Of Women, Knights, Arms, and Love: The Querelle des Femmes in Ariosto's Poem

Abstract

The Orlando Furzoso, most famed for its buoyant exposition of fabulous adventures, sustains a constant dialogue with important social concerns of the sixteenth century. Both the narrative events developed in the poem and moral arguments made by Ariosto's characters function as vehicles for the poet's meditations on life in an increasingly complex world. In still another register, the poem's narrator directly addresses the reader in order to draw explicit attention to the topical relevance of the Furzoso's chivalric adventures. This didactic voice, most evident in the proems to the Furioso's individual cantos (but not confined to them), encouraged Ariosto's contemporary readers not simply to reflect on current moral values, but also to evaluate political and social situations affecting the world they lived in.'