiardo's other fairies, her method of procedure is markedly different. She is the only fairy to act behind the scenes by enlisting the aid of a human agent. In the Cinque canti, Alcina disregards her own characteristic method of capturing knights through seduction, and adopts the Fountain Fay's strategies by conceiving a plan that requires a human agent, in this case Gano. The romance motifs that function as a cover for the political intrigue reveal a close affinity between the two fairies and their human agents. Although both Mandricardo and Gano initially set out of their respective kingdoms with a goal in mind, their destination is not in their own hands. Mandricardo abandons himself to chance ('a fortuna tutto se abandona'; OI 3.1.13) while Gano's ship is drawn off course by a storm, the classic image of the power of fortune in human affairs (CC 1.73). Although both knights at first seem to be in the hands of fortune, events soon reveal that fortune is just the name given to a deliberate plan devised by unseen forces. While Mandricardo's repeated successes due to chance rather than virtue suggest that the outcome is manipulated by the Fountain Fay, Ariosto depicts Gano even more explicitly as a pawn of external forces as he is whisked away to Gloricia's and then to Alcina's realm. Ariosto notes that along the way Gano passes over a strangely deserted Tartaria, possibly evoking the figure of Tartaria's king, Mandricardo, by his absence (CC 1.92). Both knights are guided and hosted by a succession of mysterious female figures. Under the tutelage of the 'dama del verzier' ('mistress of the garden'; OI 3.1.56), Mandricardo arrives at a palace where ten gracious damsels extend a courteous welcome (OI 3.1.55). Gano is similarly received 'con cortesi e belli inviti' ('with courteous and fair invitations'; CC 1.78) into a 'bel palagio' ('beautiful palace'; CC 1.78) constructed magically by the 'incantatrice' (enchantress'} Gloricia (CC 1.79). Like Boiardo's unnamed damsel, Gloricia is a paragon of hospitality (CC 1.81). In both cases, all visitors are treated with great honor: at the Fay's Fountain 'una dama graz'iosa e accorta / Onora ciascaduno

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a un suo palagio' ('a wise and gracious lady / Honours all at her palace'; OI 3.1.50) while the 'cortese e umana' ('courteous and humane') Gloricia 'ne potea al mondo aver maggior diletto / che onorar questo e quel nel suo bel tetto' ('could feel no greater delight in the / world than in honoring this or that guest under / her fair roof; CC 1.80). Both fairies have selected human agents who were already predisposed to carry out the mission. Mandricardo was on his way to avenge his father's death, and Gano already hated all the paladins (CC 1.36). Nevertheless, a predisposition is not the same as a vow. Mandricardo, after all, was impulsive and changeable, while Gano was not actively planning to bring about Charlemagne's downfall. Thus events in both episodes lead up to the fairy's extraction of a vow from the respective knights. Both fairies first employ psychological manipulation: the Fountain Fay plays on Mandricardo's desire for fame and honour, while Alcina intimidates Gano as she rouses his envy. They then demand solemn and binding oaths from the knights in their power. The Fountain Fay tells Mandricardo: E cio mi giurarai su la tua fede: Che Durindana, lo incantato brando, Torai per forza de arme al conte Orlando. E sin che tale impresa non sia vinta, Giamai non posara la tua persona. On your faith you must swear to me That you'll win magic Durindana From Count Orlando in a duel. Till that adventure's been achieved, Never permit yourself to rest. (OI 3.1.35-6)

Alcina's determination is expressed in similar language: Volse che poi le promettesse Gano, con giuramenti stretti e d'orror pieni, di non cessar, fin che legato in mano Ruggier col suo figliastro non le meni. She wanted Ganelon to promise her, with binding and dreadful oaths, not to stop until he had brought Ruggiero and his stepson bound into her hands. (CC 1.101)

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When the knights solemnly vow to carry out the fairies' commands, they become the instruments of a powerful and destructive alien force whose involvement cannot be imagined by the intended victims. The connection between the two episodes is reinforced by a series of narrative parallels, including the precise distance the knight walks upon entering the adventure ('un miglio o poco meno,' OI 3.1.38; 'un miglio,' CC 1.73), the threat or actual imprisonment of the knight (OI 3.1.16 and CC 1.86), the noble palace ('palagio altano/ OI 3.1.54; 'alto e signoril palazzo,' CC 1.75), the courteous female company (OI 3.1.55 and CC 1.77), the clear fountain (OI 3.1.22 and CC 1.74), the hill ('il colle/ OI 3.1.38; 'il bel colle,' CC 1.75), and the lovely singing birds ('li augelletti nel giardino intorno / Facean bei versi/ OI 3.2.1; 'il piacevol cantar de' vaghi augelli'; CC 1.76). Although some of these details are part of the repertory of romance, taken together they suggest that Ariosto wrote with an attentive eye to the earlier episode. Once we are aware of the correspondence between the two episodes, the differences become telling. Whereas the Fountain Fay solicits an inimical Saracen king to do her bidding, Alcina seeks to stir up discord through the Christian Gano, Charlemagne's closest adviser. The theme of treachery, already permeating both the Innamorato and the Furioso, has become the principal driving force here.10 Gano, 'd'ogni inganno capace e d'ogni frode' ('capable of any treachery / and any deception'; CC 1.49), is himself tricked by Envy into thinking his dream is sent by God, and is later captured in his sleep at Gloricia's palace. The theme of treachery is extended from the figure of the envious courtier to that of the suspicious ruler when Alcina selects King Desiderius of Lombardy, previously one of Charlemagne's closest Christian allies, as the second agent of her diabolical plan.11 Alcina's recruitment of Desiderius incorporates and expands the political aspects of Morgana's underworld treasure room (OI 2.8.25). As discussed in Part I, there one found the statue of a tyrant perilously sitting under a sword and about to be hit by an arrow. The accompanying sententia warned that those who take over or maintain states ('con sospetto') with suspicion, and who therefore possess them in fear ('con tanta paura'), live in constant danger (OI 2.8.26). Ariosto opens the second canto with a consideration of good and bad government in which he names precisely suspicion and fear as afflictions particular to the tyrant (CC 2.9). He then goes on to relate a tale in which a tyrant feels less pain in Hell than he did on earth because he is relieved of the intense suffering caused by suspicion. Seeking a more severe punishment, the sages of Hell condemn him to return to earth permanently fused with this dis-

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abling mental state (CC 2.16). Ariosto thus turns Boiardo's ekphrastic statuary scene into a morality tale that describes the Suspicious Tyrant personified. He then brings the personification to life by having it enter King Desiderius. It is as though the statue of the king at the heart of Morgana's underworld realm is turned to flesh and unleashed by her sister Alcina against Charlemagne and his knights. The Cinque canti continue the theme of Ruggiero's and Astolfo's moral education as well. Indeed, Ariosto replays the story of Alcina's imprisonment of the two knights, this time inside the belly of a whale. As in the Furioso episode, Ruggiero shambles upon Astolfo, who is already a prisoner of Alcina and suffering penance for his transgressions. Astolfo's pitiful situation combines elements from the last time he was seen in the Innamorato (on top of a whale) and the first time he appears in the Furioso (repentant and undergoing punishment). Astolfo gives Ruggiero a first-person account of his lust that led to the abduction of another man's wife. He thus cancels in one sweep the enlightened role he played throughout the Furioso and brings the reader back to the first novella of Boiardo's trilogy - that of the Castle Cruel. Astolfo, now cast in the role of Marchino, describes how his reason and honesty gave way to irrational love when he saw his vassal's beautiful wife (CC 4.56). As in the Castle Cruel episode, the knight's unruly passion is especially blameworthy because of his special relation to the man he betrays: in Boiardo's novella the relation is that of guest to host, in Ariosto's it is lord to vassal. Like Marchino, Astolfo devises a plan for an ambush. Both aggressors hide in the woods with their men, using a disguise. Marchino's group kills Grifone and his company, and then finds Stella inside the castle. Astolfo's group kidnaps the wife directly, and almost kills the husband who escapes. Marchino's betrayed wife summons the king of Orgagna, who has his men make mincemeat of Marchino. In the Cinque canti, Alcina's messenger summons the lady's husband, who has his men attack Astolfo and then toss him into the sea. Although one could note that this rewriting of the Castle Cruel novella is again 'soft,' since nobody is killed, it is nevertheless unsettling to find that the Christian hero Astolfo, the one knight who in the Furioso had undergone a true moral conversion, is now degraded into a villain like Marchino.12 In the Furioso's allegory of moral education, Ariosto contrasts Ruggiero's failure to learn self-control with Astolfo's success. Now he reverses their roles. While Astolfo has succumbed to lust and violence, the recently converted Ruggiero is considered to be beyond tempta-

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tion. It is Alcina herself who attests to his new invulnerability, admitting that since his conversion his will has become stronger than her spells (CC 1.22). Ruggiero confirms Alcina's assessment of his moral state when he says to Astolfo that, thanks to his faith, he is 'puro e netto / di molte colpe' ('purified and cleansed of my many / sins'; CC 4.78). Noting this change in Ruggiero, Brand writes: The Cinque Canti may well have been motivated by the sense that the Furioso was incomplete in respect to the Ruggiero story, which is there carried on beyond the wedding with a purer, nobler, worthier Ruggiero' ('Ariosto's Continuation,' 379-80). Ariosto seems to want to confirm that Ruggiero's education was in fact completed with his conversion. Ruggiero's conversion and new inner strength are not sufficient to protect him from Alcina, however. Although he could not be seduced or corrupted by her, she nevertheless succeeds in capturing him. What, then, does it take to protect oneself from evil? And if evil is unavoidable, can we do no more than pray for eternal salvation? Ruggiero's prayers from within the belly of the whale uncannily recall the advice of the weak friar to the enchained Orlando to give up on human action and place his hopes in God (OI 1.6.20). Behind this message of hope in divine justice there is a despairing sense of the fragility and powerlessness of human beings. Even if Ruggiero, as we imagine, will eventually escape from the whale, we cannot forget that he is ultimately destined to die a victim of Gano's treachery. When Ariosto rejected the Cinque canti as a continuation to the Furioso, this again left the question of Ruggiero's moral education unresolved. Ariosto returns to the problem in the 1532 edition of the Furioso. This time, however, rather than merely stating that Ruggiero's moral education was completed with his baptism, Ariosto sets out to continue and complete it unequivocally with actions.

Chapter Ten Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1532)

And he will pacify the world and govern it with the goodness of his fathers. Virgil, Eclogue 4

Ariosto published a new edition of the Furioso with four additional episodes in 1532, but unlike the Cinque canti, which would have formed a sequel to the poem, the new material is inserted within the frame of the existing narrative. Until recently it was commonly assumed that these added narratives lacked any tie to the Innamorato.1 Andrea Di Tommaso, however, going against the critical current, stated that the '1532 edition reveals [Ariosto's] greater awareness of the more deeply submerged thematic currents in the Innamorato.'2 Di Tommaso's assertion was given further support by Sangirardi, who listed fifty borrowings from the Innamorato in the four added episodes. Nevertheless, Sangirardi limited the presence of Boiardo's poem to textual resonances without thematic implications: 'It seems to me as well, in short, that the center of inspiration of the new episodes is not in their relation to Boiardo' (Boiardismo ariostesco, 271). In the following pages I argue that the inserted episodes not only return to the thematics of the Innamorato, but that they embrace the humanist vision of literature and its relation to society found in Boiardo's poem. In one of the new episodes the 'reader/ like Boiardo's Orlando, must learn to apply the lesson of a novella to his (or, in this case, her) personal situation. The other three episodes are nothing less than a second rewriting of Boiardo's civic virtue trilogy. In the first two episodes of this revised trilogy, 'readers' hear novellas explaining a present state of injustice and then act to provide a just

Orlando Furioso (1532) 135 conclusion. The third, culminating episode not only brings the 'novella' content directly into the frame story of the poem, but merges the two patterns that were developed separately in the 1516 Furioso: the inserted novellas of civic virtue and the allegorical episodes of moral education. The Rocca di Tristano (OF 32.50-110, 33.1-59, 65-76) On her way to challenge Ruggiero for his supposed infidelity, Bradamante arrives at a castle where guests must defend their right to shelter against newcomers - knights by a contest of arms, ladies by a contest of beauty - with the losers left literally out in the cold. While most critical attention has focused primarily on Bradamante's contest,3 I would like to focus instead on the story that explains the origin of the outlandish custom. The castle's current host relates that its lord, Clodion, discourteously denied a night's shelter to Tristan because his jealousy caused him to fear for his lady's chastity (OF 32.85). Tristan challenged Clodion and his ten knights for the right to sleep in the castle and won, thereby constraining Clodion to spend the night outside the castle walls while Tristan remained inside with Clodion's beloved. After a tormented night of intense jealousy (OF 32.88), Clodion found his lady untouched. Tristan thus not only punished Clodion for acting discourteously, but he also attempted to teach him a lesson about the incompatibility of ennobling love and unfounded jealousy (OF 32.92-3). Clodion, however, misses Tristan's point. Rather than relinquishing the jealousy that made him act ungraciously, Clodion transforms his castle into a site of perpetual discourtesy, where all future travellers must replay his combat and subsequent humiliation. The 'reader' of this story is Bradamante, who had specifically asked to hear about the circumstances that led to the castle's custom. She needs to draw a lesson from the story in much the same way that Boiardo's Orlando needed to learn from the narratives of Circella and of Narcissus: while Orlando is subject to an illusory and narcissistic love, Bradamante is a victim of irrational jealousy. The novella she hears is precisely a cautionary tale against the jealousy that took hold of her ever since she heard the false rumour that Ruggiero and Marfisa were betrothed.4 After contemplating suicide, she sets off instead for the Saracen camp to challenge Ruggiero in battle.5 It is at this point in the narrative that Ariosto inserts the Tower of Tristan episode, suggest-

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ing a direct link between Bradamante's new unfounded jealousy and the novella she hears. Like Orlando at Dragontina's palace, or at the Narcissus fountain, the jealous Bradamante does not apply the story to her own situation and thus fails to learn from it. Consequently, while all the others are enjoying their dinner, Bradamante is 'pure all'usanza addolorata e mesta; / che quel timor, che quel sospetto ingiusto / che sempre avea nel cor, le tollea il gusto' ('still plunged in her gloomy sorrow - the unjust fear and suspicion lodged in her heart spoiled her appetite'; OF 32-109). In the following canto Ariosto continues to link Bradamante's jealousy to the novella she has just heard: all night long she tosses and turns in her bed, thus reliving the night-long torment of Clodion even though she is inside the castle walls. Although she manages to argue adroitly for shelter for the damsel Ullania, tellingly, she does not put an end to the inhospitable custom. The castle's custom and her state of mind remain the same, both unhappy consequences of irrational, groundless jealousy. Olimpia of Holland (OF 9.8-94,10.1-34,11.21-80,12.1-4) The Olimpia episode begins as a twist on the 'mal maritata' novellas of Leodilla and Doristella in the Innamorato (Ol 1.20.48-71 and 2.26.19-53, respectively).6 Whereas for Boiardo the problems begin when the bride is not free to choose her consort, Ariosto shows instead the problems that can arise when her will is respected. King Cimosco of Frisia wants to arrange a marriage between his son Arbante and Olimpia, daughter to the count of Holland. The negotiations begin, but the count subsequently withdraws in deference to his daughter, who views marriage as a bond of love rather than a political alliance. When Cimosco responds by invading Holland, the episode shifts to the underlying pattern of the civic virtue novellas. The story that Olimpia relates to the 'reader' combines details from the Truffaldino and Castle Cruel episodes. Like Truffaldino, Cimosco is a tyrant who demonstrates his greed for land and power by trying to take over a neighbouring territory by force. And similar to Albarosa, Olimpia loves a knight errant who is unable to protect her in time of crisis: Polindo's ineffectualness is turned into Bireno's outright physical absence and later imprisonment. While Truffaldino wants Albarosa to betray her brother by helping him to capture her brother's castle, Cimosco pressures Olimpia to betray her beloved by turning herself

Orlando Furioso (1532) 137 and her kingdom over to his son. Although both women resist the evildoer's plan, they suffer the effects of his rage, and the restoration of justice is left to an outside party who later hears/reads the story. At the same time, however, Olimpia is not quite the blameless Albarosa. Complicating the situation, Ariosto also links her to negative characters in both the Truffaldino and Castle Cruel episodes. As Truffaldino feigns friendship with Polindo to lure him and Albarosa into his castle, Olimpia pretends to accept her marriage to Cimosco's son in order to lure him into her castle. Like Truffaldino, Olimpia treacherously kills her victim, yet in the act she suddenly takes on the characteristics of Marchino's widow at Castle Cruel. Both women slaughter innocent sons in lieu of the guilty father. Olimpia's graphic first-person account of slitting Cimosco's son's throat (OF 9.41) recalls the widow's brutal account ('lo scanai con la mia mano'; 'I slit the first one's throat by hand'; OI 1.8.39). Both women acknowledge, moreover, that they acted out of spiteful anger ('il mio dispetto'; OI 1.8.39 and 'in dispetto'; OF 9.42). If Olimpia implicates herself in the cycle of violence by combining the actions of Truffaldino and Marchino's widow, Cimosco likewise takes on characteristics of the evildoers from both episodes. After learning of his son's death, he combines Marchino's overwhelming desire for revenge with the deceptive strategies of Truffaldino. Just as Truffaldino captures Albarosa as a means to ensnare her brother, Cimosco imprisons Bireno as bait to lure Olimpia. In the earlier episode, Truffaldino asks Albarosa to help trap her brother in order to save herself. Similarly, Cimosco now threatens to kill Bireno unless he will help deliver Olimpia over to him (OF 9.47). When Orlando hears Olimpia's tale of woe and actively intervenes to restore justice, he assumes the role of the civic-minded reader reserved for Ranaldo in Boiardo's poem. The resolution continues to employ elements from both the Castle Cruel and Truffaldino episodes. Orlando's victory over Cimosco's men echoes the scene at Castle Cruel in which Ranaldo easily defeats the townspeople who were attacking him. In fact, Ariosto playfully recaptures the grotesque tone of the earlier battle (e.g., 'Chi senza capo va, chi senza braccia'; 'Some have no arms, some have no heads'; OI 1.9.31) by describing how Orlando now collects the pierced bodies of his assailants on his lance as though he were skewering frogs. The scene then shifts to the model of the Truffaldino episode: like Rinaldo, Orlando valorously kills the evildoer in a one-on-one battle in a public space.7

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Yet when it appears that justice has been restored through the death of the tyrant and the marriage of Olimpia and Bireno (thus once again softening Boiardo's original), Ariosto produces a sequel in which Olimpia, subsequently abandoned by Bireno, becomes a victim of the Orca. In the 1516 edition of the poem, the Orca of Ebuda was simply part of a test of Ruggiero's ongoing moral education. Ruggiero's more important battle was not with the sea monster, who was shinned by his magic shield, but within himself, where reason was overcome by the senses. In the 1532 edition, the Orca returns as part of Ariosto's new civic virtue trilogy. Whereas the killer-women episode, as previously discussed, followed the basic narrative pattern of Castle Cruel, this new episode replicates the precise situation: a voracious beast feeds daily on human flesh provided by local inhabitants who actively seek travellers as victims (v. OI 1.8.52 and OF 9.12). When Orlando arrives in Ebuda and slays the Orca, he replays Ranaldo's actions at Castle Cruel. In both cases, the knights' victory over a human-devouring monster does not have the intended effect. The townspeople, rather than celebrating their release from an evil curse, collectively attack the hero. Ranaldo is attacked by over six hundred men (OI 1.9.29), Orlando by an angry mob coming from all directions (OF 11.48). In both episodes the unruly crowd (OI 1.9.30; OF 11.49) is no match for the paladin, who instantly clears the area before him (OI 1.9.31; OF 11.51). Castle Cruel is left completely deserted by the end of the episode: 'Non rimase al castello anima viva' ('He left no living soul in there'; OI 1.9.35). Ariosto records the total destruction of the Ebudans in like manner - 'non fu lasciato vivo un capo solo' ('Not a person was left alive'; OF 11.53). Ariosto's rewriting, however, contains a variation on the theme. In this case, it is not the heroic knight but an invading army that brings about the complete destruction of the community. As an Irish expedition arrives and slaughters the inhabitants, ransacks their goods, and burns their houses, Orlando remains detached from both sides while the narrator questions whether justice or cruelty prompted the attack (OF 11.54).8 Orlando ignores the sack of the city because he is intent on liberating Olimpia. In the process, he encounters his friend Oberto (OF 11.62-3). By bringing into focus the themes of liberation and friendship, Ariosto suggestively evokes Ranaldo's rescue of Prasildo and Fiordelisa as they were being led to the man-eating monster in Orgagna. In fact, both liberations occur as part of a 'sequel' to an original novella whose

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139

happy ending turns out to be merely provisional from the perspective of later events. At this point the episode has incorporated the ending of all three of Boiardo's civic virtue novellas - the death of the evildoer in a public space (Truffaldino/Cimosco), the desertion of a savage custom (Castle Cruel/Ebuda), and the liberation of victims about to be devoured by a monster (Prasildo and Fiordelisa/Olimpia). Marganorre (OF 36.84, 37.1-2) Rajna points out narrative elements that the Marganorre episode has in common with such romances as Palamedes, Lancelot, Livre d'Artus, Ysaie le Triste, and the Tristan. Because he is looking specifically for acts of cruelty directed against the female sex, which are not found in Boiardo, Rajna does not include the Innamorato in his list of sources (519-21).9 Yet the Marganorre episode, as I argue below, is nothing less than Ariosto's final rewriting of Castle Cruel. Both stories begin with a description of the height of civility and courtliness at a rural court. Both Boiardo's Grifone and Ariosto's Marganorre are lords ('segnore' OI 1.8.28; 'signore' OF 37.43) of a small territory, they live in a rocca, and they possess immense resources. Grifone's 'possanza infinita' ('mighty strength and means'; OI 1.8.28) is directly echoed in Marganorre's 'possanza fuor d'umana sorte' ('super-human strength'; OF 37.41). Both men are, moreover, paragons of hospitality. Grifone's hospitality is actually doubled since it is now transferred to Marganorre's two sons, Tanacro and Cilindro. Like Grifone, Marganorre's sons give an extraordinary welcome to all newcomers: Grifone 'ad ogni forastier faceva onore' ('honoured every foreigner'; O7 1.8.28) and the two brothers loved foreigners ('amavan forestieri'; OF 37.45). The munificence that the respective knights show to travellers is a sign of a general flowering of civilization in their territory. The metaphor of flowering used by Boiardo to describe life in Grifone's castle - 'Vita tenea magnifica e fiorita' ('He kept a [magnificent and flourishing] court'; OI 1.8.28) - is picked up by Ariosto: 'quivi le cortesie fiorivan' ('Here ... courtesy [flourished]'; OF 37.45). In fact, Ariosto plays with this notion of flowering (fiorita, fiorivan) in the rejected fragments, including this more detailed simile: 'Le cortesie, li bei costumi quivi / Fiorian non men che in gli horti il fior 1'aprile' ('Courtesy and wonderful customs flourished there no less than flowers in gardens in April'; Frammenti autografi, 77). In both episodes, the blissful environment is disrupted when uncon-

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trollable lust leads to an act of violence. In Boiardo's text, it is the guest Marchino who desires the host's wife. Ariosto heightens the offence by attributing the destabilizing desire to the hosts themselves, thus causing them to break their own splendid rule of hospitality. Boiardo's Marchino gives no sign of an evil nature until his obsession with Grifone's wife suddenly causes him to plot his host's death. It is due to bad luck ('disaventura'; OI 1.8.31) that he sees Stella and falls in love with her beyond measure ('oltra misura'), thus becoming evil (OI 1.8.32). Ariosto further emphasizes the catalytic role of eras not only by attesting to the past worthiness of his characters, but also by explicitly stating that they would have remained forever deserving of praise had they not been the victims of that desire we call love (OF 37.47). The earlier doubling of Grifone's hospitality through Marganorre's two sons is now replaced with a doubling of Marchino's treachery: Marchino's single ambush of Grifone is replayed twice, as both Cilindro and Tanacro become consumed with desire for the wife of one of their guests and subsequently arrange an ambush to kill the unsuspecting husband. Cilindro, however, does not follow Marchino's method of enlisting the aid of his servants, and the would-be victim kills him instead. Tanacro, forewarned, follows Marchino's example rather than Cilindro's when he and his men kill Olindro in an ambush and take his wife Drusilla as hostage.10 Tanacro's desire is just as obsessive as Marchino's passion, and it is described in similar terms. Boiardo's 'Ch'altro nol stringe, ne d'altro ha pensiero' ('He / Became possessed by one idea'; OI 1.8.31) becomes 'Non pensa altro Tanacro, altro non brama, / d'altro non cura, e d'altro mai non parla' (Tanacre thought of nothing else, desired nothing else, cared about nothing else, spoke of nothing else'; OF 37.58). In the process, Boiardo's single line is echoed in two consecutive verses, causing the negatives and the term altro to ring out not two but four times each. The parallel, or rather the amplification, continues after the respective husbands have been murdered. Marchino imprisons Stella within the castle and attempts to seduce her rather than to use force (OI 1.8.35). This vain seeking of the grieving widow's affection is magnified in the actions of Tanacro, who actually prepares to wed Drusilla. In the Castle Cruel episode, Stella's desire for revenge is as obsessive as Marchino's erotic desire: 'Sempre li stava notte e di nel core; / Ne altro desia che averlo vendicato' ('[Grifone] night and day stayed in her heart / She wanted nothing but revenge'; OI 1.8.36). Drusilla's desire for revenge is expressed in the same terms: 'vendetta / chiama il

Orlando Furioso (1532) 141 cor dentro, e ad altro non attende' ('Her heart cried out for vengeance and studied nothing else'; OF 37.60). Moreover, a few stanzas later Ariosto replaces the verses of an earlier redaction ('Ella tuttavia pensa, alia vendetta / D'Olimbro suo contra Tanacro intende'; 'she still thinks, she intends to wreak vengeance on Tanacro for her Olimbro') with a verse that explicitly repeats the grammatical structure used above: 'mai d'altro non pensa' ('she thought of nothing else'; OF 37.65). Stella's 'ne altro desia' is thereby echoed twice in references to Drusilla's desire for revenge, thus continuing the doubling that Ariosto enacts throughout the episode. Even Stella's indecision with regard to procedure ('Ne trova qual partito sia il megliore'; OI 1.8.36) is repeated and subject to further elaboration as Drusilla faces the same dilemma: 'Molte cose rivolge, alcune accetta, / altre ne lascia, ed altre in dubbio appende' ('She turned over many possibilities: some she accepted, some rejected, leaving others undecided'; OF 37.60). Both Stella and Drusilla take action after a female accomplice provides them with the means of revenge. Marchino's betrayed wife hands over her sons' roasted flesh, which Stella then presents on a plate to Marchino. Drusilla's maid procures the poison that Drusilla will use to kill both Tanacro and herself. With Tanacro's death, the role of Marchino is taken up by Marganorre. Ariosto had already suggested Marganorre's link to Marchino by repeating the first three letters of his name, letters that suggest a relation to the violent Mars. He now refers to Marganorre using the same term for 'evil' Boiardo had earlier used to describe Marchino, 'fellone' (OI 1.8.32; OF 37.43 (twice), 37.79 and 37.85). At this point both fathers have lost their two sons because uncontrolled eras led to violence, which in turn elicited a desire for revenge on the part of the female victim, resulting in further violence. Both fathers experience a psychomachia when confronted with the death of their sons: Marchino's 'crudelta combatte con amore' ('bloody thoughts contend with love'; OI 1.8.44) receives further elaboration in Marganorre's inner battle of 'Amor, pieta, sdegno, dolore ed ira, / disio di morte e di vendetta insieme' ('Love, pity, indignation, pain, anger, a wish to die, vengefulness'; OF 37.77). Moreover, they both respond with a subsequent act of revenge against the woman they hold responsible: Marchino 'delibra vendicarse alia finita' ('chooses revenge in the end'; OI 1.8.45); Marganorre 'per vendicarsi va a Drusilla' ('vengefully ... approached Drusilla'; OF 37.77). Marchino ties Stella to the corpse of her husband, rapes her, slits her throat, and then proceeds to rape her corpse. Marganorre takes revenge on the corpse

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of Drusilla as well. As she was not an object of lust for him, the initial revenge appears to be devoid of eras, yet at the moment in which it extends to all women, Marganorre incorporates an erotic component, since the women who arrive in his territory are stripped from the waist down, beaten, and subjected to 'altri danni' ('other wrongs'; OF 37.30) which could suggest rape.11 In both cases, the revenge is accomplished through substitution. In Boiardo's tale, Marchino's wife murders her innocent sons instead of her unfaithful husband, while in retaliation, Marchino takes his rage out on Stella instead of on his own murderous wife. Ariosto's Marganorre fails to blame his sons and blames instead the women whom they desired. He then attacks all the women gathered in the temple, and eventually all those who approach his realm, rather than the one woman who killed his son. In both stories, moreover, the desire for revenge is such that it cannot be satiated by even the most atrocious acts of violence. Marchino's wife acknowledges the boundlessness of her anger after she smashed her son's head against a rock: Te par ch'io vendicassi il mio dispetto? / Ma questo fu un principio, e non lo effetto' ('You think I had avenged my hate? / I'd just begun; much more remained'; OI 1.8.39). Nor could Marchino satisfy his limitless desire for revenge: 'Ma qual vendetta lo potria far sazio?' ('But what revenge could placate him[?]'; OI 1.8.45). Ariosto evokes the same sense of insatiability as he describes Marganorre tearing the body of Drusilla to shreds: 'per stracciarlo e fame scempio / non si sfoga il fellon ne discerba' ('the villain's feelings were not assuaged by rending and battering the corpse'; OF 37.79). The inability of the vengeful act to quell the internal rage leads inevitably to an escalation of violence. When Marchino's wife kills their two sons to avenge the betrayal committed by her husband, she sets in motion a process of numerical escalation that is the trademark of Boiardo's revenge episodes. Ariosto suggests rapid numerical escalation by jumping from 'one' to 'thirty' to 'one hundred' in rapid succession: 'ch'in un momento / trenta n'uccise, e ne feri ben cento' ('[in one moment] he slew thirty ... and wounded a good hundred'; OF 37.79). As vengeful actions spiral out of control, the violence also becomes indiscriminate. Marchino's excessiveness in seizing the castle once Grifone was killed sets the precedent: 'Fanciulli e vecchi, senza alcun riparo, / Ed ogni donna fu de vita priva' ('The old and young had no defence, / Nor any woman: all were lost'; OI 1.8.35). Ariosto repeats Boiardo's phrasing when he tells us that there was no defence ('non vi

Orlando Furioso (1532) 143 fu alcun ripar'; OF 37.79) for the women who were in the temple when Marganorre sought to avenge his son's death. Ariosto's rewriting of the Castle Cruel episode extends to the method of murder that constitutes the revenge: throat-slitting. Boiardo uses the verb scannare to depict the widow's murder of her sons (O7 1.8.39), Marchino's murder of Stella (O7 1.8.47), and the townspeople's ritualized killing of foreigners (O7 1.8.52). In the Furioso, the foreign women who arrive in Marganorre's territory accompanied by armed knights are taken to his sons' graves, where he slits their throats with his own hands ('son ... di sua man scannate'; OF 37.84). At Castle Cruel, the systematic revenge takes on an air of ritualized sacrifice. The monster resulting from the rape issues forth from Stella's corpse in a tomb, which is also referred to as a 'sepolcro' ('sepulchre'; OI 1.8.48,51) and a 'chiesa' ('church'); OI 1.8.51). Ariosto similarly uses language with sacrificial overtones: foreign women are 'come vittime, tratte ai cimiteri / dei morti figli' ('[dragged] off to the tombs of his dead sons ... as sacrificial victims'; OF 37.84) and Marganorre's butchering of them in these cemeteries is called a sacrificio ('sacrifice'; OF 37.114). In sum, in both stories an initial act of eras-driven violence leads to a cycle of revenge that eventually extends both outward in scope (to include all foreigners who arrive in that territory) and forward in time (to become a daily ritual continuing into an indefinite future). At the core of both episodes are the related themes of the destructive consequences of uncontrollable desire, the contagious nature of evil, and the escalating cycle of violence inherent in revenge, as well as the difficulty in arriving at true justice. There is, however, a crucial difference in the manner in which the systematic murder becomes institutionalized in the Castle Cruel and Marganorre episodes. Marchino's widow indicates that the daily massacres at Castle Cruel were initiated collectively: 'Noi poi servamo cosi fatta usanza' ('The custom kept by us is this'; OI 1.8.52). In Ariosto's tale, Marganorre is solely responsible: 'Al suo castello ha poi fatto una legge' ('he has imposed a [law] in his castle'; OF 37.82). Ariosto has turned the first person plural we into a third person singular he as he replaces usanza (custom) with legge (law). While the townspeople at Castle Cruel are active participants in the carnage and often carry out the gruesome murders themselves (O7 1.8.52), the inhabitants of Marganorre's realm are unwillingly drawn into the cycle of violence by his law. The blame is thus concentrated exclusively on the figure of the tyrant. In both stories, the listener/reader brings the episode to a close by

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ending a cycle of violence, but the difference between custom and law allows for a different final outcome. After Ranaldo defeats the Castle Cruel monster and exits from the tomb, he is attacked by the townspeople themselves and fights until everyone has fled or been killed. Since the evil in Marganorre's realm is the result of one man, Ariosto substitutes the resolution of the Castle Cruel episode with that of the Truffaldino episode, in which a single evildoer is punished. Although Marfisa initially wants to kill and burn all the men, it turns out that the men actually join the women in punishing the tyrant. Ariosto not only attributes the men's prior conduct to the weaknesses of human nature ("1 populo facea come i piu fanno, / ch'ubbidiscon piu a quei che piu in odio hanno'; 'they had behaved as most people do, obeying most readily those they hate the worst'; OF 37.104), but he indicates that the story should be read as an exemplum directed specifically at rulers: 'Sia Marganorre esempio di chi regna; / che chi mal opra, male al fine aspetta' ('Let Marganor be an example to rulers, that he who commits evil will ultimately be overtaken by evil'; OF 37.106). The account of Marganorre's punishment by his former subjects and victims recaptures the language of indiscriminateness used elsewhere in the episodes, but it is now the indiscriminate masses who direct their violence solely against the guilty party: 'chi con sassi il percuote, chi con 1'unge; / altra lo morde, ultra cogli aghi il punge' ('they struck him with stones, they clawed and bit him, they pricked him with needles'; OF 37.109; emphasis added).12 Marganorre's punishment and death, moreover, combines that of Marchino and his widow. Like Marchino, he undergoes gruesome torture (OI 1.8.48 and OF 37.118), and like the widow, he jumps to his death from a tower window (OI 1.9.34-5 and OF 37.121). The developing friendship between Bradamante and Marfisa as they undertake the Marganorre adventure together, like the encounter between Orlando and his friend Oberto at the conclusion of the Olimpia episode (OF 11.63), gives new space to a theme that, as noted above, had been consistently undercut in the 1516 edition. In addition, the 'readers' Marfisa and Bradamante enact a new law, replacing the unjust rule of one man with the just rule of all the women (OF 37.123). In this way, Ariosto also provides a revision to his earlier Ginevra episode, in which the unjust law that put women to death was never overturned. In that earlier case, despite universal agreement with Ranaldo's statement that new laws should be devised (OF 4.65), the matter was dropped when Ginevra was discovered to be chaste. The

Orlando Furioso (1532) 145 Marganorre episode thus represents for the first time - in either poem a resolution that includes the abolition of an unjust law. The readers are split into two groups. Marfisa and Bradamante enact the role of Boiardo's Ranaldo by intervening to bring about justice. Ruggiero, however, is also a reader. In my view, the reason he does not intervene is not simply because Ariosto wants to give this satisfaction to the two females. Rather, Ariosto has assigned to him the role of Boiardo's Orlando, who needed to apply the lessons of the narrative to his own life. While in the Rocca di Tristano episode Bradamante needed to learn a lesson about overcoming jealousy, Ruggiero needs to learn a lesson about controlling the violent impulses that stem from frustrated passion. We do not yet know why Ruggiero needs to hear a story in which passion transforms even the most courteous of knights into murderers, but subsequent events, related in the final added episode of the poem, will make it clear. Ruggiero and Leone (OF 44.12-14, 36-104,45.1-117, 46.19-66, 69-72) In the 1516 Furioso, the marriage of Bradamante and Ruggiero is celebrated immediately after the conclusion of the war. The 1532 edition, by contrast, contains an episode in which Ruggiero will first have to prove his worth - not simply to Bradamante's mother, who wanted a king for a son-in-law, but, more importantly, to the reader, who is far from convinced that Ruggiero has completed his education in moral and civic virtue. The Ruggiero and Leone episode, which takes up much of canto 44, all of canto 45, and the first half of canto 46, has been dismissed by many critics as contrived and/or superfluous.13 Some have noted that the first part of the episode replays Decameron 10.3 while the second part follows Decameron 10.8.14 Like Boccaccio's tales, the episode presents, in Rajna's words, "a marvelous contest of courtesy' (597). We need to recognize, however, that the Innamorato itself contains 'a marvelous contest of courtesy' that replays two Decameron Day 10 stories 10.5 and the same 10.8 that is commonly cited as the direct source for Ariosto. This occurs precisely in the tale of Iroldo and Prasildo, the third novella of Boiardo's trilogy. This episode, which was the missing link from Ariosto's counter-trilogy in the 1516 edition, enjoyed a success of its own, and was published separately as the Istoria di Prasildo & Tisbina after 1522 (Harris, Bibliografia, 1: 131-2). In this section, I argue that Ariosto weaves together thematic and narrative threads from this

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Innamorato tale into the Ruggiero and Leone episode as he attempts to recuperate the values of civic humanism.15 Earlier I argued that while the Innamorato celebrates the value of friendship, the Furioso casts doubt on the possibility of finding true friendship in a corrupt world. Accordingly, Ariosto replaces Boiardo's two-part novella of friendship with a double account demonstrating friendship's easy demise. In the 1532 edition, however, Ariosto not only rewrites this 'missing' story of friendship into his poem, but he places it at the climactic moment of the revised version. The Ruggiero and Leone episode, moreover, despite its novelistic features, is not once removed as an inserted tale, but is in the body of the poem and marks events leading to the foundation of the Estense dynasty. The following pages also look at how this exemplary tale of friendship, as it moves from the sphere of private morality to the arena of international politics, both returns to the themes of the Innamorato''s civic virtue novellas and completes the moral education of Ruggiero. Ruggiero and Leone: Ethics Ariosto not only used the same Boccaccian source as Boiardo's Iroldo and Prasildo novella, he borrowed substantial narrative elements from the Innamorato novella itself. In fact, Ariosto's version is closer to the story of Iroldo and Prasildo than it is to the Decameron's novella of Tito and Gisippo. When Ruggiero finds that Bradamante is betrothed to Leone, his love for her is suddenly deprived of the sanction of society (represented by Bradamante's parents and Charlemagne). Like Prasildo when he was unable to win over Tisbina, the frustrated Ruggiero becomes violent. Prasildo turned the violence inward and intended to commit suicide. Ruggiero at first plans to kill himself as well, but then he redirects the aggression outward and begins to desire the death of his rival: 'Anzi non vo' morir: ma vo' che muoia / con piu ragion questo Leone Augusto' ('Or rather no, not to die, but that imperial Leo / die with better reason'; OF 44.56). Ruggiero's aggressiveness increases as he adds Leone's father to the list: 'o vo' che muoia egli e '1 suo padre ingiusto' ('I mean to make away with him and his wicked father'; OF 44.56). At the moment in which he hears that Amone has imprisoned his own daughter Bradamante, Ruggiero puts his murderous plan into action. He heads to Greece to kill Leone and his father and to take over the Greek empire to boot (OF 44.76). Although Ruggiero's love for Bradamante is legitimate, his scheme of getting the girl by murdering his

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rival is not. Ruggiero's sudden homicidal intentions bring to mind Tanacro's and Cilindro's fall from courtesy to bestiality, and thus it seems Ruggiero would have done well to pay closer attention to that story. When he learns that Leone's father Costantino is at war with the neighbouring Bulgaria, he hopes to find and kill Leone and Costantino in the battle. The underlying model for this episode, however, is not to be found in the story of Marganorre, but, as stated above, in Boiardo's tale of Prasildo and Iroldo. Both accounts begin with a rivalry over a woman that gives rise to a violent impulse. Something must occur in order to halt the aggression and to set in motion the mechanism of reciprocal benevolence. In Boiardo's novella, this occurs when Iroldo pities Prasildo's desperate state and devises a plan to save him from suicide. In Ariosto's story, this occurs when Leone admires Ruggiero's prowess and decides to save him from death. Narrative elements from the earlier novella are reassembled in a new order. Whereas Iroldo travels from Babylon to Orgagna to get away from his former rival, Ruggiero travels from Paris to Bulgaria to confront his new rival. Both Prasildo and Ruggiero are victims of the worst fate to befall a traveller - they are betrayed and captured by their hosts. Prasildo was caught in Falerina's death trap while he was her guest, and although Iroldo does not provide the details, one assumes it was through the procedure described at the nearby Bridge of Roses in which guests were captured while asleep. Ruggiero leaves the site of the battle and travels to an inn, where he is taken prisoner while in his bed (OF 45.9). Ruggiero, like Prasildo, is 'in prigion, dannato a crudel morte' ('in prison, condemned to a cruel death'; OF 45.40) because of a woman's desire for revenge (Leone's aunt Teodora and Falerina of Orgagna, respectively). While Iroldo's risking death to save Prasildo is the culmination of a series of reciprocal benevolent acts, Leone's risking death to enter the prison tower and free Ruggiero is the episode's catalytic act of courtesy. Both Iroldo and Ruggiero face a dilemma. What do you do when your rival in love has acted courteously on your behalf? You are compelled to reciprocate. Ruggiero later explains that Leone's cortesia turned his initial hatred into eternal friendship: 'non pur 1'odio ch'io t'avea, deposi, / ma fe' ch'esser tuo sempre io mi disposi' ('not only, then, did I eschew the hatred I had earlier borne you, but also I determined to be yours forever'; OF 46.35). Ruggiero will go so far as to assume the identity of Leone in order to win for him precisely the

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woman for whom he earlier intended to kill him.16 The key word in this episode, as it is in Boiardo's novella, is cortesia.17 The highest value of the knight, courtesy must be expressed through action. The respective women, Tisbina and Bradamante, also play a parallel role. Both make promises that prove to be imprudent: Tisbina's mistake was to underestimate the power of love when she did not believe that Prasildo would obtain the golden bough she had requested. Bradamante knew the power of Ruggiero's love; she underestimated instead the power of fortune. She was sure that Ruggiero would be around to accept the challenge for her hand, yet at the time he was a captive in a Greek prison. As a result, both women are placed in compromising positions in which they are bound to one rival by love and to the other by duty. When Prasildo returns with the golden bough, Tisbina speaks of 'la mia fede' ('my word'; OI 1.12.45), and she goes to his house precisely 'per servar sua fede' ('to fulfil her oath'; OI 1.12.62). When 'Leone' has successfully withstood Bradamante in a duel, she too is bound by her promise. At the same time, since both stories are ultimately about the high-minded and self-sacrificing actions that exemplify the chivalric virtue of courtesy, neither female will play a major role in the decision making. Each is the desired object that the knights are vying for, and the ultimate sacrifice consists in giving her up. Tellingly, both women are absent from the scene when the sacrifice takes place (Tisbina is asleep and Bradamante is in a different room). Both episodes also include a pivotal chance encounter of the rivals in the woods. Boiardo's Iroldo and Ariosto's Leone both happen to come across their rival just as he is about to commit suicide. In both cases, they overhear the words of lament that reveal the motivation for their rival's despair.18 Whereas in the earlier episode this led to the initial act of courtesy (Iroldo's plan to free Prasildo from his passion for Tisbina), it now leads to the final act of courtesy (Leone's relinquishing of Bradamante to Ruggiero). Ruggiero's planned suicide is also linked thematically to the joint suicide that Iroldo and Tisbina planned in the Innamorato episode. Ruggiero's gesture to relinquish his beloved to his rival even if it will bring about his own death recalls Iroldo and Tisbina's decision to maintain the promise to Prasildo even though it will lead them to end their life. Despite the touch of melodrama in both cases, the planned suicides serve to highlight the extreme self-abnegation that maintaining their promise entails.

