Introduction

Although Roland/Orlando had an extensive literary history as the character passed from medieval France to Renaissance Italy, Agricane di Tartaria is, like Angelica and Gradasso, an invention of Boiardo. The great khan is imagined as another powerful ruler who covets a prize he cannot attain. Like those gathered in Paris for the opening joust, moreover, he too has fallen under the spell of the princess of Cathay:

Agricane's words and actions on the battlefield offer a complex portrait despite his single-minded focus. Unlike the would-be Arthurian lover Orlando who intends to “win” Angelica through valiant deeds on her behalf, Agricane is unrelenting in his goal to gain possession of the princess through military force. Nevertheless, he abides by an international code of chivalry that places honorable behavior above victory at all costs. Accordingly, he not only dismounts from his horse in order to fight an opponent without an unfair advantage (OI 1.11.22–23) but he also refuses to conquer through treachery when offered the opportunity (OI 1.14.55).

Agricane's battle against Orlando near the fortress of Albraca is not only one of the Innamorato episodes most commonly included in Italian literature anthologies, but it also continues to be prominent in contemporary Sicilian puppet theater.3 The episode stands out not so much for the martial combat, but rather because of the philosophical dialogue between the two opponents as they lie down next to each other under a starry night sky. In Agrippino's play, the battle between Agricane and Orlando extends across all three Acts and their famous conversation occupies most of Act 3.

Sera 165 also interweaves the exploits of another Eastern character invented by Boiardo—the indomitable female warrior Marfisa. In the Orlando Innamorato, she is both a queen and the greatest warrior in “all the East” who arrives in Albraca as an ally of Angelica's father Galafrone against Agricane (OI 1.16.28). She is not originally associated with any specific region, but in Niccolò degli Agostini's continuation of the poem (and subsequently in the Orlando Furioso, the Storia dei paladini, and Sicilian puppet theater) she is the twin sister of Ruggiero, an exemplary knight of mixed heritage designated by Boiardo to become the cofounder of the family dynasty of his patron, Ercole I d’Este (discussed in Chapter 7).