A collection of critical essays from John Addington Symonds's multi-volume study of the Italian Renaissance, devoted to Italian literature. This second part considers poets and works such as Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, exploring romance, irony, and the culture of the Cinquecento. It is worth hearing for its wide-ranging, readable survey of Renaissance literary life.
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Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
CONTENTS INDEX RENAISSANCE IN ITALY ITALIAN LITERATURE In Two Parts BY JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS Author of "Studies of the Greek Poets," "Sketches in Italy and Greece," etc. "Italia, sepoltura De' lumi suoi, d'esterni candeliere" Campanella: Poesie Filosofiche. PART II colophon NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1888
CONTENTS OF THE SECOND PART. PAGE CHAPTER IX. THE ORLANDO FURIOSO. Orlando Furioso and Divina Commedia—Ariosto expresses the Renaissance as Dante the Middle Ages—Definition of Romantic, Heroic, Burlesque, Heroic-comic, and Satiric Poems—Ariosto's Bias toward Romance—Sense of Beauty in the Cinque Cento—Choice of Boiardo's unfinished Theme—The Propriety of this Choice— Ariosto's Irony and Humor—The Subject of the Furioso— Siege of Paris—Orlando's Madness—Loves of Ruggiero and Bradamante—Flattery of the House of Este—The World of Chivalry—Ariosto's Delight in the Creatures of his Fancy—Close Structure of the Poem—Exaggeration of Motives—Power of Picture-painting—Faculty of Vision—Minute Description—Rhetorical Amplification— Rapidity of Movement—Solidity—Nicety of Ethical Analysis—The Introductions to the Cantos—Episodes and Novelle—Imitations of the Classics—Power of Appropriation and Transmutation—Irony—Astolfo's Journey to the Moon—Ariosto's Portrait—S. Michael in the Monastery—The Cave of Sleep—Humor—Pathos and Sublimity—Olimpia and Bireno—Conception of Female Character—The Heroines—Passion and Love—Ariosto's Morality—His Style—The Epithet of Divine—Exquisite Finish—Ariosto and Tasso—Little Landscape-Painting— Similes—Realism—Adaptation of Homeric Images— Ariosto's Relation to his Age 1
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