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Both pairs of suitors also take turns relinquishing the beloved to their rival/friend. Iroldo surrenders Tisbina to Prasildo permanently in a courteous response to the latter's releasing her from her promise. In the Furioso, the greatest sacrifice, that of Ruggiero's winning Bradamante for Leone, precedes Leone's yielding of his rights over her to his friend. Ariosto changes the order of events with good reason. In the Innamorato, the reciprocal acts of benevolence lead eventually to a pairing of the two males in friendship. The love story, the driving force of the first part of the story, is virtually absent in the sequel. In the Furioso, however, the episode leads to the long-awaited marriage of Ruggiero and Bradamante. Ruggiero must be the one to make the supreme sacrifice, thus becoming the model of knightly courtesy, but in the end he must also 'get the girl.'19 A larger structural parallel reinforces the thematic implications: both accounts of reciprocal benevolence directly reverse the pattern of escalating violence outlined in previous tales. Whereas the Castle Cruel and Marganorre episodes began with the heights of courtesy and ended with ritualized murder, the Iroldo/Prasildo and Ruggiero/ Leone stories begin with negative aggressive impulses that through reciprocal acts of courtesy give way to friendship and harmony.20 Moreover, verbal expressions which ran through the previous revenge stories are now recast in a new, positive context. After Leone has rescued Ruggiero from death, Ariosto uses familiar language to document the latter's felt need to reciprocate: 'd'altro non cura ed altro non disia, / che da 1'obbligazion che gli avea immensa, / sciorsi con pari e maggior cortesia' ('His exclusive concern now, his sole desire night and day, / was to hit upon the means to discharge his enormous / obligation with an equal and greater courtesy'; OF 45.52). The passage verbally echoes the obsessive vengefulness of Marchino (OI 1.8.31), Stella (OI 1.8.36), and Drusilla (OF 37.58). Significantly, this verse took shape in a final version after alterations. Neither of the two discarded versions contains the repetition of altro found in the earlier episodes (Frammenti autografi, 120). The wording of the final version depicts cortesia as a force that is just as compelling as eros and the desire for revenge. The sense of never being satisfied, which was the distinguishing feature of those who carried out personal vendettas in the Castle Cruel and Marganorre stories (repeated by Teodora in this same episode), now comes into play, with all its positive connotations. Ruggiero feels that no service to Leone will ever match what he merits:

150 Creative Imitation Gli par, se tutta sua vita dispensa in lui servire, o breve o lunga sia, e se s'espone a mille morti certe, non gli puo tanto far, che piu non merte. Were he to devote the rest of his life, whatever its duration, to serving Leo, were he to risk certain death a thousand times, he could not, he felt, do as much for him as he deserved. (OF 45.52)

Additionally, considering the overall structure of the 1532 poem, we could note that the two added episodes of Marganorre and Ruggiero/ Leone are strategically positioned after the novellas told to Rinaldo along his Po Valley journey, thus transcending the earlier cynical view and ending the poem with two novella-like episodes that, rather than casting doubt on the values of the Innamomto, undertake instead to recuperate them. The Ruggiero/Leone story is not only the final episode of Ariosto's revised trilogy, it also provides a new trajectory for the character Ruggiero. In my view, it is only at this point that Ruggiero completes the moral education begun at Logistilla's island. A. Bartlett Giamatti has written that the Furioso 'is, in many respects, about how Ruggero grows up, how he grows into his role as founder of the Estensi, how he learns to check the forces outside and curb the energies within' ('Headlong horses/ 293).211 would argue further that this does not occur until Ruggiero has successfully undergone a trial in which he is required by the rules of courtesy to be willing to give up what he loves most in the world. The example of the type of behaviour to emulate, in this case, did not come from a story that he hears, but lay in the actions of his assumed enemy. In this way Ariosto seems to be saying that models of behaviour for praise and blame are to be found not only in the annals of history or the inventions of poets, but in the real world around each of us. Ruggiero and Leone: Politics This episode not only completes Ruggiero's instruction in moral virtue, it also returns to the political dimensions of Rugiero's story that Boiardo had begun to develop in Books Two and Three of the Innamorato. When Ruggiero enters the war and turns the tide in favour of

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the Bulgarians, his actions have unexpected political consequences. Because of his proven valour on the battlefield, the Bulgarians later elect him king and then send messengers to France to crown him and to swear their loyalty (fedelta; OF 46.49). This invitation to rule is not simply an expedient way of providing Ruggiero with a kingdom to satisfy his future in-laws. It directly links Ruggiero to the positive chain of imitation set in motion by the three sons of Alexander of Macedonia, as discussed in Part I. The Bulgarians come to place themselves under Ruggiero's rule, just as the peoples of Africa asked to be governed by the brothers of Tripoli. Ruggiero's personal friendship with Leone will also provide the basis for a new international political alliance. When Ruggiero wins Bradamante for Leone, the latter expresses his boundless desire to reciprocate on both a personal and political level by offering himself and his state as a resource: 'mai trovar satollo / non mi potrai, che me e lo stato mio / spender tu possa ad ogni tuo disio' ('Draw freely upon me and upon my state: / you will never exhaust your credit'; OF 45.83). Indeed, when the Bulgarians later tell Ruggiero that Costantino is returning to attack them, Leone replies that he will see to it that his father surrenders all the territory he has overrun. Remembering that previously Leone was on the battlefield fighting alongside his father, Leone's new respect for the Bulgarians is a direct consequence of his friendship with Ruggiero. The concrete result is a promise of peace between Greece and Bulgaria (OF 46.71). This provides a new component to the alternative chains of imitation outlined in the Innamorato. The emperor Costantino, depicted aggressively attacking his neighbours, is in the line of Alexander of Macedonia. By opposing his father's plan Leone recalls Alexander's sons, who countered their father's rapaciousness with their own good nature (OI 2.1.11-12). Ruggiero, just proclaimed king of Bulgaria, and Leone, the future king of Greece, herald a new age of peace and harmony reminiscent of the one established by Alexander's sons. While Boiardo placed his political Golden Age in the distant past, Ariosto projects his into the future, extending beyond the poem. The situation, moreover, reverses that of the Cinque canti, in which the Byzantine Emperor Constantine sent an army against Charlemagne at Prague out of sheer envy (CC 4.95). Whereas the earlier Constantine had complicated the European war by turning it into a rift between Eastern and Western Christendom, now Constantine's son Leone and Charlemagne's new paladin Ruggiero are the architects of a new era of cooperation between East and West.

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This final added episode thus pulls together key narrative and thematic strands of both the Innamorato and the Furioso. Structurally, it gives completion to both the extended allegorical episode of the hero's moral education and the series of novellas illustrating civic virtue. Thematically, it combines ethics and politics: as an individual, Ruggiero learns self-control and benevolence; as a ruler, he actively helps to bring about world peace. There is not simply a correspondence between personal friendship and international harmony, but an actual relation of cause and effect. Courtesy, faith, and friendship on a private level extend into the public sphere. The code of courtesy and the reciprocity of friendship are the leitmotifs of both the Iroldo and Prasildo episode and of the episodes involving Boiardo's hero Rugiero.22 In the Ruggiero and Leone episode, Ariosto illustrates the full consequence of these virtues - the actions of single individuals can literally make the world a better place. Ariosto may have had even less faith than Boiardo in the power of cortesia in the real world of Italian Renaissance politics, but the experience of the Cinque canti had possibly shown that losing faith in traditional values could only rend the last remnants of the social fabric. Ariosto changes tack and returns with a new sense of complicity to the Innamorato's 'humanist' episodes, recuperating the civic values that the earlier text had sought to promote. He now suggests that the poet's task is not to show readers the depths to which humanity can sink, as Rinaldo's Po Valley stories had done, but instead to urge them to work towards the betterment of the human condition by providing examples to follow. Literature has the urgent task of helping to form both the civic-minded individual and the just prince, and Ruggiero finally returns to being the model for both. It is thus by subscribing to the idea of the poet's civic responsibility that Ariosto brings a definitive conclusion to both the Orlando Innamorato and the Orlando Furioso. Regarding the practice of creative imitation, Thomas M. Greene has written: 'Out of the indefinite number of texts stretching behind it in endless regression, the humanist poem singles out one text as its putative genesis and it defines itself through its rewriting, its "modernizing," its aggiornamento of that text. It points to a dependence which it then overcomes by a declaration of conditional independence' (The Light in Troy, 41).23 Applying Greene's statement to the relation of the Orlando Furioso to the Orlando Innamorato, I would further suggest that here the conditional independence of the 1516 edition gives way to a sense of shared commitment in the 1532 additions.

Part III The Triumph of Romance

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Chapter Eleven Introduction

Partly because of the greater circulation of Aristotle's Poetics following Alessandro de' Pazzi's revised Latin transcription (1536) and partly because of the tastes and personalities of the period's literati, poets who aspired to recognition in the second half of the sixteenth century were expected to take sides in the raging literary debate over the romance epic. On one side stood the poems of Boiardo and Ariosto, with their interlacing stories replete with the marvellous; on the other stood the rules of Aristotle, which required a single plot tending towards verisimilitude. Giangiorgio Trissino, opting to follow the latter, composed a single-plot poem in blank verse, L'ltalia liberata dai Goti, while Bernardo Tasso, a defender of Boiardan and Ariostan romance, turned the already fanciful Amadis de Gaula into the multiphasic Amadigi. Although each poet takes opposite positions in the literary debate, both follow Boiardo, Cieco da Ferrara, and Ariosto in creatively rewriting the episode of the hero's temptation by a seductive woman. The theme of a male hero brought down by a female seductress clearly goes beyond the romance epic. Boccaccio reaches back to the Bible and classical literature to note that Adam, Paris, Aegisthus, Sampson, and Hercules were all captured by 'feminine wiles' (The Fates of Illustrious Men, 43). But in the romance epic tradition the hero and seductress episode did more than warn against female seduction. Indeed, by mid-century the episode had become the genre's privileged space for playing out the contrast between armi and amove, for posing questions about human nature and contemporary society, and for supporting or challenging the political ideology of previous romance epics.1

156 The Triumph of Romance

As I argue below, the episode of a knight drawn off course by a seductress, traditionally used to chart a hero's moral progress, comes to represent instead a contest between the rights of the individual and the demands of society. Aeneas might have abandoned Dido upon the command of Jupiter to found the Roman empire, but what had 'duty' come to represent in the sixteenth century when the Italian peninsula was a playground for foreign powers, and when ever-shifting alliances were determined strictly by the rulers' self-interest? Part III begins by focusing on contrasting hero and seductress episodes: not between Trissino and Bernardo Tasso, as one might expect, but within their respective poems. Both poets, in fact, recreate the episode twice: while in the first case they subscribe to the increasingly moralizing climate of Counter-Reformation Italy, in the second they present serious challenges to that view. In Trissino's first episode, virtue, reason, and human initiative are not enough to overcome the malignant magic of Acratia, and thus God sends an angel to guide the imperial forces to moral and political triumphs. In his second episode, however, he shows that the individual may have a more worthy pursuit than following the orders of a flawed political and military authority. In the Amadigi's first episode, the virtuous hero succeeds in resisting the allure of the enchantress altogether, while the second episode relates another hero's amorous interlude without any of the usual moralizing overtones. The latter versions of both poems go against the episode's traditional ideology in a distinct, but complementary way: while Trissino shifts to a negative depiction of the political powers that call the hero back to duty, Bernardo Tasso gives a positive description of the private pleasures that detain him. Nevertheless, both poets respect the restrictions imposed by the episode's structural pattern: although the private encounter is not censured, it is treated as a temporary parenthesis in the career of the hero, who eventually returns to his military-epic pursuits. Questions of structure, allegory, ideology, and politics come together in Torquato Tasso's rewriting of the hero and the seductress episode in the Rinaldo and Gerusalemme Liberata. In the Rinaldo, Tasso follows along the lines of his father with a positive encounter between the hero and the seductress which nonetheless remains an isolated parenthesis in the hero's career. In the Liberata, however, he makes use of the episode's various literary precedents, especially the later example of Trissino, to undermine the episode's traditional moral implications and eventually to overturn the expected ending. I

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will argue that while Tasso is often regarded as a proponent of Counter-Reformation ideology, in actuality he goes against the grain by replacing the civic-minded ethic of his predecessors with a covert program of how the individual can seek happiness in an increasingly repressive society.

Chapter Twelve Trissino, L'ltalia liberata da' Goti (1547-8)

L'ltalia liberata e forse piu licenziosa ne gli episodi che non e il mio Goffredo. (The Italia liberata is perhaps more licentious in its episodes than my Goffredo.) Torquato Tasso, letter of 1576

Given an increasingly perceived distance between romance and epic components, and with Ariosto's structural distance from Aristotle's norms conceived of as a defect, Giangiorgio Trissino (1478-1550) set out to write a work more faithful to the Iliad than any of his Renaissance counterparts had managed to be. Abandoning the ottava rima, he wrote twenty-seven books of blank verse about the successful efforts of the Byzantines, under the emperor Justinian and supreme commander Belisarius, to drive the Northern barbarian invaders out of Italy in the sixth century.1 Although Trissino insisted on the classical pedigree of his poem, the subject of freeing Italy from foreign invaders had obvious contemporary resonance, and Trissino did not miss an occasion to bemoan the corruption and decadence of the Italian courts and the papacy. While Machiavelli had a few decades earlier wished for an Italian prince who, 'con la virtu italica' ('with Italian virtue'; // Principe, 119), could free Italy from the stench of foreign domination, Trissino, a supporter of Charles V, expresses an ideal of imperial unity. Yet Trissino's imperialist leanings were congruent with the traditional world of the Italian romance epic. We have just seen how the world harmony envisioned in Boiardo's African Utopia was given new life through the alliance between East and West at the conclusion of the 1532 Furioso. Trissino makes explicit the links between past and present in his dedi-

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catory letter to Charles V, whom he hails as both the liberator of Italy and a symbol of the restoration of imperial order - a modern Charlemagne, or, as Trissino says, a modern Justinian. Nevertheless, in the midst of this heavily historicizing epic, Trissino found the space to include a quintessential romance allegory in cantos 4 and 5. While most of Trissino's contemporaries condemned the poem as a whole for being unreadable, Giraldi Cinzio also criticized Trissino's insertion of this episode for being incongruous with the rest of the poem: Trissino, wishing to make use of allegory with this fiction (drawn indeed from others and in part from Ariosto's fable of Alcina and Logistilla), did not look further and was content to show he understood Greek names, even though he fitted the fable neither probably nor necessarily to the continuity' (48). Whether or not Trissino wanted to flaunt his knowledge of Greek by naming his maga Acratia (acrasia, 'intemperance') and his heroine Areta ('virtue'), the Greek names do suggest a reading along moralistic lines. The episode begins when a young woman poses as a damsel in distress before a group of Italian knights and requests their help.2 Trissino's maiden, who appears disconsolate and mournful, tells a story about a magical ring with the following property: if anyone kisses the ring and then touches something, that object will be transformed into whatever the person has in his thoughts. The maiden claims that she lost the ring at a fountain when she wanted to create a new beverage, and she promises to love the knight who succeeds in retrieving it for her (IL 4, 67r). At first the knights seem enflamed with desire, like Charlemagne's court at the appearance of Angelica in the first canto of the Innamorato. Trissino cynically notes, however, that they are spurred by avarice as well as erotic desire: some plan to obtain the ring for themselves and abandon the woman (IL 4, 67r). The story that explains the fountain's origins is not about erotic desire or revenge, but concerns rather the ambition to maintain political power at all costs. When the maga Acratia heard that her realm and her garden were destined to be destroyed by the maiden Sinesia, she had her brother Faulo kill Sinesia in an ambush by piercing her heart with an arrow. Sinesia's grandmother Areta cried so copiously that her tears were transformed into the Fonte del Sanajo, or the Healing Fountain. Acratia then commanded Faulo to imprison Areta and her four daughters (the four virtues) and to stand guard at the fountain to prevent anyone from drinking its water. As it turns out, then, the maiden's story about losing her ring was

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merely a ploy to lure the knights to this fountain, just as Angelica's proposal of a joust was a ploy to lure Charlemagne's knights into captivity. The Healing Fountain, moreover, has two properties that link it to Angelica's magical ring. First, it has the same power to break spells (7L 4, 70v). Second, while Angelica's ring renders the body invisible, the fountain makes it physically sound. Its complementary properties of breaking spells and healing the body make it an antidote to enchanted waters like Dragontina's river, the Narcissus fountain, and the Laughing Stream. Acratia supplies Faulo with enchanted armour, an enchanted horse, a magic lance that knocks its opponents to the ground, and a magic sword. In the Innamorato, Galafrone had similarly carried out his political plot by providing his son Argalia with the magical weaponry of romance: a horse that could run faster than the wind, a shield, armour, an enchanted sword, and a magic lance that knocked every opponent to the ground at the slightest touch, as well as the magic ring (O7 1.1.38-9). The greatest offensive weapon in both texts, however, is a fair damsel: Above all else ('sopra a tutto') Galafrone sent Angelica to beguile the knights and lead them to battle (O7 1.1.40). Trissino's Acratia uses Ligridonia first to lure the knights to the fountain and then to render Faulo invincible whenever he looks upon her during battle. The knights never seem to realize that Ligridonia's earlier story about losing a magic ring was merely part of Acratia's treacherous political scheme. After Faulo has imprisoned countless knights, God decides to intervene to free Areta and imprison Acratia (IL 4, 78v). In a scene that imitates Jupiter's command to Mercury in Aeneid IV, the Christian God sends the Angel Palladio to aid the knights. Where Mercury laces up his golden sandals (Aen. 4.321), the Angel Palladio puts two large wings on his arms and two smaller ones on his feet (IL 4, 78v), and, with Mercury's speed, descends like a flash of lightning. The Angel Palladio then assumes the form of an elderly knight named Paulo and appears to a group of knights. Given that Mercury appears as himself in Aeneid IV, Palladio's disguise brings Trissino's version closer to that of Cieco and Ariosto, in which the liberators Malagigi and Melissa had to resort to subterfuge. Trissino increases even more the distance between divine and human affairs by using Palladio only as a mediator and counsellor, and not as a liberator. Palladio/Paulo warns the knights that Ligridonia is the greatest danger, and advises Corsamonte (the poem's hero) to deal with her first. The angel offers divine assistance through a spell-breaking shield and

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helmet, but Corsamonte foolishly refuses the two gifts because he wants to win through his own valour. As the knights approach the fountain, they encounter Ligridonia, who now takes on yet another role: she assumes the guise of the seductive enchantress who causes desire and amnesia in the hero. Corsamonte, having refused the magical spell-breaking objects, instantly burns with the flames of passionate love ('ratto acceso di fervente amore') and forgets the angel's instructions. At first he reacts in a way consistent with other knights of the romance epic tradition by planning to win her (Tenso di guadagnar quella donzella'; IL 5, 72v). Yet Ligridonia turns out to resemble the accommodating Alcina rather than the elusive Angelica - she is in fact referred to as a siren ('quella sirena'; IL 5, 73r) - and she soon leads Corsamonte away with her. The remaining knights of the liberation team must now free not only the knights defeated by Faulo, but also the hero Corsamonte enchanted by Ligridonia. Like Atalante's mountain hideaway in Innamorato, Book Two, Acratia's garden can only be seen by those who possess the equivalent of Angelica's spell-breaking ring: water from the Healing Fountain. Instead of drinking it (as at the Fountain of Love, OI 1.3.38), watching maidens dancing in it (as at the Narcissus fountain, OI 2.17.59) or plunging into the bottom of it (as at the Laughing Stream, OI 2.31.46-7), the knights are instructed to do something not generally associated with water in the romance epic - to wash themselves in it. The fountain's spiritually purifying qualities suggest the use of water in a religious context. But Trissino does not omit the quintessential fountain of the romance epic from the picture altogether. The Healing Fountain is contrasted to the two fountains of Gnatia where Acratia reigns. These fountains are surrounded by graceful damsels who, like Dragontina, invitingly hold out water to the knights in goblets of the finest crystal. Those who drink from the first fountain become so enflamed with lascivious thoughts that they care for nothing else but dances, songs, banquets, games, and conversations about love. Those who drink from the second fountain begin to hate every virtue and every virile undertaking (IL 5, 80r). The effects of these two fountains are complementary. The first stirs the knights to follow lascivious Venus ('pensier lascivi'), while the second leads them to abandon virile Mars ('ogni virile impresa'). This combined state reproduces the familiar reaction of knights who forget their chivalric duty under the spell of alluring enchantresses.

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The liberators travel through illustrated logge and an enchanted wood to reach Acratia's dwelling (7L 5, 80v-81v). In the ensuing scene, Acratia and Ligridonia are no longer differentiated as witch and seductress; rather, they act in tandem, transforming themselves into water, fire, and serpents. When magic fails, they try to persuade the knights through rhetoric, but to no avail. Their prayers are thrown to the wind because the virtue of heaven works like Virgil's Mercury to close the knights' ears (II 5, 83v; Aen. 4.606). Although Trissino's liberation episode includes allusions to Virgil's precedent, the resolution comes about through magic, as in the Innamorato and the Furioso, and not through the exercise of free will, as in the Aeneid or the Mambriano. Trissino even dispenses with the use of rhetoric as a tool in the liberation and focuses exclusively on the magical procedure. Having been cleansed with holy water from the Healing Fountain, the knight Trajano, as instructed earlier by the angel, raises up Acratia's skirt and reveals her genitals ('le secrete parti'; IL 5, 84r). The effect on the knights is not erotic desire but horror: the women's thighs are revealed to be two fierce snakes that emit an unbearable stench (IL 5, 84r-v). This transformation of female private parts into ghastly smelly monsters goes beyond Ariosto's turning of Alcina into an old hag and connects to a long tradition of misogynist literature.3 This remedium amoris has the intended effect on the knights: Quasi sveljati da mortal letargo Si risentiro, e si disciolse il velo, Che Ij'era stato intorno a Ij'occhi avolto. As if awoken from a mortal lethargy they came to, and the veil was dissolved, that had been wrapped around their eyes. (IL 5,84v)

The recovery from erotic enchantment is described as an awakening, along the lines of Orlando at both the Laughing Stream (OI 3.7.37) and the outskirts of Biserta (OF 35.69; 39.58). With the metaphorical veil lifted along with Acratia's skirt, the knights now also recognize each other - as did the knights at Dragontina's palace (OI 1.14.46-8). In the Furioso, Ariosto followed the liberation of Ruggiero and Astolfo from Alcina with a visit to Logistilla's island, where they could learn the four virtues. Trissino opts to use more 'religious magic' rather than secular instruction. If, before undertaking the mission, the libera-

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tors had washed and purified themselves in the Fountain of Healing, the freed knights now drink that same 'mirabile onda' ('wondrous water') as if it were a magic potion and recover their senses: Hor questo ber Iji fu tanto salubre, Che Ij'allumo la tenebrosa mente; Come s'alluma qualche oscura stanza La notte allhor, ch'ogniun riposa, e dorme, Se '1 buon Vulcan da cenere coperto, S'avvolge intorno a Ij'aridi legnami, Che sopra i grand! alari fur distesi, Per asciugarli, accio che la mattina Piu agevolmente Iji accendesse il fuoco; Onde ciascun da la soverckia luce Ratto si svelja, e riguardano intorno, Se vede cinto di novello albore. Cos! dal ber de la mirabile onda, Furo allumati i cavalieri eletti. Now this drink was so salubrious that it illuminated their dark minds just as a dark room is lit up during the night when everyone rests and sleeps, if good Vulcan covered in ashes, wraps himself in dry wood that had been stretched out on large iron stands to dry so that in the morning the fire could be lit more easily; whereby everyone by the too abundant light, suddenly awoke, and looking around, sees himself covered in a new whiteness. In this way by drinking the marvelous water the chosen knights were illuminated. (IL 5, 84v) Whereas Virgil's simile of the cosmic tree focuses on the faculty of the will, and Cieco's and Ariosto's similes of the dog's vomit and the rancid fruit focus on the appetites, Trissino's simile of Vulcan's fire in the night shifts the problem to one of the intellect's darkness and illumination. The immediacy of Corsamonte's earlier seduction ('ratto acceso') is now matched by the immediacy of the knights' recovery

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('ratto si sveglia'), without the perceived need for subsequent instruction and/or testing. In the course of the liberation, the female seductress is thoroughly dehumanized: earlier, the women's thighs were transformed into smelly snakes, now their tears are likened to two copious, brown streams flowing down rocky hills. The hero-seductress episode is, moreover, set within a larger battle between the forces of good and evil, with the seductress (Ligridonia) serving as a mere pawn for the political machinations of the tyrant Acratia. Without the intervention, instruction, and objects provided by divine sources, the knights would be helpless to free themselves. In the end, the knights liberate their companions, rescue Areta and her four daughters, and undo the evil effects of the two seductive fountains, all by recourse to the water of the Healing Fountain. Corsamonte and Elpidia Another section of Trissino's poem incorporates elements of the heroseductress episode without pitting public duty against private pleasure. In the following canto, another beautiful damsel appears (apparve) before the Christian knights to beseech their help, this time in order to avenge her father's death and win back her kingdom (IL 6, lOlr). The sudden appearance of a beautiful woman who announces to a gathering of knights that an injustice led her to abandon her realm takes the reader back once more to the opening of the Innamorato. Both Boiardo's Angelica, surrounded by four giants, and Trissino's Elpidia, surrounded by four noble knights, stupefy the assembled knights with their beauty. Elpidia's tale of woe, however, is more elaborate: she explains that the captain of the Goths killed her father by treachery because he refused to marry her off to the Goth's repulsive son, and that afterward her mother died of grief. And unlike Angelica's story of exile, Elpidia's is a true one. Angelica offers her body ('la mia persona') to whoever could defeat her brother in a joust; the more discrete Elpidia offers herself in marriage to a knight of the captain's choosing. All those present are enflamed with desire: while Boiardo's knights burn solely with desire for Angelica, some of Trissino's knights are more calculating, and just as earlier they had wanted Ligridonia's ring, they now crave Elpidia's dowry. Corsamonte, above all others, desires Elpidia for his wife (IL 6,105r). The captain Belisario states that he will give her to the knight who shows the greatest valour in the upcoming battle against the Goths.

L'ltalia liberata da' Goti 165 In the ensuing narrative, Corsamonte not only avenges Elpidia's father and kills the Goth captain Thebaldo, but he is acknowledged by Elpidia to be the most handsome, strong, and valorous knight on earth (IL 11, 24v). The enamoured Elpidia sends a messenger to Belisario asking to be given to Corsamonte in marriage. Acquilino, however, asks Belisario to postpone his decision in the hope of winning Elpidia for himself. When Belisario publicly agrees to wait, an angry Corsamonte attacks Acquilino. Belisario then tells Corsamonte that he will never marry Elpidia. Outraged, Corsamonte withdraws his allegiance to a leader he now considers unworthy of his service, and he expresses his motivation in the form of a sententia: 'quel baron, che cerca honore, / Non dee mai dimorar sotto '1 governo / D'un Capitan volubile, et ingiusto' ('the knight who seeks honour / Must never live under the government / of a fickle and unjust Captain'; IL 11, 35r). The captain has lost his moral authority by breaking his promise, and the offended Corsamonte vindicates his autonomy by departing from the group. As a consequence, the episode adopts the underlying structural pattern of the Iliad in which the warrior, as a result of mistreatment by his leader, departs in anger. In the ensuing narrative, Trissino will play the themes of the Iliad (with its conflicting interests among the characters) against the pattern of the hero-seductress episode (with its conflict between love and duty within the hero). Or rather, through the superimposition of Homeric epic, Trissino transforms the recurrent episode of the hero's moral education into a critique of the political forces in power.4 An abbot directs Corsamonte to the palace of the fairy Plutina, located in a wooded mountaintop in Circe's peninsula (IL 11, 37r). Despite the allusion to Circe, Plutina is not a seductress waiting to trap unwary knights, but the figure of blind Fortuna. As she explains to Corsamonte, she was blinded because her intention was to favour only the good, the wise, and the just (IL 11,42v), and she can regain her eyesight if he will remain with her for twenty-five days. Trissino uses this encounter to condemn not the errant knight, but society at large. When Plutina remarks that she has not seen a just person for some time, Corsamonte replies: 'Meraviglia non e, se voi, che siete / Priva di vista non vedete i giusti, / Che noi, che Ij'ocki havem, non ne vedemo' ('It is not a wonder that you who are deprived of sight cannot see just men, since we who have eyes cannot see them'; IL 11, 43r). Corsamonte then goes on to equate Plutina's regaining her eyesight with the return of Astraea to earth and the restoration of the Golden Age of justice:

166 The Triumph of Romance Se voi racquisterete il lume, Se'n verra giu dal ciel la bella Astrea, Onde governerete il mondo insieme, E Iji ritornerete il secol d'oro. If you will reacquire the light (of seeing) the beautiful Astraea will come down from the heavens whereby you will govern the world together and the golden age will return. (7L 11,43r)

During the time that Corsamonte is at Plutina's cave, Belisario misses his valour in the war effort and sends two knights to bring him back. In the context of the hero-seductress episode, these messengers would be fulfilling the role of liberators. Yet Trissino signals that something is amiss. Whereas the knights fighting Acratia were assisted by the intervention of the Angel Palladio, here otherworldly assistance comes in the form of a demon ('demonio'; IL 14, 83r). When the demon tells the knights how to find Corsamonte, they believe him to be a messenger from heaven ('lo tenner messaggier del paradise'). Trissino insists on both the knights' mistake and the spirit's infernal nature: 'Ma se ingannor, perche d'inferno uscia' ('But they deceived themselves, because he came out of Hell'; IL 14, 83r). Having arrived at Plutina's cave, the messenger Trajano tries to persuade Corsamonte to return to Belisario by contrasting his life of pleasure with the suffering of the Roman people under attack, thus employing the standard persuasive argument of the liberator in the hero-seductress episode: Corsamonte gentil, tu stai sicuro Con abbondanza d'ottime vivande In questo suntuoso, e bel palagio; Ma i miseri Romani entra Ij'alberghi Cinti di mura, e di profonde fossa, Stan timorosi, e con periljo estremo. Noble Corsamonte, you are in safety With an abundance of good food In this sumptuous and beautiful palace; But the miserable Romans inside shelters

L'ltalia liberata da' Goti 167 Covered by city walls, and in deep ditches, Are afraid and in extreme danger. (IL 14,84r)

Trissino even follows Cieco da Ferrara and Ariosto by repeating the structure of Mercury's culminating exhortation to Aeneas: E se pur il tuo cuor tanto e commosso, Che tu habbi in odio Belisario il grande, E i tanti doni suoi, prendi la moglie, Che t'ama, e caro t'ha piu, che se stessa. And if your heart is so moved That you hate the great Belisario And his many gifts, take your wife, Who loves you, and holds you dearer than her own life. (IL 14,85v)

In this case, the would-be liberator imagines the second highest priority to be not fame or honour, but the captain and his material gifts. Furthermore, the woman currently loved by the hero is no longer the obstacle that interferes with his duty; she is now presented as the highest goal. Or rather, she is recast as the highest bribe offered to lure the hero away from a more noble cause. Whereas in the episode's precedents the hero was moved by the liberator's speech, here Corsamonte is not persuaded. Recalling Achilles' refusal to accept Agamemnon's gifts, he continues to criticize Belisario: 'io ho in odio colui, che dentr'al cuore / Tiene una cosa, e ne la lingua un'altra' ('I hate those who within their heart / hold one thing, and on their tongue another'; IL 14, 85v). What is traditionally a moment in which the wayward hero voluntarily submits to authority in the name of a higher good has been replaced by the hero's condemnation of an authoritarian abuse of power. In this way, Trissino turns a scene that centred on the shortcomings of the hero into an occasion to expose the faults of the ruler. Trissino gives Corsamonte free rein to declare his rights and his sense of worth as an individual: Ma che mi giova affaticarmi sempre, E starmi combattendo fra i nemici Col ferro in mano, e con la morte a canto E senza speme haver di alcun vantaggio Se dopo le fatiche, e i gran perilji,

168 The Triumph of Romance Impedita mi vien la propria molje, Che mi ricerca, e mi dimanda, e vuole. But what use is it to always wear myself out, And engage in battle against enemies, With iron in hand, and with death at my side And without hope of having any advantage After the hardships and the great dangers? Barred from me is my own wife, Who seeks me, asks for me, and wants me. (IL 14,86r)

After Corsamonte states his intention to marry Elpidia even without Belisario's permission, his companion Achille uses a simile to describe him that both recalls and opposes the similes discussed earlier in the scene's precedents: 'E come scoljo posto in mezzo 1'onde / Stai sempre immoto a le percosse, e fermo' ('And like a rock in the middle of the waves / you are always immovable and steady against the blows'; IL 14, 89r). Whereas Aeneas's resolve to obey Jupiter's orders and leave Dido was described through the simile of a gigantic oak tree, here it is Corsamonte's resolve to defy Belisario's orders and remain with Plutina that is rendered through a simile of constancy. Moreover, the tempestuous sea, traditionally used to express the unruly nature of the passions, now represents the inopportune demands made by the captain of the army. The steadfast Corsamonte does not intend to leave until Elpidia is in Taranto and Plutina has recovered her eyesight, and the would-be liberators must return empty-handed. The pursuit of a personal goal (marriage to Elpidia on his own terms) and a humanitarian mission (recovery of Plutina's eyesight) take precedence over authoritarian demands (obedience to Captain Belisario). Moreover, this combined goal prevents Corsamonte's choice from lying between private pleasure and public duty. The episode is set up so that the reader finds Corsamonte's decision to remain with Plutina not only legitimate but clearly the higher moral option. In an epic that is ostensibly a celebration of imperial authority, this portrait of an individual unafraid to critique and resist a flawed ruler is extraordinary. Belisario's messengers astutely recognize that the only way they can recover Corsamonte is to alter the terms of the choice, and they plan to use his love for Elpidia as bait to lure him away from Plutina and back to Belisario (IL 14, 91r). This crafty reasoning carries with it the Guicciardinian assumption that the individual will put self-interest before

L'Italia liberata da Goti 169 the good of humanity when forced to choose between them. And alas, they are correct. With only four days remaining for Plutina to regain her eyesight, Belisario sends another group of messengers to inform Corsamonte that Elpidia was taken hostage by the Goths on her way to Rome. Against the judgment of Achille, who wants to heal Plutina first, Corsamonte sets out immediately in search of Elpidia, forsaking the chance to grant Fortuna the means to recreate a Golden Age of justice. When Corsamonte submits to Belisario's authority (7L 19,16v), the reconciliation is a political victory for Belisario, but the price for humanity is too high for it to be seen as a moral triumph. Through the story of Corsamonte and Elpidia, Trissino modifies the traditional episode of the wayward knight in order to expose and critique the shortcomings of the prince. At the same time, he shows just how difficult it is to act independently when those wielding power force others to comply with their wishes. For better or for worse, it seems clear that the demands of the state will inexorably prevail over the aspirations of the individual. The poem, after all, goes on to relate the early death of Corsamonte and the ultimate victory of Belisario. As I will argue below, the representation of a rift between political and moral authority, as well as of an attempt by an individual knight to pursue a personal goal, did not escape the notice of Torquato Tasso. First, however, I would like to turn to how his father Bernardo wove his own reflections into two contrasting versions of the hero and seductress episode.

