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72 pages 2 hours read

Ludovico Ariosto

Orlando Furioso

Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Adult | Published in 1532

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Important Quotes

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“I sing of knights and ladies, of love and arms, of courtly chivalry, of courageous deeds—all from the time when the Moors crossed the sea from Africa and wrought havoc in France.”


(Canto 1, Page 4)

The opening line of Ariosto’s poem alludes to the opening of the Aeneid by Virgil. Both poems begin with “I sing,” which connects poet with singer, emphasizing the orality of the work. Furthermore, Ariosto clearly defines his genre—chivalric romance set during the Crusades—with this one-line description of his work.

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“You must know that the rare valour which swept you from the saddle was that of a gentle damsel. / She is brave, but more than that, she is beautiful. Her name is famous and I shall keep it from you no longer: it is Bradamant who has stripped you.”


(Canto 1, Page 9)

In this passage, a messenger explains to Sacripant who defeated him. From the first canto, Ariosto establishes that female knights exist and are strong enough to defeat men. This passage also establishes that knights in full armor are not recognizable, setting up many instances of mistaken identity in the poem later.

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“Beware of pretty young men in the flower of their years: their appetites are quickly sharpened and as quickly assuaged, like straw set ablaze. As a huntsman who pursues a hare in the cold as in the heat, over hill and dale, but no longer prizes it once he has it in the bag, and hastens off the moment he sight new quarry fleeing from him.”


(Canto 10, Page 93)

In this passage, the narrator warns women about the fickleness of young male lovers. The long Homeric similes comparing lust and hunting and lust and fire appear in many chivalric romances and other poems. This advice can be compared with many other moments when the narrator warns men about unfaithful women.

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“The pagan, who had on other occasions known the impact of Cupid’s darts, derived from these signs not merely the hope but the certainty that the lovely damsel would not be invincibly opposed to his desire.”


(Canto 14, Page 143)

Cupid, capitalized, is another name for Love (which is also capitalized throughout the poem, designating it as an allegory). Mandricard seduces Doralice by exploiting Love’s expansive power, a theme that runs throughout Orlando Furioso.

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“And to prevent his falling victim to magic spells a second time, she gave him a fine, useful book which he was to cherish and keep by him at all times. / This book she gave him listed all the antidotes to magic.”


(Canto 15, Page 155)

The book that is being described in this passage is a type of grimoire (book of magic). Several extant grimoires might have influenced Ariosto; they also appear in a number of chivalric romances that predate Ariosto.

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“Fate constantly barred their paths, and the whole day elapsed without their coming to grips [...] Rinaldo came under Fate’s guidance, to win himself honour as Dardinel’s slayer.”


(Canto 18, Page 200)

This passage is an example of Ariosto’s theme about the power of Fate. Fate, like Love, is capitalized throughout the romance, emphasizing its allegorical power. Here, Fate keeps Ariodant from being able to avenge the death of his brother, Lurcanio. Fate chooses Rinaldo to kill Dardinel instead. 

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“The man who laughs must occasionally weep, occasionally find Fate rebellious.”


(Canto 22, Page 263)

In this passage, the narrator comments on Samsonet being unhorsed while jousting. Both Fate and Fortune are external and above knights, able to change the outcome of a fight (and one’s reaction to that outcome, laughing or crying) at any time.

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“I am not who my face proclaims me; the man who was Orlando is dead and buried, slain by his most thankless lady who assailed him by her betrayal. I am his spirit sundered from him, and wandering tormented in its own hell, so that his shade, all that remains of him should serve as an example to any who place hope in Love.”


(Canto 23, Page 281)

This is a description of Orlando disassociating, or going mad. Orlando’s wits escape when he learns that his beloved Angelica has chosen another man—the young Moor Medor. One aspect of love’s power is tormenting its faithful servants.

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This is a description of Orlando disassociating, or going mad. Orlando’s wits escape when he learns that his beloved Angelica has chosen another man—the young Moor Medor. One aspect of love’s power is tormenting its faithful servants.


(Canto 24, Page 283)

This simile compares love-madness to a forest. This passage highlights an important setting of chivalric romance: the forest. There, knights frequently get lost, encounter magical beings, or face enemies. 

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“It seems the blame rests with Love—any fault is excusable when Love lies at the bottom of it.” 


