Although Orlando Furioso has comic elements, it is not a comic poem. It is a chivalric romance which incorporates traditional matter - duels, jousts, quests, amorous adventures, damsels in distress, Christians v. Saracens, monsters, magic - as well as Virgilian episodes, bawdy tales, metafictional gestures, a running debate about female virtue, wry commentary on the follies of love, outrage at foreign invasions of Italy, a dynastic marriage and praise of Ariosto's patrons, the Este of Ferrara. No part can fairly represent the whole, but one remarkable episode conveys something of the poem's atmosphere.

LRB 9 September 2010 | PDF Download