Chapter Thirteen Bernardo Tasso, L'Amadigi (1560)

Viviamo, amianci, o mia gradita Hielle, Hedra sia tu che '1 caro tronco abbraccia. (Let's live, let's love each other, my delightful Hielle, You be the ivy that embraces its beloved trunk.) Torquato Tasso, Rime

Bernardo Tasso, born in Bergamo in 1493, was a poet and court functionary who served various patrons who were not always on the same side of the French-Spanish struggle. His biographer Edward Williamson notes that in his poems of encomium and occasion, Bernardo 'praises Francis I, Henry II, and Marguerite of Valois on the one side, or Charles V and Philip II on the other, with equal fervency, according to the allegiance of his patron and the chance of advantage to himself (36).1 Realistically, however, the court poet or functionary did not have the luxury of expressing his actual political sympathies, or even of choosing patrons according to their political orientation. Bernardo Tasso's early career, in fact, demonstrates the high price paid for loyalty to one's patron in the midst of political crossfire. While he was in the service of the Neapolitan Ferrante Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno, the attempt of the Viceroy Pedro de Toledo to implement the Spanish Inquisition in Naples in 1547 sparked a rebellion. The aristocratic Sanseverino was designated as ambassador of the cause to the emperor, and Bernardo followed him to Spain. Charles V, however, declared Sanseverino a rebel. When Bernardo subsequently followed his patron into exile, the move cost him the company of his family and all his possessions (Solerti 1:11-17).

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Bernardo at first continued to serve Sanseverino, but that arrangement proved disappointing and Bernardo spent the rest of his life switching patrons as well as trying to survive outside the courtly patronage system altogether. After moving to Venice, where he had hoped to support himself through his writing, Bernardo declares himself: 'stance homai da 1'insopportabili fatiche, che 1'attioni del mondo seco portano; et desideroso di sottrarre il collo al difficile, noioso & duro giogo de la servitu dei Prencipi, al quale son stato legato quarant'anni' ('tired of those unbearable toils that the actions of the world bring with them, and desirous to free my neck from the difficult, bothersome, and hard yoke of servitude to princes, to which I have been bound for forty years'; Lettere 2: 590). As Trissino had dedicated his poem to Charles V, Bernardo now dedicates his Amadigi to Philip II in the hope that the poem's success would lead the Spanish court to revoke his status as rebel in exile, thus permitting him to return to Naples and recover his confiscated possessions. The poem's publication, however, did not improve Bernardo's financial status or alter the inflexibility of the Spanish court (Solerti 1: 42). Referring to Bernardo as a 'painful example of a courtier's life in his century,' Solerti laments that this consummate diplomat and celebrated poet 'ended up forgotten in a humble post, having at his death bed from among his dispersed family only his son, to whom he left as his only inheritance his debts and a few sentimental objects' (1:127). Bernardo Tasso is best known for his Amadigi, a rewriting of Garcia Rodriguez de Montalvo's Spanish romance epic Amadis de Gaula.2 The Spanish poem concerns principally the adventures of the title's hero. Bernardo had at first planned to closely follow the narrative of Amadis and his beloved, but he subsequently introduced two new couples whose adventures align the romance epic more closely with the interlacing and multiple plots made popular in the Italian tradition by Boiardo and Ariosto. What is of particular interest in the context of this study is that Bernardo invents episodes for these new heroes that reproduce the (by now) customary encounter between the hero and a seductress. Like Trissino, moreover, he creates two very distinct versions of this episode. The comparison between Galaor (canto 23) and Floridante (cantos 73 and 78) when tempted by the daughters of Morgana follows the episode's traditional moralistic thrust, showing the necessity of resisting erotic enchantment in order to become a dutiful knight. By contrast, the amorous encounter of Alidoro and the princess Lucilla (cantos 22 and 25) resists any overt moralizing. In a romance

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epic of over 100 cantos, it is telling that the episodes in question begin one canto apart. After briefly discussing the Galaor-Floridante episode that recycles material from medieval romance, I will turn to the innovative treatment of the hero-seductress encounter in the episode of Alidoro and Lucilla. In the Galaor-Floridante episode, Bernardo writes parallel scenes that compare the abilities of two knights to resist the seduction of the fairy Morgana's daughters.3 The opening of the narrative replays the story of Arthur's winning of the throne through his ability to pull the sword Excalibur out of the stone. In this case, however, success depends not only on being able to extract the sword, but also on keeping it in its original, vermilion colour. Galaor, the first knight tested in this adventure, attains the sword, but then encounters Morganetta, referred to as a terrestrial love goddess ('una terrena amorosetta Dea'; Am. 23.48). Bernardo adopts a traditional moralistic stance by intervening to ask the character: 'Che farai Galaor? che ti consiglia / In questo caso la ragione, o '1 senso?' ('What will you do, Galaor? What is advising you / in this case, reason or the senses?'; Am. 23.49). Galaor acts on his senses rather than reason, and chooses a night of sexual pleasure with Morganetta. The following morning he finds that his sword has become blackened (Am. 23.54). Fifty cantos pass before Bernardo returns to the episode, this time with Floridante as the protagonist. Unlike Galaor, Floridante resists all the advances made by human seductresses as well as those of the fairy Morganetta. He is not even tempted by Nivetta, another of Morgana's daughters, whose feminine charms offer him a terrestrial paradise (Am. 73.32). Whereas previous poets examined in this shady used similes to mark the hero's liberation from erotic enchantment, Bernardo resorts to one to denote Floridante's complete invulnerability: he is like the ice in the high Northern mountains (Am. 73.33). As Nivetta continues, she uses 'mirabil arte' to increase her natural beauty so that any man would burn with the flames of love (Am. 73.40). When the episode is continued three cantos later, Cupid's arrows and darts can be seen issuing forth from Nivetta's eyes (Am. 76.11). Bernardo finally acknowledges a battle between Floridante's reason and his senses, but reason is victorious in the space of a single verse (Am. 76.26). The moral could not be presented any more plainly: whereas Galaor tainted his sword through lust, Floridante remains chaste and his sword remains unblemished. By contrasting the two knights, Bernardo can demonstrate both the wrong and the right behaviour without com-

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promising the integrity of his hero. Moreover, while in Boiardo, Cieco, Ariosto, and Trissino, unprotected knights seemed inevitably doomed to fall victim to erotic enchantment, here Bernardo portrays a knight who is capable of exercising self-control on his own. Given the blatantly moralizing tone of this 'test of virtue/ the reader may not expect the originality of the subsequent episode involving Alidoro, another male hero added to supplement the original adventures of Amadigi. Alidoro, son of the king of England, is in love with Amadigi's sister Miranda, daughter of the king of France. During a period of separation, Alidoro succumbs to the beauty of Lucilla, who is not an enchantress but simply a princess who is in love with him. When Alidoro and Lucilla enter a locus amoenus which is Verde, vago, ameno, e dilettoso' ('green, beautiful, pleasant, and delightful'; Am. 22.6), the stage is set for an amorous interlude. The garden contains a fountain with a sculpted scene of Venus and Mars surprised during their lovemaking by Vulcan, who calls on the other Olympian gods as witnesses: Scolpito intorno si vede a la sponda II Senate del Ciel, che la mogliera Mirava di Vulcan, che '1 dolce amante Cingea, com'arbor suol hedera errante. Sculpted around its edge one sees The Senate of the Heavens, as they observed the wife of Vulcan, who was wrapped around her sweet lover like wandering ivy on a tree. (Am. 22.10)

In this ekphrastic passage, Bernardo anticipates a moralized reading by referring to the gods as the Senate of the Heavens and to Venus as Vulcan's wife. Yet the judgmental tone instantly disappears as the poet describes the image of Venus embracing her sweet lover just as ivy clings to a tree. Venus and Mars are metamorphosed into vegetation, not as punishment - as in Astolfo's case - but through poetic simile. The Senate of the Heavens, called by Vulcan to sit in judgment, is captured in the scene in the role of voyeur, suggestively paralleling the position of the reader. Bernardo's ekphrasis draws on a tradition of literary precedents, beginning with Homer's Odyssey (8.266-366), that help the reader to gauge its function in the episode. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Vulcan traps Venus and Mars and then calls the gods to come and see the

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lovers who are 'in chains, disgracefully' (Met. 4.186-7). But when 'some one of the merry gods prayed that he might be so disgraced' (Met. 4.187-8), moralizing gives way to mirth. Vulcan's intended condemnation of adultery is forestalled by the gods' acknowledgment of the irresistible nature of Venus. It is easy to see how this scene could serve later writers who wished to proclaim the rights of the flesh. In the Amoroso, visione, Boccaccio recounts the scene in the form of an ekphrasis, placing the reader in the role of spectator. Boccaccio's Vulcan is less a justly outraged husband than a downright fool whose entrapment of the lovers brings about his own shame rather than theirs (AV 19.13-24). In recounting the reaction of the celestial citizens, Boccaccio goes beyond Ovid by telling how the gods and goddesses eye both Venus and Mars with erotic desire (AV 19.25-7). Moreover, he turns the desire expressed by one of the gods in Ovid's text into collective action, as all those present proceed to follow the example of Venus and Mars (AV 19.28-30). Bernardo has thus chosen for his ekphrasis a well-known story that not only celebrates sexual love as natural, but that also suggests that an erotic image can lead to the awakening of desire in the viewer. Bernardo's Alidoro and Lucilla are both readers/interpreters and viewers/voyeurs. Five stanzas after the ekphrasis, they drink at the same fountain, which now serves directly as a magic fountain of love: Quivi Lucilla beve, & Alidoro, E '1 veleno d'Amor nel petto manda Crebbe la voglia in ciaschedun di loro, Per la gran forza di quella bevenda. Ma che dico io? in Alidor si accense Voglia novella, e 1'antica si spense. Here Lucilla drank, and so did Alidoro, And it sends the poison of Love into their breast, The amorous desire grew in each of them, Due to the great power of the beverage. But what am I saying? In Alidor was lit A new desire, and the old one was extinguished. (Am. 22.15)

The fountain thus engenders the erotic desire depicted in the sculpture, while the magic beverage serves to remove responsibility from the characters themselves. This passage also reminds the reader that

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Alidoro's new desire for Lucilla replaces a previous love, thus aligning the episode with its precedents in which the hero is temporarily sidetracked from his destined or actual consort. Although love is referred to as a poison, it does not kill; on the contrary, it seems to animate both the characters and the natural world that surrounds them. The lovers' desire is matched by images of boundless fertility, such as blooming flowers and fruits which, when picked, are immediately replaced by many more (Am. 22.21). Bernardo describes in an almost hallucinatory way a state of nature animated by sexual passion: Udiansi i vaghi augei di ramo, in ramo D'amorose querele il ciel ferire; Ogni foglia, ogni fior, ogn'herba, io amo Mormorando parea volesser dire. One could hear the graceful birds from branch to branch Wounding the sky with their amorous complaints; Every leaf, every flower, every blade of grass 'I love' Murmuring seemed to be wanting to say. (Am. 22.22)

Not only the birds, but even the vegetation seems to be speaking the language of love. This new attention to the passion within nature could be due to the heightened sensitivity of the lovers after the magic waters, or it could simply be the projection of their own emotional state onto their surroundings. In either case, the effect is that of an invitation to join in the exuberant fecundity of nature. As the lovers move through the palace, the scene alternates between rooms and interior gardens, bringing the world of nature within the walls of the court. After the lovers pass through a fourth door dedicated to Pleasure ('Diletto'), they enter another garden where they feel reciprocal sexual desire (Am. 22.25). From this interior garden, they move again into a room (Am. 22.27). Just as they begin to embrace, the poet changes topics (Am. 22.28). They thus remain frozen in this embrace, as though re-enacting the sculpted scene of the fountain that fixed in time the embrace of Venus and Mars. When the poet returns to the lovers three cantos later, he dispenses with poetic invention and simply tells the reader that the two joyous lovers went to bed together: 'Ambi pieni di gioia, e di diletto / Di concorde voler s'andaro a letto' ('Both filled with joy, and with pleasure, / With a mutual desire they went to bed'; Am. 25.36). As in the earlier ekphrasis, the lovemaking is

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witnessed by the gods. However, while previously the Senate of the Heavens was assembled by Vulcan as would-be judges of an illicit act, here Amore and Venus preside over the event as though it were a wedding celebration. While Amore takes on the duties of Hymen, Venus herself, referred to here as 'la bella Citherea/ not only looks on but participates in the amorous encounter by generously strewing all pleasure and sweetness upon the lovers: Fu Himeneo a queste nozze Amore; E pronuba la bella Citherea; Ch'ogni placer soave, ogni dolzore Con larga man sovra di lor spargea. Amore was Hymen at that wedding celebration and lovely Venus was the matron of honor; who strewed upon them with a generous hand every delightful pleasure, every sweetness. (Am. 25.37)

The verb used to describe Venus's action, spargere, suggests the expression 'spargere fiori' ('to strew flowers'; cfr. OF 40.57 [46.85]), thus echoing the fertility of vegetation that played a role both in the embrace of Venus and Mars and in the fecund garden surrounding the lovers. Bernardo asserts that the lovers had never felt greater pleasure, and he describes the conclusion of the amorous encounter without any moralizing comments: 'Dopo due mila baci replicati / Del letto si levar lieti, e bead' ('After two thousand kisses, they rose from bed happy and blessed'; Am. 25.38). At the same time, he protects his characters from the potential censure of a moralistic reader by repeating that their desire was due to magic rather than their own free will. When Alidoro and Lucilla subsequently drink at the fountain of forgetfulness, the encounter is erased from their minds as though it had never happened (Am. 25.43). Yet before returning the lovers to the 'real world/ Bernardo has them undergo an experience of intense suffering at the Temple of Love. Dragontina, the name of the maga who in the Innamorato induced an amorous stupor, here oversees the infliction of the pangs of love. Since Alidoro, at least, is no longer in love, the scene may be designed to suggest that the pleasures of love are quickly forgotten but that the pain is unavoidable. Nevertheless, the canto's conclusion refuses to fashion the episode retrospectively along moralistic lines. On the contrary, the narrator takes leave with an invitation to the readers

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to satisfy their own sexual appetites: 'Andate anime belle, andate in tanto, / Ove vi chiama Amor, che gli e ben degno, / Che diate cibo ai bei vostri desiri' ('Go, gracious souls, go ahead where Love calls you, since it is very worthy that you feed your desires'; Am. 25.67). Where does Bernardo really stand? Is he prompting us to read with the intellect or the senses, to exercise moral judgment or to indulge in vicarious pleasure? Does the reference to Venus as the matron of honour and Amore as Hymen give a sense of legitimacy to the union, making it a kind of naturalistic marriage, or, on the contrary, does it remind the reader that in this union the proper roles are not fulfilled by the appropriate gods? By first attributing Alidoro's desire to magic and then magically erasing the memory of his sexual encounter Tasso permits indulgence without serious repercussions. By extinguishing Alidoro's desire for Lucilla, the fountain of forgetfulness removes the need for a liberator to urge the knight to renounce his unruly passion (Am. 25.43). As a result, one could see the motifs of the two fountains, as well as the painful Temple of Love, as expedient measures that allowed Bernardo to include a scene that might otherwise have incurred censorship.4 While the poets examined until now had interspersed moralizing comments in their versions of the hero and seductress episode, Bernardo seems to want to include the marvellous but subtract the moral. He follows the model of the humanized 'seductress' that one finds in the Mambriano and even avoids any use of magic on the part of the female. At the same time, however, he stops short of openly challenging the episode's established pattern. Alidoro's encounter with Lucilla was a mere temporary deviation from his predetermined course, and he will go on to marry Amadigi's sister Miranda. Thus, although the episode lacks a liberation scene and moralistic commentary, it is nevertheless structured as a detour, a temporary lapse into a state of errant sensuality that is superseded as the hero returns to his straight path and destined bride.

Chapter Fourteen Torquato Tasso, II Rinaldo (1562)

Although we are tied to our wives by a legitimate conjugal knot, our conduct must nevertheless be such that we live with them not to have lascivious pleasure, but almost as if we were not tied to them. Giovanbattista Giraldi Cinzio, Hecatommiti

During the time that Bernardo Tasso was completing and publishing the Amadigi, his son was at work on his own romance epic, II Rinaldo. Even at this early stage in his writing, Torquato Tasso proclaimed his independence in the debate over genre by stating his intention to follow both Aristotle's precepts and Ariosto's example as he pleased.1 Tasso's romance epic includes an episode in which the hero temporarily succumbs to the beauty of a seductive female (canto 9 and canto 10.1-35).2 Although Rinaldo is destined to marry Clarice (whom he meets in canto 1), he is drawn off course by Floriana. In contrast to the typical Renaissance enchantress, but like Amadigi's Lucilla, Floriana is a noble woman completely devoid of magical powers. Her means of seduction, as Rinaldo himself later acknowledges, are simply her great beauty, her courtesy, and her other virtues (Rin. 9.92). Tasso does not contrast Floriana with Rinaldo's future wife Clarice; on the contrary, he creates a parallel between the two women. Although they are of different religions, both women are young, beautiful, courteous, articulate, and forthright, with strong character and leadership capabilities (Floriana is the queen of Media; Clarice presides over a group of noble knights). They both fall in love with Rinaldo as they witness his valour. And in contrast to Alcina, who had a thousand other lovers before Astolfo and Ruggiero, Floriana is a virgin when she meets Rinaldo.

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Floriana's aunt, moreover, has told her that she is destined to bear two noble sons to the first man she loves (Rin. 9.59). This reference to progeny destined for glory not only further distances Floriana from the figure of the seductive enchantress, but also creates dynastic expectations. The garden in which Rinaldo and Floriana consummate their desire is not a site of magic or deceitful artifice. It is a naturalistic garden appropriate for a character whose name recalls Flora, the goddess of flowers and spring (Ovid, Fasti 5.195). The scene, moreover, suggests the Golden Age later described by the chorus of the Aminta in which passionate love reigned supreme (I.ii.319-85). The couple's mutual desire inspires Venus, who laughingly rains pleasure on them in abundance: L'un nel volto de 1'altro i caldi affetti e 1'interno voler lesse e comprese: rise Venere in cielo, e i suoi diletti verso piovendo in lor larga e cortese. Each one read and understood the warm passion and internal desire in the face of the other; Venus laughed in the heavens, and poured her pleasures down on them, generous and kind. (Rin. 9.80)

These verses echo Bernardo's description of the participation of Venus in the encounter of Alidoro and Lucilla ('ogni piacer soave, ogni dolzore / con larga man sovra di lor spargea'; 'every gentle pleasure, every sweetness, with a generous hand she strew on them'; Am. 25.37). Here Venus expresses even greater joy through her laughter. Following his father's precedent, Torquato interrupts the narrative with an aside. Whereas Bernardo assures the reader that the couple had never felt greater pleasure, Torquato goes one step further to imagine Venus ready to trade places with Floriana: e forse del piacer de' giovinetti subita e dolce invidia il cor le prese, tal che quel giorno il suo divino stato in quel di Floriana avria cangiato. And perhaps a sudden and sweet envy of the pleasure of those young people took hold of her heart,

180 The Triumph of Romance so that she would have on that day exchanged her divine state with that of Floriana. (Rin. 9.80)

Since Rinaldo's desire occurred through natural means, rhetorical persuasion rather than a magical object will bring about his liberation. His future wife Clarice appears to him in a dream and describes the negative effects that his love for Floriana will have on his reputation as a knight: ahi! si dira Rinaldo in Media or bada, e lascivi pensier ne 1'ocio cova, e per una pagana e lancia e spada posto in non cale, ei preso ha legge nova. Ah! They will say that Rinaldo is now looking after Media, and broods over lascivious thoughts in idleness and for a pagan girl has neglected lance and sword, and taken up a new law. (Rin. 9.86)

To press home her point, she uses the structure of Mercury's Aeneid IV speech, but alters the content so that honour is now seen as the highest priority: 'Ma se '1 mio duol non curi, e non t'aggrada / 1'amor, crudele, il proprio onor ti muova' ('But if you care nothing for my pain, and my love does not please you, you cruel man, let your own honour move you'; Rin. 9.86). In this way, Clarice distinguishes between Rinaldo's love for the 'pagan' Floriana, which she supposes has led him to idleness and disregard for his own religion, and his love for her, which will spur him on to seek fame and preserve his honour. Her reasoning convinces Rinaldo, who wakes from the dream and instinctively dons his armour (Rin. 9.87). Yet Clarice should not succeed in convincing the reader quite as easily, since earlier she had invited Rinaldo into her castle rather than sending him out into the world to seek honour. At that time, her invitation led Rinaldo to an internal debate in which he vacillated between love and fame. Paradoxically, whichever he chose first in time would be considered second in importance. That is, when he first decided to turn back to Clarice, it was because he felt he needed to first secure her love before he could fulfil his role as valorous knight. Then, when he decided to continue on his way, it was not because he placed honour over his passion for Clarice, but rather because he 'decided to accom-

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plish illustrious undertakings first in order to make himself pleasing to her' ('prima ha disposto illustri imprese / condur al fin per farsi grato a quella'; Rin. 1.93). In the context of this reasoning process, the beloved is not rejected as an obstacle to chivalry; on the contrary, to become worthy of her love becomes the knight's highest goal. The oracle in the Temple of Love gives Rinaldo precisely this same advice: 'Segui, Rinaldo, il tuo desir primiero / di venir chiaro in arme; e fia tua moglie / Clarice allora, e pago il tuo pensiero' ('Follow, Rinaldo, your first desire to become famous in arms, and then may Clarice be your wife, and quieted your mind'; Rin. 5.67). While fame takes chronological precedence over love, love surpasses fame in importance. The oracle does nothing but reiterate the priorities that Rinaldo had set for himself at the end of the first canto. Moreover, whereas the epic tradition had contrasted love and duty, here love triumphs over honour and fame. The narrative thereby thoroughly abandons the epic's duty ethic in favour of a courtly love ethos that had found expression in medieval Arthurian romance. In his theoretical writings, Tasso states: Teccelenza delle donne consiste nella bellezza, la qual muove ad amare, si come quella degli uomini e nel valore, che si dimostra nelle operazioni fatte per amore' ('the excellence of women consists in beauty, which moves men to love them, while that of men consists in valour, which is demonstrated in the enterprises undertaken for love'). The interesting thing about this quotation, which so well describes the spirit behind // Rinaldo, is that it was written more than two decades later as part of the 'Apologia in difesa della Gerusalemme Liberata' (1585), and could alert us to the possibility that Tasso's mindset may not have changed much between the composition of the former and the latter poems (Prose, 421). Keeping our attention focused on // Rinaldo, we can see that the text itself refuses to corroborate Clarice's claim that there is a difference in the nature of Rinaldo's love for the two women. Indeed, Tasso even collapses the traditional contrast between the hero's sexual desire for the seductress and his dutiful devotion to the appointed consort by characterizing Rinaldo's love for Clarice as equally sexual. After Rinaldo kidnaps Clarice, he becomes overcome by desire and 'aspira / di pervenire a 1'ultimo diletto' ('aims to attain the ultimate pleasure'; Rin. 4.51). Nor is Clarice about to deter him (Rin. 4.51). Malagigi needs to appear - literally - as a deus ex machina (he appears in a flying chariot) to whisk Clarice away and preserve her virginity. The difference, then, lies neither in the type of love nor the type of woman who

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inspires it, but rather in the society that makes the rules. The nonChristian union with Floriana is consummated in a naturalistic Golden Age setting presided over by a radiant Venus; the Christian one is subject to the constraints imposed by religion and social mores, with Malagigi intervening to prevent its consummation prior to the couple's official marriage. In the scene of Rinaldo's 'liberation' from Floriana, Tasso employs a simile to describe Rinaldo's changed state of mind as a result of Clarice's persuasive rhetoric: Come accorto nocchiero i dolci accent! fugge de le Sirene, e tutte sciorre fa le sue vele dispiegate a i venti, ed ogni remo appresso in uso porre, cosi quei cari preghi e quei lamenti che lo potrian dal suo pensier distorre, schiva Rinaldo e tacito se n'esce. Like a prudent helmsman flees the sweet sounds of the Sirens, and unfurls all his sails to the winds, and puts every oar into use, just so Rinaldo avoids those prayers and lamentations that would be able to dissuade him from his decision, and silently he departs. (Rin. 9.91)

Tasso's simile makes use of the equation of women with seductive and deadly sirens that traditionally provided the allegorical backbone of the hero-seductress episode. Rinaldo has become the prudent helmsman, besting even Odysseus, who would have been unable to resist the sweet notes of the sirens had he not been tied to the mast of his ship. Following this seven-verse simile, however, the stanza's final verse acknowledges that Rinaldo nevertheless is very unhappy about leaving Floriana ('ma pur di Floriana assai gl'incresce'; Rin. 9.91). This single line undoes the moralistic thrust of the simile, replacing didactic allegory with simple human sentiment. It also sets up the final stanza of the canto, in which Tasso states, albeit in a tortuous way, that Rinaldo still loves Floriana ('non e pero ch'egli non 1'ami ancora'; 'it's not, however, that he doesn't still love her'). Rinaldo, in fact, sneaks away from her not because he fears her reaction, like Aeneas or Rug-

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giero, but because 'in se stesso ha poca fede' ('he has little faith in himself; Rin. 9.92). As the next canto opens, a dismayed Floriana sends her men after Rinaldo to discover the cause of his sudden departure. When Tasso directly addresses her - 'Vivi, vivi, meschina, in questo stato, / e ti sia 1'aspettar soave e grato' ('Live, live, poor girl, in this state, and may the waiting be pleasant to you'; Rin. 10.9) - we know that bad news will follow. Rinaldo tells Floriana's men that he plans to return, but upon hearing the news Floriana understands that it is a lie and faints (Rin. 10.15). Rinaldo's departure adheres to the episode's established structural pattern, since he leaves behind Floriana definitively as he makes his way back to his destined consort, Clarice. At the same time, Tasso has shown too much sympathy for Floriana to condemn her to the death of Dido or the suffering of Alcina. Although her original impulse was indeed to replay Dido's fate, Floriana is prevented from committing suicide by her aunt. This beloved aunt, as we now discover, is none other than Medea (Rin. 10.28), traditionally a symbol of the boundless vindictiveness of the abandoned woman. Medea, we remember, was a model for Boiardo's Castle Cruel widow as well as Ariosto's Orontea, and she is also referred to directly in the Cinque canti for her purported introduction of orgies after her disillusionment with love (CC 2.10316). Tasso has gone against literary tradition by transforming Medea into an 'antica matrona' ('elderly gentlewoman'; Rin. 10.27). Having flown her chariot across the sky, she administers the healing water of Lethe to her niece. While Bernardo Tasso has Alidoro and Lucilla drink at the fountain of oblivion to forget the joys of love, Torquato uses the waters to erase Floriana's pain of abandonment. Moreover, while Alidoro and Lucilla subsequently undergo a period of suffering in Dragontina's temple, Floriana is instead escorted by her compassionate aunt to the blissful isola del Piacere (Island of Pleasure). Of the episode's precedents considered in the preceding pages, this ending is most in line with the Mambriano. Like Carandina, Floriana is a positive character who nevertheless cannot end up with the hero. While Cieco provides Carandina with a happy ending through marriage to Mambriano, Tasso sends Floriana to an island beyond the Pillars of Hercules that induces a state of perpetual happiness (Rin. 10.33). Tasso equates this island with the Island of the Blessed, where the heroes of classical antiquity were said to go after death (Rin. 10.33). This site thus represents both a Golden Age outside Christian morality

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and a joyous resting place that makes mortal life seem a real burden even for heroes. As Tasso leaves the kindly Medea and her 'nipote amata' ('beloved niece') in this blessed island, it is hard not to think that they are better off than Rinaldo, who has once again set out to seek fame. We can also assume that Floriana will bear Rinaldo the noble twins that her aunt had foretold. Tasso, then, has not only brought Floriana to an island paradise where she experiences peace of mind, he has also granted to her the establishment of an alternative dynasty. Rinaldo eventually accomplishes what he set out to do at the end of the first canto: to establish a name for himself and to be united with Clarice. Nevertheless, the ending is not as resolved as it may at first seem. Remembering that earlier Malagigi had kidnapped Clarice to preserve her virginity, it is surprising to find that all signs of passion are absent from the account of their marriage, which is treated instead as an official public ceremony. Rinaldo's marriage to Clarice, in fact, could almost be read as a parody of his union with Floriana. Whereas in the earlier garden scene the lovers were blessed by a blissful Venus, now a host of deities and allegorical figures preside rather solemnly over the ritual before Venus finally appears: Fur i lor cuor da gentil laccio stretti, ch'Amore e Castita dolce annodaro; sorrise Giove, e con secondo tuono veder gran luce, udir fe' lieto suono. Gia ne venia con chiari almi splendor! Cinzia versando in perle accolto il gielo, e senza ombre noiose e senza orrori candido distendea la Notte il velo. Gia spargeva Imeneo coi vaghi amori fiori e frondi nel suol, canti nel cielo, quando di propria man Venere bella congiunse in un Rinaldo e la donzella. Their hearts were bound in a noble tie that love and sweet Chastity knotted. Jove smiled, and with a second thunder made great light and a happy sound. Already Cinzia was arriving with great splendour pouring down frost in the form of pearls

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and without disturbing shadows and without horrors candid Night lay down its veil. Imeneo was already strewing flowers and branches on the ground, and songs in heaven when lovely Venus joined Rinaldo and the damsel with her own hand. (Rin. 12.87-8)

Instead of a mirthful Venus's laughter and joy, we have only the smile of the authority figure Jupiter. Instead of Venus raining pleasure down onto the couple, her chaste adversary Diana (Cinzia) pours down icy frost. Hymen remains distant from the couple, ceremoniously strewing flowers and branches onto the ground and songs in heaven.3 Venus, still beautiful but no longer described as generous or joyful, simply concludes the ceremony by uniting the couple. In moving from a passionate and private encounter to a ceremonial and public spectacle, Tasso eliminates the language of love used to characterize Rinaldo's earlier passion for both Clarice and Floriana. After the account of the wedding celebration, Tasso salutes his reading public in this way: 'godete il ben che casto Amor v'inspira, / e 1'oneste dolcezze e i gaudi santi' ('enjoy the good that chaste Love inspires in you, and the honest sweetness and holy pleasures'; Rin. 12.89). The three overtly moralizing adjectives that define the type of love that Rinaldo and Clarice have now come to represent - chaste, honest, and holy - render this address something quite different from his father's invitation to his readers to satisfy their erotic desires (Am. 25.67). This ending is reminiscent of Marie de Champagne's 'rule' in Andreas Capellanus's courtly love manual that passionate love cannot exist between married couples.4 It is more likely, however, that Tasso was downplaying erotic desire and pleasure in the context of a Christian marriage according to the prescriptions of his own time. Looking at the period from a feminist perspective, Jennifer R. Goodman has noted that 'the saintly Christian maiden cannot be allowed to admit any pleasure even after marriage' (125).5 Yet neither, the ending of // Rinaldo seems to indicate, could the saintly Christian male. Was there a way to reconcile human passion with the moral dictates of society in a climate increasingly dominated by Counter-Reformation thinking? Tasso will return to this dilemma in his extended rewriting of the hero and seductress episode in the Gerusalemme Liberata.

Chapter Fifteen Torquato Tasso, La Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

De' miei secret! sono signore, e posso, senza offesa altrui, rivelarne quella parte che mi piace a chi voglio. (I am the lord of my secrets and, without offending others, I can reveal the part of them I wish to whomever I please.) Torquato Tasso, letter of 1576

While the opening verses of // Rinaldo announce a poem about 'i felici affanni e i primi ardori / che giovanetto ancor soffri Rinaldo' ('the happy toils and the first ardours that Rinaldo suffered while still young'; Rin. 1.1), the Gerusalemme Liberata is introduced as a poem about Tarme pietose e '1 capitano / che '1 gran sepolcro libero di Cristo' ('the reverent armies and the captain who liberated Christ's great sepulchre'; GL 1.1). There is seemingly not much in common between a knight's youthful passion and the First Crusaders' conquest of Jerusalem. One thing that the two poems share, however, is an episode in which the hero is lured from his pursuits by a seductive female in a garden setting. Although he situates the poem in the eleventh century, Tasso gives his new hero a Carolingian name, the same name, in fact, as the eponymous hero of his previous romance epic.1 This latter Rinaldo is detained on a paradisiacal island by the enchantress Armida while his participation in the war is necessary for a Christian victory. Given not only the poem's subject matter but also the moral exigencies of the post-Tridentine period, we would expect a retreat from II Rinaldo's sympathetic portrait of the female lover and a return to an evil enchantress along the lines of Ariosto's Alcina or even Trissino's

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Acratia.2 In actuality, as I will argue below, Tasso confounds all expectation. Combining elements from previous romance epics, he creates a version that is nevertheless radically different from all that came before it. The extended episode of Rinaldo and Armida will serve as the basis for my reading of the Liberata as a critique of Counter-Reformation repression of individual freedom. Unlike her counterparts, Armida is not confined to a chapter in the hero's journey, but is a continuous presence throughout the poem. Her initial appearance before the Crusaders replays some aspects of Angelica's arrival in Charlemagne's court (OI 1.1). Both women, although experts in magic, beguile the unsuspecting knights through purely feminine charms. After a full stanza captatio benevolentiae (cfr. OI 1.1.24 and GL 4.39), they elicit compassion by relating a story about the loss of their realms that mixes truth with falsehood.3 Their beauty has the desired effect: in Boiardo's poem all the knights present, even King Charlemagne, are enflamed with passion; in Tasso's the flames of passion leave untouched only Goffredo and Tancredi (GL 5.65). Armida's woeful story of escape from her homeland also likens her to Trissino's Elpidia. Indeed, not only does Armida similarly relate that a marriage was being forced upon her, but she picks up and intensifies elements of Elpidia's story. The unwanted spouse goes from 'il piu brutto' ('the ugliest') to 'sotto diforme aspetto animo vile' ('a vile soul within a deformed body') and from 'il piu sciocco' ('the dumbest'; IL 6, 102r) to one who 'ne mai troppo alto intese' ('never aimed too high'; GL 4.46). The reader familiar with Trissino's poem would have remembered, moreover, that Elpidia's story was actually legitimate. Goffredo eventually allows ten knights to be chosen in the same way Charlemagne had chosen the order of participation in the joust proposed by Angelica: a lottery (OI 1.1.56-7 and GL 5.72-3). Just as Boiardo's Orlando is tormented when thirty names are called before his, now those excluded from Armida's mission are 'd'ira, di gelosia, d'invidia ardenti' ('burning with wrath, with jealousy, with envy'; GL 5.76). Tasso's comment that 'instinto e de 1'umane genti / che cio che piu si vieta uom piu desia' ('it is instinct in the human mind that what is the more forbidden man desires more'; GL 5.76) universalizes Boiardo's opening criticism of the gran signori who 'pur quel voglion che non ponno avere' ('only want what they can't have'; OI 1.1.5). Not only do the chosen ten leave with Armida, but countless others, like oh so many Orlandos, set out during the night to secretly follow her trail.