(Canto 24, Page 287)

In this passage, Zerbin pardons Odoric, forcing him to deal with Gabrina as a punishment rather than be sentenced to death. Zerbin’s rationale for this decision develops the theme of the power of Love. Blaming love, rather than human agency, is part of the chivalric mindset.

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“Now they bandied insults; they bellowed with rage, swords were drawn; cruel steel clashed upon steel—like a breeze which at first is but a breath, them rises enough to shake the oak and ash; it sends dark dust whirling skywards, then rips up trees, flattens houses, sinks ships at sea, and raises a fearsome tempest which destroys the flocks scattered through the woods.”


(Canto 24, Page 293)

This simile compares a sword fight between Mandricard and Rodomont to a tempest. Tempests are inciting incidents for many adventures in Orlando Furioso, and cause a number of deaths. Also, this comparison between fighting power and the massive natural power of a tempest shows how chivalric knights are characterized as having superhuman strength. 

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“Bradamant tactfully had her know that she was a maiden. / She was in quest of glory at arms, like Hippolyta and Camilla of old [...] These revelations did not abate love-struck Fiordispina’s passion one jot; Cupid had trust in his dart to make so deep a gash that this remedy was now too late.” 


(Canto 25, Page 299)

Love, also called Cupid, is more powerful than heteronormativity. In other words, even in a society that does not accept same-sex relationships, Love is not restricted by gender. The device of women falling for women who are dressed in armor (sometimes considered a form of cross-dressing) appears in many chivalric romances (like the Roman de Silence), as well as many renaissance plays, such as Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.

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“Even though she looked pale and distraught and her hair was awry, and hot sighs kept issuing from her breast, and her eyes were two springs, and there were other clear signs that her life was sad and wearisome, she still possessed enough beauty to give refuge to Cupid and the Graces.”


(Canto 28, Page 350)

Rodomont sees Isabel, who is mourning the loss of her love Zerbin, and falls for her. Isabel’s characterization is initially centered on her being beautiful, but the reader soon learns that she is also an exceptional example of faithfulness and ingenuity.

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“Depart in peace, then, beautiful, blessed spirit, who preferred fidelity and a name for chastity (virtually alien and unknown in our day) to your life, your green years! / If only my verses had the power, how hard I should work to the limit of my poet’s art, which so refines and enhances speech, so that for a thousand years and more the world would have knowledge of your illustrious name.” 


(Canto 29, Page 354)

This passage praises Isabel’s virtues. She cleverly avoided being raped by Rodomont by persuading him to kill her to test a supposed magical elixir. The narrator wishes his poetry could do justice to these actions; he believes a primary function of poetry is to immortalize the virtuous.

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“Sir, the good steed you have taken from me was dear to me when he still lived; and I should be grossly failing in my duty to him were I to let him die thus unavenged.”


(Canto 31, Page 372)

This is an example of the steed motif that runs throughout Orlando Furioso. During a duel, Guidone’s horse is killed, and he wants to avenge the animal’s death. Steeds are included in the codes of chivalry, and Rinaldo tries to remedy the accidental death of Guidone’s horse by offering him another.

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“Ah me, whom shall I trust now? Every man must be faithless and cruel if you, my Ruggiero, are faithless and cruel, you whom I held to be so good and true. What cruelty, what base betrayal was ever heard mentioned in tragic laments but is not to be accounted less evil than yours, if you think of your indebtedness and my deserving!”


(Canto 32, Page 387)

This is one of many times that Bradamant laments Ruggiero. She believes that Marfisa and Ruggiero have become lovers (which is untrue—they are revealed to be siblings). Ariosto’s use of this device (the expansive, overwrought lament) echoes an earlier chivalric romance: Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde. This poem—like Orlando Furioso—is deeply influenced by Homer’s Iliad.

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“Would you not do better to go into battle where you might die with greater honour? If there you happened to fall to Ruggiero, he might yet regret your dying. But if you did, die at his hands, who could possibly die happier than you?”


(Canto 32, Page 388)

Bradamant attempts to commit suicide, but her attempt fails because she forgot she is wearing armor, so a sword could not pierce her breast. Here, she decides that it would be better to be killed by her love, Ruggiero. Intentionally being killed by a lover is a device that is picked up by many other authors, including Beaumont and Fletcher in their play The Maid’s Tragedy.

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“Imagine a lover, his passions aroused as he is about to gain admittance to enjoy some sweet thieving: he thrills when, after so much delay, he at least hears the bolt softly withdrawn. Similarly Bradamant, eager to try conclusions with the knights, rejoices on hearing the gate opened, the bridge lowered, and on seeing them come forth.”


