[562] See the exordium to the second Book, where it appears that the gentle poet caressed a vain hope that the peace of Italy in the second half of the fifteenth century was destined to revive chivalry.
[563] See the opening of Book II. Canto xviii. where Boiardo compares the Courts of Arthur and of Charlemagne.
[564] The acute and learned critic Pio Rajna, whose two massive works of scholarlike research, I Reali di Francia (Bologna, 1872), and Le Fonti dell'Orlando Furioso (Firenze, 1876), have thrown a flood of light upon Chivalrous Romance literature in Italy, is at pains to prove that the Orlando Innamorato contains a vein of conscious humor. See Le Fonti, etc., pp. 24-27. I agree with him that Boiardo treated his subject playfully. But it must be remembered that he was far from wishing to indulge a secret sarcasm like Ariosto, or to make open fun of chivalry like Fortiguerra.
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Mentre che io canto, o Dio redentore, Vedo l'Italia tutta a fiamma e foco, Per questi Galli, che con gran valore Vengon, per disertar non so che loco. |
Compare II. xxxi. 50; III. i. 2.
[566] Orlando was not handsome (II. iii. 63):
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avea folte le ciglia, E l'un de gli occhi alquanto stralunava. |
[567] See his prayer, II. xxix. 36, 37.
[568] See the description of him in the tournament (I. ii. 63, iii. 4), when he saves the honor of Christendom to the surprise of everybody including himself. Again (I. vii. 45-65), when he defies and overthrows Gradasso, and liberates Charles from prison. The irony of both situations reveals a master's hand.