188 The Triumph of Romance

Like Angelica, Armida is an instrument of political intrigue. Angelica and her brother had been sent by their father Galafrone to lure the Christians out of France and imprison them in India. According to Galafrone's plan, Angelica's beauty would induce the knights to joust, Argalia's magic lance would land them in prison, and then Angelica would use actual magic to conduct the prisoners to him. In Tasso's poem, King Idraote of Damascus plans to use his niece Armida as a means of drawing Goffredo and the Crusaders away from their duty. Having led the willing knights to her castle on the Dead Sea through her feminine charms, Armida does what Angelica had intended to do before her plan was thwarted: she resorts to magic in order to imprison the knights and keep them under her command. As she does so, she takes on the characteristics of various Boiardan enchantresses. The imprisoned knight Guglielmo later recounts that the Crusaders sat at Armida's table drinking up a liquid akin to Dragontina's potion of forgetfulness ('ciascuno a mensa assiso / beve con lungo incendio un lungo oblio'; 'each man yet seated at the table is drinking with deep flame a deep forgetfulness'; GL 10.65). Then, recalling the knights who forgot all else and plunged into the Laughing Stream (cfr. OI 2.31.47 and 3.7.22), Gueglielmo dives head-first into the fountain: 'salto ne 1'acqua, e mi vi tuffo e immergo' ('I leap into the water, and plunge and dive therein; GL 10.66). Yet whereas in the Innamorato the enchanting Naiads were like fish ('come il pesce'; OI 3.7.7), here it is Guglielmo himself who is transformed into an acquatic creature. When he describes how the other knights fell victim to the same spell (GL 10.67), he evokes the initial appearance of the maga Alcina surrounded by scores of fish (OZ 2.13.56-7). Viewing events from Rinaldo's perspective, we note that his departure from Goffredo in canto 5 is dramatically set apart from that of the other knights. When the enamoured knights abandon camp during the night to follow Armida (GL 5.79), thus re-enacting Orlando's surreptitious departure from Paris (OI 1.3), they are at fault for abandoning duty in the pursuit of pleasure. By contrast, Rinaldo's departure, like that of Corsamonte from Belisario's camp, follows the pattern of the rebellious knight of the cantari carolingi. It is modelled even more closely on the departure of Astolfo from Charlemagne's court that occurs in OI 1.3 and 1.7. In Boiardo's text, at a moment in which the paladins need to act collectively against the threat posed by the pagan invader Gradasso, Gano provokes Astolfo to a duel that turns into a brawl. When Charlemagne notices the unseemly conflict among his

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subjects, he instantly wants to assign blame: 'Chi fu quel traditore, chi fu il ribello, / Che avuto ha ardir a sturbar la mia festa?' ('Who is the traitor, who's the rebel, / Who dares to spoil my festival?'; OI 1.3.24). The reader knows the answer to Charlemagne's question, since Boiardo had clearly laid the blame on Gano and his clan. The emperor, however, makes a false assessment when the injured Grifone di Maganza takes the initiative and paints Astolfo as the culprit and the Gano clan as innocent victims. Astolfo, genuinely offended, cannot control his anger and is subsequently imprisoned by Charlemagne. Fooled by the slick talking of the traitors, the emperor punishes the wrong man, and the reader's indignation only finds a release four cantos later when Astolfo is let out of prison. In the Liberata, the Crusading knights are likewise facing a dangerous enemy when the fight breaks out between Rinaldo and Gernando. Goffredo reacts with the same impetuosity and desire to assign blame as Charlemagne, even using the same grammatical structure: 'Or qui, dove men lece, / chi fu ch'ardi cotanto e tanto fece?' ('Now here, where it least is lawful, who was it that dared so much and did so much?'; GL 5.32). The reader of the Liberata is equally capable of answering Goffredo's question, since Gernando is clearly to blame for the incident. Nevertheless, as in Boiardo's text, an ally of the troublemaker immediately steps up with a distorted account of the event. In both episodes, the greater attention that the ruler gives to the false story is evidenced by the disproportionate number of verses it takes up in the discussion. Although Tancredi attempts to intercede on Rinaldo's behalf (GL 5.35), he fails to counter the bias. Goffredo, blinded by the first account, orders the imprisonment of Rinaldo. Francesco Erspamer, pointing out that Rinaldo's reaction to Gernando correctly followed the procedure for duels outlined in contemporary treatises, notes that Rinaldo seems more an innocent victim of devious machinations than a transgressor justly punished (196).4 In both episodes the incident and its aftermath carry serious political implications. Boiardo eventually gives Astolfo full rein to express in public his condemnation of both the fraudulent courtiers and the credulous king. In canto 7, after defeating Gradasso and saving Christendom, Astolfo first tells Charlemagne: 'a torto me ponesti in la pregione, / Per far careze a casa di Magancia' ('You had me wrongly put in jail / To gratify Maganza's men'; OI 1.7.60). He then bluntly declares his intention to leave the court: 'ben vi dico che mai per ni'ente / Non voglio in vostra corte piu venire. / Stia con voi Gano ed ogni suo

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parente, / Che sanno il bianco in nero convertire' ('I must tell you clearly that / I'll never come to court again. / Let Gano's family stay with you, / Since they can change what's white to black'; OI 1.7.65). Tasso's condemnation of the ruler is presented less directly, but just as unequivocally. When Rinaldo would similarly like to challenge Goffredo's unjust pronouncement, Tancredi urges him to depart without an open confrontation. The reasoning that Tancredi uses to silence Rinaldo turns out to be even more damaging to Goffredo's character than Astolfo's open recriminations were for Charlemagne. Tancredi tells him how Baldovino dishonestly usurped his own conquest of Cilicia for profit: 'ch'avend'io preso di Cilicia il regno, / e 1'insegne spiegatevi di Cristo, / Baldovin sopragiunse, e con indegno / modo occupollo e ne fe' vile acquisto' ('for when I had taken the province of Cilicia, and there displayed the banners of Christ, Baldwin came up and in dishonorable fashion occupied it, and made a contemptible profit from it'; GL 5.48). Since Baldovino was Goffredo's brother and right-hand man, Tancredi's account of Baldovino's unpunished misdeed is nothing less than an indictment of Goffredo for favouritism at the expense of justice, and as such it belies Goffredo's later claim of impartial treatment to all (GL 5.54-5). It is also a concrete example of how the thoughts and motivations of one's supposed allies are kept hidden. Echoing a sentiment Tancredi had just expressed with regard to Goffredo ('che 'n parte troppo cupa e troppo interna / il pensier de' mortali occulto giace'; 'the thought of mortals lies hidden in a place too dark and inward'; GL 5.41), Tancredi goes on to explain that Baldovino had previously feigned friendship to conceal his greedy intentions: 'che, mostrandosi amico ad ogni segno, / del suo avaro pensier non m'era avisto' ('for I did not perceive his greedy intent, since he showed himself my friend by every indication'; GL 5.48). If earlier Boiardo's Astolfo got into trouble by ranting and raving instead of calmly speaking his mind, here Tancredi warns Rinaldo that any defence, no matter how well spoken, would be futile. The political implications of the two episodes carry over to the knight's manner of departure. Although both scenes follow the pattern of the cantari carolingi, in which the offended knight departs in anger from the sovereign's court, Tasso's account continues to depict a more sinister and repressive political climate. When Astolfo leaves Paris having vindicated himself in deed and word, with a duly chastised Charlemagne begging him to stay, we see that the knight is ultimately free to serve the ruler or to set out autonomously in another direction,

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while the ruler is capable of recognizing his past faults and acknowledging his dependence on his supporters. Rinaldo, on the other hand, is forced to depart in secrecy to avoid not only imprisonment, but possibly also execution (GL 5.34). Although this scene conveys the sense that Rinaldo has little chance of justice if he remains in Goffredo's 'court,' his departure is an assertion of his right to distance himself from the ruler's orbit of power.5 Goffredo attempts to retain the semblance of authority by subsequently converting Rinaldo's departure into an edict of exile.6 At this point in the narrative, Rinaldo has severed his ties to the Crusading movement and reverted to the status of independent knight errant. Thus, when he subsequenly frees the knights imprisoned by Armida, he is acting as an autonomous knight errant in an enchanted romance landscape. Initially Armida reacts as a quintessential maga through her overwhelming desire for revenge and her siren-like attributes. She was already associated with the siren in GL 4.86. Now she has recourse to the siren's methods as she seeks vengeance on Rinaldo. According to the Mago d'Ascalona, she first conjures up a magic shade in the form of a siren to sing Rinaldo to sleep (GL 14.61-5)7 Yet as Armida gazes upon his face, her hate is transformed into love. Although she had intended to replay the siren's death trap in the Garden of Orgagna (OI 2.4.36-40), she is herself caught like the travellers who approach the fountain of Narcissus (OI 2.17.59-60). Tasso, in fact, writes that Armida looks down at Rinaldo just as Narcissus looked at himself in the fountain (GL 14.66). Like Angelica in front of Ranaldo (OI 1.3.40), Silvanella in front of Narciso (OI 2.17.56-7), and Fiordespina in front of Bradamante (OI 3.8.63-5), Armida falls in love with the sleeping figure lying before her. Armida's transformation from enemy to lover (GL 14.67) also replays features of Alcina's enamorment of Astolfo. Boiardo's/flta had earlier intended to kill the Christian knights in revenge for having disturbed her fish party (OI 2.13.59), but she was stopped in her tracks by the sheer beauty of Astolfo's face: Solo il viso de Astolfo - tanto bello Dal rio voler ritrasse quella fata, Perche mirando il suo vago colore, Pieta gli venne e fu presa d'amore. [Only] Astolfo's lovely face Forestalled that fairy's wicked thought.

192 The Triumph of Romance When she saw his fair colouring, [Compassion] struck her. Love held her caught. (OI 2.13.60)

Armida is likewise dissuaded from her homicidal intentions by the beauty of the hero's face (GL 14.66-7), and like Alcina, she whisks her hero away to an island paradise. If earlier Armida was more successful than Angelica in drawing the Christian knights into her power, she is now more successful in wooing the knight she loves. Indeed, she does not even resort to magic to win his affection. This absence of magic also distances Armida from negative enchantress figures, such as Alcina and Ligridonia, and renders her more akin to Cieco's humanized enchantress Carandina, and even to Tasso's own fully human Floriana. Tasso begins the episode of Rinaldo's liberation by combining elements from Trissino's contrasting Acratia and Plutina episodes. We saw earlier how in the episode of Corsamonte and Plutina, Trissino superimposed the hero's rebellion from the cantari carolingi onto the episode of the hero and the seductress, thereby replacing the hero's inner conflict between duty and pleasure with an external conflict between an indignant knight and a blameworthy ruler. In the Liberata, the episode of Rinaldo's departure already compromised Goffredo's moral authority and returned Rinaldo to his original status of avventuriero (knight errant). At this point in the plot, just as Belisario missed Corsamonte's valour after the knight had left his camp and found his way to Plutina's cave, Goffredo and his army now feel the dire effects of Rinaldo's absence while the latter has taken up residence on Armida's island. Both leaders are the cause of the knight's angry departure and are dependent on his return for their ultimate victory. The liberation attempt is set in motion, however, following the Acratia model: just as Trissino's God had looked down upon Italy and directed the Angel Palladio to appear before the knights with instructions (IL 4, 78v), Tasso's God now turns His gaze on Goffredo and sends him a dream in which the spirit of Ugone prompts him to forgive Rinaldo (GL 14.2ff.). Yet the solemnity of the dream is undermined when Ugone coaches Goffredo on how to act for the sake of appearance: 'non chieder tu ... ma richiesto concedi' ('you are not to entreat..., but, being entreated, you may concede'; GL 14.16). The ensuing narrative is thus reduced to a staged scene in which God inspires Rinaldo's uncle Guelfo to make the plea for his pardon, after which Goffredo, quite a consummate actor, pretends to give the matter consideration

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for the first time: 'quasi egli pieghi / la mente a cosa non pensata in pria' ('as if he were setting his mind to a matter not thought of before'; GL 14.25). This scene of Goffredo's 'concession' to call Rinaldo back to the fold is combined with another orchestrated spectacle that raises further doubts about Goffredo's character. To grasp the fuller implications of this moment, we need to remember the story of Sveno, King of Denmark (canto 8). According to the Danish knight Carlo, Sveno was prompted to join the Crusades by his desire to learn the art of warfare from Goffredo, by his envy and shame over Rinaldo's glory, and, above all else, by his zeal to win honour in Paradise (GL 8.7). He does not seem to view the liberation of Jerusalem as a goal in itself, but rather as the means to achieve personal glory. Goffredo's messenger, in soliciting Sveno's participation in the Crusades, had whetted those ambitions by telling Sveno of Goffredo's capture of Antioch, by dwelling at length on Rinaldo's glorious feats, and then by inviting him to participate in the final victory ('volesse almanco / de 1'ultima vittoria esser consorte'; GL 8.10). Tellingly, the desire to share in the final victory was precisely what had earlier led Idraote to enlist Armida's aid in the Muslim cause (GL 4.21). The narrator's judgment of Idraote's plan - 'ahi, cieca umana mente, / come i giudizi tuoi son vani e torti!' ('ah, blinded brain of Man, how empty and twisted are your calculations'; GL 4.21) - could serve as a comment on Sveno as well. He was so impatient to shed pagan blood - 'ogn'ora un lustro pargli infra pagani / rotar il ferro e insanguinar le mani' ('every hour seems to him a luster until he can sweep his sword among the pagans and bathe his hands in blood'; GL 8.10) - that he forgot about his original desire to learn the art of warfare from Goffredo.8 Carlo had earlier characterized Sveno through an allusion to Dante's Ulisse (cf. Inferno 26.112-20 and GL 8.6).9 Sveno now assumes Ulisse's role of a fraudulent counsellor as he recklessly urges his men into an ambush that can only result in their own death: Questo campo, o fratelli, ove or noi siamo, fia tempio sacro ad immortal memoria, in cui 1'eta futura additi e mostri le nostre sepolture e i trofei nostri. This very field, brothers, where we are now, will be a holy shrine of immortal memory

194 The Triumph of Romance where future ages may point out and show our graves, or else our trophies. (GL 8.15)

Sveno's men are attacked by Solimano's troops during the night. Ironically, given that Sveno is so preoccupied with showmanship, darkness prevents the sight of both the damage to the Danes and their valour on the field (GL 8.18). Although Carlo boasts that despite the darkness Sveno's 'prove anco son conte / a chi vi mira' ('proofs are yet made plain to any who watch'; GL 8.19), there simply wasn't anyone watching through the darkness. When the 'desiata luce' ('welcome light') of dawn replaces the 'notturno orrore' ('horror of night'), the survivors for the first time see the field, which is covered with the corpses of Sveno's men (GL 8.20). Upon finding that his two thousand warriors have been reduced to less- than one hundred in the matter of a few hours, Sveno turns this spectacle of senseless death and defeat into an invitation to reach Paradise (GL 8.21), and urges the remnants of his troops to their death.10 All are killed except for Carlo who, as he lay wounded, is visited by two ministers of God. One of them hands Sveno's sword to Carlo and instructs him to deliver it to Rinaldo, saying that 'sol da lui / 1'alta vendetta il Cielo e '1 mondo chiede' ('from him alone Heaven and the world require the noble vengeance'; GL 8.38). If earlier Sveno's motives for joining the Crusade were flawed because they stemmed from ambition, the holy man's argument for killing Solimano is equally defective because it is based on sheer vindictiveness. At the conclusion of Carlo's story, Goffredo recognizes the battle for the waste of lives that it was (GL 8.43), and he compares Sveno to a flash of lightning that vanishes after a single appearance. This is unquestionably a miserable end for one who had set out to share in the Crusaders' final triumph at Jerusalem. Goffredo understood, however, the political usefulness of the story, stating that it was actually worth more than territory and gold, and that it had more propaganda value than ancient Roman history (GL 8.44). The 'morte e scempio' ('death and slaughter') of 1999 men is declared to be an exemplum (essempio; GL 8.44). The story of Sveno and his sword comes into play during the scene in which Goffredo decides to call Rinaldo back. As soon as Goffredo revokes Rinaldo's sentence of exile, Carlo volunteers to help find him in order to 'far il don de 1'onorata spada' ('make the gift of the honoured sword'; GL 14.27). Although Goffredo sends Carlo along

La Gerusalemme Liberata 195 with the seasoned traveller Ubaldo, the Dane reveals his unsuitability more than once during the journey and risks ruining their mission. Travelling by boat under the guidance of Lady Fortune, he recalls the transgressive temerity of Dante's Ulisse by wanting to put his foot on the unknown shores in order to see 'tutto quello ond'uom saggio m'invidi' ('all that for which a learned man may envy me') and in order to boast 'Io fui!' ('I was there!'; GL 15.38). Lady Fortune forbids him, characterizing his desire as a form of superbia.11 Once within the garden, Carlo imprudently begins to assault the serpent-guardian with Sveno's sword. Ubaldo shouts at him: 'Che fai? che tente? / per isforzo di man, con arme tale / vincer avisi il difensor serpente?' ('What are are you doing? what are you trying to do? By manual strength, with weapons such as that, do you think to overcome the guardian snake?'; GL 15.49). The sword that had led Sveno to his death would have led Carlo just as recklessly to his own. Tasso continues to combine elements from the episode's various precedents. Prior to undertaking their journey, the two messengers were instructed by Peter the Hermit and the Mago d'Ascalona, a doubling of the function of Trissino's Angel Palladio. The Mago also provides them with three objects: while the first is a replica of the book that helped Orlando make his way safely through Falerina's garden (O7), the other two are a staff and a shield that have the identical function as Astolfo's horn and the wall-mirror of Logistilla's palace (OF).12 In the garden outside Armida's palace, the liberation team comes across a fountain with the same name as the Innamomto's final enchantment, thefonte del riso (Laughing Stream), and with the same power to inebriate the soul ('inebria 1'alma'; GL 14.74). While Boiardo's Laughing Stream was surrounded by various spells that provided customized temptations for the knights, Tasso saves this device for Ismeno's wood, and instead likens Armida's garden dangers to the various traps of Falerina's garden in Orgagna (OI 2.4).13 In addition to the serpent mentioned above, which recalls Orgagna's serpent-guardian (OI 2.4.16-18), Tasso describes a table on the riverbank which is set exquisitely with food (GL 15.57). Like the white tables of Falerina's garden, which were elegantly set with food and drink around a fountain (OI 2.4.66), this alluring table setting is a trap. Boiardo's Orlando consulted his book and was thus warned of a monstrous faun with a woman's face and breast hiding and waiting for the kill (OI 2.4.68). When two barebreasted females playing inside Armida's garden fountain openly invite the men to embrace earthly pleasure, a voice (presumably Ubaldo's, given

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his earlier knowledge of how to deal with the serpent) warns that they must close their ears 'al dolce canto e rio / di queste del placer false sirene' ('to the sweet and sinful / singing of these false Sirens of pleasure'; GL 15.57). In Falerina's garden, Orlando had literally blocked his ears in order not to hear the singing of a deadly siren. As the knights traverse Armida's palace, they let the book guide them, just as Orlando did in Falerina's garden. Thanks to the prior instruction and the miraculous (i.e., magical) objects, Carlo and Ubaldo finally encounter Rinaldo and Armida. Yet the liberation begins on a morally ambiguous note. The two men had already experienced 'nascenti voglie' ('nascent desires') that had to be curtailed by reason when they passed the 'sirens' frolicking in the fountain (GL 15.66). Now they hide and watch while Rinaldo and Armida engage in love play: 'Ascosi / mirano i duo guerrier gli atti amorosi' ('Hidden away the two warriors watch the amorous interplay'; GL 16.19). In the Mambriano, Malagigi had to hide and wait at the shores of Carandina's island until the next day before seeking out Rinaldo, but such delay was strategically necessary. Here it compromises the messengers' integrity by fashioning them into two voyeurs. After Armida leaves, the liberators step out of the bushes and reveal themselves. Tasso employs a double simile at this point to convey Rinaldo's reaction to the sight of the two pompously armed knights who suddenly appear before him: Qual feroce destrier ch'al faticoso onor de 1'arme vincitor sia tolto, e lascivo marito in vil riposo fra gli armenti e ne' paschi erri disciolto, se '1 desta o suon di troma o luminoso acciar, cola tosto annitrendo e volto, gia gia brama 1'arringo e, 1'uom su '1 dorso portando, urtato riurtar nel corso; tal si fece il garzon, quando repente, de 1'arme il lampo gli occhi suoi percosse. Even as the fierce war-horse that has been retired unbeaten from the hard-won honour of arms and wanders loose among the herds and through the pastures a wanton husband in a vile repose, if sound of trumpet or glint of steel awaken him,

La Gerusalemme Liberata 197 at once he is turned to it whinnying: he longs for the lists and (bearing his master on his back) to answer shock for shock in full career; so the youth responded when the glitter of weapons suddenly struck his eyes. (GL 16.28-9)

The similes in the scene's precedents signalled the triumphant return of the higher faculties; Tasso's double simile simply records a reawakening of the knight's martial instincts. By comparing Rinaldo to a fierce charger awoken by the sounds of war, Tasso indicates his readiness to return to the battlefield even prior to the use of any magical objects or persuasive discourse. Venus gives way to Mars without any participation of reason or the will. Moreover, the metaphoric depiction of Rinaldo as a husband (rather than, say, lover or victim) goes beyond the epic model provided by Virgil's Aeneid to suggest the debate over the compatibility between marital bliss and martial pursuits in the romance tradition. (Chretien de Troves' Erec et Enide presents and then disproves the assumed incompatibility of the two.) Tasso then adds a third simile, this time one with moralizing overtones, when Rinaldo looks at his own image in the shield that Ubaldo holds up to him: 'Qual uom da cupo e grave sonno oppresso / dopo vaneggiar lungo in se riviene, / tal ei torno nel rimirar se stesso' ('As a man by deep and heavy sleep oppressed / returns to himself after long delirious raving, / so he returned by gazing upon himself; GL 16.31). Being likened to a man who has just awoken from a deep sleep recalls Boiardo's Orlando at the Laughing Stream (OI 3.7.37), Ariosto's Orlando at the outskirts of Biserta (OF 35.69; 39.58), and Trissino's knights at Acratia's kingdom (IL 5, 84v). Since the shift from an amorous to a martial mindset has already taken place in Rinaldo, Ubaldo's brief two-stanza speech simply functions as reinforcement. Like Cieco's Malagigi, Ariosto's Melissa, and Tasso's own Clarice, Ubaldo imitates Mercury's exhortation in Aeneid IV. In fact, his double rhetorical question, to Rinaldo - 'Qual sonno o qual letargo ha si sopita / la tua virtute? o qual vilta 1'alletta?' ('What slumber or what lethargy has so lulled your manhood? or what commonness allures it?'; GL 16.33) - echoes Mercury's question, 'What are you pondering or hoping for while squandering your ease in Libyan lands?, Aen. 4.362-3). And yet the climactic moment of Mercury's speech, repeated with meaningful variations in the Mambriano, the Furioso, and // Rinaldo, is missing. One could wonder why Tasso stops

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short here when this is the privileged moment to refer to the hero's progeny, especially given that Tasso was replacing Ruggiero with Rinaldo as the progenitor of the Estense family. In my view, Tasso avoids alluding to Rinaldo's progeny because this would have begged the question of Rinaldo's future consort, whose identity Tasso has not yet revealed. It is indeed curious that the name of Rinaldo's bride remains hidden at the sixteenth of the poem's twenty cantos. In the Mambriano, the Carolingian Rinaldo is already married to Clarice when he is caught in the lure of Carandina. In the Furioso, we know that Ruggiero is destined to marry Bradamante when he arrives at Alcina's island. In II Rinaldo, the hero has promised his love to his future bride Clarice before he encounters Floriana. But the Crusading Rinaldo that Tasso invented to serve as founder of the Estense dynasty is thus far without a designated consort. Indeed, earlier Peter the Hermit had foretold of Rinaldo that 'ben di lui nasceran degni i figli' ('sons well worthy of him will be born'; GL 10.75), almost as if females were not necessary for procreation. In any event, Ubaldo's speech has the effect of turning Rinaldo's shame into disdain (sdegno). Ripping off his exotic clothing, he exits the labyrinthine palace. In 11 Rinaldo, Floriana only became aware of Rinaldo's departure when he was already at sea. Armida, however, sees her Rinaldo escaping and she tries to stop him. After attempting unsuccessfully to detain him by magic, she decides to resort to her Vaga / e supplice belta' ('lovely and suppliant beauty'; GL 16.37), and runs down to the shore. At first Tasso tells us that Rinaldo is impenetrable: 'resiste e vince; e in lui trova impedita / Amor 1'entrata, il lagrimar 1'uscita' ('he struggles and overcomes; Love finds the entrance closed, and tears the exit'; GL 16.51). Yet the definitive sound of these two verses is belied by the following stanza in which Rinaldo 'a freno / puo ritener le lagrime a fatica' ('can scarcely hold his tears in check'; GL 16.52). Putting aside the issue of love, Tasso represents an inner conflict in his hero that does not pit reason against the appetites, but rather harsh necessity (dura necessita) against courtesy (cortesia) and compassion (pieta). In this way, both choices can be considered valid, even though one must take precedence.14 Moreover, compassion was commonly noted as a harbinger of love. When in the Aminta Silvia protests that her tears were not 'of love/ but 'of pity' ('d'amor non gia, ma di pietate'), Dame links the two emotions: 'La pieta messaggiera e de 1'amore, / come '1 lampo del tuono' ('Compassion is the messenger of love / as lightning heralds thunder'; IV.l).

La Gerusalemme Liberata 199 Rinaldo departs, yet as Fortune's boat flies across the sea, he looks back at the hidden shore (GL 16.62). For the liberators who had passed through a series of allegorical traps (not to mention ekphrastic narratives of Hercules and Antony undone by women), Armida's garden was a dangerous site like the Garden of Orgagna, the Laughing Stream, or Alcina's palace. For Rinaldo, however, Armida was simply the woman he loved. These two opposing perspectives, moral allegory and literal realism, create a rift at the core of this episode. But on which side is Tasso? Tasso offers an interpretation of Armida in the 'Allegoria' that introduced the first Ferrarese edition of the poem (1581). Initially he links Armida and Ismeno as 'ministri del Diavolo' ('minister[s] of the Devil') who 'procurano di rimuovere i Christiani dal guerreggiare' ('strive to keep the Christians from fighting') and as 'diaboliche tentationi, che insidiano a due potenze dell'anima nostra, dalle quali tutti i peccati procedono' ('diabolic temptations that lie in wait for the two faculties of our soul from which all sins proceed') (8r; trans. 157-8). More specifically, Armida symbolizes Ta tentatione, che rende insidie alia potenza, che appetisce' ('the temptation that lays traps for the appetitive faculty'). Elsewhere in the 'Allegoria,' Rinaldo is depicted as the figure that provides the arm of the Crusading army whose head is Goffredo. If Tasso were to follow through with the implications of his own allegoresis, not to mention the traditional pattern of the hero-seductress episode, Rinaldo's departure from Armida's garden should represent, literally, the victory of Christian piety over the forces of the devil, allegorically, the victory of reason over the appetites, and structurally, the victory of epic closure over romance digression. Indeed, the pressure from both the episode's allegorical features and its classical and Renaissance precedents is so strong that Rinaldo's separation from Armida in canto 16 tends to be read along these lines.15 Continuing with the poet's own gloss on Armida and Ismeno in the 'Allegoria,' however, we find that what Tasso leaves unsaid is more revealing than what he actually tells us. He explains the allegorical significance of Ismeno's enchanted wood in all its details, but at the point in which, to complete the parallel discourse, he should discuss the allegory of Armida's garden, he stops short: 'Ma tanto basti haver detto de gli impedimenti, che trova 1'huomo cosi in se stesso, come fuori di se: peroche, se bene di alcune cose non si e espressa 1'allegoria, con questi principii ciascun per se stesso potra investigarla' ('But enough has been said of the impediments that man finds both inside and outside

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himself; for if the allegory of some things has not been explained, with this introduction each reader will be able to investigate it on his own'; 8r; trans. 158). When it comes to Armida's garden, then, Tasso refuses to provide an allegorized reading and instead transfers the burden of interpretation to the reader. The subsequent events of the poem, however, do not lend themselves to an allegorical interpretation along the lines established in the 'Allegoria.'16 To begin, the episode immediately following Rinaldo's departure from Armida's island is played out against Ruggiero's moral education in the Furioso. In Ariosto's text, Ruggiero undergoes two moments of instruction: a little-heeded one immediately following his escape from Alcina and a pivotal one following his later shipwreck. In the first instance, he is guided by a wise ferryman directly from Alcina's island across to the sandy shore ('arena'; OF 9.45; 10.57), where Logistilla waits to instruct him in moral virtue. In the second instance, Ruggiero swims to another sandy shore ('arena'; OF 37.50; 41.50), where this time he is greeted by a hermit who informs him of his ancestors and his progeny, and instructs him in the mysteries of the Christian religion. At first Tasso seemingly combines these two moments: immediately after fleeing from Armida's island, Rinaldo is guided by Fortuna's ship to a sandy shore where a hermit-like figure, the Mago d'Ascalona, stands waiting to instruct him and reveal his genealogy. The settings are suggestively similar, with Ariosto's arena and solitario scoglio (OF 37.51; 41.51) converging into Tasso's solitudini arenose (GL 17.56). Ariosto's hero climbs towards the top of a hill to reach the hermit; Tasso's wizard explicitly uses the hilltop as a metaphor for moral virtue: 'in cima a 1'erto e faticoso colle / de la virtu riposto e il nostro bene' ('on the summit of Virtue's steep and difficult hill, our goal is placed'; GL 17.61). Continuing in an allegorical vein, the Mago links the appetites to the pagan forces and concludes that in order to defeat both 'gli versari esterni' ('external foes') and 'le cupidigie, empi nemici interni' ('your desires, your wicked enemies within'; GL 17.63), the truant knight must submit himself to the authority of reason, 'saggio duce' ('his wise leader') which will govern ('governi') him. It only subsequently becomes apparent that the Mago's allegorical discourse was simply a tool to support a literal level: the leader (duce) to whom the Mago wants Rinaldo to submit is the captain Goffredo. After this persuasive piece of rhetoric, the Mago shows Rinaldo a shield that contains the images of his ancestors. His lineage is

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described as 'fertil d'eroi madre' ('the fecund ... mother of heroes') that 'non e ne fia di partorir mai stanca' ('is not nor ever will be weary of bearing fruit'; GL 17.86). After having thus metaphorically transferred the role of mother to an abstract lineage, the Mago goes on to describe that lineage as though it were without any real mothers. Marilyn Migiel has pointed out that in this genealogy Tasso does not appear hesitant to proclaim a story of fathers and sons' (151). This is not, in my view, because women do not matter, but rather because the identity of one particular woman matters far too much. Tasso not only leaves out women, but even more unusually, with respect to the episode's Renaissance precedents, he omits Rinaldo's successors and concentrates only on the past.17 The Mago attributes this lacuna to the limits of his vision and the hidden nature of future events (GL 17.87-8). Yet, despite the fact that he seems unable to identity even Rinaldo's own consort and first generation of children, he has no problem jumping ahead several centuries to tell of Alfonso II d'Este, the poem's dedicatee. The encomiastic thrust of the prophecy does not lessen the incongruity of the Mago's argument. The genealogy has the desired effect, and Rinaldo now wants to emulate the valour of his ancestors in battle (GL 17.81-2). As at Armida's island, when the glitter of weapons caught his eye, Rinaldo's reaction is pure martial instinct. Indeed, he quickly arms himself and anticipates victory in battle even though there is no specified enemy and thus no just cause for action: 's'arma frettoloso, e con la spene / gia la vittoria usurpa e la previene' ('he puts on the armour in haste, and in his hopes / already pre-empts to himself the victory and anticipates it'; GL 17.82). Only after Rinaldo has been worked into this battle frenzy does Carlo, who until now seemed a passive bystander, step in. He hands Sveno's sword to Rinaldo and calls for revenge on Solimano: 'fa del primo suo signer vendetta / che t'amo tanto, e ben a te s'aspetta' ('take revenge for its first master, who loved you / so much; and truly the task belongs to you'; GL 17.83). I would like to argue that what Rinaldo undergoes at this site is not moral instruction, but political indoctrination. The combined efforts of the Mago d'Ascalona and Carlo acquire an especially sinister connotation when seen in relation to the episode of the Fountain Fay in the Innamomto. To begin, we can note that both Boiardo's Mandricardo and Tasso's Rinaldo come upon a set of armour mysteriously displayed before them (OI 3.2.8 and GL 17.57). In each case, the set of armour stands out for its luminosity in an otherwise eerily dark setting - so

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much so that it is the only thing that can actually be seen.18 Both body armour and helmets are described as being set with gems and precious stones and contain pictorial representations with genealogical significance for the Estense patrons.19 In Boiardo's text, Hector's shield and the surrounding frescoed walls recall the mythic ancestry of the Este; Tasso expands the insignia into a full-fledged lineage of the same family. Additionally, both unwary knights are turned into instruments of war by psychological manipulation. While the Fairy commanded Mandricardo to wrest Hector's sword from Orlando, Carlo hands Sveno's sword to Rinaldo and asks him to use it against Solimano. What is significant here is that while Boiardo's narrative suggested a diabolical pagan plan, Tasso is attributing such machinations to the Christian side. As discussed earlier, Ariosto used this Innamomto episode in the Cinque canti as he depicted Alcina's handling of Gano. Tasso, in turn, draws from the Cinque canti as he continues to develop his episode. Like Gano, Rinaldo is swept across an immense geographical area by mysterious forces in a short amount of time, and then makes a return trip along the same route ('per la medesma via/ CC 1.105; 'per le medesme vie,' GL 17.54). Gano, after being led across the sea in a carefully orchestrated plan that he does not fully understand, arrives on an unfamiliar shore ('una spiaggia strana'; CC 1.73) where Gloricia is waiting to trap him. One of Gloricia's fairies then whisks him away in a magical flying sailboat to Alcina's Eastern palace (CC 1.87). Tasso's Rinaldo is taken by a mysterious damsel in a boat that flies across the sea to a shore ('le palestine / piaggie'; GL 17.55) where the Mago awaits him.20 The Mago will then send him on to Goffredo's camp, just as Gloricia sends Gano to Alcina. The Mago, by posing as a guardian of Rinaldo's arms (v. 'quasi custode'; GL 17.58) and by relating his genealogy, wants to give Rinaldo the impression that by returning to Goffredo's war he will serve his own self-interest by securing his dynasty. Most readers seem to take the Mago at his word. Sherberg, for instance, writes that Rinaldo 'must rise to the challenge of epic destiny, freeing Jerusalem in order to win his rightful place in the Este line' (189-90). But this is nothing but a hoax. Although the Christian forces do need Rinaldo in order to succeed in their mission, Rinaldo's place in the Este line has absolutely nothing to do with the liberation of Jerusalem. On the contrary, not only will his participation in the Crusade delay the foundation of the Estense dynasty, but his 'liberators' have just led him away from his future consort.21

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Tasso tells us that Rinaldo listened joyfully ('lietamente') to the Mago's genealogy, and 'del pensier de la futura prole / un tacito piacer sentia nel petto' ('felt a secret pleasure in his breast at the thought of his future progeny'; GL 17.95). But could Rinaldo know at this point who his destined wife and co-progenitor is? Tasso gives us only a hint of the future in canto 16 when Rinaldo, before leaving Armida's island, reasserts his love for her by pledging himself as her knight: Fra le care memorie ed onorate mi sarai ne le gioie e ne gli affanni, sard tuo cavalier quanto concede La guerra d'Asia e con 1'onor la fede. In joy and in sorrow you will be among my dear and cherished memories; I shall be your knight, as far as the war with Asia permits, and fealty with honour. (GL 16.54)

In // Rinaldo, the hero tells Floriana's men that he intends to return to her, yet she knows it is a lie and faints. Armida does not believe Rinaldo's words either, and she too faints. But whereas Tasso intervenes in the earlier text to say that Floriana's waiting was less painful than the upcoming hard truth, his intervention in this scene comes after Armida has fainted and is designed, on the contrary, to offer encouragement: 'Apri, misera, gli occhi; il pianto amaro / ne gli occhi al tuo nemico or che non miri?' ('Open your eyes, poor girl; why do you not see now the bitter tear in the eyes of your enemy?'; GL 16.61). After arriving at the Christian camp, Rinaldo undergoes a second indoctrination by Peter the Hermit. Although Tasso does not openly criticize this hermit, he has certainly not fashioned him as a likeable character. Bruscagli reads him in a entirely negative light: 'the religious propaganda of Peter the Hermit, "microphone of God," is vulgarized into terroristic eloquence, capable only of reproposing via intimidating slogans the orders of military bulletins' (Stagioni della civilta estense, 31). Even those not quite as critical of the Hermit tend to find his final 'instruction' and 'purification' of Rinaldo to be a ceremonial spectacle rather than a representation of true spiritual conversion.22 In accordance with the episode's precedents, the instruction and purification of the hero should be followed by a test of his ability to renounce personal pleasure in favour of public duty. The episode in

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Ismeno's forest appears at first glance to correspond structurally and thematically to such a test. Rinaldo succeeds in cutting down the trees despite entreaties from the voice and image of Armida not to do so. He thus breaks the spell of the wood and enables the Christians to make the siege tower that will bring about their victory. It is not surprising, therefore, that critics have read this episode as confirmation of Rinaldo's renunciation of Armida.23 However, it is important to note that Tasso has presented Rinaldo with a mere simulacrum of Armida, not the actual character. When Rinaldo disregards the pleading voice and cuts the tree, Tasso expressly refers to Rinaldo as 'accorto si, non crudo' ('not cruel, but fully aware'; GL 18.33). In other words, it is because Rinaldo recognizes that he stands before 'empty apparitions' ('vane / sembianze'; GL 18.38) and not his beloved Armida that he can raise his hand to strike. While the episode's structure would call for a testing of the will, Tasso shifts focus to the problem of perception, and Rinaldo is successful in the wood precisely because he can separate his individual vision from the collective opinions of others who confuse appearance and reality.24 One could thus read the adventure in Ismeno's wood as an indication that Rinaldo^ unlike his peers, succeeds in distinguishing the real woman from false imaginings. Both structures underlying the episode, that of the hero's rebellion against the ruler and the hero's seduction by an enchantress, appear to find closure with Rinaldo's abandonment of Armida and reconciliation with Goffredo. Yet in the final canto Tasso reverses Rinaldo's trajectory, once again separating him from Goffredo and the Crusading army and sending him back into the arms of his beloved. This reverses not only the direction of Tasso's poem, but, as I argue below, the entire tradition of the romance epic. Let us look at Tasso's distinctive treatment of armi before passing to that of amore. In the Carolingian cycle, as in the poems of Boiardo and Ariosto, the conclusion comes about when the wayward paladin returns to the fold in order to defend his homeland from an invasion by Saracen forces. Although the defensive war can turn into an offensive one, as when the Christian troops follow the invading army back to Africa, the project of imperial conquest is seen as the propelling force on the 'pagan' side only. Tasso, on the other hand, chooses an episode from European history in which the West was openly aggressive and imperialistic. His poem thus shifts the offensive to the Christians and, following the Homeric model, places the defenders of Jerusalem in the role of the Trojans. As Sergio Zatti has

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noted, Tasso is more sympathetic to the pagan forces than one would expect from a sixteenth-century Christian poet (L'uniforme cristiano). Moreover, in describing the final attack on Jerusalem, Tasso makes use of material from the historical Crusade chronicles that present the negative side of the Christian warriors as they kill every man, woman, and child in the city. Raymond of Aguilers remarks: 'in the Temple and the porch of Solomon, men rode in blood up to their knees and bridlereins' (Foss 177). William of Tyre, Tasso's principal source, expresses shame and disgust as he describes the slaughter and search for booty.25 The Gesta Francorum reports that: our men rushed round the whole city, seizing gold and silver, horses and mules, and houses full of all sorts of goods, and then they all came rejoicing and weeping from excess of gladness to worship at the Sepulchre of our Saviour Jesus, and there they fulfilled their vows to him. Next morning they went cautiously up on to the Temple roof and attacked the Saracens, both men and women, cutting off their heads with swords ... No-one has ever seen or heard of such a slaughter of pagans, for they were burned on pyres like pyramids, and no-one save God alone knows how many there were (Gesta Francorum, 92).26

Tasso would not have missed the jarring effect of the visit to the Holy Sepulchre sandwiched in between the descriptions of the plunder and the slaughter.27 His Crusaders are equally savage, and his account of the Christian troops entering Jerusalem evokes more horror than jubilation: Spazia 1'ira del ferro; e va co '1 lutto e con 1'orror, compagni suoi, la morte. Ristagna il sangue in gorghi, e corre in rivi pieni di corpi estinti e di mal vivi. The wrath of the sword walks abroad and Death goes up and down with Lamentation and Horror, his companions. Blood stands in pools and runs in rivers filled with bodies, the dead and the barely living. (GL 18.105)

As the slaughter continues in the following canto, the account becomes even more damaging for the Christian side:

206 The Triumph of Romance Ogni cosa di strage era gia pieno, vedeansi in mucchi e in monti i corpi avolti: la i feriti su i morti, e qui giacieno sotto morti insepolti egri sepolti. Fuggian premendo i pargoletti al seno le meste madri co' capegli sciolti, e '1 predator, di spoglie e di rapine carco, stringea le vergini nel crine.

