Orlando Furioso

Lodovico Ariosto

• Publisher: pubOne.info
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN: 9782819928041
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Classics
• Index: Literature

pubOne.info thank you for your continued support and wish to present you this new edition. This work is a continuation of the "e;Orlando Innamorato"e; of Matteo Maria Boiardo, which was left unfinished upon the author's death in 1494. It begins more or less at the point where Boiardo left it.

CANTO 1

ARGUMENT

Angelica, whom pressing danger frights,

Flies in disorder through the greenwood shade.

Rinaldo's horse escapes: he, following, fights

Ferrau, the Spaniard, in a forest glade.

A second oath the haughty paynim plights,

And keeps it better than the first he made.

King Sacripant regains his long-lost treasure;

But good Rinaldo mars his promised pleasure.

I

OF LOVES and LADIES, KNIGHTS and ARMS, I sing,

Of COURTESIES, and many a DARING FEAT;

And from those ancient days my story bring,

When Moors from Afric passed in hostile fleet,

And ravaged France, with Agramant their king,

Flushed with his youthful rage and furious heat,

Who on king Charles', the Roman emperor's head

Had vowed due vengeance for Troyano dead.

II

In the same strain of Roland will I tell

Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme,

On whom strange madness and rank fury fell,

A man esteemed so wise in former time;

If she, who to like cruel pass has well

Nigh brought my feeble wit which fain would climb

And hourly wastes my sense, concede me skill

And strength my daring promise to fulfil.

III

Good seed of Hercules, give ear and deign,

Thou that this age's grace and splendour art,

Hippolitus, to smile upon his pain

Who tenders what he has with humble heart.

For though all hope to quit the score were vain,

My pen and pages may pay the debt in part;

Then, with no jealous eye my offering scan,

Nor scorn my gifts who give thee all I can.

IV

And me, amid the worthiest shalt thou hear,

Whom I with fitting praise prepare to grace,

Record the good Rogero, valiant peer,

The ancient root of thine illustrious race.

Of him, if thou wilt lend a willing ear,

The worth and warlike feats I shall retrace;

So thou thy graver cares some little time

Postponing, lend thy leisure to my rhyme.

V

Roland, who long the lady of Catay,

Angelica, had loved, and with his brand

Raised countless trophies to that damsel gay,

In India, Median, and Tartarian land,

Westward with her had measured back his way;

Where, nigh the Pyrenees, with many a band

Of Germany and France, King Charlemagne

Had camped his faithful host upon the plain.

VI

To make King Agramant, for penance, smite

His cheek, and rash Marsilius rue the hour;

This, when all trained with lance and sword to fight,

He led from Africa to swell his power;

That other when he pushed, in fell despite,

Against the realm of France Spain's martial flower.

'Twas thus Orlando came where Charles was tented

In evil hour, and soon the deed repented.

VII

For here was seized his dame of peerless charms,

(How often human judgment wanders wide)!

Whom in long warfare he had kept from harms,

From western climes to eastern shores her guide

In his own land, 'mid friends and kindred arms,

Now without contest severed from his side.

Fearing the mischief kindled by her eyes,

From him the prudent emperor reft the prize.

VIII

For bold Orlando and his cousin, free

Rinaldo, late contended for the maid,

Enamored of that beauty rare; since she

Alike the glowing breast of either swayed.

But Charles, who little liked such rivalry,

And drew an omen thence of feebler aid,

To abate the cause of quarrel, seized the fair,

And placed her in Bavarian Namus' care.

IX

Vowing with her the warrior to content,

Who in that conflict, on that fatal day,

With his good hand most gainful succour lent,

And slew most paynims in the martial fray.

But counter to his hopes the battle went,

And his thinned squadrons fled in disarray;

Namus, with other Christian captains taken,

And his pavilion in the rout forsaken.

X

There, lodged by Charles, that gentle bonnibel,

Ordained to be the valiant victor's meed,

Before the event had sprung into her sell,

And from the combat turned in time of need;

Presaging wisely Fortune would rebel

That fatal day against the Christian creed:

And, entering a thick wood, discovered near,

In a close path, a horseless cavalier.

XI

With shield upon his arm, in knightly wise,

Belted and mailed, his helmet on his head;

The knight more lightly through the forest hies

Than half-clothed churl to win the cloth of red.

But not from cruel snake more swiftly flies

The timid shepherdess, with startled tread,

Than poor Angelica the bridle turns

When she the approaching knight on foot discerns.

XII

This was that Paladin, good Aymon's seed,

Who Mount Albano had in his command;

And late Baiardo lost, his gallant steed,

Escaped by strange adventure from his hand.

As soon as seen, the ma...

Table of contents

• INTRODUCTION:
• —DBK
• CANTO 1
• CANTO 2
• CANTO 3
• CANTO 4
• CANTO 5
• CANTO 6
• CANTO 7
• CANTO 8
• CANTO 9
• CANTO 10
• CANTO 11
• CANTO 12
• CANTO 13
• CANTO 14
• CANTO 15
• CANTO 16
• CANTO 17
• CANTO 18
• CANTO 19
• CANTO 20
• CANTO 21
• CANTO 22
• CANTO 23
• CANTO 24
• CANTO 25
• CANTO 26
• CANTO 27
• CANTO 28
• CANTO 29
• CANTO 30
• CANTO 31
• CANTO 32
• CANTO 33
• CANTO 34
• CANTO 35
• CANTO 36
• CANTO 37
• CANTO 38
• CANTO 39
• CANTO 40
• CANTO 41
• CANTO 42
• CANTO 43
• CANTO 44
• CANTO 45
• CANTO 46
• Copyright