Ginevra, condemned to be burned to death for unchastity, is balanced by Ricciardetto, condemned to be burned to death for sleeping with the daughter of the king of Spain. Rinaldo rescues Ginevra, Ruggiero rescues Ricciardetto; later they are brought face to face in combat. The siege of Paris is balanced by the siege of Biserta. Alessandretta, the city of men-hating women, is balanced by the kingdom of Marganorre,

the woman-hater, and Marfisa plays a part in destroying them both. Orlando throws the cannon of Cimosco into the North Sea; Ruggiero, with a comparable concern for the ideals of chivalry, throws his magic shield into a well. The tone of burlesque in Orlando’s combat with Mandricardo when they fight with sticks and fists is echoed when Bradamante and Marfisa also are reduced to fisticuffs. Characters, as well as episodes, are balanced and paired, or joined by kinship. Rinaldo and Orlando, who are cousins, both love Angelica; both are cured. Bradamante has a twin brother; Ruggiero has a twin sister. All through the poem, such doublets and correspondences, sometimes in immediate vicinity, sometimes occurring at a distance, serve to stitch the material together.

PATTERNS OF TOTALITY

It is evident from his choice of episodes that Ariosto desired to present a complete range of the three main subjects of his poem: war, chivalry and love. Chivalry, or the lack of it, is manifested from the extreme treachery of the Maganzans to the heroic self-sacrifice of Leone and Ruggiero, rivals at first for Bradamante’s hand, later outvying each other in mutual courtesy. His tone varies appropriately to suit the different aspects of war, from rumbustious zest to elegiac pathos and epic solemnity. It is to be noted, however, that only with reference to the Carolingian battles does he adopt the humorous or exaggerated style of the cantastorie; his allusions to contemporary war are always grave. The range of the erotic episodes, too, is comprehensive: love with honour, fidelity, infidelity, infatuation, obsessional desire, primitive lust, multiple sex, homosexuality, depravity, transvestism, voyeurism, cruelty, bawdy innuendoes and frank voluptuousness. Ariosto associates himself with the irrationality of love and counsels against surrender to extreme emotions. He is particularly good on the theme of jealousy and on the anguish of lovers separated by war or death. The laments of Bradamante while she is waiting for Ruggiero to arrive at Montalbano are among the most tender and imaginative of his stanzas. In many ways such set pieces seem to anticipate the appeal of an operatic aria.

Ariosto not only warns against extreme emotions: he also conveys disapproval of extreme demands and expectations. The end of the story of Fiammetta (Canto XXVIII ) is a splendid instance of humour and good sense triumphing over an arbitrary refusal to accept reality: the picture of the two duped men falling back helpless with laughter on the bed, tears of merriment running down their faces, is like a gust of sanity. It is followed by the moderate, balanced observations on marital fidelity by an elderly man at the inn, to whom no one pays any attention, least of all Rodomonte, sunk in his injured self-esteem. Ariosto’s own experience of love was not always joyful, if we are to take his asides on this matter at their face value.1 Perhaps his most convincing self-portrait is to be found in the opening stanzas of Canto xxxv where, having shown that the wits of lovers are on the moon, he asks who will ascend there in search of his. Then, returning from this flight of fancy, he indicates the source of his own equilibrium: solace in his Alessandra’s arms.

It can be seen that the patterns of balance and the patterns of totality are aspects of one another. The poem swings like a pendulum across an arc, of which the extremes and the segments are thus brought into an increasingly emphasized relationship; or it may be thought of as describing a full circle, coming to a position of rest only when fulfilment is reached in the marriage between Bradamante and Ruggiero and in the conclusion of the conflict, with its epilogue of the death of Rodomonte.

PATTERNS OF INTRICACY RESOLVED

This category is proclaimed by Ariosto from the first stanza of the first canto. The poem is to be about love, war and chivalry, and about their interactions one upon the other. This promise is maintained. Not only is the action of the war continually interrupted by chivalrous adventures and by amorous entanglements, but war, chivalry and love become intricately intertwined.

The most elaborate instance is to be seen in the fortunes of Bradamante and Ruggiero. Having pledged their love and vowed to meet at Vallombrosa, where Ruggiero is to be baptized, they are separated by a series of events relating to the war. Ruggiero, gravely wounded in combat with Mandricardo, is unable to join Bradamante at Montalbano as he had promised. News reaches her that Marfisa is tending him in his convalescence and, tormented by jealousy, she resolves to challenge him to a joust. When the moment comes, she is unable to strike him.