Every thing was entirely filled with slaughter; bodies were bundled into heaps and piles. Here the wounded were lying upon the dead, and there beneath the unburied dead the sick lay buried. With locks dishevelled the tearful matrons fled, clutching their babies to their breasts, and the predator, laden with spoils and rapine, was dragging the virgins along by their hair. (GL 19.29-30)

Tasso has transformed the victors into predators who savagely prey on defenceless virgins. Goffredo subsequently tries to act as a moral authority, but his statement only serves to confirm the Crusaders' violence and cupidity: Troppo, ahi! troppo di strage oggi s'e visto, / troppa in alcuni avidita de 1'oro: / rapir piu oltra, e incrudelir i' vieto' (Too much, alas! too much has been seen today of slaughter; in some, too much avidity for gold. I forbid that you plunder further and wax cruel'; GL 19.52). One may wonder why Goffredo did not forbid his soldiers' excesses earlier. Moreover, Tasso implicitly links Goffredo to the bloodthirsty Crusaders by noting that he wears 'il sanguinoso manto' ('his bloodstained mantle'; GL 20.144) even as he enters the Holy Sepulchre to discharge his vow.28 Rinaldo is the only knight who does not partake in the final melee. Indeed, while his comrades are still busy massacring the citizens of Jerusalem, this newly elected leader of the knight errants is thinking instead of his beloved Armida. Just as Ariosto's Ruggiero at the moment of his conversion 'gli ritornano a mente le promesse / che tante volte alia sua donna fece' ('recalled the promises so often made to his lady'; OF 37.48; 41.48), now Rinaldo remembers his earlier promise to Armida: 'gli sovien che si promise in fede / suo cavalier quando da lei partia' ('he recalls that he faithfully pledged himself her knight

La Gerusalemme Liberata 207 when he parted from her'; GL 20.122). Tasso thus once again links his Rinaldo to Ariosto's Ruggiero, but this time it is in an entirely new context. By patterning Rinaldo's return to Armida on Ruggiero's return to Bradamante, Tasso changes the role of Armida from that of dangerous enchantress to that of destined consort. Moreover, Ariosto's reference to Ruggiero's religious faith in that same stanza ('votosse di core e di fede'; OF 37.48; 41.48) is now echoed in the faithfulness (fede) that binds Rinaldo to Armida.29 Indeed, as Tasso finally reveals, almost surreptitiously, in the final stanzas of the poem, Rinaldo's future consort is none other than Armida.30 As he follows her fleeing figure, she arrives in a 'chiusa opaca chiostra' ('dark and sheltered spot'; GL 20.122) that, as Fredi Chiappelli pointed out, recalls the image of a garden (186).31 This time, however, there are no allegorical monsters and no magical artifice. Armida notices Rinaldo just as she is about to commit suicide.32 At his approach, she turns away from his 'amato viso' ('beloved face') and faints. Whereas in canto 16 Armida fell abruptly to the ground ('cadde tramortita'; GL 16.60), here Tasso describes her as a languishing flower. And whereas earlier Rinaldo stood still and debated what to do before finally leaving her lying unconscious on the sand, now, even before the verse is completed, Rinaldo has already caught her in his arms. Tasso highlights the sheer physicality of this moment: Ella cadea, quasi fior mezzo inciso, piegando il lento collo; ei la sostenne, le fe d'un braccio al bel fianco colonna e 'ntanto al sen le rallento la gonna. She fell, like a flower half cut, letting her neck bend limply; he held her up; he made of one arm a prop for her lovely side, and meanwhile loosened her gown about her bosom. (GL 20.128)

Tasso continues to contrast and, essentially, to correct Rinaldo's earlier departure scene.33 While in canto 16 Rinaldo's tears were not observed by the unconscious Armida, here it is precisely his tears falling on her beautiful face ('bel volto') and beautiful breast ('bel seno') that awaken her (GL 20.129). This scene also serves to reverse the initial meeting of the two in which Armida was face to face with the sleeping figure of Rinaldo:

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now it is Rinaldo who lovingly beholds the unconscious Armida. And it is now Rinaldo's strong arm rather than Armida's magic sash that serves as a belt around her waist: E con man languidetta il forte braccio, ch'era sostegno suo, schiva respinse; tento piu volte e non usci d'impaccio, che via piu stretta ei rilegolla e cinse. And with languid hand she pushed away in scorn the brawny arm that was her prop. She tried many times and could not escape from his embrace, for far more straitly he encircled and bound her again. (GL 20.130)

Echoing Tasso's canto 16 intervention telling Armida to look into Rinaldo's eyes, Rinaldo now tells Armida himself: 'Mira ne gli occhi miei, s'al dir non vuoi / fede prestar, de la mia fede il zelo' ('Behold in my eyes the [fervor] of my faith, if you do not wish to trust my words'; GL 20.135). Tasso uses the loaded terms fede and zelo to denote not religious conviction, but the intensity of Rinaldo's love for Armida. Tasso had used the term zelo in his erotic love poem to Filli: 'Godiamo amando, e un dolce ardente zelo / Queste gioie notturne in noi rinnove' ('Let us take pleasure in loving, and may a sweet ardent fervour / renew these noctural joys').34 Having thus established Rinaldo's desire for Armida, Tasso now states Armida's desire for Rinaldo: 'Cosi 1'ira che 'n lei parea si salda, / solvesi e restan sol gli altri desiri' ('so is dissolved the wrath that seemed in her so firm, and only her other passions are left behind'; GL 20.136). Even as Tasso strips Armida of her diabolical and allegorical connotations (i.e., as a minister of the devil and as a temptation to the sensitive appetite), he reaffirms her human passion. It is the phrase that Armida speaks immediately following this reference to her 'other desires' that has attracted the most critical attention: 'Ecco 1'ancilla tua' ('Behold your handmaid'; GL 20.136). Because the phrase echoes the words of the Virgin Mary in Luke 1.38, critics have spoken of a sudden transformation of Armida into a Marian figure.35 The verse is indeed crucial, since, as Walter Stephens has noted, Rinaldo's proposal of marriage to Armida is conditional upon her conversion to Christianity ('Saint Paul Among the Amazons,' 194). Yet,

La Gerusalemme Liberata 209 coming as it does on the heels of Rinaldo's profession of love and Tasso's reference to Armida's passionate desires, it hardly transforms her into a religious figure. Armida does not actually repeat the words of the Virgin Mary ('Ecce ancilla Domini'); rather, she simply echoes the phrase as she pledges herself to the man she loves ('Ecco 1'ancilla tua'). The Biblical echo signals her willingness to convert, the only remaining obstacle to their marriage. Armida's submission, moreover, does not come ex nihilo. She had already declared to Rinaldo in canto 16 that she was prepared to be his sprezzata ancilla ('despised slave'; GL 16.48 and 16.49), his 'serva' ('slave'; GL 16.49), and his scudiero o scudo ('shield bearer or shield'; GL 16.50).36 Tasso, in fact, would have already found the same expression used in Trissino's Italia liberata without any overt religious connotations. In the earlier text, as discussed above, Elpidia offers herself in marriage to a knight of the Captain's choosing (IL 6,104r). The exact words that she uses to signal her obedience to Captain Belisario are: 'Signer mio caro, ecco la vostra ancella, / Parata a far di se quel, ch'a voi piacia' ('My dear lord, here is your handmaid, prepared to make of herself that which pleases you'; IL 6, 105r). Whereas Elpidia gives Belisario the power to choose a husband for her, Armida, using the intimate tu form, addresses Rinaldo as the man she has chosen for herself: 'Ecco 1'ancilla tua; d'essa a tuo senno / dispon/ gli disse 'e le fia legge il cenno' ('Behold your handmaid; dispose of her at your discretion (she said), and your command shall be her law'; GL 20.136).37 Stephens has noted, moreover, that the power Armida bestows on Rinaldo verbally echoes the power that Goffredo holds over the Christian army.38 To concentrate exclusively on the transformation and submissiveness of Armida, however, is to miss the reciprocity of this scene in which each lover submits to the other. Rinaldo had at that moment just declared himself Armida's 'champion and servant' ('tuo campione e servo'; GL 20.134). If for the female the phrasing stems ultimately from a Biblical source, the male adopts terminology from the courtlychivalric sphere. Both lovers, using different code words, are making the same pledge of themselves to their beloved. Just as Armida's words echo what she herself had said in canto 16, Rinaldo's words echo what Ubaldo had called him (albeit, sarcastically) in the same canto: 'egregio campion d'una fanciulla' ('the gallant champion of a girl'; GL 16.32). Various critics have claimed that Armida's conversion is not convincing. It is important to keep in mind, however, that her acceptance of Rinaldo's religion is not meant to fit the mould of a Pauline- or

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Augustinian-style conversion.39 It is, rather, an example of the conversion for love typical of the romance epic.40 In the Aspramonte, the Saracen knight Galaziella converts to Christianity for love of Rugiero II and then marries him. This couple takes on added significance when Boiardo designates them as the parents of Rugiero III, a character he invents to serve as the progenitor of the Estense family. Rugiero III, in turn, raised as a Saracen, is destined by Boiardo to convert to Christianity for love of Bradamante. Although the poem was interrupted shortly after the narration of their attraction in Book Three, Niccolo degli Agostini's fourth book of the Orlando Innamorato (1506) brings the foretold events to completion. He situates the lovers alone in the woods under the shade of an oak tree. When Ruggiero declares his passion, Bradamante tells him that sexual pleasure awaits him if he will convert and exchange marriage vows with her: prima vo che rineghi Macometto e poi me sposarai con la tua mano cosi di me potrai prender diletto anzi che si partiam di questo prato first I want you to renounce Mohammed, and then you will give me your hand in marriage; in this way you can take your pleasure with me even before we leave this meadow. (OI 4.7.19)

The baptism of Rugiero by the hand of Bradamante gives Agostini leave to describe an extended amorous encounter beginning in the very next stanza: Poi posersi a seder sul verde prato sol per venir a 1'ultimo diletto che suol far ogni amante al fin beato seruza haver un de 1'altro alcun rispetto fronte con f ronte il fiato con fiato volto con volto & poi petto con petto 1'ardentissime fiamme in modo estingue ch'in bocca ognun de lor havea due lingue Then they sat down on the green meadow to arrive at that highest pleasure

La Gerusalemme Liberata 211 that makes every lover blessed, without any inhibitions toward each other, brow to brow, breath to breath, face to face, and then chest to chest, they quenched the burning flames of desire with two tongues in each mouth. (OI 4.7.35)

Ariosto's Ruggiero plans to follow this same pattern of conversion for love (OF 20.35; 22.35), but the action is diverted and he finally converts only in the face of death. Ruggiero nevertheless recalls this chivalric model of conversion as part of his own family history as he tells Marfisa that their mother 'di Ruggier al fin venne amorosa, / e per suo amor dal padre fu ribella, / e battizossi, e diventogli sposa' ('ultimately fell in love with Ruggiero and, for love of him, defied her father and received baptism and married him'; OF 33.77; 36.73). Tasso simply returns to the established pattern of conversion for love in his story of the Estense origins. By the time Armida speaks her famous 'ancilla tua' line in canto 20, the more important conversion has already taken place - not a religious conversion to Christianity, but a psychological conversion from maga to innamorata. This prior conversion took place in two stages as she was transformed first from enemy to lover ('di nemica ella divenne amante'; GL 14.67) upon seeing him, and then from master to servant when faced with losing him. While Armida's magic garden and Ismeno's enchanted wood could have been considered negative opposites of the city of Jerusalem, the natural setting of canto 20 is just as positive as the pastoral setting that Erminia discovered as she fled earlier in the poem from the scene of battle. Yet this new image of Arcadia is not characterized by its frugality or populated with shepherds. Rather, the site in which Rinaldo and Armida declare their love for each other brings the reader closer to Floriana's garden (Rin. 9) and to the Golden Age of sensuality celebrated in the Aminta. In the latter work, the chorus nostalgically recalls an age in which sensual love reigned uninhibited by the prudishness that goes by the name of honour.41 In fact, Tasso has already established a link between the character of Armida and the topos of the Golden Age. In canto 16, one of the girls bathing in the fountain explicitly equates the pleasure to be found in Armida's garden with that of the Golden Age:

212 The Triumph of Romance Questo e il porto del mondo, e qui e il ristoro de le sue noie, e quel placer si sente che gia senti ne' secoli de 1'oro 1'antica e senza fren libera gente. This is the haven of the world; and here is surcease from your troubles, and that pleasure known that once was known in the Golden Age by the ancient race of men, free and unbridled. (GL 15.63)

Although one of the knights refers to the girls as 'false Sirene/ Tasso implicitly confirms her statement by positioning Armida's garden within the Fortunate Islands. This correspondence between a Golden Age in the distant past and the geographical location of westward-lying islands comes down from the classical tradition. Moreover, as Levin (58) has pointed out, these faraway islands also served the function of the Elysian Fields. Tasso had already used this latter idea in // Rinaldo when Medea escorts Floriana in her chariot to these Blessed Islands. In the Liberata, not only does the Mago tell Ubaldo and Carlo that Armida has taken Rinaldo to the Fortunate Islands (GL 14.70), but Lady Fortune goes on to refer to these isole Felici as the Elysian fields ('gli elisi campi') and the resting place of heroes ('le famose / stanze de le beate anime'; GL 15.35-6). Whereas earlier poets had commonly noted how enchanted gardens resembled a terrestrial paradise (e.g., Carandina's garden 'sembrava un terrestre paradise'; Mam. 1.46), Tasso actually places his lovers in one. In this way, he merges the concept of an earthly paradise with the gardens of sensuous delight, contradicting a literary tradition that presented the latter as a dangerously false image of the former. Yet Rinaldo and Armida could not remain indefinitely in that enchanted garden, and thus canto 20 brings them to a natural, as opposed to magical, setting where they are no longer removed from time, but rather looking forward to a future together. Both the Aminta's imagined Golden Age and the Liberata's final scene between Rinaldo and Armida go against the general tendency to equate sexuality with the illicit. Although 11 Rinaldo had already presented a challenge to traditional morality through the treatment of Floriana, it nevertheless concluded with the Carolingian hero's sanctioned marriage to a French Christian virgin. Here Tasso's new Crusading hero proposes to the enchantress from Damascus who had been the

La Gerusalemme Liberata 213 single greatest threat to the Christian cause. As if to mark this difference, the public and artificially pompous ceremony of the earlier poem has been replaced by a sensuous and emotional exchange of vows in a very private setting. Tasso has indeed found a way to represent the final union of his lovers without renouncing the passion that characterized their earlier relationship. Tasso is, of course, aware of his break with respect to tradition and, in particular, to the Ruggiero-Alcina-Bradamante triangle in the Orlando Furioso, In his 'Apologia in difesa della Gerusalemme liberata/ in fact, he criticizes Ariosto for not having established a passionate relationship between Ruggiero and Bradamante. He complains that Ruggiero does not appear to desire Bradamante at all, 'ma quasi pare che la disprezzi e ne faccia poca stima: il che non sarebbe peraventura tanto sconvenevole, se il poeta non fingesse che da questo amore e da questo matrimonio dovessero derivare i principi d'Este' ('but it almost seems that he despises her and cares little for her, which would not be perhaps so unseemly if the poet had not pretended that from this love and this marriage would descend the Estense princes') (Prose, 421 ).42 In this passage, Tasso neither condemns sexual desire nor distinguishes between types of women; he rather laments the fact that passion is absent from a relationship that is so central to Ariosto's fiction and the Estense genealogy. In the Liberata, Erminia, Clorinda, and Armida may represent different types of women, but Tasso's women are not oppositions of good and evil from which the hero must learn to choose. By turning the episode of the hero's temporary seduction into the beginning of a dynastic union, Tasso rejects a polarized view of the woman as either evil seductress or legitimate bride.43 A. Bartlett Giamatti wrote about the centrality of the woman to the epic: The epic is often concerned with exile and the way back, and woman is always at the center. She is often both the goal and the obstacle. She is the Penelope who waits and the Circe who delays. Sometimes she is both the reason we wander and the object we seek, because only where she is are we at home' (Exile and Change, 4). Tasso is, however, as far as I know, the only epic poet to merge woman as deviation and woman as endpoint, Circe and Penelope, into the very same person. In this context, Armida is not only Angelica and Alcina, she is also Fiordelisa and Bradamante. Or rather, she is an enchantress who, through the transforming power of love, becomes the hero's dynastic consort. While earlier writers often warned that behind the facade of the beautiful maiden there lurked a

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siren or a witch, Tasso asserts that beyond the illusion of the dangerous maga there is simply a beautiful and loving woman. The reconciliation of Rinaldo and Armida not only transforms the maga into a woman, on a structural level, it transforms Tasso's ostensible epic poem into a romance.44 If, from the perspective of canto 16, Armida seemed to be a temporary obstacle to the epic fulfilment of the Liberata, from the endpoint, it is rather the Crusade that, for the hero Rinaldo, has turned out to be a parenthesis in his career as knight errant.45 On the morning of the final battle Rinaldo becomes the leader of the avventurieri (knights not subject to any lord), and with the liberation of Jerusalem, he divests himself of the role of Crusader to take on the role of 'champion' of Armida and founder of the Estense dynasty. At the same time that the bloodstained Goffredo heads to the great Sepulchre to discharge his vow to God, Rinaldo is in the woods making a new vow to Armida. And unlike Aeneas, who will marry the rather bland Lavinia and die after three years of rule (or Ruggiero, whose early death was foretold prior to his first appearance in the Innamorato),46 Rinaldo's future with Armida is projected indefinitely into a 'happily ever after' in which creating a dynasty will not be a burden to bear but rather a pleasure to enjoy. The happy future of Tasso's romance hero is, moreover, obliquely contrasted with the ultimate failure of Goffredo's epic enterprise: Ismeno predicts to Solimano that the Christian victory of 1096 will not be a final victory, but a foreign occupation soon to be overturned by the Saladin's recovery of the Holy Land (GL 10.22-3). Any reader familiar with the history of the Crusades would know the truth of Solimano's prediction: Goffredo would be dead by the following year, the Christian domination of Jerusalem would be short-lived, and repeated Western attempts to regain a foothold in the East would end in dismal failure. This reversal of the traditional assertion of epic over romance at the moment of closure can also be seen by comparing the ending of the Liberata with that of the Furioso. Ariosto's poem is brought to a conclusion as the adventurer Ruggiero is welcomed into the court of Charlemagne. His final action, despite the fact that his wedding feast is in progress (romance /amore), is a battle to the death against the archpagan Rodomonte (epic/armz). In the Liberata, by contrast, despite the fact that Jerusalem is being sacked by his fellow Christians (epic/arm/), Rinaldo's story concludes with him in the forest in the arms of the beautiful Armida (romance/amore).

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In his non-fictional writings, Tasso was not inimical to the romance genre. He maintained that the elements of romance - in particular, magic and love - were essential to a successful chivalric poem. In a letter written to his friend Luca Scalabrino in April of 1576, Tasso states emphatically that love constitutes 'heroic' material: voglio difender contra tutto il mondo, che 1'amore e materia altrettanto eroica quanto la guerra; e '1 difendero con ragione, con autorita d'Aristotele, con luoghi di Platone che parlano chiaro chiaro chiaro, chiarissimamente chiaro. I want to maintain, against the entire world, that love is just as heroic a subject as war, and I will defend it with reason, with the authority of Aristotle, and with passages in Plato that speak clearly, clearly, clearly, extremely clearly. (Lettere, 1:160-1).

In a letter to Scipione Gonzaga the next month, he states: 'Quanto a gli amori e a gli incanti, quanto piu vi penso, tanto piu mi confermo che siano materia per se convenevolissima al poema eroico; parlo de gli amori nobili, non di quelli de la Fiammetta, ne di quelli che hanno alquanto del tragico' ('Regarding love and enchantments, the more I think about it, the more I am convinced that they are extremely worthy subjects in a heroic poem: I speak of noble loves, not those of [Ariosto's] Fiammetta, nor those that have something tragic about them') (22 May 1576; Lettere, 1: ISO).48 The fact that Tasso refused to consider romance and epic as two separate genres was not, as some have maintained, a way of effacing romance, but rather a way of justifying the presence of romance in his own poem.49 Tasso's letters show that he was worried about reader response to the controversial nature of the story of Armida and Rinaldo in a climate that was increasingly repressive - even among his fellow literati. In another letter to Luca Scalabrino, he attempts to divert Sperone Speroni away from a reading of cantos sixteen to twenty while at the same time proclaiming his freedom to write as he pleases: S'egli vuol udire i miei ultimi cinque canti, leggeteglieli; ma io avrei caro che non si curasse d'udirli. Dategli buone parole, dicendogli ch'io disegno di trascrivere tutto il libro di mia mano [con lettera grossa], e mandarglielo: faro poi quello che mi tornera commodo, e non mancheranno mai pretesti... Io non vo' padrone se non colui che mi da il pane, ne maestro; e

216 The Triumph of Romance voglio esser libero non solo ne' giudicii, ma anco ne lo scrivere e ne 1'operare' Rome, 4 May 1576 (Lettere, 1:174).50 If he wants to hear my final five cantos, read them to him, but I would prefer that he didn't care to hear them. Reassure him, telling him that I intend to rewrite the entire book by hand in large letters and send it to him; I'll then do what suits me, and I'll never lack for excuses ... I don't want masters, unless they feed me, nor teachers; and I want to be free not only in my opinions, but also in my writing and in my actions.

Tasso then goes on to suggest that Scalabrino divert Speroni's attention from the final cantos by having him read some of Tasso's sonnets and think about Erminia's departure instead. Tasso is more explicit in defending his depiction of Armida in a letter to Scipione Gonzaga. He is worried that Armida's story will bother some readers ('potra dare altrui noia') and that it could seem 'ch'io abbia preso Armida per soggetto principale, e ch'io riguardi in lei non solo in quanto distorna i cristiani e ritiene Rinaldo, ma anco prima e per se' ('that I took Armida as the principal subject, and that I consider her not just for diverting the Christans and retaining Rinaldo, but also first and foremost in her own right'; 29 July 1575; Lettere, 1:104). Tasso initially suggests the possibility of removing the final canto if readers are disturbed, a sign that he recognized just how controversial the reconciliation scene was, but he immediately goes on to defend the continued presence of Armida in the poem by calling upon the Iliad, the Aeneid, and the Odyssey as precedents. He bases his defence not on a parallel story line, which would have required Aeneas to marry Dido and Odysseus to remain with Circe or Calypso, but on the tangential point that these classical texts do not abandon characters once their narrative utility has been exhausted. He thereby shifts the reader's attention away from the explosive issue of Armida and focuses on an innocuous structural issue instead (Lettere, 1:104-5). Certainly, the final reunion of the lovers is hard to justify in light of Tasso's own allegorical reading of Armida as a 'minister of the Devil' and 'the temptation that lays traps for the appetitive faculty' ('Allegoria/ 8r; trans. 157-8). It is important to remember, however, Tasso's acknowledgment that the allegorical interpretations came to his mind only after he had written over half of the poem and had begun to worry about the repressiveness of his age:

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lo, per confessare a Vostra Signoria illustrissima ingenuamente il vero, quando cominciai il mio poema non ebbi pensiero alcuno d'allegoria, parendomi soverchia e vana fatica ... Ma poi ch'io fui oltre al mezzo del mio poema e che cominciai a sospettar de la strettezza de' tempi, cominciai anco a pensare a 1'allegoria, come a cosa ch'io giudicava dovermi assai agevolar ogni difficulta. To ingenuously confess the truth to your Illustrious Lordship, when I began my poem, I had not given any thought whatsoever to allegory, considering it to be an unneccessary and useless chore ... But then when I got beyond the middle of my poem, and I began to suspect the narrowmindedness of the times, I began also to think about allegory as something that could go a long way in smoothing out every difficulty. (15 June 1576; Lettere, 1:192-3)

In the same letter Tasso goes on to announce his defensive plan of prefacing the poem with an allegorical explanation declaring how he serves political - that is, civic and moral - ends ('come il poeta serva al politico'; Lettere, 1: 194). The explanation that Tasso envisions in 1576, shortly after having completed the poem, will in fact become the 'Allegoria' that prefaces the first edition in 1581. Yet, as discussed above, Tasso's allegorical reading refuses to fit Armida's garden into a moralizing framework. Whereas allegory had traditionally been the means to arrive at the core of a text's meanings, Tasso turns allegory into the wrapper that conveniently covers his true story. In a letter to Luca Scalabrino of the same year, Tasso says even more openly that allegory serves simply as a protective shell for the amori and the incanti in the poem: 'Mostero ch'io non ho avuto altro fine che di servire al politico; e con questo scudo cerchero d'assicurare ben bene gli amori e gl'incanti' ('I will show that my only purpose was political; and with this shield I will try to save the love stories and the enchantments'; Rome, June 1576).51 It is now the allegory, likened to a shield, that serves to protect the covert literal sense rather than a surface literal sense that serves to illustrate a hidden allegory. As the story reaches its conclusion, Tasso lays down the allegorical shield and the literal sense remains intact. When Chiappelli says that the reunion of Rinaldo and Armida in canto 20 is 'solo una storia d'amore' ('just a love story'), he is absolutely right. But while Chiappelli finds that this love story has no con-

218 The Triumph of Romance

nection to the rest of the poem, I would argue on the contrary that it radically affects the poem as a whole on a structural and ideological level. Not only is love legitimized in the final canto, but it is also envisioned as a corrective to the brutality of slaughter.52 By removing Rinaldo from the 'epic' sack of Jerusalem and bringing him into the forest of 'romance/ Tasso overturns the traditional association of 'love' with the illicit and 'arms' with a higher moral purpose. How, then, are we to understand the religious and political mission which is the poem's ostensible subject? We can begin to answer that question by considering what Tasso's contemporaries might have thought about the long history of the Crusades. Guicciardini remarks that talk of a crusade against the Turks was understood to be either empty rhetoric or part of a plan to organize troops against one's Christian neighbours.53 The historian John Hale has found widespread scepticism for the Crusades during the Renaissance, as the 'theological explanation' of war steadily lost ground: Wars undertaken in the name of religion, which had been hitherto seen as blameless co-operations with God's will, were now seen in a more cynical light. The crusading appeals of such popes as Alexander VI, Leo X and Clement VII were appraised by the princes of Europe and their councillors in terms of secular profit and loss ... Military operations against the Turks, from the Venetian campaign of 1499-1503 to the battle of Lepanto in 1571 and beyond, were conducted on the same lines, and with the same aims as wars between Christian powers. (341)

Christopher Tyerman writes that near mid-century the Spanish were promoting the Crusades as a money-raising venture: Pope 'Paul III (1534-49) tried to get crusading indulgence bulls abolished or, at least, restricted, by the Council of Trent. Significantly, his efforts were thwarted by Spanish opposition as, by mid-century, the crusade and its attendant financial machinery of the cruzada had become a limb of Habsburg policy' (102-3). Tasso openly acknowledges that his poem about the Crusades functions as political propaganda for his patrons. In a 1565 note to an Estense administrator to describe his literary projects and justify his stipend, Tasso states that he intends to write two heroic poems on a subject chosen in accord with Cardinal Luigi (his patron at the time). The naming of three possible subjects is followed solely by an indication of their encomiastic purpose. The first listing, which is the subject

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of the Liberata, reads: 'Espedizion di Goffredo, e de gli altri principi contra gl'infedeli, e ritorno. Dove avro occasione di lodar le famiglie d'Europa, che piu vorro' ('Expedition of Goffredo and other princes against the Infidels, and their return. Where I will have the occasion to praise the families of Europe as I choose').54 Tasso's patrons, moreover, do not seem particularly interested in the Turkish question. The Este were not involved when Christian forces defeated the Turks definitively in the battle of Lepanto in 1571.55 Indeed, Alfonso It's more immediate enemy at the time was the pope. Nor does Tasso himself seem overly antagonistic towards Muslims in general or Turks in particular. When the Turks appear once again to be threatening Western Europe, Tasso writes to Luca Scalabrino that: 'il turco, il quale esce fuora con la sua malora, pigliera Messina, pur che si contenti di tanto. Ma girino le cose del mondo come piace a chi le governa' ('the Turks, may they go to ruin, will occupy Messina, if they are content with so little. But let the world turn as it pleases those in power') (12 March 1576; Lettere, 1:136).56 Although Tasso hardly seems sympathetic to the Turkish side, his reference to their military threat is followed by a stated indifference to political questions. Tasso does not pit East against West, or Islam against Christianity, so much as he distances himself from the machinations of the rulers on both sides. Indeed, the Turks were not nearly as personally threatening to Tasso as the Spaniards, who were already in power in Southern Italy and trying, with some success, to crush the indigenous feudal power structure to which his own father was tied. Nor were the Turks as dangerous as the Papal States, which would finally succeed in forcing the Este family out of Ferrara after Alfonso's death in 1597. And although historians sometimes cite the potential danger to Tasso's sister when Turkish pirates set foot on the Amalfi coast in 1558 (see Solerti 1: 35-6), the Turks were certainly of less danger to Tasso's loved ones than his own uncles, who were believed to have poisoned his mother in 1556 to seize her dowry (see Solerti 1: 21). It is also worth noting Tasso's 'scarce religious fervor' and 'intolerance for the rigors of dogma' prior to his imprisonment in Sant'Anna (Firpo 15, 42-7). As is known, Tasso confessed to having religious doubts about the most basic Christian beliefs (see Solerti 1: 210). But what matters for the poem is not Tasso's attitudes towards the tenets of Catholic theology, but his attitudes regarding Counter-Reformation social policy. In a letter to Scipione Gonzaga of 15 April 1579, his religious doubts are inextricably tied to a delegitimization of authority,

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both of the pope and of an institutionalized system of transcendent rewards and punishments: 'come poteva io fermamente credere ne i sacramenti, o ne 1'autorita del tuo pontefice, o ne 1'inferno, o nel purgatorio, se de I'incarnazione del tuo Figliuolo e de 1'immortalita de 1'anima era dubbio?' ('How could I firmly believe in the sacraments, or in the authority of Your pontiff, or in hell, or purgatory, if I was in doubt about the Incarnation of your Son and the immortality of the soul?').57 If we turn our attention to what Tasso thought of the historical Crusaders that provided the subject of his poem, we find a decidedly negative view. Ironically, Tasso's disparaging assessment of the Crusaders comes to us in a letter to Silvio Antoniano, professor of the Collegio Romano and Tasso's most feared and rigid censor. In an attempt to justify his use of amori in his poem, Tasso explains to this churchman just how degenerate the historical Crusaders actually were: Se diam fede a gli istorici, molti di que' principi furono non solo macchiati d'incontinenza, ma bruttati ancora di malizia e di ferita: e, s'in vece de 1'ingiustizie, de le rapine, de le frodi e de' tradimenti, descrivo gli amori e gli sdegni loro (colpe men gravi); non giudico di rendere men onorata o men venerabile la memoria di quella impresa. If we are to give credence to the historians, many of these princes were not only stained with lust, but moreover sullied with malice and savagery, and if instead of the injustices, the plunder, the deception, and treachery, I describe their passion and anger (lesser sins), I don't think I'm rendering less honored or venerable the memory of that undertaking. (30 March 1576; Lettere, 1:146)

Pointing out the injustices, plunder, fraud, and betrayals of the actual Crusaders may not have been the most astute way of defending his fictional characters to 'the most fanatical of his revisors' (Solerti 1: 224), but it does reveal a coldly disenchanted view of the Crusading enterprise. At the same time, however, it is important to note Tasso's real fear of the Church authorities who had the power to forbid the publication of his poem. In a 15 April 1575 letter to Scipione Gonzaga, he writes: 'Qui va pur intorno questo benedetto romore de la proibizione d'infiniti poeti; vorrei sapere se ve n'e cosa alcuna di vero' ('Here is circulating that blessed rumour about the prohibition of an infinite number of poets; I would like to know if there's any truth to it') (Let-

La Gerusalemme Liberata 221 tere, 1: 67). In a follow-up letter of just a couple weeks later, Tasso is plainly worried about Gonzaga's silence and asks outright if the privilege to publish his poem will be denied and the love scenes condemned: 'Vostra Signoria non risponde cosa alcuna a quel particolare ch'io le chiedo con tanta istanza; cioe, se dubita che debba esser negate il privilegio, e se gli amori saranno condennati: ed io, argumentando dal silenzio che cosi debba essere, me n'affliggo' ('Your Lordship doesn't respond at all to that detail I asked about with such insistence: that is, if you think the privilege will be denied and if the love scenes will be condemned, and I, judging by your silence, think that this is the case, and I am afflicted'; 3 May 1575, Lettere, 1: 70). Tasso was right, of course, to be alarmed. The Church increasingly dictated the printing practices of the peninsula's major publishing houses.58 Silvio Antoniano, in fact, a representative of the Church's new, repressive Counter-Reformation ideology, demanded extensive modifications of the poem, including the removal of the romantic passages (Solerti 1: 213-14).59 Tasso, however, concedes only minor modifications and tries instead to explain the integrity of the so-called lascivious scenes in the poem. In a 30 March 1576 letter, Tasso initially assures Antoniano that he could remove objectionable passages from the poem, but then he shifts to a defence of the amorous episodes, saying that he could not remove any of them without creating a deficiency in the work as a whole (Lettere, 1:144). Despite his real fears of Antoniano and the Roman Inquisition, without whose approval Tasso could not publish his poem, he nevertheless asserts his right to individual freedom of expression. This is not to deny the terrible toll of the confrontation. Solerti attributes Tasso's alleged insanity to the strain: 'it was a painful battle lasting two years between poetry on the one hand and pedantry and religious scruples on the other. The pedants and inquisitors triumphed, the poet went insane, and his work of art would have remained defiled, if not destroyed, had a literary theft not saved the masterpiece for Italian literature' (1.206). After emerging from his seven-year confinement in the asylum of Sant'Anna (1579-86), Tasso wrote the 'tiresome and pedantic' Gerusalemme Conquistata (1593).60 This revised poem, no longer dedicated to an Estense patron, but to Cinzio Aldobrandini, nephew of Pope Clement VIII, is a retraction of virtually everything the critics and censors took issue with in the earlier poem. The 'reformed' poet then goes so far as to deny authorship of the Liberata through the following simile: 'dal primo [poema] sono alieno

222 The Triumph of Romance come i padri da' figliuoli ribelli, e sospetti d'esser nati d'adulterio' ('I am estranged from the first [poem] like fathers from rebellious children, suspected of being born of adultery'; Lettere, 5:145). Yet even Tasso's most severe Counter-Reformation critics did not seem to have realized just how radical the original poem really was. Judging by the responses in Tasso's correspondence, no one appears to have accused him of calling into question the moral and political hegemony of the Church and Empire. Later critics have often read the Liberata as an expression of Counter-Reformation culture rather than as a critique of that culture.61 Not until Zatti's study of the tensions between unity and diversity in the poem had anyone noted how positively Tasso depicts the pagan underdogs (L'uniforme cristiano).62 Bruscagli (Stagioni della civilta estense), while disputing Zatti's thesis that Tasso identified emotionally with the pagans (198n), nevertheless suggested that the poem discloses the contradictions of the Crusading ideology, exposing 'its internal ambiguities, weaknesses, and its disillusioned and hallucinatory character' (31). Margaret Ferguson has also questioned the view of Tasso as a Counter-Reformation author, based on her reading of his minor works. Although she focuses on the Apologia, the Del piacere onesto, and the Gerusalemme conquistata, rather than the Liberata, she draws a suggestive parallel between the poem's Crusade narrative and Charles V's attempt to establish the Spanish Inquisition in Naples in 1547.63 The Neapolitan crisis was part of a power struggle between the Spanish conquerors and the local population after a 'resident and at least Italianized monarchy had been replaced by a viceroyalty dependent on a nonresident foreign monarch' (Cochrane 195). As mentioned above, due to his patron's participation in the Neapolitan rebellion, Bernardo Tasso was forced into exile when Torquato was only three years of age, and he never regained his status or property. In a letter to Vittoria Colonna of 1556, Torquato refers to his father as 'un povero gentiluomo caduto in miseria e calamita senza colpa sua e per conservazione de 1'onore' ('a poor gentleman fallen into misery and calamity not through his own fault and in order to conserve his honour') (Lettere, I: 6). Arguing that the Neapolitan rebellion 'colored Tasso's imaginative life and ideological formation in a way that critics have not begun to appreciate' (71), Ferguson examines // Gonzaga, overo del piacere onesto (1583), a dialogue in which Tasso reconsiders his father's involvement in the rebellion (70-98). In the dialogue, Bernardo's defender states that the Inquisition, ostensibly created to suppress her-

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esy, was undertaken instead for mere financial gain (// Gonzaga, 2S9).64 Aware, however, that open resistance to political authority is suicidal, Tasso retrospectively proposes a solution that consists of, in Ferguson's words, 'a carefully rationalized account of what Sanseverino should have done to satisfy both his native city and his emperor' (91). If we apply Tasso's retrospective solution to the Neapolitan crisis to the situation in the Liberata, we find that this is exactly what Tasso's hero Rinaldo has accomplished by the end of the poem. Open rebellion had turned Rinaldo into an outcast and negatively coloured his stay on Armida's island; a contract for temporary collaboration with the Crusading forces not only wins him the reputation of a hero, but also allows him to return undisturbed to his private existence. Translated into modern terms, one could say that Rinaldo negotiated a win-win situation through a temporary compromise with the forces of hegemony.65 The exile of Tasso's father, as significant as it was, figured as only one example of the misery of foreign domination and courtly service that Tasso witnessed - and suffered - throughout his lifetime. He was reunited with his father nine years later in Rome, but after a short time father and son were forced to flee to Urbino because of news of an impending Spanish invasion occasioned by the fight between Philip II and Pope Paul IV. In his autobiographical 'Canzone al Metauro' (1578), Tasso likens himself to Ascanio or Camilla as he followed 'il padre errante' ('the wandering father'; v.40) in exile, and he remembers how he grew up 'In aspro essiglio e 'n dura / Poverta' ('in bitter exile and in harsh poverty'; vv. 41-2) (Opere, 723-4). Torquato learned first-hand that criticizing the establishment was dangerous not only in Spanish-dominated Naples, but even in the more open university climate at Bologna. In his fourth year of college, he was accused of writing a satire against professors and fellow students of the Studio bolognese, and he fled to Padua in order to avoid arrest.66 During his career as poet, he complained of being continuously assailed by malignant courtiers, and he sought to change patrons both before and after the completion of his romance epic.67 He writes seeking a new patron, despite the fact that the duke had issued a ban prohibiting courtiers from passing to the service of other patrons without his authorization (Solerti 1: 204-5). Tasso's subsequent problems with his more orthodox revisers, and with the Estense court, make it hard to imagine him as an earnest supporter of authority, be it papal, imperial, or merely ducal.68

224 The Triumph of Romance

Tasso not only inverts the traditional structural relation of romance to epic, he further challenges the traditional ideology underlying the romance epic by reconfiguring the relation of the individual to society. Specifically, he rejects as inoperative the humanist ideal of civic responsibility embodied in the romance epics of his Ferrarese predecessors. How could the poet promote civic engagement when the people of Italy had fallen under the domination of foreign powers? As Tasso himself admitted in his Lettera dalla Francia (1571), 'il meglio e il piu dell'Italia e soggetta a re straniero' ('the best and largest part of Italy is subject to a foreign king') (Lettera dalla Francia, 46). Nor, on a purely local level, could the increasingly degenerate ruling family of Ferrara be expected to inspire a civic spirit in its people. Ariosto had already spoken of the reigns of Borso and Ercole, in which the ruler respected the common good, as an irretrievable Golden Age (CC 2.1201). Historians commonly acknowledge the further decline of the Estense house during Tasso's time. Pittorru calls the economic decline 'catastrophic/ and finds Duke Alfonso II devoid of any political or administrative talent (49).69 While previous romance epics upheld the idea of the individual's responsibility to safeguard the res publica, Tasso advocates instead the rights of the individual apart from the state. Indeed, rather than calling upon the individual to protect the state, Tasso is advising him how to protect himself from the state. The new priority that Tasso accords to the private over the public side of life can also be glimpsed in his 'Apologia in difesa della Gerusalemme liberata/ in which he criticizes the fact that Ariosto's Ruggiero 'prepone a la sua donna il suo re, al quale non aveva alcuno oblige particolare' ('places his king before his lady, a king to whom he had no particular obligation') (Prose, 638-9 and 641). Tasso additionally faults Ruggiero for later placing his obligation towards Leone above his love for Bradamante. What for Ariosto had been a crowning achievement of self-sacrifice in the name of higher moral values becomes for Tasso a question of misguided priorities. In his subsequent explanation that Ruggiero had a greater obligation to Bradamante than to Leone Tasso uses the chivalric code to justify his basic position that personal happiness or fulfilment is a right that should not be sacrificed in the name of either duty or altruism. Given the increasingly repressive climate of forced conformity to Church and State, how could a poet safely urge his readers to defend their own private happiness against society's diktats? The author of 11 Costante had advised courtiers to 'find the way in which, by not saying

La Gerusalemme Liberata

225

a falsehood nor keeping silent about the truth, one nevertheless acts in such a way that the truth takes whatever shapes the other most desires' (Firpo, 25). In this vein, Tasso wrote a poem that could be read by the censors as a Counter-Reformation epic confirming papal and imperial hegemony. And yet the narrative itself questions such a reading at every turn. Tasso not only casts doubt upon the moral authority of the leader Goffredo, undermines the heroism of the martyr Sveno, and denounces the Crusading army as motivated by 'desio di vendetta o di tesoro' ('lust for booty or revenge'; GL 19.52), he also reunites his hero Rinaldo with the 'seductress' Armida just as the Crusading army is brutally sacking the conquered city. Previous readers who have noted ambiguities and contradictions in Tasso's poem have attributed them to a struggle within the poet himself between compliance and resistance to the hegemonic forces of Church and State. I would like to suggest instead that Tasso was not trying to exorcise the demonic, but rather to legitimize the human, and that he was not a victim of internal confusion, but a master of dissimulation. Ariosto had already used the technique with remarkable lucidity and control as he subjected his lengthy encomiastic passages on his Estense patrons (and other powerful figures) to ironic reversals of meaning. Tasso, living and writing in an environment that limited freedom of expression with respect not only to historical personages but also to subject matter and treatment, transfers the technique of dissimulation to thefavola of his poem. In the ultimate guidebook for courtiers, Castiglione recommended using 'una certa avvertita dissimulazione' ('circumspect dissimulation'; Corf. 2.40). He then goes on to show how to use stories (in the form of jokes) to 'reprehend something without seeming to mean to do so' (Corf. 2.71). His spokesman, Bibbiena, notes that an advantage of using such covert criticism is that one can deny the intentionality of the reprimand. As an example, Bibbiena recalls a joke he told previously about the Spanish court in which a certain Alonso implied that a noble woman was a prostitute, saying: 'although what Alonso said to signora Boadilla does touch a little on chastity, it does not displease me, because it is done in an offhand way and is so veiled that it can be understood on the face of it, so that he could have dissimulated and claimed he did not mean it in that way' (Corf. 2.93)7° If his CounterReformation censors had taken offence at the radical implications of his poem, Tasso could have likewise claimed that he did not mean it in that way. Whereas allegory was useful for demonstrating Tasso's com-

226 The Triumph of Romance pliance with the political forces that be, dissimulation was useful for resisting those same forces. De Sanctis noted that this period witnessed a wholesale spread of dissimulation throughout all aspects of life: 'dissimulation and falseness in speaking, in manners, and in public and private life, become the rule of wisdom' (1.650). But just as important as its perceived presence are the increasingly positive connotations that the term acquires in the course of the sixteenth century. Intellectuals from the most diverse fields, but especially writers of courtly and political manuals, accepted the need for a mask to preserve one's inner self.71 Guicciardini perhaps says it best: The tyrant uses every possible diligence to discover the secret of your heart... and therefore, if you don't want him to understand you, think diligently and guard yourself with great industry from all the things that can expose you, using more diligence in not letting yourself be known than he uses in attempting to know you' (Ricordi, #103).72 Giraldi Cinzio, in his Discorso intorno a quello che si conviene a giovane nobile e ben create nel servire un gran Principe (1569), notes that dissimulation for the purpose of self-defence is a form of prudence and discretion: 'to simulate for self-defense and not to deceive is not a vice, but is judged a sort of prudence by the best judges and is often the cause of much good' (L'uomo di corte, 64).73 In // Malpiglio overo de la corte, Tasso sardonically acknowledges that he is living in an age 'in cui 1'infinger e una de le maggior virtu' ('in which simulation is one of the greatest virtues') (Dialoghi, 2:560). Under these circumstances, dissimulation becomes a necessary form of protection and self-preservation: 'Dunque occultando il cortigiano schiva la noia del principe, e occultando ancora par ch'egli possa celarsi da 1'invidia cortigiana' (Thus through concealment the courtier avoids the anger of the prince, and by concealing it seems that he can hide himself from the envy of other courtiers') (Dialoghi, 2: 559).74 Thus it is not surprising to find Tasso himself resorting to dissimulation in dealing with his poem's vexatious revisers and encouraging his friends to do the same. As he tells Luca Scalabrini in a letter of 24 April 1576: 'ora voi seguite pure dissimulando; cosi faro io' ('now you continue to dissimulate, and I'll do the same') (Lettere 1: 171). Given this situation, it is revealing that in the first work that attempts to recreate Tasso's life, the poet merely pretends to be mentally unstable in an effort to protect himself from malicious courtiers.75 Although this rendition of Tasso's life was soon superseded by melodramatic and romantic ones that stressed

La Gerusalemme Liberata 227 Tasso's insanity, it is not discarded by Tasso's most recent biographer, Fabio Pittorru. With Tasso we are already close to the thinking of Torquato Accetto's Delia dissimulazione onesta, in which dissimulation is nothing other than 'a veil composed of honest shadows and violent respects, from which one doesn't create a falsehood, but gives some rest to the truth, to demonstrate it in due time' (42). This new 'virtue/ moreover, is indispensable since, as Accetto warns, 'the foxes among us are many and they are not always recognized, and when they are recognized, it is still difficult to use art against art, and in that case the one who knows how to maintain the appearance of a fool will have the greater success, because feigning belief in those who want to trick us can be the cause of getting them to see things our way' (59). The dissimulation celebrated by Accetto is for purely defensive purposes and it is the procedure he recommends to everyone for self-preservation: 'everyone can, although exposed to the sight of all, hide his business in the vast and secret house of his own heart' (44 and 79-80). In this new climate, moreover, as Albano Biondi notes, the valorization of dissimulation is aligned with a positive view of disengagement from political matters (65). Dissimulation could thus also be seen as a means of exercising intellectual and even religious freedom (58). Biondi explains this process as a search for increased liberty and autonomy (66).76 One can see how far Tasso has travelled from his predecessors on this score by briefly recalling the uses of dissimulation in the earlier romance epics. In both Boiardo and Ariosto, dissimulation is a positive strategic manoeuvre in a psychological and physical combat against a known enemy. In the Innamomto, the unhorsed Bradamante pretends to be dead in order to mount a better counterattack, a stratagem that Ranaldo earlier employed in his fight against the flying griffins outside Albarosa's cave (Ol 1.13.21). Ariosto allows an equally limited role to dissimulation in his depiction of his Furioso characters. For example, Bradamante uses the same tactic of playing dead when she fights Atlante's flying horse, and Ariosto justifies her dissimulation when she does not reveal her true identity to Brunello (OF 4.1-3).77 In his treatment of his Estense patrons, on the other hand, he uses dissimulation systematically as he undercuts apparent praise with blame. In Tasso's Liberata, dissimulation permeates the entire plot and becomes a philosophy of life.78 For the despotic authority figures

228 The Triumph of Romance

within the poem, on both sides, simulation is the stable praxis of internal relations rather than a tactic reserved exclusively for the enemy. Dissimulation, in this context, is not a simple bowing down to power, or even strictly a form of self-preservation, but can be seen as a form of covert resistance to power. If we shift our focus from the fictional characters to the poet himself, we could say that it is ultimately thanks to dissimulation that Tasso was able to chart his individual freedom from papal, imperial, and ducal hegemony, and to provide a counterideology that he hoped would evade their censure.

