Orlando furioso is an Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was not published in its complete form until 1532. Orlando Furioso is a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's unfinished romance Orlando Innamorato . In its historical setting and characters, it shares some features with the Old French Chanson de Roland of the eleventh century, which tells of the death of Roland. The story is also a chivalric romance which stemmed from a tradition beginning in the late Middle Ages and continuing in popularity in the 16th century and well into the 17th.
“[As] a man, whether he stay or flee,
Cannot evade his hour of destiny.”
Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso
Come l'uom né per star né per fuggire,
Al suo fisso destin può contradire.
Canto XXVII, stanza 26 (tr. B. Reynolds)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
“For what in all the world is left to her
Whose chastity is lost?”
Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso
Ch'aver può donna al mondo più di buono,
A cui la castità levata sia?
Canto VIII, stanza 42 (tr. B. Reynolds)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
“Nature inclines to ill, through all her range,
And use is second nature, hard to change.”
Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso
Natura inchina al male, e viene a farsi
L'abito poi difficile a mutarsi.
Canto XXXVI, stanza 1 (tr. W. S. Rose)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
“Driven raving mad by love—and he a man who had been always esteemed for his great prudence.”
Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso
Che per amor venne in furore e matto,
d'huom che si saggio era stimato prima.
Canto I, stanza 2 (tr. Guido Waldman); of Orlando.
Orlando Furioso (1532)
“Falling from the pan
Into the fire beneath.”
Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso
Canto XIII, stanza 30 (tr. W. S. Rose)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
“Who seems most hideous when adorned the most.”
Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso
Che quant' era più ornata, era più brutta.
Canto XX, stanza 116 (tr. W. S. Rose)
Compare:
Beauty when most unclothed is clothed best.
Phineas Fletcher, Sicelides (1614), Act II, scene iv
In naked beauty more adorned,
More lovely than Pandora.
John Milton, Paradise Lost (1674), Book IV, line 713
For Loveliness
Needs not the foreign aid of ornament,
But is, when unadorned, adorned the most.
James Thomson, The Seasons, "Autumn" (1730), line 204
Orlando Furioso (1532)
Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso
L'amante, per aver quel che desia,
Senza guardar che Dio tutto ode e vede,
Aviluppa promesse e giuramenti,
Che tutti spargon poi per l'aria i venti.
Canto X, stanza 5 (tr. John Hoole)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
“Who laughs, as well will sometimes have to plain,
And find that Fortune will by fits rebel.”
Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso
Canto XXII, stanza 70 (tr. W. S. Rose)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
“For—good or bad—though from one mouth it flows,
Fame to a boundless torrent quickly grows.”
Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso
Che tosto o buona o ria che la fama esce
Fuor d'una bocca, in infinito cresce.
Canto XXXII, stanza 32 (tr. W. S. Rose)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
“For roses also blossom on the thorn,
And the fair lily springs from loathsome weed.”
Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso
Che de le spine ancor nascon le rose,
E d'una fetida erba nasce il giglio.
Canto XXVII, stanza 121 (tr. W. S. Rose)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
“In blaming others, fools their folly show,
And most attempt to speak when least they know.”
Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso
Il volgare ignorante ognun riprenda,
E parli più di quel che meno intenda.
Canto XXVIII, stanza 1 (tr. J. Hoole)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso
Sei giorni me n'andai matina e sera
Per balze e per pendici orride e strane,
Dove non via, dove sentier non era.
Canto II, stanza 41 (tr. William Stewart Rose)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
“But so secretive nobody can be
That someone does not notice finally.”
Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso
Canto XXII, stanza 39 (tr. B. Reynolds)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
“Fortune, who takes care of the insane.”
Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso
La Fortuna, che dei pazzi ha cura.
Canto XXX, stanza 15 (tr. B. Reynolds)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
“From voice to voice, from one to other ear,
The loud proclaim they through the town declare.”
Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso
Di voce in voce e d'una in altra orecchia
Il grido e 'l bando per la terra scorse.
Canto XXIII, stanza 48 (tr. W. S. Rose)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
“This too can be endured, though it is hard:
A lover in the end has his reward.”
Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso
Premio al ben servire
Pur viene al fin, se ben tarda a venire.
Canto XXXI, stanza 3 (tr. B. Reynolds)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
“To win was always deemed a splendid thing,
Whether it be by fortune or by skill.”
Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso
Fu il vincer sempremai laudabil cosa,
Vincasi o per fortuna o per ingegno.
Canto XV, stanza 1 (tr. B. Reynolds)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
“The brave can death despise,
And dies contented, if with fame he dies.”
Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso
Un magnanimo cor morte non prezza,
Presta o tarda che sia, pur che ben muora.
Canto XVII, stanza 15 (tr. W. S. Rose)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
“Nature broke the mould
In which she cast him.”
Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso
Natura il fece, e poi roppe la stampa.
Canto X, stanza 84 (tr. W. S. Rose)
Variant translation: Nature made him, and then broke the mould.
Compare: "I think Nature hath lost the mould / Where she her shape did take; / Or else I doubt if Nature could / So fair a creature make." A Praise of his Lady, in Tottel's Miscellany (1557). Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey wrote similar lines, in A Praise of his Love (before 1547). Compare also: "Sighing that Nature formed but one such man, / And broke the die—in moulding Sheridan." Lord Byron, Monody on the Death of the Rt. Hon. R. B. Sheridan, line 117. As reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations (1922).
Orlando Furioso (1532)
“Of ladies, knights, of passions and of wars,
of courtliness, and of valiant deeds I sing.”
Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso
Le donne i cavallier, l'arme, gli amori,
Le cortesie, l'audaci imprese io canto.
Canto I, stanza 1 (tr. David R. Slavitt)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
