Snarky and classical, always slyly poking fun at and praising himself. #meta before it was cool. ( )

Reynold's is one of the classic English translations: I may not have been the only person to have noticed how much the poetry improves in the last half of _Paradiso_ in the Dorothy Sayers translation. This is because Sayers died before completing the last of her translation of the _Divina Commedia_, and her devoted friend and admirer Barbara Reynolds took over. But where Sayers had been technically impressive in matching Dante's terza rima, but pedestrian in the poetry, at the point where (as I guess) Reynolds takes over a new lightness of touch and poetic feel for the language makes itself felt. This Ariosto translation is Reynolds' great achievement. Moreover it is one of the three or four greatest literary translations in English, an achievement to stand beside Dryden's _Aeniad_ and Fairfax's _Gerusalemma Liberata_. (On Pope's _Illiad_, which I'm currently reading, I tend to agree with the contemporary reviewer who commented, "A very pretty poem, Mr Pope, but you must not call it Homer".) She captures Ariosto's wit and lightness, occasionally turning in closing couplets for her stanzas that are as sharp as Byron's in _Don Juan_ (who was in turn also using Ariosto - among others - as a model), but also following Ariosto in allowing the sense to flow from stanza to stanza in a quite un-Byronic way. As well, she manages to transmit Ariosto's graver passages in equally dignified verse, for example some of the set pieces imitated (by Ariosto) from Homer. English readers tend to think of Ottava Rima as a vehicle for comic verse, but in Italian it is a model for epic. It's just that the great Italian epic tradition, unlike the English epic tradition before Byron's great anti-epic, includes humour. As for Ariosto, he is a great poet and story-teller, and (not exactly a literary judgment, this) his authorial "voice" is one whose company you cannot help enjoying. His humour, sometimes sly, is also warmly compassionate; sometimes satirical, sometimes splendidly and deliberately silly. Ariosto knows his flying horses, invisibility rings, sexy sorceresses and the rest are perfectly absurd, but manages to maintain the fantasy elements as wonderful and exciting, without ever undercutting them with mere cynicism or bathos. But most often the humour is warm and character-based. His story has an astonishing range of characters, the Moorish warriors and their lovers depicted as fairly and favourably as his Christian protegonists, and an astonish sweep, all over Europe and the East, with digressions to the Moon and other enchanted places. Another feature of Ariosto is his feminism, which shows in his warrior women, who give and take in battle every bit as well as the men. He also tellingly mocks some of the anti-feminist aspects of chivalry, as in the scene where one of Ariosto's heroes is called upon to champion in a trial by combat a woman who has been accused of unchastity. The hero readily agrees to defend the woman's honour, but only after observing that he would as readily defend her if she were unchaste, as in his view (clearly also Ariosto's) women have a right to make love without being condemned for it. Two last observations. First, I believe that this poem, and not Dante's, is the great Italian epic, superior to Dante for the same reason that Shakespeare is superior to Racine, or Byron's English epic is superior to Milton's or even Spencer's. Dante offers moral allegory (though with a thoroughly repellant worldview), and Ariosto's failure to preach has sometimes been taken as a sign of lack of depth or seriousness. But the great epics are about humanity, not allegory (though I have seen attempts to allegorise Homer, none have done so convincingly); and Ariosto presents one of the widest and greatest human canvases of all epic. It is the most readable long poem since the _Odyssey_. Yes. Second, Amazon has linked this translation to another, a prose translation. I haven't read the prose translation, but I would observe that _Orlando Furioso_ is a poem. To render it as something else is to lose its structure, its purpose and its very nature. To present a prose translation of this poem as a genuine "version of Ariosto" is a bit like presenting Beethoven's Ninth symphony by playing an arrangement for kazoo: some of Beethoven will come through in a kazoo transcription, but you cannot call it the Ninth. Get the Reynolds; it is a great and easy _read_, and it is one of the glories of English poetic translation. Cheers! Laon

Orlando furioso (vol. 2)

Dopo la fuga di Angelica e i fatti del castello di Atlante, in cui Brandimarte ha appreso dal mago Merlino il proprio futuro e quello di Ruggiero, mentre Parigi è posta sotto assedio dal re dei Mori Agramante, continua l'elaborata serie di intrecci tra gli eroi e le eroine dell'Orlando furioso, che proprio alla fine del primo volume ha trovato la ragione al proprio titolo nella folle gelosia calata sul prode Orlando. Scoperto che la "sua" Angelica si è innamorata di un altro, Orlando perde il senno e mette in pericolo l'intero mondo cristiano, che senza la sua spada non può che soccombere all'invasione straniera. Ecco allora che il cugino Astolfo si muove per ritrovare il senno perduto, arrivando fino a scendere negli Inferi e a volare sulla Luna mentre sulla Terra infuria lo scontro, avviato verso una fine epica e gloriosa. La seconda parte, ancora più ricca di avventure e portenti, del poema più sfacciatamente divertente che sia mai stato scritto.

L'autore

Ludovico Ariosto nacque a Reggio Emilia nel 1474. Figlio di un funzionario di primo piano della corte estense, crebbe e compì i primi studi a Ferrara, città al tempo tra le più fiorenti e culturalmente vivaci d'Italia. Alla morte del padre dovette abbandonare gli studi e cercare un lavoro con cui mantenere la numerosa famiglia. Gli vennero incontro i duchi di Ferrara, i quali gli assegnarono una serie di incarichi ufficiali che lo impegnarono fino a quando, presi gli ordini minori, poté entrare al servizio del cardinale Ippolito d'Este, per il quale avrebbe lavorato fino al 1517. Governatore della Garfagnana dal 1522 al 1525, fece stabilmente ritorno a Ferrara per dedicarsi all'allestimento degli spettacoli di corte, impegno che lo accompagnò sino alla morte, avvenuta nel 1533. Oltre all'Orlando furioso (prima edizione 1516, terza e definitiva 1532), Ariosto compose le commedie La Cassaria (1508), I Suppositi (1518), I Studenti (1519), La Lena (1528) e Il Negromante (1529), una raccolta di Satire pubblicata postuma nel 1534 e una di Rime pubblicata nel 1546. ( )