Orlando Furioso

Orlando Furioso

By Ludovico Ariosto.

Translated by William Stewart Rose.

Table of Contents

1. Titlepage
2. Imprint
3. To Sir Walter Scott, of Abbotsford, Bart.
4. Introduction
5. Orlando Furioso
   1. Canto I
   2. Canto II
   3. Canto III
   4. Canto IV
   5. Canto V
   6. Canto VI
   7. Canto VII
   8. Canto VIII
   9. Canto IX
   10. Canto X
   11. Canto XI
   12. Canto XII
   13. Canto XIII
   14. Canto XIV
   15. Canto XV
   16. Canto XVI
   17. Canto XVII
   18. Canto XVIII
   19. Canto XIX
   20. Canto XX
   21. Canto XXI
   22. Canto XXII
   23. Canto XXIII
   24. Canto XXIV
   25. Canto XXV
   26. Canto XXVI
   27. Canto XXVII
   28. Canto XXVIII
   29. Canto XXIX
   30. Canto XXX
   31. Canto XXXI
   32. Canto XXXII
   33. Canto XXXIII
   34. Canto XXXIV
   35. Canto XXXV
   36. Canto XXXVI
   37. Canto XXXVII
   38. Canto XXXVIII
   39. Canto XXXIX
   40. Canto XL
   41. Canto XLI
   42. Canto XLII
   43. Canto XLIII
   44. Canto XLIV
   45. Canto XLV
   46. Canto XLVI
6. Endnotes
7. Colophon
8. Uncopyright

Imprint

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To Sir Walter Scott, of Abbotsford, Bart.

Who persuaded me to resume the present work, which had been thrown aside, on the ground that such labour was its own reward.

Scott, for whom Fame a gorgeous garland weaves,
Who what was scattered to the wasting wind,
As grain too coarse to gather or to bind,
Bad’st me collect and gird in goodly sheaves;

If this poor seed hath formed its stalk and leaves,
Transplanted from a softer clime, and pined,
For lack of southern suns, in soils unkind,
Where Ceres or Italian Flora grieves;

And if some fruit, however dwindled, fill
The doubtful ear, though scant the crop and bare,
(Ah! how unlike the growth of Tuscan hill,
Where the glad harvest springs behind the share1)
Praise be to thee! who taught me that to till
Was sweet, however paid the peasant’s care.

William Stewart Rose.

Introduction

It will, probably, be expected that a new translation of the Furioso should be prefaced by some account of the versions which have preceded it; and I the more readily undertake this little task, as in the execution of it my reasons will be found for the enterprise upon which I have myself adventured.

The first version of Ariosto’s great poem was made by Sir John Harrington, the godson of Queen Elizabeth, who translated it into the same stanza as that of the original. The main defect of this work is its infidelity; and I cannot better illustrate this than by observing, that he has compressed a canto of nearly two hundred stanzas into ninety. A more unpardonable defect is, that he always omits what is best worth preserving; and, as an Italian friend once observed to me, it is the poetry of Ariosto which he sacrifices. Another defect of this translator is that of exaggerating the extravagances of his author, and often spreading a ray of humour into a broad glare of buffoonery.

The history of his work may explain these faults, and more especially the last; as we are told he began his labours with the story of Giocondo, without the intention of pursuing them further; when his royal mistress imposed upon him the entire version of the Furioso as a sort of covering for the indecent episode which he had chosen to give as a specimen of the Italian.

If, however, Harrington cannot pretend to much merit as a translator, he has some claims to consideration as a writer, and his work has fallen into more obscurity than the antiquated language in which he writes, will serve to explain. His idioms, his grammar, and his construction (though things with difficulty kept free from foreign modes of speech in a translation) are exclusively English. His narrative is light and lively, and, in perusing it, the reader always feels as if he is swimming with the stream.

The gleam of Italian sunshine, during which he wrote, though it produced beneficial effects upon our literature, was of short duration.

“At one stride came the dark.”2

The study of Italian letters was dropped at once, and I believe that no traces of literary intercourse between Italy and England are to be found during the succeeding age.

In the reign of George II, however, we have a proof of renewed intercourse in the publication of a new translation of the Furioso, dedicated to that monarch, as Harrington’s version had been to Queen Elizabeth. This work was produced by William Huggins, Esq., of Headly Park, near Farnham, in Surrey. He was, I am told, reckoned in his day a very learned man, was passionately devoted to music, said to be a great proficient in it, and to have been the person who figures in Hogarth’s picture,