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Ariosto, the Orlando Furioso and English Culture

Online ISBN:
9780191884221
Print ISBN:
9780197266502
Publisher:
British Academy
Book

Ariosto, the Orlando Furioso and English Culture

Jane E. Everson (ed.),
Jane E. Everson
(ed.)

Emeritus Professor of Italian Literature

Emeritus Professor of Italian Literature, Royal Holloway University of London
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Andrew Hiscock (ed.),
Andrew Hiscock
(ed.)

Professor of Early Modern Literature

Professor of Early Modern Literature, Bangor University of Wales
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Stefano Jossa (ed.)
Stefano Jossa
(ed.)

Reader in Italian

Reader in Italian, Royal Holloway University of London
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Published online:
19 September 2019
Published in print:
31 January 2019
Online ISBN:
9780191884221
Print ISBN:
9780197266502
Publisher:
British Academy

Abstract

The volume assesses the changing impact on English culture over 500 years of Ariosto’s poem, the Orlando Furioso, first published in Italy in 1516, and subsequently in an expanded version in 1532. Individual chapters address the recurring presence of Ariosto’s poem in English literature, but also the multimedial nature of the transmission of the Furioso into English culture: through the visual arts, theatre, music and spectacle to video games and the internet, as well as through often heated critical debates. The introduction provides an overview of the history of criticism and interpretation of the Furioso in England. Within the four main sections – entitled: Before reading – the image; From the Elizabethans to the Enlightenment; Gothic and Romantic Ariosto; Text and translation in the modern era – individual studies explore key moments in the reception of the poem into English culture: the adaptation and translation of the poem among the Elizabethans; Milton’s detailed appreciation of the work; and the ambivalent attitudes of eighteenth-century writers and critics; the influence of illustrations to the poem; and its transformation into opera for the English stage. Emphasis is also placed on: the dynamic responses of Romantic writers to Ariosto; the crucial work of editors and translators in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; and the stimulating adaptations and rewritings by modern authors. The volume concludes with a comprehensive bibliography.

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