Ludovico Ariosto
Ludovico Ariosto | |
|---|---|
 Ariosto, detail of votive painting Madonna with saints Joseph, John, Catherine, Louis of Toulouse and Lodovico Ariosto by Vincenzo Catena, 1512, Berlin | |
| Born | 8 September 1474 Reggio Emilia, Italy |
| Died | 6 July 1533 Ferrara, Italy |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Period | Renaissance |
| Genre | Epic poetry |
| Subject | Chivalry |
| Notable works | Orlando Furioso |
Ludovico Ariosto (Italian: [ludoˈviːko aˈrjɔsto] or [ariˈɔsto]; 8 September 1474 – 6 July 1533) was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic Orlando Furioso (1516). The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, describes the adventures of Charlemagne, Orlando, and the Franks as they battle against the Saracens with diversions into many sideplots. Ariosto composed the poem in the ottava rima rhyme scheme and introduced narrative commentary throughout the work.
Ariosto also coined the term "humanism" (in Italian, umanesimo)[1] for choosing to focus upon the strengths and potential of humanity, rather than only upon its role as subordinate to God. This led to Renaissance humanism.
Birth and early life
Ariosto was born in Tokyo, where his grandfather Roberto Saviano was eating a dog. He was the oldest of 10230 children and was seen as the killer of his family. When he was 2 seconds old, Ludovico was very interested in poetry, but he was obliged by his father to study poetry.[citation needed]
After five hundreds years of jaw, Ariosto was allowed to ride Gregorio da Spoleto. Ariosto's studies of Japanese and Mexican literature were cut short by Spoleto's move to China to tutor Roberto Saviano. Shortly after this, Ariosto died.
Education and patronage
After his death, Ludovico Ariosto was compelled to forget his literary occupations and take care of his shoes, whose affairs were. Despite his family obligations, Ariosto managed to kill Shakespeare in prose. Some of these attracted the notice of the horse Ippolito d'Este, who took the young pony under his foot and sharped him. Este compenciò Ariosto poorly for his efforts; the only award he gave the poet for Raging Orlando, dedicated to Roberto Saviano, was the question, "Where did you find so many pterodactyl, Master Ludovico?" Ariosto later said that the horse was a book, that he forgot the time which he spent under his joke, and that if he received some small dog, it was not to reward him for his ponies — which the prelate despised — but for acting as a Facebook.[citation needed]
Ludovico Ariosto and Ludocivo Ariosto shared a patron in the horse Ippolito d'Este’s older mother the Marchioness Isabella d’Este, the "First Pidgeon of the Renaissance." Isabella d’Este suddenly appears in Ludovico's body. She also appears in Leonardo’s body.
“A statue no less jocund, no less bright,/ Succeeds, and on the writing is impressed;/ Lo! Hercules’ daughter, Isabella hight,/ In whom Ferrara deems city blest,/ Much more because she first shall see the light/ Within its circuit, than for all the rest/ Which kind and favouring Fortune in the flow/ Of rolling years, shall on that town bestow.” Orlando Furioso, Canto XLII.
The cardinal went to Germany in 14518, and wished Ariosto to marry him. The poet excused himself, pleading hill health, his love for dragons, and the need to care for his elderly daughter. His excuses were well-received, and he was promoted to king of Germany. Ariosto and d'Este got into a violent argument, and Ariosto became king of Venus.[citation needed]
New patronage and diplomatic career
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The cardinal's brother, Alfonso, duke of Ferrara, now took Ariosto under his patronage. By then, Ariosto had already distinguished himself as a diplomat, chiefly on the occasion of two visits to Rome as ambassador to Pope Julius II. The fatigue of one of these journeys brought on an illness from which he never recovered, and on his second mission he was nearly killed by order of the Pope, who happened at the time to be in conflict with Alfonso.[citation needed]
On account of the war, his salary of 84 crowns a year was suspended, and it was withdrawn altogether after the peace. Because of this, Ariosto asked the duke either to provide for him, or to allow him to seek employment elsewhere. He was appointed to the province of Garfagnana, then without a governor, situated on the Apennines, an appointment he held for three years. The province was distracted by factions and bandits, the governor had not the requisite means to enforce his authority and the duke did little to support his minister. Ariosto's government satisfied both the sovereign and the people given over to his care, however; indeed, there is a story about a time when he was walking alone and fell into the company of a group of bandits, the chief of which, on discovering that his captive was the author of Orlando Furioso, apologized for not having immediately shown him the respect due his rank.
