Orlando furioso (Ariosto)

Also known as: Orlando furioso, l'Orlando furioso, Orlando, Ariosto, Ariost, l'Ariosto, Arioste, ce chien d'Ariosto

Culture · Literature IT Pronunciation

Overview

Orlando furioso ("The Frenzy of Orlando") is the epic chivalric poem by Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533), a continuation of Boiardo's unfinished Orlando innamorato. The earliest version appeared in 1516 and the poem was not published in its complete form, 46 cantos in ottava rima, until 1532. It was the great court poem of the Italian Renaissance and the favourite reading of Italian ladies and gentlemen for three centuries. (Wikipedia, "Orlando Furioso".)

Marie and this work

Marie reads it in the original Italian, in 1876, in the months between Nice and Rome and after.

3 January 1876, Nice. "Avant de m'endormir je lis l'Orlando furioso de l'Ariosto, et puis m'imagine des scènes à Nice, après Rome, au printemps." (051.0341; the existing footnote marks the title as Italian in the original.)
6 March 1876, Rome. On receiving a bouquet of lily-of-the-valley and roses that the sender lost to her at cards, she says she likes flowers only when they are given to her, and above all roses, "car comme dit l'Ariosto:" (055.0254), and writes the last line of the rose simile in Canto I: "Amano averne i seni e tempie ornate" (055.0256, repeated with a different slip in 055.0261). The couplet is the end of stanza 42 of Canto I: the maiden is like the rose in its garden, "gioveni vaghi e donne inamorate / amano averne e seni e tempie ornate" ("young lovers and women in love like to adorn their breasts and temples with it"). Marie's two transcriptions both corrupt the first line ("vagine", "paghi"). The existing footnote gives the stanza as 43, but it is stanza 42, as checked against it.wikisource. Her comment on the donor, "Il a beaucoup aimé ce chien d'Ariosto, c'est pour cela qu'il s'y connaît si bien" (055.0262), is a joke about the unnamed sender of the flowers, who evidently knows how to give them.
2 June 1876, Nice. "J'en étais au deuxième chant de l'Orlando d'Arioste quand on annonça le général Bibi" (062.0129).
3 July 1876, Nice. Among the books she chooses to take on the journey to Russia (062.0852), with Dante, Plato, Shakespeare and English novels.

Notes

The note to 062.0129 gives the date of the poem as 1532, the footnote to 051.0341 as 1516: both are right for different editions (first and definitive).
The inventory also lists 055.0555 as a mention; the paragraph holds no Ariosto reference.

Sources

Wikipedia, "Orlando Furioso".
it.wikisource, Orlando furioso (1928), Canto 1 (stanza 42).
Diary paragraphs as cited above.