Conclusion

In the course of this study I have questioned some common assumptions about the trajectory of the Italian romance epic. Traditional readings have outlined a recourse to increasing allegorization from Boiardo's merely entertaining stories to isolated, and perhaps tonguein-cheek, allegorical episodes in Ariosto, to an overarching allegorical structure and moral purpose in Tasso's poem. Yet the poets' use of moral allegory, as I have argued, takes a very different turn. Writing for the humanistic edification of his prince and fellow aristocrats, Boiardo inserted a series of moral lessons, in fictional and ekphrastic form, that illustrate the dangerous effects of the passions and that teach greater self-knowledge and self-control to both the individual and the ruler. Although Ariosto creatively imitates the allegorical narratives of the earlier poem, he repeatedly raises doubts regarding their effectiveness, especially in the 1516 edition of the Furioso. The radical break from didactic allegory, however, comes only with Tasso, who uses allegory as an expendable narrative expedient rather than as the vehicle for a system of values informing his poem. Related to the didactic intention of the poems is their level of engagement with contemporary social and political issues. Scholars have tended to contrast a Boiardo completely disengaged from sociopolitical considerations and a Tasso fully immersed in the political and religious climate of the Counter-Reformation, with Ariosto seen alternately as escapist and engage. This study has sought to revise that perception. First of all, the Orlando Innamorato embodies the humanist goal of improving society through literature. For the prince, Boiardo presents examples of good and bad government and the consequences of each. For the individual citizen, he creates a series of novellas that

230 Conclusion

require active involvement on the part of the fictional 'reader' to bring about a just conclusion. At the basis is a conception of man as a social animal (in the Aristotelian sense) and the state as a promoter and guarantor of justice for the collective good. The 1516 Furioso condemns tyranny and injustice, but the accent falls more on man's recurrent inhumanity than on his educability. While rewriting novelistic episodes from the Innamorato, Ariosto expresses scepticism about the feasibility of his predecessor's humanist project of civic engagement. In the Cinque canti, Ariosto's indictment of contemporary society is even more explicit. Yet this role of literature as pure critique has it limitations, since the poet risks abandoning the aspiration to change society for the better and falling prey instead to an unproductive resignation to the status quo. In the 1532 Furioso, Ariosto establishes a new synergy with Boiardo's ethical and political vision and reveals a renewed commitment to the teaching of moral philosophy through exemplary fiction. For Tasso, writing in a culture of increasing absolutism in which humanist ideals had little practical application, the public good is no longer achieved through an ideological identification with the established powers, but rather through a covert resistance to their repressive intentions. While both Boiardo and Ariosto elaborate a series of civic virtue novellas and episodes depicting the hero at enchanted sites, Tasso dispenses with the first altogether and develops the second in a single episode spanning sixteen of his poem's twenty cantos. In the process (and following the precedent of Trissino), he transfers the negative portrait of the ruler prevalent in the civic virtue novella (and the cantare) to the episode of the hero and the seductress. Employing the technique of dissimulation as he shifts the focus from public duty to individual rights, he strives for a new balance in which the needs of the individual are upheld against the demands of the ruling class. Another issue addressed in this study concerns the structural trajectory of the genre. Critics have generally opposed the seemingly unending exuberance of Boiardo's 'open' romance to Tasso's adherence to Aristotle's norms for structural unity in his 'closed' epic. In actuality, the various threads of the Innamorato were coming together in an epic resolution in Book Three when the poem was interrupted. In contrast, Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata, while ostensibly giving precedence to epic over romance plot elements, remains much closer to romance at poem's end than has previously been recognized. Indeed, Tasso reduces his 'epic' plot to a parenthesis in the life of his hero, whose

Conclusion 231

final actions in the poem privilege private over public, love over war, and romance over epic. We have thus moved from an allegorical Boiardo who attempts to teach moral philosophy to his courtly readers to an anti-allegorical Tasso who champions the freedom and happiness of the individual over an overtly moralizing, but covertly repressive, society. Norbert Elias, in his study of the evolution of European court society, remarked: The poet does not work as a wholly self-sufficient individual writing for an anonymous public of which he knows at the most a few representatives. He creates and writes for people he knows through daily contact. And the conviviality, the forms of relationship and behavior, the atmosphere of his social circle as well as his place within it, find expression in his words' (75-6). Each of the poets studied in the preceding pages indeed represents, recreates, and challenges the particular historical context in which he wrote. Looking at the nature of the society portrayed in their romance epics, we can detect a shift from feudal to absolutist at work as we move from Boiardo to Tasso. In the Innamorato, Charlemagne is the recognized leader and a fighter, but he cannot command unconditional obedience or infringe too much on the independence of the knights outside Paris. When the Christian troops are retreating from Montealbano to Paris, Bradamante has sufficient autonomy to say: 'Sono obligata a 1'alto imperatore, / ma piu sono a me stessa et al mio onore' ('I'm bound to the high emperor, / But to myself - and honour - more'; O7 3.5.7). Her decision to place personal honour over feudal allegiance is vindicated by the author, since this decision leads to her encounter with Rugiero, which in turn gives rise to the Estense dynasty. The fictive landscape of the various novellas, moreover, provides a picture of a feudal system in which small lords vie against each other (e.g., Marchino against Grifone) and larger ones try to extend their control at the expense of their smaller neighbours (e.g., Truffaldino against Albarosa's brother). This reflects the condition of medieval Western Europe, where, as Elias has noted, 'every baron, every viscount, every seigneur controlled his estate or estates from his castle or castles, like a ruler over his state' and where 'the power of the nominal liege lords, the more central authorities, is slight' (65). Ariosto retains the basic feudal background in the Furioso, but in the Cinque canti, as Quint has noted, he dramatizes the struggle between the old feudal system and the new era of the absolutist courts (Cinque canti, 25-36). Tasso's Rinaldo distances the individual knight from the epic battlefield and its exigen-

232

Conclusion

cies, but the hero's attempts to transgress the rules make apparent the demands of a rigidly structured social order. The Liberata goes even further in documenting the tensions and pressures of an absolutist society. The Christian authorities have become a despotic institution that aims to bring its various components to obedience. The traditional layout of smaller autonomous constituents, here represented in part by the avventurieri, is forced into conformity by a centralized power in which relationships are determined vertically rather than horizontally. Each of the romance epics studied in the previous pages employs the technique of writing 'in between' the lines to send diverse messages to a varied readership, but the lines of communication between author and reader, as well as the goals, change significantly from text to text. Addressing his audience as social equals, Boiardo combines the role of entertainer with the stance of the humanist preceptor who uses literature to propose an ethics of action. While the uninitiated reader will simply seek delight from the storytelling, the intenditore will find instruction on both a private and public, or political, level. Through the belief in man's educability and in the power of the word to influence actions, Boiardo admonishes leaders to shape public policy according to the dictates of justice. He wants his readers to grasp his moral and political allegory and to act on his message. In the 1516 Furioso, Ariosto creates a rift between the prince and the poet's intellectual peers. While humbly presenting himself as the 'umil servo' (Towly servant'; OF 1.3) of Ippolito and bestowing extravagant praise on the Estense family, he disavows his encomiastic intent by brandishing all poets as adulatory liars in the service of despots. Moreover, he systematically counters his apparent praise with covert criticism, thus conveying two opposing messages to different readership. If the poet cannot speak plainly, he can do so obliquely; if the text cannot teach, it can still denounce. While the literary debate raging in the second half of the sixteenth century directed attention to the cultural hegemony of Aristotle's Poetics, I have argued in this study that the more significant pressures were political, not literary. In referring to the intellectual climate in the wake of Italy's domination by foreign powers, Alberto Asor Rosa notes on the part of Italy's cultural protagonists 'the awareness that some guiding values of the preceding period had lost much of their real content and were either abandoned, reduced, or restructured' (4). We have moved from the cult of duty to a climate of subservience. Although the

Conclusion 233

traditional call of the citizen to public service now rings hollow, it cannot be openly repudiated. Thus whereas Ariosto's double perspective was directed primarily against historical personages, Tasso extends the technique of covert criticism to the fictional characters of his poem. Through dissimulation, language is used not only to communicate but also to conceal, or rather to communicate simultaneously two contrary messages to ideologically opposed groups. While from Boiardo's humanist perspective, eloquence was put at the service of the prince who was encouraged to rule justly, in Tasso's culture of absolutism the state assumes the characteristics of a tyrant and eloquence now serves to offer protective strategies to the individual. Tasso thus seeks to provide a program for survival and success in the Counter-Reformation, when rebellion was not a viable option and yet outward compliance was not necessarily accompanied by inner conviction. Beyond the implicit criticism of the powers that be, there emerges in Tasso a new conception of the individual's relation to the state. For the individual living under a repressive political hegemony, personal happiness becomes a legitimate, if challenging, enterprise. In the Liberata, civic responsibility is accordingly perceived as a necessary but temporary phase of life, almost a sort of obligatory military service. Once his duty is completed, the individual has the right to return to his private existence. In a genre that traditionally, on the model of the Aeneid, subordinates the rights of the individual to the demands of the state, Tasso proclaims, albeit sotto voce, the right of the individual to 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' In tracing the development of the romance epic against the historical context of the Ferrarese court and 'Italian' state, we have moved from a politically engaged Boiardo, whose poem proclaimed the tenets of civic humanism, to an individualistic Tasso repelled by the repressive aspects of the Counter-Reformation society he is often thought to represent. The distance between Boiardo's ethics of action and Tasso's pursuit of happiness is aptly reflected in the way that each poet read Xenophon's Ci/ropaedia. Boiardo told Ercole that he had chosen to translate this particular version of Cyrus's biography because it was the one that best taught good government. Tasso, when referring to the various versions of Cyrus's death, states his preference for Xenophon's version because Cyrus dies of old age instead of poisoning. He reasons that the account of a 'perfetto principe' ('perfect prince') deserves a happy ending ('ne gli parendo convenevole ch'a la perfezione dovesse mancare la felicita'; Prose, 435). Tasso likewise chose to write a romance

234 Conclusion

epic that rewards the perfect knight with a 'happily ever after' ending with his beloved. This change in ideology coincides with the demise of allegorical representation. If Boiardo is more allegorical than earlier critics suspected, Tasso is much less so. In fact, he breaks away from allegory by employing it as a narrative expedient rather than the vehicle for an external system of values. To indulge in metaphor for a moment, I would say that while Boiardo makes allegory a basic ingredient of the romance epic, and Ariosto bakes it into his own poem, Tasso chews it up and spits it out. For Tasso, allegory might give the dish a certain flavour, but it was, ultimately, indigestible. If the Italian Renaissance romance epic took shape with Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, it reached its endpoint with Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata. After Tasso, the poet either retreats into a purely aesthetical realm of allegory or descends to comic parody. Within Italy, these two alternative strains are best represented by Gianbattista Marino's Adone and Alessandro Tassoni's La Secchia rapita, respectively. Outside Italy, one could contrast Spenser's highly serious and allegorical Faerie Queene (1596) with Cervantes' parody of the whole chivalric tradition in Don Quixote (1605). Ironically, then, it is Tasso, traditionally seen as a quintessential Counter-Reformation conformist, who was the period's ultimate iconoclast.

Notes

General Introduction 1 While Boiardo's romance has often been distinguished from Tasso's epic, I find it more fitting to view both poems from within the larger category of the romance epic, a hybrid term which recalls the genre's mixed genealogy in both classical and Carolingian epic as well as medieval romance. As I discuss in the course of this study, Boiardo draws heavily on the epic tradition for both form and content while Tasso is as deeply immersed in the romance tradition as his predecessors. 2 The ensuing study focuses primarily on the texts, rather than the lives, of these poets. The only full-length biography of Boiardo is Reichenbach's 1929 study, but see also Monducci and Badini's more recent volume of letters and documents. For Ariosto, see Catalano's two-volume biography with extensive letters and documents, as well as Ariosto's autobiographical, albeit more mediated, Satires. Angelo Stella has also edited a volume of Ariosto's letters (Lettere). For Tasso, Solerti's three-volume work of 1895 is still unsurpassed, although Fabio Pittorru's more recent biography is highly readable. See also Guasti's five-volume Lettere di Torquato Tasso of 1853-5. For English-language biographies of the poets in their cultural context, albeit from the authors' particular perspective, see Gardner, Dukes and Poets and The King of Court Poets, and Brand, Ludovico Ariosto and Torquato Tasso. For the Estense court, see Chiappini, Gli estensi, and Gundersheimer, Ferrara. 3 For ecclesiastical censorship, see Grendler, The Roman Inquisition, and Tedeschi, The Prosecution of Heresy. 4 Donadoni sums up the situation bleakly: 'In Italy and Spain, imprisonment and the stake remained the cures for free thought, the Inquisition having been restored in all its former severity' (A History of Italian Literature, 1.246).

236 Notes to pages 7-17 5 Villoresi 147. Although Luigi Pulci's near-contemporaneous romance epic, // Morgante maggiore (1483), is a masterpiece in its own right, it did not have the same impact on subsequent chivalric literature. Boiardo's poem is also rightly called the Inamoramento de Orlando, the title used in the earliest editions and recently adopted in Tissoni Benvenuti and Montagnani's critical edition. I prefer to continue to use the title by which the poem has been known through the centuries, a practice legitimized by the fact that it was used at the opening of each book in the earliest extant edition (1487). See Harris, Bibliografia, 1:18. 6 The opening section of Part II discusses relevant critical studies of both types. Chapter 1. Introduction 1 For the humanist program of the Estense rulers, see also Cossutta, Gli ideali epici. The humanist paradigm in the northern courts did not entail the citizen's participation in municipal politics, as it did in the republic of Florence, but rather the ruling family's adherence to the precepts of good government. 2 Edoardo Fumagalli, distinguishing two methods of translation among humanists, finds that Boiardo privileges instruction over philological accuracy (introduction, Herodotus, Nascita, 13). On Bioardo as translator of Herodotus, see Fumagalli, 'II volgarizzamento di Erodoto,' and Looney, 'Erodoto dalle Storie al romanzo.' 3 Aristotle distinguished the just ruler from the tyrant in this way: The tyrant thinks of nothing but his own advantage, the king studies the good of his subjects ... Tyranny is the degenerate form of monarchy. So a bad king becomes a tyrant' (Nicomachean Ethics, 246). 4 Bigi ('La poesia latina/ 83) and Tissoni Benvenuti ('L'antico a corte,' 389-404) are of the same opinion. Chapter 2. Boiardo, Orlando Innamorato, Book One (1482-3): Romance 1 I cite from Bruscagli's widely available paperback edition of the poem, but I also consulted Tissoni Benvenuti and Montagnani's recent critical edition. While the language of the critical edition is more archaic, there were no differences of a semantic nature for the passages cited in this study. I use Charles Ross's English translation, with some minor variations when a more literal translation was needed. 2 Riccardo Bacchelli notes that corrupt officials were indeed a constant problem of Ercole's reign. Tax and duties collectors, in particular, purchased

Notes to pages 17-27

3

4

5 6 7

8 9

10

11

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their posts through a system of bidding, and then often resorted to extortion (see esp. 70, 83, and 362). Bacchelli notes that from the mid-1400s on, the Estense state showed a substantial increase of indirect taxes on goods and transport duties (100). Ross refers to 'a territory in the Po delta where an Este customs house collected a fortune every year by taxing the commerce that moved by water between north and south Italy' (introduction, Orlando Innamorato, 15). Chamberlin also singles out the Este for their 'very considerable income in customs dues and transport fees' (177). For taxation as a means to increase the wealth of the ruling family, see also Badini et al. 189. See also Boiardo's letter of 8 August 1494 on the problem of unwarranted duty collection ([Letters] 352-3). That Ercole was sometimes himself affected by the problem can be seen in letters to Boiardo dated 12 February 1487 (133), 28 May 1488 (166), and 14 December 1489 (205). Ercole, incidentally, did not have a good reputation for enforcing public safety of his roads. See Bacchelli 510. On the role of monasteries, see Badini et al. 189. Although the first printed edition of Homer in the original Greek did not appear in Italy until 1488, his characters were well-known in Boiardo's day through rewritings, commentaries, and translations. For the wealth of classical and medieval texts that referred to Circe, see Yarnall 53-98. The Turks astutely turned the boys into soldiers, the Janissaries, instead of sacrificing them. Mechanic shows how Boiardo deliberately contrasts the earthly justice illustrated in this episode with the divine justice of the Commedia through a series of allusions to the story of Paolo and Francesca (157-70). At the beginning of this stanza Marchino's widow merely states that Poliferno left and she remained. We realize that he has conferred power on her only in the final two verses, in which she speaks of the three giants 'che il re de Orgagna meco avea lasciati' ('that the king / Had left with me'). These appear to be the same giants who trap Ranaldo as he approaches Castle Cruel in 1.8.19-23. Murrin has explored the political implications of the Orgagna episode, recognizing the site as 'a government which destroys its subjects' (The Allegorical Epic, 69). Yet he also blames Falerina when he speaks of 'the deranged psychology of the victimizer and her political state, which murders instead of protecting its citizens' (57). Falerina herself never mentions Poliferno. She even assumes responsibility for the prison-bridge outpost that trapped Angelica - but then she gets the story wrong, when she says that Angelica freed the rest of the imprisoned women when she escaped.

238 Notes to pages 31-7 12 The former frees Prasildo and Fiordelisa as they are being led to their death at the garden's main entrance, and the latter eventually enters and destroys the garden completely. Even then success is not complete: diverted by the adventure in Morgana's underground prison, Orlando never reaches the prisoners that Falerina tells him are still trapped at the tower prison. 13 In Cicero's account, the tyrant Dionysius placed a sword over the head of his courtier Damocles to demonstrate that 'there was no happiness for the man who was perpetually menaced by some alarm' (Tusculan Disputations, 5.21). Here the sword hangs over the head of the king himself. Chapter 3. Orlando Innamorato, Book Two (1482-3): History 1 Fade notes that 'Guarino told Leonello ad nauseam that he should study the great heroes of Antiquity and try to imitate them' (86). For Guarino Guarini's humanist educational program, see his own Epistolario, as well as the writings of Sabbadini (Guariniana) and Garin. 2 See Boiardo's prefaces to his translations of Riccobaldo's Ferrarese chronicles and Herodotus's histories, Tutte le opere, 2: 719 and 2: 722. 3 Tissoni Benvenuti notes that two-thirds of the books in Italian that appear for the first time in the Estense inventory of 1495 are translations of Greek and Latin histories ('II mondo cavalleresco,' 19). 4 The 1436 inventory of Niccolo III lists two Alessandri. Pier Candido Decembrio, Angelo's older brother and a noted humanist who was a guest of the Este from 1475 to 1477, translated Plutarch's Life of Alexander from Greek into Latin and Italian. The Plutarco de lafortuna de Alexandra listed for the first time in the 1495 inventory may refer to Decembrio's translation. Two other histories of Alexander are listed in the 1495 inventory: Guere de Aliy.and.ro and Vita Lixandri. See Bertoni 221. For Alexander's medieval biographies, see Gary's monumental study and Sabbadini, Le scoperte, 1.42 and 1.102. 5 Bruscagli indicates some prior versions of Alexander's story as probable sources; his stated aim is not to uncover meaning in Boiardo's poem, however, but to better gauge the body of texts which made up the poet's literary culture, 'Prove di commento.' 6 See Frugoni for ekphrases of the history of Alexander found in Dino Compagni's Intelligenza and Fazio degli Uberti's Dittamondo. See also Alhaique Pettinelli, 'Di alcune fonti del Boiardo.' 7 Bruscagli says that the ekphrasis repeats the story of Elidonia and her sons related by Turpino (Orlando Innamorato, 2.536). I argue below that the two accounts of the sons are actually contradictory.

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8 Boiardo of course knew that the prevailing histories of Alexander presented a very different picture. He himself translated a brief biography of Alexander by Cornelius Nepos that relates how others usurped power after Alexander's death, Le vile degli eccellenti capitani, 136. 9 For Boiardo's conception of the 'Golden Age' as the realization of the humanist ideals of good government and social harmony (in his lyric poetry), see Cossutta, Itinerarium, 72-5. For a recent consideration of Renaissance political Utopias, see Mazzotta (53-75). 10 Plutarch recounts that Alexander, a descendent of Hercules on his father's side and of Aeacus, grandfather of Achilles, on his mother's, kept a copy of the Iliad with him at all times ('Alexander,' 253-4). 11 In the Aspramonte, the royal pavilion of King Almonte, Agolante's son, contains painted exemplary histories, although not of Alexander (Ill.li). 12 The verse Toi che battuta avro tutta la terra' echoes the reference to Alexander's victories in the ekphrasis - Tossa che fu la terra da lui vinta' (2.1.28) - which was in turn belied by Turpino's earlier verse: Toi che ebbe il mondo tutto quanto afflitto' (2.1.5). 13 Given both Leonello's noted devotion to Julius Caesar and Ercole's desire to distance himself from his illegitimate half-brother Leonello (whose son Niccolo also aspired to the dukedom and would attempt to occupy it by force in 1476), it may be that Boiardo is suggesting an alternative chain of imitation within Ferrara's ruling family. 14 Boiardo emphasizes the same human qualities in his ekphrastic description of Eleonora d'Aragona's family (2.27.52-61). In the final scene depicted on a tent embroidered by a Sybil in Cumae, Bonn Ventura (Good Fortune) teaches Eleonora's son Alfonso (the future duke) to read his own family's history as a lesson in how to conduct himself. The specific traits to be emulated are courtesy, wisdom, and valour (cortesia, senno, valore; 2.27.59). 15 In Boiardo's first eclogue, Ferrara's opponent Venice is referred to as 'il Leon che aperte ha si grande ale' and 'il magior monstro mai non fo veduto' ('the Lion who has its great wings open' and 'the greatest monster even seen'; vv. 160 and 166). In the second eclogue, that city is terribil fiera ('terrible beast'; v. 32), monstro ('monster'; v. 38), and drago ('dragon'; v. 41). Chapter 4. Orlando Innamorato, Book Three (1495): Epic 1 In the field of music, in which Ferrara was rivalled only by Florence, see Lockwood. For a briefer account that draws in part on Lockwood's findings, see Perkins. 2 For the Ottoman Empire in the period 1481-1520, see Parry.

240 Notes to pages 46-50 3 The phrase 'cupidita di Venetiani' is taken from Mario Equicola's reference to this war in Genealogia delli Sr. da Este, dedicated to Isabella d'Este (c. 63). The ambition of the Venetians was generally cited as the cause of the war. See Machiavelli, Florentine Histories, VIII.24,347. For a later and more detailed historical account, see Piva. 4 Piva (120) writes that on 20 November 1482, the Venetian army was at the walls of Ferrara and defeat in the capital seemed imminent. 5 There are no extant copies of this edition. The turmoil caused by the war is matched by the mystery surrounding the date and city of publication. See Harris, Bibliografia, 1:15-17 and 2: 20-28. 6 The poem is included in Guerre in ottava rima. 7 See also Gundersheimer, Ferrara, and Cossutta, Gli ideali epici, esp. 143-69. 8 Harris reasons that Boiardo would have given Ercole a presentation copy of his poem during the Duke's visit, "L'avventura editoriale/ 42. 9 Pardi's notes for 29-31 May 1484, state that hunger and plague had decimated the population of Ferrara (2:159). 10 The 8 August 1484 report of the war's conclusion speaks of the malcontent ('malcontento') of the Duke and the Ferrarese people (Pardi, 2:175). 11 Pardi (2: 277n.2) paraphrases a 24 December 1489 report stating that the misery caused by the war was still ongoing and that there was a total lack of money. 12 Interestingly, both the history of Alexander and the story of the Trojan War were bound together in a book noted in the 1495 Estense inventory as 'Homerus de Bello Troiano. Alexandri Maximi gesta' (Bertoni 215). 13 As mentioned earlier, the first printed edition of Homer in the original Greek appeared in Italy in 1488, and thus one might wonder whether this new availability could have occasioned the greater presence of Homer in Boiardo's third book. At the same time, however, Homer had already been 'available' and popular not only in Latin and Italian, but also in French versions (e.g., Benoit de Sainte-Maure's Le Roman de Troie en prose). See Morf for the legend of Troy in medieval Italy and Zampese for Boiardo's use of classical culture in the poem. 14 Although the same genealogy is found in the Borsiade by Boiardo's uncle Tito Vespasiano Strozzi, the Borsiade's genealogical passage was written after the princeps of the Innamorato. The idea of linking Hector to Ercole through Rugiero thus appears to originate with Boiardo. See Tissoni Benvenuti, 'II mondo cavalleresco,' 32. 15 Bigi notes that Ercole is a young Achilles in the Carmina V and VI (87). Boiardo refers to Hector twice in the Carmina (#2 and #3), neither time as a prototype for Ercole.

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16 Bruscagli notes that Astyanax's survival is mentioned in Servius's comment to the Aeneid, the Astyanax by Maffeo Vegio, and Boccaccio's Genealogia (Orlando Innamorato, 2:1145). In the last text, Boccaccio alludes to a tradition claiming that the French kings descended from him (Book 6, ch. 25,306-7). 17 In both the historical and ekphrastic versions of Alexander's history, Boiardo attributes Alexander's death to poisoning by an aide, even though Plutarch dismissed the account as invention ('Alexander,' 333). The deathby-poisoning version is found in various sources, including Cornelius Nepos's brief life of Alexander that Boiardo himself translated, Vite, 136. Bruscagli notes that Hector's death via treachery was a medieval tradition, Orlando Innamorato, 2.1080. Boiardo's Rugiero later refers to the Greek victory in the Trojan War as 'il tradimento del caval di legno' ('the treachery of the wooden horse'; 3.5.18). 18 Catelani documents the sentencing of Simon Boione for the poisoning attempt, but does not address the role of Boiardo's relatives. Reichenbach (96) notes that Boiardo's guilty relatives were not brought to justice. 19 Although doctors reported the cause of Camillo's death to be poisoning, Ercole did not pursue the matter. See documents in Monducci and Badini, 432-4. 20 The story of Elidonia, found in both Turpino's and the ekphrastic account, may have been invented by Boiardo in order to create a triad of courageous females. In a story far in spirit from Boiardo's sequel, Plutarch writes that following Alexander's death, his first wife Roxanne murdered his second wife Stateira (334). 21 Rajna (281n2) notes possible sources for the name, including that of the legendary Nureddin, whose victories against the Christians during the Second Crusade included reconquering precisely the city of Damascus (in 1154). 22 Franceschetti notes that Mandricardo's success is due to fortune, but suggests that any other knight could have successfully undertaken the adventure (L'Orlando Innamorato, 164). Quint, on the other hand, reads Mandricardo allegorically as virtu (The Figure of Atlante,' 89). Below I argue that the fairy arranged Mandricardo's victory for her own purposes. For the role of Fortune throughout Boiardo's poem, see Nohrnberg. 23 For some specific parallels, see Zampese 116-17. 24 For the background to the Demogorgon, see Quint, 'Epic Tradition.' 25 Zampese writes suggestively: 'perhaps Morgana has assumed another guise to elude the vow taken in the name of the Demogorgon, or else she has found, in the Fountain Fay, a worthy follower' (118).

242 Notes to pages 70-2 Chapter 5. Introduction 1 Beer also sees a process of 'initiation-education' leading from virtue to vice in Ariosto, but does not relate it to the Innamorato (Romanzi di cavalleria, 12). 2 He also speaks of 'the very mark of seriousness distinguishing Ariosto from Boiardo' (135). 3 Although Sherberg writes that Ariosto's Rinaldo 'is projected into a didactic space wherein he encounters moral challenges, embedded in or involving narrative, that offer implicit lessons aimed at correcting or perfecting his soul' (44), he does not trace this pattern to the Innamorato, where Ranaldo's correct reader response is repeatedly contrasted to Orlando's deficient one. 4 Franceschetti notes the tendency of critics to reduce the relation between the two poets to a comparison of style and inventiveness, and he provides several relevant examples ('Appunti suH'Ariosto/ 103-17). 5 Franceschetti suggests, in fact, that 'Among the many and at times very conflicting critical proposals to which the Furioso is still subject, a systematic work of verification and specification can find its most valid and substantial basis in this comparative study of the two poems' ('Appunti sull'Ariosto,' 105-6). 6 Di Tommaso, noting that 'relatively little effort has been made to explore the relationship between the author Boiardo and his critical reader Ariosto,' writes that 'the Boiardo/Ariosto composite is enveloped in a maze of influence, imitation and parody which is as endemic to the romance epic as it is to Renaissance drama, pastoral and lyric' ('Boiardo/Ariosto,' 75-6). Quint has also stated that 'the Furioso derives a large part of its meaning from a critical reading of the Innamorato' ('The Figure of Atlante'). See also Brand, 'Ariosto's Continuation,' and Dorigatti, 'II boiardismo del primo Furioso.' 7 Sangirardi (204) finds that even Ariosto's use of Dante (a cornerstone of recent Ariosto criticism) comes principally through the mediation of Boiardo. Praloran's recent study of time and action in the Furioso also uses the Innamorato as the principal model for comparison given that, as he notes, Boiardo's poem 'is present everywhere in the fabric of the Furioso' (Tempo e azione, v). 8 Franceschetti, while recognizing Rajna's monumental accomplishment, suggests that by placing the Innamorato on the same level as other intertexts in Lefonti dell'Orlando Furioso, he impeded an accurate view of the situation, 'Appunti suH'Ariosto,' 105.

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Chapter 6. Cieco da Ferrara, II Mambriano (1509) 1 For the episode's strong links to Circe's abode, see Cremante 183n. For allusions to other sites described by Apuleius, Claudian, Boccaccio, and others, see Razzoli 32-41. 2 See Cavallo, Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, esp. chapters 3,4, 5,11,12, and 13. 3 For a comparative reading of a god's descent in Virgil and other poets, see Greene, The Descent from Heaven. 4 Fulgentius also associates Mercury with trading (58-9). 5 Highet (260) notes that in the Aeneid, Jupiter 'bids, and forbids, and is obeyed.' 6 Di Cesare (36-7) writes: 'the life-death polarity of auras aetherias and Tartara reminds us of the difference between Aeneas and the gods. Unlike them, he cannot afford to be moved, and unlike them, he cannot help being deeply hurt and wounded ... The misery and unhappiness he hides are very strong.' 7 Servius also links the tree's falling branches to Aeneas's tears. 8 Cieco repeats the moral several cantos later when Uriella incantatrice (Mam. 36.78) imprisons all passing knights, including Astolfo and Rinaldo: Tristo e adunque colui che si governa / Senza ragione seguendo 1'appetito' ('Sad is he who is governed / without reason following the appetites'; Mam. 36.98). 9 The moral intent is supported by the simile's Biblical precedents (2 Pet. 2:22, Num. 11:31-5). Murtaugh notes that in the Mambriano, 'the lack of moderation in man's desires often recalls the foolishness of animals' (Ariosto, 65). 10 This sympathetic treatment of Carandina is in line with the positive portrayal of women in the course of the poem. Everson, noting that Cieco's female characters use their intelligence, initiative, and reason, in contrast to male characters who resort more often to physical force, muses that Cieco's females absorbed the lessons of Vittorino's humanist teachings in Mantua ('Les personages feminins/ 287). She also suggests that Cieco's handicap, his physical blindness, made him more sensitive to the social handicap of women (287). Chapter 7. Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516): Didactic Allegory 1 See Javitch, 'Rescuing Ovid/ Harming 'Ariosto, Ovid, and the Painters,' Wiggins, and Shapiro. For critics who continue to argue for the episode's allegorical status, see Marinelli, Ariosto and Boiardo, and Roche.

244 Notes to pages 82-92 2 In his consideration of the Alcina episode, Rajna (164-90) looks primarily to the Arthurian cycle and notes only a few minor details from Innamorato episodes. 3 Nevertheless, as I have argued in 'Denying Closure/ Ariosto did not want his readers to remember the Laughing Stream episode too clearly, since it contained the seeds of an ending that he needed to delay for the length of his own poem. 4 Ross writes: 'No doubt Atalante is taking him to Africa in another attempt to save him' (notes, Orlando Innamorato, 856). 5 For a detailed comparison, see Sangirardi, Boiardismo ariostesco, 231-8. 6 See Boccaccio, Genealogia, 4, ch. 14,171. 7 For the 1516 edition, I follow the text of Orlando Furioso di Ludovico Ariosto secondo le stampe del 1516 e del 1521 in conjunction with Orlando Furioso secondo I'edizione di 1532 con le varianti delle edizioni del 1516 e del 1521.1 note the canto and stanza number from both the 1516 and 1532 editions when there is a discrepancy. 8 Rajna noted Ariosto's use of the Mambriano in this episode (164-5,184-7). Alhaique Pettinelli's discussion of the episode does not go much beyond Rajna (Tra il Boiardo e 1'Ariosto/ 254-5). Bruscagli considers Ariosto's links to the Mambriano elsewhere in the poem, but not in relation to this episode (Stagioni della civilta estense, 118-26). 9 For St Patrick's Purgatory, see Patch (114-5). 10 Marinelli notes the contrast between Ruggiero and Astolfo following their departure from Logistilla's island, attributing it to the fact that Astolfo is a Christian, and therefore in a state of grace, while the pagan Ruggiero cannot recover through reason alone (Ariosto and Boiardo, 143). Ascoli writes that Astolfo's adventures following his departure from Logistilla's island 'are designed to repeat and perhaps revise those of Ruggiero/ noting the contrast of their means of transportation, motives, and itinerary (Ariosto's Bitter Harmony, 266-327). Beer argues for progressive, parallel educational and initiatory tracts for Orlando, Ruggiero, Rinaldo, and Astolfo in a path from vice to virtue (Romanzi di cavalleria, 12). Although I agree with Beer that the principle of docere delectando is central to Ariosto's poem, I see these knights playing out a series of contrasting, rather than parallel, roles. 11 Sixteenth-century commentators regularly pointed out the virtues symbolized by these objects. See Valvassori's comments in his edition of the Orlando Furioso (72). 12 Religiousness was already one of Astolfo's qualities in the Innamorato, where he customarily prays as he travels (see OI 2.2.7). 13 Rajna (264) notes Zambardo as a source for Caligorante.