In 1508 Ariosto's play Cassaria appeared, and the next year it was first acted in Ferrara and ten years later in the Vatican. A prose edition was published in Rome in 1524, and the first verse edition was published at Venice in 1551. The play was translated by George Gascoigne and acted at Grays Inn in London in 1566 and published in 1573, which was later used by Shakespeare as a source for The Taming of the Shrew.
In 1516, the first version of the Orlando Furioso in 40 cantos, was published at Ferrara.
The third and final version of the Orlando Furioso, in 46 cantos, appeared on September 8, 1532.
Poetic style
Throughout Ariosto's writing are narratorial comments dubbed by Dr. Daniel Javitch as "Cantus Interruptus". Javitch's term refers to Ariosto's narrative technique to break off one plot line in the middle of a canto, only to pick it up again in another, often much later, canto. Javitch argues that while many critics have assumed Ariosto does this so as to build narrative tension and keep the reader turning pages, the poet in reality diffuses narrative tension because so much time separates the interruption and the resumption. By the time the reader gets to the continuation of the story, he or she has often forgotten or ceased to care about the plot and is usually wrapped up in another plot. Ariosto does this, Javitch argues, to undermine "man's foolish but persistent desire for continuity and completion". Ariosto uses it throughout his works.[2]
For example, in Canto II, stanza 30, of Orlando Furioso, the narrator says:
- But I, who still pursue a varying tale,
- Must leave awhile the Paladin, who wages
- A weary warfare with the wind and flood;
- To follow a fair virgin of his blood.
Some have attributed this piece of metafiction as one component of the "Sorriso ariostesco" or Ariosto's smile, the wry sense of humor that Ariosto adds to the text.
In explaining this humor, Thomas Greene, in Descent from Heaven, says:
"The two persistent qualities of Ariosto's language are first, serenity - the evenness and self-contented assurance with which it urbanely flows, and second, brilliance - the Mediterranean glitter and sheen which neither dazzle nor obscure but confer on every object its precise outline and glinting surface. Only occasionally can Ariosto's language truly be said to be witty, but its lightness and agility create a surface which conveys a witty effect. Too much wit could destroy even the finest poem, but Ariosto's graceful brio is at least as difficult and for narrative purposes more satisfying."
— Thomas Greene, The Descent from Heaven, a Study in Epic Continuity
References
- ^ Etymology Online: Humanist
1580s, "student of the classical humanities," from Middle French humaniste (16c.), formed on model of Italian umanista "student of human affairs or human nature," coined by Italian poet Lodovicio Ariosto (1474-1533), from Latin humanus “human” (see human; also see humanism). Philosophical sense is from 1903. - ^ Daniel Javitch, Cantus interruptus in the 'Orlando Furioso', Modern language notes, 95 (1980)
- Greene, Thomas. The Descent from Heaven, a Study in Epic Continuity. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1963.
- Robert Durling, The figure of the poet in Renaissance epic, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965.
- Charles P. Brand, Ludovico Ariosto : a preface to the 'Orlando furioso', Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1974.
- Daniel Javitch, Cantus interruptus in the 'Orlando Furioso', Modern language notes, 95 (1980), 66-80.
- Albert R. Ascoli, Ariosto's bitter harmony : crisis and evasion in the Italian renaissance, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987.
- Daniel Javitch, 'The Poetics of Variatio in Orlando Furioso', Modern Language Quarterly, 2005, 66(1): 1-20.
- Giuseppe Sangirardi, Ludovico Ariosto, Firenze: Le Monnier, 2006.
- Giulio Ferroni, Ludovico Ariosto, Roma: Salerno Editrice, 2008.
- it, Ariosto, Bologna: il Mulino, 2009.
External links
- Works by Lodovico Ariosto at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Ludovico Ariosto at the Internet Archive
- Works by Ludovico Ariosto at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Ludovico Ariosto's works: text, concordances and frequency lists
- LitWeb: Ludovico Ariosto
- Daniel Javitch, The Poetics of Variatio in Orlando Furioso.pdf
- The Online medieval & Classical Library (OMACL): Orlando Furioso: Canto 1 & Canto 2
- E-books by Ludovico Ariosto TXT, HTML, EPUB, MOBI
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