(Canto 32, Page 391)

Sex and violence are intertwined in chivalric romance. Knights often fight other men to win the favor of their beloved (and sleep with her). However, this passage plays with gender roles—not only is Bradamant, a woman, the one doing the violence, she is also the one whose romantic and sexual desires for Ruggiero are central to the poem.

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“And in our own day artists have lived, and still survive, such as Leonardo, Andrea Mantegna, Giovanni Bellini, the two Dossis, and Michelangelo (who equally as a sculptor and painter is more divine than human), Sebastiano del Piombo, Raphael, and Titian (the boast respectively of Venice, Urbino, and Cadore), and other whose work is visibly of the same eminence as is ascribed to the painters of old.” 


(Canto 33, Page 396)

Merlin’s prophetic mural is an example of ekphrasis, or detailed verse about visual art. This commentary by the narrator broadly comments on how the works of his day are as great as those of the ancients.

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“Verses written in praise of patrons wore the guide of exploded crickets. / Love affairs pursued to little purpose had the shape of gilded bonds, jewel-studded shackles.” 


(Canto 34, Page 420)

This passage is a description of lost things on the moon. Astolfo, guided by St. John, searches for Orlando’s wits on the moon, but also encounters a number of things that have been transformed. The narrator takes this opportunity to comment on patronage—how poets earn a living by flattering patrons in verse.

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“Their virtues are lost to fame, though: out of a thousand names barely one is mentioned. This is because the writers of their day were deceitful, envious, and mean. / You ladies who incline to meritorious deeds, do persist in following your bent; do not be deflected from your high calling by the fear of not being paid the honour due to you. Just as there is no good which lasts forever, so it is with the bad: if hitherto paper and ink have not favoured you, we have now arrived in our own day.”


(Canto 37, Page 442)

Here, the narrator comments on one important function of poetry—immortalizing its subjects. After this rant about male poets devaluing virtuous women, he goes on to praise female poets who take immortality into their own hands, arguing that women can be virtuous, and—more importantly—can be more than muses.

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“From all sides the tempest mounted a cruel, frightening assault. At one moment they saw the sea rear up so high it seemed to reach the heavens; at the next, they were themselves lifted so high upon a crest that to look down seemed like a glance into hell.”


(Canto 41, Page 486)

A tempest causes Ruggiero to promise to convert, regardless of what happens with Bradamant. Tempests frequently influence the action of Ariosto’s poem, causing knights to go off-course and land at locations they never intended to visit.

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“A wood stretched down to the water’s edge, planted with laurel, juniper, myrtle, and fruitful palms; it was forever watered by a murmuring spring which cascaded down from the summit.”


(Canto 41, Page 491)

Forests and springs appear throughout Orlando Furioso. Knights roam through forests, and damsels lament near springs; these are sites where plots are developed. This particular wood is the most benevolent one in Ariosto’s poem (as opposed to many dark and ominous woods)—it is where the hermit who baptizes Ruggiero lives.

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“I shall give you a goblet [...] which has rare and remarkable properties; it was made by Morgana to acquaint her brother, King Arthur, with his wife Guinevere’s lapse. The man whose wife is chaste may drink from it, but not the man whose wife is adulterous: then the wine he expects to drink spills out to splash his chest.”


(Canto 43, Page 512)

While the Holy Grail is the most famous vessel in Arthurian romances, this passage argues that there is a second goblet—an adultery-detecting goblet crafted by a sorceress. Not only is it a goblet that tests women, it is one that is created by and offered by a woman, which develops the theme of gender roles.

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“I mean to remain till death just as I have ever been, Ruggiero, and more so, if possible. Whether Love proves kind or harsh to me, whether Fortune spins me high or low upon her wheel, I am an immovable rock of true fidelity, though buffeted all about by wind and sea. Never did I shift for storm or fair weather, and never will I do so.”


(Canto 44, Page 539)

In this message to Ruggiero, Bradamant assures him of her constancy and enduring passion. The poetics here (being unshaken by a tempest) may remind modern readers of Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 116.” The love story of Ruggiero and Bradamant is central to Orlando Furioso. From prophecies about their descendants in the third canto to their marriage in the final canto, Bradamant and Ruggiero’s successful love story contrasts with the titular Orlando’s failed love affair, which drives him mad.

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