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14 Boiardo insists on Orlando as a reader throughout the episode: see OI 2.4.21,2.4.31, 2.4.33,2.4.39,2.4.46, 2.4.47,2.4.53,2.4.62, 2.4.63, 2.4.67,2.4.68, 2.5.4, and 2.5.9. 15 Rajna (265-6) notes that Astolfo followed Orlando's example here. 16 See Rajna 534-7 for references to classical sources. 17 Although Astolfo's previous adventures could have recalled classical heroes such as Theseus and Hercules, they were mediated through Boiardo's poem. The classical context of Astolfo's adventure in Ethiopia is noteworthy precisely because there is no Boiardan precedent. 18 In this he bears greater resemblance to Rodamonte's ancestor Nimrod. Yet my point is not to link him to any single character, but to align him with the disposition of those representing the negative chain of imitation in the Innamorato. 19 Although Marinelli contrasts Logistilla's instruction in reason with the hermit's instruction in revelation, he views both as failures (Ariosto and Boiardo, 142-3). Fichter (97-101) sees parallel conversions of reason and grace, arguing that whereas Logistilla possessed the four cardinal virtues, the Christian hermit represents the three theological ones. 20 Marsh (149) states that Ruggiero's 'conversion to Christianity (XLI) does not complete his moral education.' Chapter 8. Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516): Novellas of Civic Virtue 1 See Ascoli, Ariosto's Bitter Harmony, introduction, for a review of critics' increasing awareness of Ariosto's political engagement. 2 Villoresi notes that Boiardo's insertion of novelistic sections in his chivalric romance was an 'absolute innovation' (165). For a more detailed analysis of Boiardo's novellas, with different emphases on their overall role within the poem, see Cavallo, Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, 54-73, 86-9,114-20,1306; Beer, 'Alcune osservazioni/ and Franceschetti, 'La novella.' 3 The evil and fraudulent nature of both Truffaldino and Polinesso is stressed through the use of similar terms: 'simulare' (OI 1.13.36) and 'simulando' (OF 5.13); 'fello' (OI 1.13.34), 'malvagio e traditore' (OI 1.13.36), 'malvaggio mancator di fede' (OI 1.13.37), and 'fraudolente e fello' (OF 5.46), 'iniquo e fraudolente' (OF 5.87). 4 Manning has noted how Polinesso's 'constant resort to illusion as a means of self-aggrandizement converts the Ginevra episode from a chivalric adventure, however eccentric, into a web of deception and induced error which ensnares all the other characters' ('Sources of Illusion,' 517). 5 Most recently, see Sangirardi, 'La presenza del Decameron, 51.

246 Notes to pages 106-16 6 The shifting between the 'g' and 'z' is common in Emilian writing during this period. For instance, Boiardo calls Angelica's palace 'Zoioso' rather than 'Gioioso/ and Ariosto later Tuscanizes Boiardo's 'Ziliante' into 'Gigliante' (OF 35.73,39.62). 7 Both Masciandaro and Ascoli ('Faith as Cover-Up') offer close readings of the Gabrina episode. Masciandaro is interested in establishing the thematic ties between this episode and Orlando's madness. Ascoli finds that the episode stages an 'ethical double bind/ which is 'the apparent necessity, and the near impossibility, of squaring ethics with politics, enduring values with historical contingency' (168). 8 Ariosto had also earlier evoked the Metamorphoses by placing Isabella in the same predicament as Apuleius's Charite, under the surveillance of an old woman in a den of thieves (Metamorphoses). 9 Apuleius would have found the same plot in Seneca's Phaedra, written some years earlier. Even though Seneca's Phaedra was in turn based on Euripides' Hippolytus, the females in both Apuleius and Ariosto are closer to Seneca's version than to that of Euripides. 10 Calling attention to the contrast between the doctors, Schlam defines the latter novella as 'a macabre comedy which reinforces the portrayal of the world as full of corruption and violence' (80). 11 Origille's fraudulent tricks, moreover, are still fresh in the reader's memory. In cantos 16 and 17, we heard how Grifone, like Orlando before him, was betrayed by Origille, thrown into prison, and robbed of his weapons. 12 It can be found in 26, 29 (twice), 43,45,46,49, 50,53,55 (twice), 56,62, 64, 65,70, and 72. The termfede can be found in OI 1.12.26,1.12.45,1.12.62, and 1.12.70, while forms of pledging (e.g., giurato, scongiurato, giuramento) are in OI 1.12.56,1.12.64,1.12.65, and 1.12.72. 13 Pennisi (133) speaks of Alatiel herself as a 'promise' between her father and her future husband. With the shipwreck and ensuing adventures, she becomes 'the reification of the broken faith between the two men, which is eventually restored at the end of the novella.' 14 On the subject of the motto, see Beer, Romanzi di cavalleria, 161-7, and Ceserani. 15 Grifone reluctantly defends Truffaldino in OI 1.21.21-36,1.22.62-3,1.23.246, and 1.23.36-8; Aquilante fights on the side of Truffaldino against Marfisa and Ranaldo in OI 1.23.25-53,1.24.2-9, and 1.25.23. 16 In one instance, Don Quixote commands a farmer to stop beating a servant and to pay him his wages, reassuring the worried lad that T have only to lay my command on him, and he will respect it/ Yet as soon as Don

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Quixote was out of sight, the farmer 'tied him up once more to the tree and flogged him so soundly that he left him for dead' (48-9). 17 Both Thrasyllus (who killed Charite's husband through treachery) and Rodomonte (who killed the newly widowed Isabella's religious escort) want to seduce the woman. In both cases, the woman's faked willingness to concede is part of her strategy of resistance. With both men drunk, Charite blinds Thrasyllus and then stabs herself to death, while Isabella tricks Rodomonte into cutting off her head. 18 In The Figure of Atlante,' Quint argues that the various deaths in the Furioso serve to affirm the reality of death against the Innamorato's sense of limitless as well as to move the poem towards closure (84). In The Death of Brandimarte,' he goes on to discuss how Brandimarte's death in particular foreshadows both Ruggiero's foretold early death and Orlando's demise at Roncesvaux, and he concludes by remarking that the Furioso thus 'already anticipates and suggests the logic of its dark sequel' (84). 19 For a closer look at how Ariosto challenges Boiardo's concept of knowledge using the characters Rinaldo, Rodomonte, and Orlando, see my 'Pathways of Knowledge.' 20 Giulio and Ferrante's planned coup was not without justification, since Ariosto's patron Ippolito previously had Giulio's eyes gouged out. See Bacchelli and Catalano (1: 236—43) for the causes underlying the assassination plot. 21 Although Bradamante will eventually take revenge on Ruggiero's assassins, Ariosto emphasizes the long delay of justice rather than its realization (OF 37.62, 41.62). 22 For the hardly veiled criticism against patronized poetry occasioned by Astolfo's voyage to the moon and conversation with San Giovanni, see Segre, Esperienze ariostesche, 85-95, and Zatti, 'Dalla parte di Satana,' 149. 23 Noting previous scholars who have read this passage as both sincere and not, Ascoli posits some inventive ways in which Ariosto may have further undercut Ippolito (Ariosto's Bitter Harmony, 380-9). Ascoli also shows how Ariosto uses this technique of countering apparent encomium with allusive critique in his treatment of Pope Leo X ('Ariosto and the "Fier Pastor'"). For an in-depth account of how Ariosto modifies his historical allusions in the three editions, see Casadei, La strategia delle varianti. 24 I disagree, however, with Ascoli's conclusion that Ariosto uses Cassandra to present two opposing messages (Ariosto's Bitter Harmony, 391-3).

248 Notes to pages 126-8 Chapter 9. Ariosto, Cinque canti (Composed c. 1519-21) 1 Casadei has argued that the Cinque canti were intended to begin at the point in which the Orlando Furioso left off ('Alcune considerazioni'). Although the Cinque canti were never published during Ariosto's lifetime, they appeared in 1545 as an 'addition' to the Furioso, thanks to Ariosto's son Virginio. For a useful bibliography regarding the dating of these cantos, see Quint, introduction to Cinque Canti, 3. 2 In the Innamorato, the council scene opens Book 2; the Cinque canti scene would have opened the continuation of the 1516 Furioso. 3 Saccone gives sources for the Demogorgon (Lucan, Boccaccio), but then moves on to link the Cinque canti to gnostic creation myths, thus overprivileging, in my view, metaphysics at the expense of politics (II soggetto, 1258). 4 Although Alcina thinks of Logistilla (CC 1.19-20), her presence is never verified. Given her role in the 1516 Furioso, it is hard to imagine that she would have been present without opposing such a plan, and it is more likely that she is not subject to the Demogorgon. 5 Although Ariosto lists other fairies not found in the Innamorato, Boiardo's fairies are the only ones who take the floor to speak. 6 This makes the reader wonder whether her 'conversion' in the Innamorato, despite its detailed depiction (see Cavallo, Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, 94-5, 97-9), was simply a pretense designed to lure Orlando into further harm at Morgana's realm (as Kisacky 43-6 adroitly argues). Judging from her behaviour at this council, it appears that Ariosto wants to cast doubt on her earlier sincerity. 7 Editors of the Cinque canti, however, have stated that Dragontina's fabrication corresponds to an actual occurrence in the Innamorato, thus confirming how thoroughly Boiardo's poem is viewed from the vantage point of Ariosto's. Segre writes: 'Astolfo, accompanied by Brandimarte and Fiordiligi, had liberated the mindless Orlando imprisoned by Dragontina' (Opere minori, 591n). Quint comments: 'Astolfo rescues an amnesiac Orlando and other knights from Dragontina in the Orlando Innamorato 1.9' (Cinque Canti, 340 n!4). 8 The Cinque canti are, after all, the Furioso's structural equivalent to the Innamorato's Book Three, written after the publication of the first edition and intended to provide a continuation. In Boiardo's case, that continuation was added posthumously; in Ariosto's case, it was rejected in favour of a continuation from within. 9 Although the partially developed episode of Ullania suggests a potential

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undoing of Christendom via a romance guise, this can be linked more directly to Angelica's initial appearance in Charlemagne's court (OI 1.1) than to the developments in the opening cantos of Book Three. 10 Various critics have commented on this aspect of the poem. Saccone has called the Cinque canti a world 'in which at every moment and in every place there weighs the suspicion of deceit, falsification, exchange of roles' and in which we witness the coming apart of the chivalric world ('Appunti,' 135). Quint writes: 'When one asks just what is it that is coming to an end in the Cinque Canti, the answer might be summed up as "chivalry" itself or, more properly, a feudal order of society that constituted chivalry as a system of values' (Cinque Canti, 25). 11 Desiderio had been one of the three kings most honoured by Charlemagne at the opening of the Innamorato (OI 1.2.14), and is last mentioned in Boiardo's poem trying to defend Paris from the Saracen attack (OI 3.8.2334). 12 Astolfo's abduction attempt is foreshadowed by an earlier episode in which Penticone, son of King Desiderius, desires Ottone's wife (CC 2.68-9). Chapter 10. Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1532) 1 Ponte, for example, writes that 'the most numerous links between the Furioso and the Innamorato, from the vastest themes to the repetition of single expressions, are in the first half of Ariosto's [1516] poem,' 'Boiardo e Ariosto/ 178. 2 Di Tommaso's essay focuses on a particular area: the fictional frame audience. See 'Boiardo/Ariosto/ 77. Another exception to the critical trend is Marsh, which will be discussed further below. Rajna had suggested over a century ago: 'A methodical study might, I believe, distinguish different phases in Ariosto himself.... In general, as he progressed, he drew nearer to Boiardo' (35n). Yet Rajna does not develop his statement, and instead goes on to characterize the Innamorato as an example of art for art's sake, thereby missing the common serious issues raised by both poets. 3 See Benson 128-31; Finucci 246-50; Ross, The Custom of the Castle, 58-80; Shemek 95-103; and Jordan, 'Writing beyond the Querelle,' 303-7. 4 Brand makes this point, although without linking it to Boiardo's precedent: 'As an example of unwarranted jealousy, it is perhaps intended as a warning to Bradamante at this point in the story' (Ludovico Ariosto, 178). 5 Weaver notes that Bradamante's jealous fury likens her to the mad Orlando ('Lettura dell'intreccio,' 390). 6 For Boiardo's 'mal maritata' novellas, see Cavallo, Boiardo's Orlando

250 Notes to pages 136-45 Innamorato, 130-6. For a reading of this episode as the taming or domestication of the dangerously assertive female, see Finucci 145-68. 7 Ariosto emphasizes the divergent endings as he describes Orlando's intentions: 'Non mira Orlando a quella plebe bassa: / vuole il fellon, non gli altri, porre a morte' ('Orlando, however, wasted no time on the common throng: it was the villain whose life he was after, not theirs'; OF 9.72). 8 Ross notes a contrast between the endings of the Olimpia and the Castle Cruel episode (The Custom of the Castle, 57). 9 Brand relates the Marganorre story to the other three additions and to episodes in the 1516 Furioso, but leaves Boiardo out of the picture ('From the Second to the Third Edition,' 35). See also Benson 134-48, and Ascoli, 'II segreto di Erittonio.' 10 As noted in the previous section, Ariosto had already turned to the Castle Cruel episode in the Cinque canti, when Astolfo attacks his host in an ambush and plans to rape the host's wife whom he holds hostage (CC 4.5273). Saccone notes that the transformation of the two brothers repeats that of Astolfo, but without linking either episode to Boiardo's precedent ('Le maniere dell'ultimo Ariosto,' 105). 11 After the resolution of the story, Ariosto hints again - coyly this time - that the sexual violence against women included rape: 'Gli e pur men che morir, mostrar le brutte / e disoneste parti, duro e forte; / e sempre questo e ogni'altro obbrobio amorza / il poter dir che le sia fatto a forza' (To exhibit one's unseemly parts is, after all, more endurable than to die; furthermore, this and all other disgraces are attenuated if one can say that they were forcibly imposed'; OF 37.114; emphasis added). 12 Collective action of this nature was not confined to fiction. A report from 14 April 1488 records that after a count was killed in Forli and thrown from the window, the population in the street joined in the assault on the corpse, reducing it to pieces of cut flesh: 'some cut one part and some another, so that all his flesh was furiously torn from him' (Pardi 2: 257). 13 While Brand writes that the episode was intended to provide a dramatic climax, give greater emphasis to the wedding, bring extra prestige to Ruggiero, and celebrate the chivalrous ideal in opposition to the vicissitudes of Fortune, he nevertheless faults the episode's execution (Ludovico Ariosto, 180-1). The episode's ending seems to Marinelli 'a comic righting of confusion, apparently plucked out of nowhere' (Ariosto and Boiardo, 137). Turchi sees only 'a rather artificial interest in the connecting of prearranged and well ordered vicissitudes' (1209). Zatti writes: The late insertion, in the third Furioso, of the story of Leone seems to respond to this desire for infinite vicissitudes that grants one last tremor before its definitive liquidation'

Notes to pages 145-50

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(II Furioso/ra epos e romanzo, 31). Klopp is even more critical: The LeoneRuggiero episode too at the end of the poem, in addition to its almost Counter-Reformation concern with "la ragion di stato/' presents a concept of knightly honor stretched to lengths which are not only absurd, but almost inhumanly painful' (82). For positive assessments of the episode, see Moretti and Marsh, discussed below. 14 See Rajna 597 and 601 and Sangirardi, 'La presenza del Decameron,' 52-67. Brand cites Boccaccio and Chaucer as sources (Ludovico Ariosto, 181). Moretti ties the 1532 additions more generally to the spirit of the tenth day of the Decameron (23-4 and 82-3). 15 Marsh has noted that the episode is intended to complete Boiardo's poem by 'recalling and recapitulating the initial encounter of Rugiero and Bradamante/ and he finds that both episodes entail the 'persistent emphasis on the reciprocal demonstrations of courtesy' (144). Marsh gives two additional reasons for the inclusion of this episode: to demonstrate Ruggiero's cortesia, which makes him worthy of marriage to Bradamante, and to treat the descendants of ancient Troy and Greece, which connects the poem to classical epic. 16 This is in some ways also a reversal of the Innamorato's Origille episode, where knights assumed another's identity in order to win the girl for themselves. This is significant because Origille was a model for Gabrina, the protagonist of Ariosto's prior counter-novella. Masciandaro has noted that the Ruggiero and Leone episode story is thematically linked to the Gabrina episode (77nl8). Ascoli views this episode as a rewriting of Gabrina episode, although without reference to Boiardo (Ariosto's Bitter Harmony, 331 n!22). 17 Boiardo uses it in OI 1.12.69, 73, 76, 86, 87, and 1.17.5. As Lorch puts it, 'in its essence, cortesia is as intrinsic an element to Boiardo's poetic world as voluptas is to Valla's philosophy. It is the motivation of "life" in the realm of the poet's fantasy' (744). 18 Rajna (604) notes the similarity between the lament of Prasildo and that of Ruggiero. 19 Moretti, one of the few to read this episode in a positive key, characterizes Ruggiero's actions as the result of a 'magnanimous will that embodies, in absolute terms, without any reservation or yielding, the chivalric virtue of courtesy and the stoic one of fortitude' (69). 20 Brand sees the Leone episode as a reversal of the Marganorre episode, although he does not consider the relation of either to the Innamorato ('From the Second to the Third Edition/ 37). 21 Accordingly, I disagree with Ascoli, who writes that Ruggiero fails ('Faith As Cover-Up/ 167), and with Marinelli, who argues that the ending comes

252 Notes to pages 150-71 about through 'the unaccountable release of Providence, which rescues him while he is still ungovernable, still flailing' (Ariosto and Boiardo, 137). 22 For courtesy in Ariosto, see OF 45.51,46.24,35,38,39,46,62. For the reciprocal love of friendship, OF 44.5,8,9,16,93,45.42,30,46,83,46.29,30,31, 36,40, and 60. For faithfulness, OF 44.61,45.60,101. Ascoli considers the issue of faith in various contexts in Ariosto's Bitter Harmony and, especially, 'Faith as Cover-Up/ although, again, not in relation to Boiardo. 23 Greene himself notes: 'Most long poems also tend to reach out to a single privileged predecessor and bind themselves to that authenticating model with particularly intricate knots ... Ariosto privileges Boiardo' (The Light in Troy, 51). Chapter 11. Introduction 1 Jossa's recent volume on the 'heroic poem' between Ariosto and Tasso reached me at the proofs stage. Albeit from a different perspective, that is, arguing that poets increasingly and unambiguously promoted reason of state over romance individualism, Jossa is also interested in bringing to the fore the political and ideological import of poems from this period. Chapter 12. Trissino, L'ltalia liberata da' Goti (1547-8) 1 The first nine books were published in 1547; the other eighteen books followed the subsequent year. 2 Giamatti discusses this episode in The Earthly Paradise, 170-9. See also Quint, 'The Fortunes of Morgana,' and Zatti, L'ombra del Tasso and Tasso lettore del Trissino.' I am concerned here with Trissino's reformulation of the hero-seductress episode, especially narrative elements and themes that Tasso will elaborate in the Gerusalemme Liberata. 3 Doob (170) notes an extravagant list of metaphors for the genitals in Boncompagno da Signa's Rhetorica novissima. This misogynist solution found little favour in the Italian tradition, but was adopted by Spenser. 4 This pattern is also central to the cantari carolingi (see Cabani). In fact, the angry Carolingian heroes who embark on various foreign adventures after a falling-out with Charlemagne in some ways provide a closer parallel to Corsamonte. Chapter 13. Bernardo Tasso, L'Amadigi (1560) 1 See also Solerti (1:1-127) for Bernardo's career and private life. 2 See Foti for a comparison of the two works.

Notes to pages 172-87

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3 The ambience is reminiscent of medieval romance, particularly the French Quest cycle. Williamson notes that Bernardo Tasso adapted the adventure of the vermilion sword from Perceforest (125 n!72). 4 Williamson (126) notes divergent views regarding the Amadigi's general objectives, from 'exalting the reconstruction of the family desired by the counter-reformation' to 'a deliberate desire to rouse unseemly laughter and a taste for the obscene.' Chapter 14. Torquato Tasso, // Rinaldo (1562) 1 For the literary debate over the romance epic in the sixteenth century, see Weinberg. 2 Sherberg analyses this episode along different lines (93-123). 3 Mythological figures were commonly depicted as participating in marriage ceremonies from classical to Renaissance literature. In Orlando Innamorato, Book 4, Agostini perfunctorily calls upon Hymen assist as Bradamante and Rugiero consummate their marriage (OI, 4.7.29). 4 'We declare and we hold as firmly established that love cannot exert its powers between two people who are married to each other' (106). 5 For admonishments by Italian Renaissance authors that marital love should be free from all lasciviousness, see Jordan, Renaissance Feminism, 46-9. Chapter 15. Torquato Tasso, La Gerusalemme Liberata (1581) 1 Donadoni notes that the Rinaldo of the Liberata shows traces of the earlier one, as he links both to Tasso's own self (Torquato Tasso, 258-61). Sherberg discusses further the implications of Tasso's use of the same name for two different heroes (154-93). 2 Tasso is still routinely considered a Counter-Reformation poet. Giamatti, for instance, states: 'Either a man is saved, through rigid adherence to absolute values and his sense of duty, or he is damned. He serves the spirit or he wallows in sensuality. There is no middle ground' (The Earthly Paradise, 192). Important exceptions, to be discussed below, are Zatti, Bruscagli, and Ferguson. 3 For example, the knight accompanying Angelica is her brother, as she claims, just as Armida really is from Damascus and does have an uncle. Migiel (125) points out that Tasso never tells us Armida's real history, and we cannot therefore determine how much of her story is a lie. Fasani notes that Armida's tale of exile contains textual echoes of Tasso's own autobiographical poetry (115-33).

254 Notes to pages 189-95 4 Donadoni (Torquato lasso, 261-2) and Erspamer (198-9) view Rinaldo's rebellion as a reflection of Tasso's own situation at court. Perhaps many courtiers would have seen their own situations reflected in Rinaldo's plight. Giraldi Cinzio explained in his manual for prospective courtiers that it happens often that 'those who were the Princes' life and soul, either through disdain due to caprice as often happens, or through a damaging report made against the courtier by those who are the eyes and ears of the Princes, no matter how virtuous and faithful, or how frivolous the motive, in a moment become hateful and lose in one second that which they had obtained with much time, lovingness, faithfulness, diligence, countless labors, and incredible expense' (L'uomo di corte, 12). 5 Benedetti, citing Rinaldo's refusal to submit to Goffredo's chains (GL 5.42), notes that Rinaldo 'does not accept or recognize an authority superior to his own will. More than any other soldier in the Christian army, he incarnates the traditional and individual values of chivalry' (La sconfitta di Diana, 69). 6 For Goffredo's preoccupation with form over substance, as well as his other shortcomings, see Donadoni, Torquato Tasso, 305-12. 7 It may be worth mentioning that the two scenes in which Armida is most closely aligned with maga figures are told by others, Guglielmo and the Mago d'Ascalona. Although there is nothing to suggest that their versions are inaccurate, the distancing through a third party may serve to lessen the impact on the reader. 8 Ironically, the term that Tasso uses to describe Sveno's desire to kill pagans ('ogn'ora un lustro pargli') echoes the phrase Boiardo uses to describe the obsessive impatience of Angelica's lovers to whom 'una ora uno anno pare' ('hours feel like [a year]'; O7 1.1.55). Bruscagli also notes Sveno's 'irrational bloodthirstiness' (Stagioni, 217). 9 Bolzoni finds that the obvious allusion to Dante's Ulisse in GL 8.6 serves to foreshadow Sveno's tragic end (80). In my reading, the allusion also draws attention to the character flaw that leads to his demise. 10 Noting Tasso's divergence from the story's source in William of Tyre, Bruscagli calls the episode 'a truly negative epic of blindness and thoughtlessness, of the culpable negligence of every strategy' (Stagioni, 217). Yet he goes on to read the episode as part of an ideological conflict between Goffredo's religious and military orthodoxy and Rinaldo's heretical dissension (220). Hampton, after noting Sveno's faults ('he seems in fact more ridiculous than sublime/ 116), concludes nevertheless that his death redeems him as 'an exemplary martyr who embodies Counter-Reformation virtue' (128). 11 In this way, the two sins of Dante's Ulisse - giving false counsel and transgressing boundaries - are played out successively through Sveno and Carlo.

Notes to pages 195-200

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12 Although Tasso claims in his theoretical writings that his characters use divine aids, rather than magical objects, his letter to Scipione Gonzaga suggests that this distinction was made for the benefit of the censors. Referring to canto 14, he writes: 'sono ben io risoluto di rimuovere tutti que' miracoli che possono offendere gli animi de' scrupolosi' ('I am resolved to remove all those miracles that can offend the minds of the scrupulous ones'; 23 June 1576, Lettere, 1.197). The precedent for mixing the magical and the miraculous was well established. Regarding the Furioso, Kisacky (132) writes: 'Religion continues to be non-transcendent even in the otherworldly realms, sanctioning the equivalence of the divine miraculous with the mundane magical.' 13 Petrocchi notes in passing the link between the gardens of Falerina and Armida (400). His article ('Boiardo and Tasso') notes numerous additional references to the Innamorato in Tasso's poem that are not discussed in this chapter. 14 Girardi (67) notes that in the Conquistata 'dura necessita' ('harsh necessity'; GL 16.62) becomes 'voler piu costante' ('a more constant wish'; GC 17.64). Tasso thus shifts from external/circumstantial to internal/moral pressures, consonant with the rigid dogmatism of the revised poem. 15 Brand speaks of a 'final scene of shame and return to duty' in both the Rinaldo and the Gerusalemme Liberata (Torquato Tasso, 68). Fichter (115) writes: 'Just as Rinaldo must first be truant to his cause before he can be redeemed, so the poem must first represent itself as romance before its epic structure can be discerned.' Residori writes that 'the exit from the world of romance thanks to the guide of the Mago signals the end of the vicissitudes of the character Rinaldo/ after which there follows 'an affirmation of epic morality' (470 and 471). Looney writes: 'Like the character in his poem, Tasso is finally able to resist the temptations of episodic romance by canto 18 of the Liberata, whence the poem hastens to a suitable epic ending' (Compromising the Classics, 129). Quint also speaks of 'the assimilation of romance into ... epic structures of meaning' (Epic and Empire, 253). Finally, Hampton adds: The process whereby Rinaldo is brought back to camp and transformed into a good Christian knight enacts not only the taming of romance by epic but also the constitution of a single viewpoint through which, within the poem's fiction, the reader is to respond' (97). 16 As Stephens has warned, Tasso's theory is not an "adequate" description of his praxis, and he is not a reliable guide to the workings of his text except in that his pronouncements are an overt discussion, oblique and noncommittal as was his habit, of the covert "desires" of the text' ('Saint Paul Among the Amazons,' 200).

256 Notes to pages 201-3 17 The prime example of prophetic genealogy, Aeneid 6, is a future vision of the gens Ilulia, not a history of Aeneas's Trojan ancestors, and the episode's closest precedent, OF 41.61-7, similarly focuses on the hero's descendants. 18 In Boiardo: 'Forbite eran le piastre e luminose, / Che apena soffre 1'occhio di vederle' (Those plates were luminous and bright - / An eye can hardly stand the sight'; OI 3.2.28). Tasso begins the description from farther away, noting: 'Ed ecco di lontano a gli occhi loro / un non so che di luminoso appare, / che con raggi d'argento e lampi d'oro / la notte illustra' ('And behold from afar appear before their eyes I know not what of luminous cast, that brightens the night with silver rays and gleams of gold'; GL 17.57). 19 Hector's plates are Trissate ad oro e pietre preziose, / Con rubini e smiraldi e grosse perle' ('Emblazed with gold and precious stones, / Rubies and emeralds, giant pearls'; OI 3.2.28), and the helmet 'nella fronte avea il carbone, / Qual reluceva a guisa de una lampa, / E facea lume, com'e sua natura, / Per ogni canto de la grotta oscura' ('[had] a ruby / That radiated like a flame, / And the stone shone with so much power, / It lit each corner of the cave'; OI 3.2.29). Tasso's knights see 'fiammeggiar, piu che nel ciel le stelle, / gemme ne 1'elmo aura to e ne 1'arnese' ('precious stones... gleaming on the gilded helmet and on the harness, brighter than stars in heaven'; GL 17.58). 20 The phrase 'Vola per 1'alto mar 1'aurata vela' (The golden sail flies over the open sea'; GL 16.62) suggestively echoes 'volavan per Levante' ('they were flying through / the Levant'; CC 1.88) and 'in aria alzo la nave come penna' ('the boat rose in the air like a feather'; CC 1.104). 21 In his Tavola de la Gerusalemme,' Tasso cautiously avoids a description of this scene, merely noting that 'Rinaldo e incontrato ed armato dal Saggio' ('Rinaldo is found and armed by the Sage') (July-August 1576; Lettere, 1: 210). 22 Scott writes that 'scenes such as the procession on the Mount of Olives (XI) or Goffredo's glimpse of the heavenly host fighting on the Christian side (XVIII) are easily condemned for their empty rhetoric' (133). Despite Stephens's argument that the poem's structure reveals a close formal adherence to Tridentine doctrine ('Metaphor'), I still agree with Donadoni's view that 'the religiousness of the poem is altogether external: it reduces to processions, preachings, and acts of contrition' (History of Italian Literature, 266). See also Donadoni, Torquato Tasso, 321-36. Yet whereas Donadoni sees the poem's mechanical religiousness ('all form and decorum,' 325) as a product of the age, I see it rather as part of Tasso's exposure, and thus rejection, of it.

Notes to pages 204-7

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23 Zatti writes: The same beautiful creature who fascinated Rinaldo in the garden (canto 16) reappears to him among the trunks of the enchanted wood (canto 18)' (L'uniforme cristiano, 136). Likewise Giamatti: 'Rinaldo disregards the apparition of Armida in the Enchanted Forest, XVIII, 18 et seq., because he now sees through the falsity, and the illusions, of his garden life' (Earthly Paradise, 187n9). Murrin (Allegorical Epic, 114) and Looney (Compromising the Classics, 127) similarly read the episode as Rinaldo's rejection of Armida herself. 24 In his 'Allegoria' to the poem, Tasso lists some of the apparitions in Ismeno's forest according to traditional moralistic schema, but he refrains from mentioning the apparition of Armida. The forest's enchantment is said to symbolize not the temptation of irrational desire, but rather the errors of opinion ('gli errori dell'opinione'). Tasso explains further: 'Gli incanti d'lsmeno nella selva, che ingannano con delusioni, altro non significano, che la falsita delle ragioni, & delle persuasioni, laqual si genera nella selva, cioe nella moltitudine, & varieta de' pareri, e de' discorsi humani' (Tsmeno's enchantments in the forest, which deceive with false imaginings, signify nothing other than the falsity of the arguments and persuasions that is generated in the "forest" [that is, in the multitude and variety of human opinions and discourses']) (8r; trans., 158). 25 Murrin notes William's particular attention to their blood-covered bodies (History and Warfare, 204). 26 For the other Crusading chronicles that Tasso most refers to in his letters, see Solerti 1: 467. 27 Fulcher of Chartres describes a move from slaughter and plunder to worship at the Holy Sepulchre (Foss 178-9). 28 Benedetti notes the incongruity of Goffredo's bloodstained hands with the sacred setting, especially when compared to the scene's literary precedents, although she does not read this ending as a criticism of Goffredo on Tasso's part ('La vis abdita,' 472). 29 Tasso also uses 'fede' in his lyrics to signify faithfulness in love: 'Donna, specchio son io di vera fede' ('Lady, I am the mirror of true faithfulness'; Rime CXII). 30 This happy conclusion to their story is so discreet that it is often overlooked in critical studies. Those who have noted Rinaldo's reunion with Armida have generally considered the episode to be ambiguous, confusing, or unrelated to the rest of the story. The few critics who have given serious consideration to the reunion have focused on a single perspective. While Chiappelli observes the continued sensuality in the final scene, Stephens points out Tasso's emphasis on marriage. Each, however, seems to treat

258 Notes to pages 207-9 sensuality and marriage as irreconcilable in Tasso. Chiappelli (185) dismisses this scene as a mere love story with no relation to the main plot. Stephens, on the other hand, considers Armida's conversion as part of 'a discourse that betrays both a nostalgic idealization of marriage and deep anxieties about the human body' ('Saint Paul/ 193). Fichter (115) and Brand (Torquato Tasso, 106) view the final reunion of the lovers within a framework of Christian repentance, forgiveness, and redemption. Raimondi sees it as a way of replacing (Dido's) tragedy with melodrama and sentimental comedy (xxi). 31 Chiappelli (186-7) notes several verbal echoes of earlier love scenes in the reunion of canto 20. 32 It may not be a coincidence that this is how Iroldo and Tisbina first spy Prasildo, and how Leone comes upon Ruggiero. Tasso is, after all, transforming a story of 'seduction' to one of a close mutual bond not antithetical to friendship. 33 The wording also creates a link to the poem's ideal Christian pair of lovers and spouses ('amanti e sposi'; GL 3.40), Gildippe and Odoardo. As Gildippe is about to fall (cadea), Odoardo takes hold of her (GL 20.43). 34 In the Liberata, Eustazio 'cerca di ricoprir la mente accesa / sotto altro zelo' ('seeks to hide under a different zeal his mind inflamed'; GL 5.7), suggesting the elasticity of the term which allows for the dissimulation of one kind of zeal (erotic) as another (chivalric or religious). In a letter to Silvio Antoniano, Tasso uses the expression 'con qua! zelo passassero in Asia' ('with what zeal they passed into Asia') to refer ironically to the historical Crusaders' zeal for female company (30 March 1576; Lettere, 1:146). 35 Johnson-Haddad (214) sees a linear progression in Armida 'from whore to Virgin Mary.' Del Giudice (48) writes: The reader, although accustomed to Armida's changeability, is nonetheless shocked by this discordant statement and by Armida's final transformation to a Marian ancilla and suspects that this phase too is afictio.' Similarly, Stephens writes: 'As a character, Armida is inconsistent: her sudden conversion cannot be explained in psychological or mimetic terms' ('Saint Paul Among the Amazons,' 175). Tillyard (408) calls this a 'surprising and scantily motivated reversal.' Getto considered this final scene to be merely Armida's 'final attempt at seduction' (203). 36 Gough explores the metapoetic implications of Armida's offer to follow Rinaldo as his slave, arguing that the beauty of the captive woman stands for the pleasures of pagan poetry which Tasso aims to 'salvage.' 37 Erminia also imagines Tancredi addressing her as 'errante ancella' ('wandering maiden'; GL 19.101).

Notes to pages 209-14

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38 'Armida's words allusively declare her the "body" of Rinaldo, in covert response to his overt proposal of matrimony/ Stephens, 'Saint Paul/ 194. Additionally, Stephens notes that the rhyme scheme of Armida's verses ('senno/cenno') echoes that of Dante's terrestrial paradise in which Virgil announces Dante's recovery of the correct hierarchy of the soul's faculties. This Dantesque allusion can be seen as another way of validating the poem's final 'garden' scene. 39 Regarding the other two female protagonists, Clorinda converts for religious reasons and Erminia, we are led to believe, will convert out of love for Tancredi. 40 Goodman (115) discusses the conversion-through-love motif as a popular story line in late medieval romance. Far from putting into doubt the sincerity of the conversion, 'chivalric love acts in these stories as a force motivating the spread of Christianity.' 41 According to Levin (48), with this description Tasso 'codified the example of hedonistic behavior presumably set by the first generation of men into a single precept, a golden law ("aurea legge").' He goes on, however, to doubt the seriousness of the Aminta's hedonism based on the Liberata's morality. I would argue instead that one could question the moralizing in the Liberata based on the hedonism of the Aminta. 42 By contrast, in the Innamorato, Bradamante and Rugiero are physically attracted to each other. See esp. OI 3.5.38^2. 43 Yarnall's comment regarding Spenser's Faerie Queene could be applied to some degree to the epic tradition at large: 'the bad women are sexual and the good women are pure' (132). 44 Despite the suggestive title of her chapter, The Redemption of Romance/ Kates gives the impression that Rinaldo abandons Armida permanently to act as dutiful warrior (103-24). In my view, it is the reunion of Rinaldo and Armida that ultimately redeems romance in the poem. 45 One could make a similar case for Erminia and Tancredi, although Tasso is more ambivalent about whether their love story will be continued in the future beyond the poem. Murtaugh argues that the final encounter between Erminia and Tancredi not only presents love as a 'positive, healing, unifying force/ but also includes textual allusions to the Aminta ('Erminia Delivered/ 14). She does not, however, mention the similarities between their story and that of Armida and Rinaldo. Highlighting textual allusions to the captive woman motif, Gough reads Erminia's final encounter with Tancredi as her chance 'to initiate her own transformation from pagan slave to beloved Christian wife' (542).

260 Notes to pages 214-19 46 Regarding Ruggiero's foretold death, Quint has noted that the four years of life that Ariosto allotted to him from the moment of his baptism in the 1516 Furioso were expanded to seven years in the 1532 edition (Cinque canti, 23nl9). Seven years are admittedly better than four, but they are little compared to Rinaldo's open-ended future with Armida. 47 In arguing for Altamoro's wife as an Andromache-figure, Stephens states, Tasso's epic shows a consistent concern with the unhappy fate of women in previous epic tradition' ('Reading Tasso/ 305). In my reading, this concern is not limited to the wives of heroes, but extends to their 'seductresses' as well. 48 Tasso's letters to his friends, in particular Scipione Gonzaga and Luca Scalabrino, are much less guarded than his letters to potential (and actual) censors. The cultured Gonzaga was a close friend since his youth (Solerti 1: 91-2). 49 In his 'Discorsi dell'arte poetica e in particolare sopra il poema eroico,' what Tasso primarily objected to in Renaissance romance was the technique of interlacing, which overtaxed the reader's memory, and the poet's authorial interventions, which disrupted the reader's suspension of disbelief (Prose, 373). 50 Murrin notes that manuscripts of the 1574-5 stage lack the reconciliation scene (Allegorical Epic, 234). Tasso also omits it from the summary of canto 20 in the Tavola de la Gerusalemme' that he sent to Orazio Capponi QulyAugust 1576; Letters, 1: 210). 51 Solerti noted that Tasso thought of introducing allegory to 'justify everything' (1: 214; see also 1: 234). Stephens calls the 'Allegoria' a 'red herring for ecclesiastical censors, particularly Antoniano' ('Metaphor,' 245). 52 Examining the epic reversals suggested in Goffredo's clemency towards Altamoro, Stephens ('Reading Tasso,' 302) argues that this incident not only implicitly indicts Aeneas's 'family-destroyer function,' but more generally 'repudiates the entire ethos of masculine valor in favor of a feminine ethos' (of marriage and family). 53 Guicciardini notes the West's ambivalent relations with the Turks at various points. See, in particular, History of Italy, 176-7,298-302,370-2. 54 The second choice was Belisario's expedition against the Goths, a subject already treated by Trissino, while the third was Charlemagne's expedition against the Saxons and Lombards (Lettere 5, n.1551). 55 Solerti (1:157) notes that Tasso 'did not at the time add his voice to that of the thousand poets who celebrated' the victory over the Turks at Lepanto in 1571. 56 Firpo remarks on Tasso's relative indifference to the Turkish threat and to

Notes to pages 220-2

261

politics in general, but attributes this to a total absorption with poetry (1215 and 21). 57 Solerti remarks: 'A Christian through fear, Torquato Tasso had in his veins the blood and the education of the Renaissance' (1: 226). 58 Grendler notes that 'with the passage of the law of June 28,1569, the Inquisition began to enforce the Tridentine Index' ('Roman Inquisition,' 57). Regarding Venice, where at least half of the sixteenth-century books printed in Italy originated, he writes: 'In the 1560's, climaxing in 1569-71, the Venetians prosecuted heretical books with as much zeal as even Pope Pius V could want' (49). The strict censorship only gradually waned in the 1590s, too late to be of comfort to Tasso. See also Grendler's earlier full-length study, The Roman Inquisition. 59 In various letters to Luca Scalabrino, Tasso refers to Antoniano disparagingly, calling him 'the Little Poet' (il Poetino) and 'the Inquisitor' (L'lnquisitore). He complains to Scipione Gonzaga that Antoniano judges the poem with greater severity than the Inquisitor himself (11 February 1576). 60 The phrasing is Donadoni's (History of Italian Literature, 253), who views the Conquistata as 'a veritable suicide' (256). Solerti notes that Tasso did not begin the revision until after leaving Sant'Anna in 1586, when 'he was completely changed in his soul and in his mind' (Solerti 1: 207). Donadoni specifies that the change was not a spiritual conversion, but a superficial obsequiousness to authority (Torquato Tasso, 465-6). See Donadoni (Torquato Tasso, 419-86) and, more recently, Girardi and Olini, for a comparison of the two poems. I do not undertake an analysis of the Conquistata in the context of this study, feeling along with Lanfranco Caretti that 'what counts is to keep in mind not the final act of submission when Tasso's voice mixed with and was truly annulled by the grey colors of his time, but the long generous period of active resistance to the disintegration of a world t'hat had seemed so solid and sure of itself (viii). 61 This, of course, did not prevent some from noting a lack of religious enthusiasm in Tasso's private and fictional writings. See note 22. 62 Zatti has recently seen an anti-imperialistic thrust in Satan's canto 4 speech condemning the Bible's (and, by implication, Christianity's) propagandistic rewriting of history ('Dalla parte di Satana/ 147). 63 She writes: There are obviously parallels between the defenders of Jerusalem in Tasso's poem, who resist Goffredo's attempt to impose his secular and religious authority on them, and the Neapolitans, who resisted the attempt of Charles V and his viceroy to procure uniformity of belief (and revenue) through establishing a Spanish Inquisition' (71-2). Although Quint shows that Tasso would have had ample reason to abhor both the

262 Notes to pages 223-5 Spanish monarchy and the Roman papacy, he nevertheless conceives of Tasso as a traditional, even extreme, Counter-Reformation poet and 'apologist for papal supremacy' (Epic and Empire, 214). 64 Ferguson notes how Tasso uses the dialogue form to express critical views of the protagonists of the events without taking direct responsibility for those views (86). 65 At the same time, I do not mean to suggest that the first Crusade is an 'allegory' of the Neapolitan rebellion any more than Orlando's bouts with giants at bridges represented a particular incident of Estense abuses. The fact that the poem recalls elements of a political crisis that destroyed Tasso's immediate family in its wake does, however, help give meaning to the narrative. 66 See Tasso's letter in his defence (Lettere, 1: 7-12) and Solerti's account of the incident (1: 85-90). 67 Tasso left Ferrara for Rome and Florence at the completion of the poem (1575-6) with the intention of changing patrons (Prose, 775n4,807nl, and Sllnl; Solerti 1:204). He hints at his dissatisfaction with Alfonso in various letter's, including one in which he tries to downplay his previous criticisms of the duke: 'Ma, in somma, io non 1'offesi mai, se non con alcune parole leggieri, le quali sogliono spesso udirsi ne le bocche di cortigiani mal sodisfatti, o in trattar mutazion di servitu' ('But, really, I never offended him, if not with some light words, like those one often hears in the mouths of dissatisfied courtiers, or during attempts to change patrons') (Prose, 846). 68 My discussion for the most part does not go beyond the period immediately following the poem's completion, since subsequent events could not shed direct light on the composition of the poem. As Donadoni writes: 'Henceforth Tasso was no longer Tasso' (History of Italian Literature, 1:252). I would like to note, however, that the poet continued to express his mistrust of authority, sometimes vehemently, during his years of imprisonment in Sant'Anna. The confined Tasso compared Alfonso to Caligula and Nero (Prose, 852) and wondered aloud if the ruling family was acting out of sheer revenge for his having spoken out against them: 'Ma forse non gastigarmi, ma vendicarsi di me vogliono i serenissimi principi' ('But perhaps these very illustrious princes want not to punish me, but to take revenge against me'). Chiappini cites as an example of Alfonso's vengeful nature the fact that he imprisoned a nobleman for declining to follow him to Hungary ('La societa ferrarese,' 1324). 69 See also Solerti 1:104-5, and Chiappini, 'La societa ferrarese/ 1322-5. 70 For the art of dissimulation in Castiglione's discussion of joke-telling, see Cavallo, 'Joking Matters.'

Notes to pages 226-7

263

71 The examples are numerous. Woodhouse notes that Niccolo Strozzi's Avvertimenti 'are crammed with advice on concealing true feelings' (190). 72 Guicciardini speaks of Tutilita della simulazione' ('the usefulness of simulation') in #104. See also #133, #157, #184, and #199. 73 Giraldi Cinzio encourages the would-be courtier to adopt the characteristics of Proteus, adapting himself to the others at court (51), a strategy that Armida ('quasi Proteo'; 'like a new Proteus'; GL 5.63) adopts to seduce the Crusaders (GL 4.87-96). 74 Tasso refers repeatedly to the malignant courtiers of Alfonso's court. See, for example, his letter to Alfonso of July 1577 (Lettere, 1: 258). He also objects forcefully to their invasion of his privacy: 'Ma questi miei nemici che, a guisa di porci, sono stati vaghi di rivolgersi per le mie brutture, e tutte con la bocca diligentemente ricercarle, se de le lor proprie sordidezze son netti, come voglio credere, incontinenti sono stati ne 1'odio e smoderati ne le acerbita' ('But these enemies of mine that, like pigs, were so happy to get into my shameful matters, if they are clean of their own dirtiness, as I want to believe, then they were unrestrained in their hate and exaggerated in their bitterness'), letter to Scipione Gonzaga, 15 April 1579 (Lettere, 2:12). Even if these enemies were the imaginary fruit of Tasso's melancholy, as Alfonso II maintained (1578; Lettere, 1: 233), the situation still exemplifies Tasso's feelings towards the court in this period. Even Tasso's (unsubstantiated) suspicion that Alfonso wanted to have him killed provides an indication of the perceived antagonism between himself and the duke (see Lettere, 1: 233). 75 Noted in Benedetti, 'L'amante di Orazio,' 179. This view was justified by some of Tasso's own letters, including one stating that he had falsely pleaded insanity (pazzia) in order to regain the duke's benevolence (see Solerti 1: 277). Nor did Aldus Manutius find Tasso insane when he visited his prison cell in 1582 (Solerti, 1: 361). 76 Regarding the many positive assessments of dissimulation in his period, Biondi writes: The will to make of simulation and dissimulation, i.e., of acting covertly, a positive "way of life," an indispensible component of a bitter worldly wisdom, insinuates itself like yeast in many different kinds of moral writings' (8). 77 Ariosto also distinguishes between the customary simulation of the wizards and enchantresses from the necessary tactical dissimulation of Ruggiero (OF 8.1-3). 78 See Zatti, 'Epic in the Age of Dissimulation,' for several instances of dissimulation not covered here. Although Zatti outlines 'a broad and conspicuous thematics of concealment in the Liberata,' he nevertheless continues to see the poem as 'balanced between Christian ideology - the straight path lead-

264 Notes to page 227 ing to the liberation of Jerusalem - and "pagan" temptations that render this path full of obstacles and labyrinthine' (117). Speaking of 'the artifice of all Counter-Reformation poetics/ Zatti says: 'Poetic language, which by its nature feeds on "ornaments" or pleasant deceits, is called upon contradictorily to serve the purpose of the highest truth, the historic and Christian cause' (143). In my view, Tasso's point was not the artificial nature of poetic language, but the very artifice behind the Christian cause itself. Stephens has recently examined dissimulation and the disguises of Vafrino and Erminia in Trickster, Textor, Architect, Thief.'

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Index

Note: Characters that occur in a specific work are followed in parentheses by the abbreviation for that work. For brevity's sake, non-parenthetical references to Orlando Innamorato and Orlando Furioso are shortened to Innamorato and Furioso throughout. References to notes are in the following format: 201 nl 7(256), where the location of the note number in the text (page 201, note 17) is followed in parentheses by the location of the actual note (page 256). Accetto, Torquato, 227 Achilles, 50,167,168,169 Acquilino (IL), 165 acquisitiveness, 46,136-7,190; in Innamorato, 15-16, 20-1, 23-4,3940,151, 187 Acratia (IL), 159-60,162 Adone (Marino), 234 Aegisthus, 102 Aeneas, 52, 90, 214 Aeneid (Virgil), 75-81,160,180,197-8, 201nl7(256), 216, 233. See also specific character:' Aeschylus, 102 Agamemnon, 102,167 Agolante (OI), 38-9 Agostini, Niccolo degli, 23, 85, 210 Agramante (OI), 13, 35, 39,41-2, 50-1, 62 Agricane (OI), 16, 24

Alatiel (Dec.), Ill Albarosa (OI), 24-5, 31-2,101,136-7 Alcina: in Cinque canti, 129-33, 202; in Furioso, 82-8,127; in Innamorato, 65, 75, 84-5,191-2 Aldobrandini, Cinzio, 221 Alexander of Macedonia, 35-7, 43, 51, 97,151; sons of, 37-8, 41,151 Alidoro (Am.), 173,174-7 'Allegoria' (T. Tasso), 199-200, 204n24(257), 216-17 allegory, 135,229; humanists and, 76, 234; Tasso and, 217,230-1; Trissino and, 159-60 Altaripa (OI), 113. See also Castle Cruel L'Amadigi (B. Tasso), 155,156,171-7 Amadis de Gaula (Montalvo), 171 ambition, 97,100-1,159,193-4 Aminta (T. Tasso), 198, 211-12

284 Index Amone (OF), 146 Amore (Am.), 176 Amoroso, visione (Boccaccio), 174 Anceschi, Giuseppe, 45,48 Andrea da Barberino, 38-9 Andromache, 51-2,122 Angelica: in Cinque canti, 128; in Furioso, 20-3,74-5,86-9, 90,103; in Innamorato, 20-3,64, 75,160,164 Angel Palladio (11), 159-61,192,195 animals, 43, 63,64, 89-90,96,195 Antoniano, Silvio, 220,221 'Apologia in difesa della Gerusalemme Liberata' (T. Tasso), 224 Apuleius, 105,108 Aquilante, 28, 29,93,113 Arbante (OF), 136 Archiloro il Negro (Ol), 30 Areta (IL), 159 Argalia (Ol), 160 Argeo (OF), 107-8 Argia (OF), 121 Ariadne, 103 Ariodante (OF), 101 Ariosto, Ludovico, 72; didactic purpose of, 84, 85-8,131-2,144,152, 229; and Este family, 5,124, 224, 227, 232-3; on social/political issues, 229-30,232-3. See also specific works Ariosto, Niccolo, 54 Ariosto, Virginio, 126nl(248) Aristotle. See specific works Armida (GL): and Rinaldo, 186-92, 203,206-11, 213-14,225; Tasso's explanation of, 199-200,216-17, 220-1 armour, 63,64, 65-6,160, 201-2 Ascalona, Mago d' (GL), 195, 200-3 Ascoli, Albert R., 70,82

Asor Rosa, Alberto, 232 Aspramonte (Andrea da Barberino), 210 Astolfo: in Cinque canti, 127-8,129, 132-3; in Furioso, 82-3,91-8,103-4, 116; in Innamorato, 20,75, 84-5, 95, 188-92 Astolfo's squire (Mam.), 89 Astyanax (Ol), 51-3; widow of, 53,56 Atalante/Atlante, 42^, 53-4, 83, 86, 95,124,127 Atreus, 102 Aurigemma, Marcello, 12 Baldovino (GL), 190 Beer, Marina, 70 Belisario (IL), 164-5,166-9,192 benevolence, 58,59,104,105,147-50, 152 Benvenuti, Antonia Tissoni, 35 Berni, Francesco, 69 Biondi, Albano, 227 birds, 44 Bireno (OF), 136,137,138 Biserta (Ol), 60,116-17 Boccaccio, Giovanni, 33, 76,155,174. See also specific works Boiardo, Camillo, 54 Boiardo, Giovanni, 54 Boiardo, Matteo Maria, 4,12, 34-5, 54,158; and Dante, 72n7(242); didactic purpose of, 4,11-14,17, 84,187,229,232; and Estense family, 17-18,29,34,46,48; and politics, 12,16,18, 38-9,229-30; and Xenophon, 16,34-5, 233. See also specific works books, magic, 91,92-3,95,195 Borgia, Cesare, 27-8 Borsiade (Strozzi), 50nl4(240)

Index 285 Bradamante: in Furioso, 104,113,207, 224, 227; in Furioso (1532), 135-6, 144,145,148; in Innamorato, 227, 231 Brand, Peter, 71, 72,133 Brandimarte, 50-1, 59, 75,116-19 Bridge of Death (OI), 17-18, 92-3 Bridge of Roses (OI), 29,147 Brunello (OI), 40, 60 Bruscagli, Riccardo, 71, 203, 222 Caleffini, Ugo, 48 Caligorante (OF), 92, 93 cantari carolingi, 165n4(252), 188,190, 204, 230 'Canzone al Metauro' (T. Tasso), 223 Capellanus, Andreas, 185 Carandina (Mam.), 75, 76-7, 79-81 Carlo (GL), 193-6, 201-2 Carmina (Boiardo), 50 Carpi, Taddea dei Pii di, 54 Casadei, Alberto, 70 Cassandra (OF), 123,124 Castiglione, Baldessare, 13, 225 Castle Cruel episode (OI), 32,102-4, 149; Ariosto's use of, 94, 113, 132, 136-45. See also characters from this episode censorship, 6, 8,195nl2(255), 215-16 Cervantes, Miguel de. See Don Quixote Charlemagne, 40-1, 60, 126-32,151, 188-91, 231 Charles V, 158-9,170, 222-3 Chiappelli, Fredi, 207, 217-18 chivalry, 29, 52-3, 90,116, 224; blind adherence to, 83-4,110-12; in Furioso, 93; in Innamorato, 25, 59, 83-4; inRinaldo, 180-1 Chretien de Troyes, 197

Christianity, 182,183-4,185,199. See also conversion Christians, 21,60-2,126,193-4, 201-2, 204-6 Church, 6,18-19. See also CounterReformation; Inquisition Cicero, 32nl3(238), 112,124 Cieco da Ferrara, Francesco, 75-81. See also II Mambriano Cilindro (OF), 139-40,147 Cimosco (OF), 136-7 Cinque canti (Ariosto), 126-33,151, 202, 230,231 Circe, 74-5, 76,85 civic humanism. See humanism Clarice (Rin.), 178,180-2,184-5 Clodion (OF), 135 Cloridano (OF), 119 Clorinda (GL), 210n39(259), 213 Clytemnestra, 102 Constantine (emperor), 151 conversion, 91-2,115,117,132, 208-11 Cornazzano, Antonio, 12 corruption, 16-18,101,121,158 Corsamonte (ID, 160-1,164-9, 192 // Costante (Bolognetti), 224-5 Costantino (OF), 146-7,151 Costanzo of Byzantium, 60-1 Counter-Reformation, 156-7,185, 187, 219-22, 233 courage, 24-5, 54-7, 61 courtesy, 110-12; in Furioso, 109-10, 147-50,152; in Gerusalemme Liberata, 198-9; in Innamorato, 57-8,105, 147-9 cowardice, 24, 61 cruelty, 26-8,62 Crusaders, 204-6, 220, 225. See also knights

286 Index Crusades, 214,218 Cuccaro, Vincent, 71 Cyclops, 19 cynicism, 121-2, 218 Cyprus, 60-1 Cyropaedia (Xenophon), 16,34-5,233 Cyrus, 34-5,38

Dragontina, 19,74-5,95,127-8,176 Drusilla (OF), 140-1 Durindana (OF), 119,128 Durling, Robert, 71 duty, 76, 78,81,91-2,159-64,166-8; in Gerusalemme Liberata, 188,192, 197,203-4,224-5

Dafne (Aminta), 198 Dalinda (OF), 100,101 Damocles, 32nl3(238) Dante. See Inferno d'Aragona, Alfonso, 47,48 d'Aragona, Eleonora, 43nl4(239), 45 death, 32-3, 61,84,144 death traps, 64-5,103,127,147,191 Decameron (Boccaccio), 105-6,110, 111, 116,145 deceit, 220; in Furioso, 100-1,104, 107; in Gerusalemme Liberata, 187, 189,204; in Innamorato, 24,31,33, 83-4; by women, 83-6,110-11, 159-60,187 Decembrio, Pier Candido, 35n4(238) Demogorgon, 126-7,128 demons, 166 De Sanctis, Francesco, 226 Desiderius (CO, 131-2 desire, 105-9,140,173-7,181-2, 206-9, 212-13 Di Bassi, Andrea, 96 Dictea (OF), 102-3 Dido, 74-6,78-9 dissimulation, 225-8,232-3 Di Tommaso, Andrea, 72,134 doctors, 107-9 Donnarumma, Raffaele, 40-1 Don Quixote (Cervantes), 116,234 Dorigatti, Marco, 72 Doristella (OF), 136

Ebuda (OF), 138 ekphrasis, 35-7,42^, 55,123-4, 173^ Elias, Norbert, 231 Elidonia (OI), 55 Elpidia (II), 164-9, 209 Elysian fields, 212 enchanted sites, 77,83,199; in Innamorato, 80-1,85,95,127,230. See also palaces, enchanted enchantresses, 74-7, 84-5,161-2, 172-3,186-8,213-14 envy, 24,101,131 Erec et Enide (Chretien de Troyes), 197 Erminia (GL), 209n37(258), 210n39(259), 211, 213, 214n45(259) Ermonide (OF), 107,110-12 eras. See desire; love; passion Erspamer, Francesco, 189 Este, Alfonso II d', 5-6,201,219,224, 226n74(263) Este, Borso d', 4,11,46, 224 Este, Ercole I d', 4,11-12,35,45-6,47, 50; Boiardo and, 17-18,29,34,46, 48; as enlightened ruler, 39nl3(239), 224; and family politics, 54,123; and Innamorato, 42,44 Este, Ippolito d', 5,124 Este, Isabella d' (Gonzaga), 5 Este, Leonello d', 4,11,12,34, 39nl3(239)

Index 287 Este, Luigi d', 218 Este, Niccolo d', 39nl3(239), 43, 54 Este, Ranaldo d', 43 Este family, 4-6,11-12, 219, 224; and expansionism, 45-6, 47-8; in Furioso, 86,121,122-4; in Gerusalemme Liberata, 198, 201; in Innamorato, 42-3, 62, 202; insignia of, 51, 202; as patrons, 4, 45-6; treachery in, 54,123n20(247) Euripides, 51-2,102,108n9(246) evil, 115-16,199 The Faerie Queene (Spenser), 213n43(259), 234 fairies, 64-5,126-31,165-6,172 faithfulness, 105-6,107-8,111-12 Falanto (OF), 102-3 Falerina (Ol), 13, 27, 64-5,127,147, 196 family, 55-7, 78, 86, 201. See also genealogy Faulo (ID, 159-60 fauns, 85,195 Febosilla (Ol), 42-3, 44 Ferguson, Margaret, 222-3 Ferrara, 4-6, 31, 45-6 fertility, 175, 176 feudal system, 30-1, 219, 231-2 Filandro (OF), 107-8,109,113 Filocolo (Boccaccio), 105 Fiordelisa/Fiordiligi, 106-7,119 Fiorentino, Luigi, 28 Floriana (Rin.), 178-80,182-4,198, 203 Floridante (Am.), 172 flying, 36, 39, 40, 44, 51 Folengo, Teofilo ('Merlino'), 71-2 forgetfulness, water of, 176,177,183, 188

Fortunate Islands, 212 fortune, 63-4,129,148 Fortune/Fortuna, 33,165,169,195 Fountain Fay (Ol), 22-3, 62-6,12831,201-2 Fountain of Healing (IL), 159-60,161, 162-3 Fountain of Merlin (Ol), 74, 75 Fountain of Narcissus (Ol), 22, 75 fountains, 161,177; in Amadigi, 173, 174,176; in Furioso, 95; in Gerusalemme Liberata, 183,195-6; in Innamorato, 22-3; in Italia liberata, 159-60, 161 Franceschetti, Antonio, 72 fraud. See deceit friendship, 104-6,108; false, 118-19, 120,190; in Furioso, 104,108,115, 116-20; in Furioso (1532), 138,144, 146-52; in Innamorato, 104,105, 117-18,146-52 Fulcher of Chartres, 205n27(257) Gabrina (OF), 106-11,113-17, 148nl6(251) Galafrone (Ol), 160,188 Galaor (Am.), 172 Galaziella, 56-7,122, 210 Gano, 129-31,133,188-9, 202 Ganymede, 51 gardens, 28-9,127,139,161,179, 211-12; in Amadigi, 173,175,176; in Gerusalemme Liberata, 195-6, 199-200,207, 211-12 genealogy: in Furioso, 122-4; in Gerusalemme Liberata, 200-3; in Innamorato, 35,38-40, 51-2,54-7, 202; in Rinaldo, 179,184 Gerbino (Dec.), Ill Gernando (GL), 189

288 Index Gerusalemme Conquistata (T. Tasso), 221-2 La Gerusalemme Liberata (T. Tasso), 186-228; allegorical interpretation of, 199-200; Ariosto and, 202; as critique of repression, 187, 222, 232; dissimulation in, 227-8; ending of, 204, 214; hero and seductress in, 156,186-7; as love story, 217-18; as romance, 214, 230-1; Trissino and, 192,209,230; women in, 213-14 Gesta Francorum, 205 Giamatti, A. Bartlett, 82,120,150,213 giants, 85,92-3; in Innamorato, 16-19, 26,28, 53,63,64. See also monsters Ginevra (OF), 100-1,144-5 Giraldi Cinzio, Giovambattista, 159, 189n4(254), 226 Gloricia (CO, 129-30, 202 Gnatia (ID, 161 Goffredo (GL), 187,189-95,200,206, 214, 225 Golden Age, 165-6,169, 211-12 Gonzaga, Isabella d'Este, 5 Gonzaga, Scipione, 220-1 II Gonzaga (T. Tasso), 222-3 Goodman, Jennifer R., 185 Gradasso, 16, 23,59,62^, 83,119 greed. See acquisitiveness Greene, Thomas M., 79,152 griffins, 44 Grifone di Maganza (OI), 189 Grifone (knight), 28, 29,93,113 Grifone (lord of Altaripa) (OI), 26 Guarino, Battista, 17 Guarino da Verona, 4,11,12,34 Gueglielmo (GL), 188 Guicciardini, Francesco, 33, 218, 226 Guidon Selvaggio (OF), 103-4

Hale, John, 218 Harpies, 96-7 Harris, Neil, 47, 69 Hector, 48-52, 62,122-3; armour of, 63, 64, 65-6,202 Hercules, 96-7 hermits, 97-8,195,198, 200,203 Herodotus, 34 hippogriffs, 96 Hippolytus (Euripides), 108n9(246) history, 34^4,159 Homer. See Odyssey hospitality, 26,28-9,102,104,129-30, 139^0 Hough, Graham, 71 humanism, 6, 76,134; civic, 145-6, 152; and good government, 11-12, 34, 229-30. See also individual humanists Idraote (GL), 188,193 Iliad, 158,165,216 imitation, chain of, 38-43, 53,124, 151 imperialism, 204-6 incompetence, 30, 33,192-4 individual rights, 187, 224-5, 230-3; society and, 156,167-9 Inferno (Dante), 72n7(242), 91, 97, 193,195 injustice, 100-1,109,116,189-91,220 Inquisition, 170, 221, 222 insignia, 42,51, 202 Iroldo, 104-12,114-15,117,119,145 Isabella (OF), 104-12,114-15,116,117 Island of Pleasure (Rin.), 183^4 Ismeno (GL), 199,203-4 L'Italia liberata da Goti (Trissino), 158-69 Italy, 6-7, 31,231-2; foreign powers

Index 289 in, 33,158-9,219,222-1; repressive climate in, 156, 215-17, 225-8, 232 Javitch, Daniel, 70, 82 jealousy, 135-6 Jensen, Hannemarie Ragn, 11 Jerusalem, 204-6 jousts, 59-61,135,187-8 Julius Caesar, 38-9,124 justice, 25,109-12,118; in Furioso, 91, 93,113,115-16,121; in Furioso (1532), 137,144-5; golden age of, 165-6,169. See also injustice; punishment killer-women (OF), 94,102-4,140-1 knights, 52, 97,161-4,166; as dupes, 30,101,104, 129-31, 160; enchanted, 95, 188; versus evil, 25, 127-32; as liberators, 161-4,196-7; rebellious, 188-92; temptation of, 75, 83,161-2,187. See also Crusaders labyrinths, 32-3 Larbino, King, 75 Laughing Stream, 195-6; in Innamorato, 23, 66, 75, 83, 84-90,117 Leodilla (Ol), 136 Leone (OF), 146-50,151 Leo X (pope), 124n23(247) Lettera dalla Francia (T. Tasso), 224 Levin, Harry, 212 liberation: in Amadigi, 172-3; in Furioso, 86-7,113-15,138-9; in Gerusalemme Liberata, 192-3,196-8; in Innamorato, 114-15,117; in Italia libemta, 161-4,166-7 Ligridonia (IL), 159-60,161,162,164 Lipadusa, battle of, 119

literature, 47,69-70,134,152,162. See also censorship; romance genre Logistilla (OF), 88, 91,127 Longiano, Fausto da, 50 lotteries, 187 love, 212-13, 215; in Amadigi, 173-5, 176-7,178; courtly, 101,180-1,185; in Furioso, 86,107,135-6,140,1489; in Gerusalemme Liberata, 191-2, 197-9, 201, 206-9, 214, 218; in Innamorato, 74-5,148-9, 210-11; society and, 182,185 Lucian of Samosata, 12 Lucilla (Am.), 173,174-7 Machiavelli, Niccolo, 27-8 magic, 215; in Gerusalemme Liberata, 188,195-6, 204; in Innamorato, 63-5, 74-5, 83; in Italia liberata, 162-4 magic armour, 160, 201-2 magic belt, 89 magic beverage, 174-5. See also fountains magic books, 91, 92-3, 95,195 magic horn, 91, 93, 95, 96,104,127 magic ring, 86-8,128,159; in Innamorato, 22, 64, 75,160 magic weapons, 160-1,172,188,195 magi/maga: in Furioso, 95,124; in Gerusalemme Liberata, 191, 200-3, 211, 213-14; in Italia liberata, 159-60,162 Malagigi (Mam.), 77-8, 80, 89,160, 181-2,196 // Malpiglio (T. Tasso), 226 // Mambriano (Cieco), 75-81,86,89, 183,198; Aeneid as model for, 160, 167 Mambriano (Mam.), 76-7, 81

290 Index Mandricardo, 22-3,59, 62-6,116, 128-31 Marchino, 26-7,102,104,140,143, 144; wife/widow of, 26-7,102, 137,142,144 Marfisa, 22,103,104,112-13,144,145 Marganorre (OF), 139-45,149 Marie de Champagne, 185 Marinelli, Peter, 13,71 Marino, Gianbattista, 234 marriage, 197,198, 212-13 Mars, 173^ Masciandaro, Franco, 115 Medea, 102,183^ Medoro (OF), 119 Melissa (OF), 86,123,160 Mercury, 76-9, 86,160,167,180, 197-8 Merlin, 74,75,86 Metamorphoses (Apuleius), 105,1089,110,116 Metamorphoses (Ovid), 173-4 Micocci, Claudia, 12 Migiel, Marilyn, 201 Minotaur, 103 Modena, 31 monsters: in Furioso, 103; in Innamorato, 16-17,26-7,32,105,138,143; in Italia liberata, 162,164. See also specific monsters; giants Montalvo, Garcia Rodriquez de, 171 moral education, 89,132-3,165-9, 200-3; in Furioso, 91-8,135,145-52 morality, 89,183^, 185 moralizing, 76,81,156-7,159,171-3, 217 Morgana, 13,32,64-5, 75,127,172 Morganetta (Am.), 172 II Morgante maggiore (Pulci), 7n5(236)

mothers, 55-7,201 murder, 140-3 Murrin, Michael, 13,47 Muslims, 219; Christians versus, 21, 60-2,126,193-4, 201-2,204-6. See also Saracens Naples, 45,222-3 nature. See gardens Nepos, Cornelius, 34 Nicomachean Ethics (Aristotle), 12n3(236), 48-50 Nimrod, 40,97nl8(245) Ninus, tomb of, 32 Nivetta (Am.), 172 Norandino (OI), 60-1 novellas: in Cinque canti, 132; of civic virtue, 99-125,134-5, 230; as didactic, 121,134-5, 229-30; in Furioso, 85-8,135-9; in Innamorato, 99-100,145,229-30, 231 Oberto (OF), 138,144 Odorico (OF), 105,115-16 Odyssey (Homer), 49nl3(240), 76, 173, 216 Olimpia (OF), 136-9 Olindro (OF), 140 Orca (OF), 138 Oreo, Remirro de, 27-8 Oresteia (Aeschylus), 102 Orgagna (OI), 27, 31,32 Origille (OI), 32,35,110-11, 148nl6(251) Orlando: in Cinque canti, 127-32; and enchantresses (OI), 64-5, 75,83^, 127-9; in Furioso, 106-7,110-16, 119,137,138,144; in Innamorato, 50, 64-5,90,92^, 117-18,127-9; versus Rugiero (OI), 59-62; as slow

Index 291 learner (OI), 59,83^, 90; and tomb of Ninus (OI), 32-3, 35 Orlando Furioso (Ariosto), 82-125, 214, 231; commentaries on, 69-72; compared to Innamorato, 71-2, 108-10,115-17,120; as didactic allegory, 82-98,121,144,162; Estense family in, 121,146, 227, 232; models for, 69,99-100,113-15, 160,167; novellas of civic virtue in, 99-125,135 Orlando Furioso (1532) (Ariosto), 134-52, 230; ethics in, 146-50; and Innamorato, 134,146,147; novellas of civic virtue in, 135,138-9,150, 152, 230; politics in, 150-1,158 Orlando Innamorato (Boiardo), 7,1366, 69-70, 227, 231; Ariosto and, 71-2,128; Book One, 15-33; Book Two, 34-44; Book Three, 45-66, 83, 128; continuations of, 69, 85, 210; as didactic, 7-8,13-14,31-3,134-5, 229-30; ending of, 61-2, 65-6; as epic, 45-66, 230; Este family in, 42-3, 62; genealogy in, 54-7; as history, 34-44; irony in, 20-2, 23; political commentary in, 13,16-33, 189-91; as romance, 15-33, 52-3; women in, 24-5, 26, 29, 74-5 Orontea (OF), 103 Orrillo (OF), 93-4 Orrisello (OI), 30 Ovid, 51-2,173-4 palaces, enchanted, 77,129-30; in Furioso, 95, 96; in Innamorato, 74-5, 80-1, 84 Palladio. See Angel Palladio (IL) papacy, 47-8,124n23(247), 218, 219-20, 223

Parker, Patricia, 82 passion, 88-92,139-43,185; and friendship, 104-6,108 Pastoralia (Boiardo), 46 patronage, 4, 45-6,170-1, 218-19, 221, 223 Paul IV (pope), 223 Pazzi, Alessandro de', 155 Peter the Hermit, 195,198,203 Phaedra (Seneca), 108n9(246) Philip II, 171, 223 Phineus, 96-7 Pinabello (OF), 112-13 Pittorru, Fabio, 224, 227 pleasure, 76, 81,156-7,159-64,1668; in Gerusalemme Liberata, 188,192, 197, 203-4, 224-5 Pleasure Palace (OI), 74-5 Plutina (11), 165-7,168-9,192 Poetics (Aristotle), 155 poets, 124,231, 232 poison, 54,105,107-8,141, 219 Poliferno (OI), 25-30,31 Polindo (OI), 24-5,101,136-7 Polinesso (OF), 100-1 politics, 27-8, 38,151,188, 219; in Innamorato, 13,16-33,128,129; in Italia liberata, 159,165-9. See also power; states; war Politics (Aristotle), 66 Polyxena, 52 Ponte, Giovanni, 13, 72 power, 24,25,29-31; abuse of, 16-18, 31,167-8 Praloran, Marco, 75 Prasildo, 104-12,117,119,145 Prester, John, 97 Procne, 102 promises, 148,165,206-7. See also faithfulness

292 Index propaganda, 47,194, 218-19 prudence, 88,91,121; dissimulation as, 225-6 Pulci, Luigi, 7n5(236) punishment, 28,89,131-2; in Furioso, 97,110-11,144; in Innamorato, 23, 25,31,32. See also justice Quint, David, 71,72 Rajna, Pio, 82,97,123,139,145 Rampaldo (OI), 53 Ranaldo (OI), 31-2,104,144,227; and Angelica, 74-5; and civic virtue, 25,99-100; and Prasildo, 109,117; as reader, 25,59,109. See also Rinaldo rape, 88-9,105-7,141-3 Raymond of Aguilers, 205 reason, 76, 79-81, 89-90,199, 200 rebellion, 165,188-92,222-3 religion, 6,161,180,182,183-4. See also Church; Crusades rescue. See liberation revenge, 126-7; in Furioso, 113,140-3, 149; in Gerusalemme Liberata, 191, 194, 201; in Innamorato, 30,102-4, 113,127,140-1,149; substitutional, 113,142 rights, 156,167-9,187, 224-5, 230-3 Rinaldo: in Furioso, 85,100,101,118, 120-2; in Gerusalemme Liberata, 186-92,198-203, 206-9, 214,223, 225; in Mambriano, 77,79-81,90; in Rinaldo, 179-83,184-5. See also Ranaldo // Rinaldo (T. Tasso), 156,178-86,203, 212-13,231-2 Rodamonte/Rodomonte, 39-40, 58-9,116,214

Roland, 61 romance genre, 155, 227; Arthurian, 172,181; versus epic, 159-60,199, 204,218; evolution of, 216,230-1 Ruggiero (OF), 113,122,138,152, 214; versus Astolfo, 91-2,95-8; in Cinque canti, 127,132-3; conversion of, 206,211; in Furioso (1532), 145-52,224; moral education of, 97-8,200; as slow learner, 84, 88, 90-2; and women, 85-90,145-7, 207,224 Rugiero (OI), 50,51-2,150-1; and chivalric ideal, 59,83^, 90; death of, 61, 84,214; genealogy of, 41-2, 210; versus Orlando, 59-62; and women, 83-6 rulers, 31-3, 218; ideal, 37-8,42-3, 152; incompetent, 189-90,192^. See also specific rulers; imitation, chain of Ruscelli, Girolamo, 69 Sabadino degli Arienti, Giovanni, 12 sacrifice, 143,148-50,224 Sacripante (OI), 16-23, 30, 31 St George, 92 Salutati, Coluccio, 76 Sangirardi, Giuseppe, 70, 72,134 Sanseverino, Ferrante, 170, 223 Sansonetto da Mecca (OF), 92 Sanudo, Marino, 45 Saracens, 46-7,81. See also specific characters Scalabrino, Luca, 215-16 Scardasso, 85 La Secchia rapita (Tassoni), 234 seductresses: in Amadigi, 171-2,1747; in Furioso, 102-3; in Gerusalemme Liberata, 186-7,195-6; and heros,

Index 293 155-6,166-7,174-7,182, 186-7; in Innamorato, 22-3, 64, 74-5, 83-6, 160,164; in Italia liberata, 161,164; in Mambriano, 22-3, 64, 74-5, 77, 79-81 Segre, Cesare, 72 Senapo (OF), 97 Seneca, 51-2, 102,108n9(246) senses, 76, 79-80 serpents, 27,195 Servius, 79 Shapiro, Marianne, 70 Sherberg, Michael, 71, 202 Silvester, Bernard, 77 Silvia (Aminta), 198 Sinesia (II), 159 sirens, 74-5,182,191,196. See also seductresses Solerti, Angelo, 171,221 Solimano (GL), 194, 201 Spain, 171,218, 219 Spenser, Edmund, 162n3(252), 213n43(259),234 Speroni, Sperone, 215-16 states, 29, 32-3, 38. See also rulers Stella (OD, 26,102,140-1,143 Stephens, Walter, 208 Stone Spring (OI), 22, 75 Strozzi, Tito Vespasiano, 50nl4(240) suicide, 105, 146-8, 183, 207 Sveno (GL), 193-4, 225; sword of, 194-5,201-2 Tanacro (OF), 139-41, 147 Tancredi (GL), 189,190, 214n45(259) Tasso, Bernardo, 155, 156,170-1, 222-3. See also L'Amadigi Tasso, Torquato, 181, 208, 209n38(259), 218-20,224, 233; on Ariosto, 213, 224; and censors,

195nl2(255), 215n48(260); and the Church, 195nl2(255), 219-21, 223; and Estense family, 5, 218-19,223, 226n74(263); on Gerusalemme Liberata, 199-200, 216-17, 220-1; and hero/seductress theme, 156-7; insanity of, 221, 226-7; and politics, 190,219,223, 229-30; and romance genre, 215,224. See also specific works Tassoni, Alessandro, 234 Temple of Love (Rin.), 181 Teodora (OF), 147 Theseus, 103 Thyestes, 102 Tillyard, E.M.W., 70 Tisbina (OI), 104-12,146 Trajano (IL), 162,166-7 treachery, 54-7,122,123, 219, 220; in Cinque canti, 131,133; in Furioso, 110-11,113,122-3,140; in Innamorato, 28, 53-4, 61,110-11,137,189 Tripoli, 38, 42 Trissino, Giangiorgio, 155,156,1589. See also L'ltalia liberata da' Goti Tristan (OF), 135-6 Trojan War, 48-53, 204 The Trojan Women (Seneca), 51-2 Truffaldino (OI), 23-5, 31-2,100-1; Ariosto's use of, 113,136-7,144 Turks, 21, 46, 218, 219 Turpino (OI), 36-7, 58 Tyerman, Christopher, 218 Tylus, Jane, 70-1 tyrants, 12n3(236), 131-2,136-7,143, 144, 233 Ubaldo (GL), 195-8 Ugone (GL), 192 Ullania (IL), 128n9(248-9)

294 Index Valesio, Paolo, 71 Venice, 43nl5(239), 45,46-8 Ventura, 32 Venus, 173-4,176,179-80,184-5 Verdicchio, Massimo, 82 Villoresi, Marco, 70 violence, 39,149; in Furioso, 137,13943,146-7; in Innamorato, 26, 33,39, 142 Virgil. See Aeneid virginity, 181-2 virtue, 91,118,136-9 Vulcan, 163,173-4 war, 19,46-8,197-9, 201,214,218 Weaver, Elissa, 69 widows, 26-7, 53, 56,123,137 Wiggins, Peter DeSa, 70 William of Tyre, 205 wisdom, 121

wish fulfilment, 63-4 women: in Cinque canti, 129-30; as deceitful, 83-6,110-11,159-60, 187; in Furioso, 103,107-9,122; in Innamorato, 24-5,26, 29, 74-5; in Italia liberata, 162,164; in Odyssey, 76; violence against, 141-3. See also enchantresses; killer-women; seductresses Xenophon, 16,34-5, 233 Yarnall, Judith, 76 Zambardo (OI), 17-18, 92 Zancani, Diego, 12 Zanette, Emilio, 72 Zatti, Sergio, 204-5, 222 Zerbino (OF), 104-12,113-16