Introduction

When Boiardo opens his Orlando Innamorato with the shocking news that King Carlo's most dutiful paladin accomplished “stupendous feats” and “amazing labours” while under the influence of love, he warns readers not to be surprised to hear about Orlando in love since “no strong arm, no audacity, / no blade well-honed, no shield or mail, / no other power can avail, / for in the end Love conquers all” (OI 1.1.1–2). Orlando's infatuation leads him to forsake his duty not only to the emperor, but also to his wife Alda (his fiancée Aude in the French tradition) and to Christendom as a whole in a vain attempt to win over the wily princess of Cathay.

Yet an even more extreme fate befalls the paladin in the Orlando Furioso. In picking up the narrative threads of the poem that Boiardo left unfinished at his death in 1494, Ariosto famously announces his intention to tell something never before related in prose or verse: the hero's descent into madness because of love (OF 1.2). And the poet indeed makes good on his promise about midway through the poem. Upon learning about Angelica's love affair with the North African footsoldier Medoro, Orlando literally goes insane with jealousy. In losing his rational faculties, he also leaves behind his identity as a Frankish paladin and his very humanity in the process (OF 23.100–36).

One might expect that the play staging Orlando's madness, one of the most iconic episodes in both Italian literary history and Sicilian puppet theater, would take up most of the evening's action. In sera 198, however, Orlando's loss of his sanity is concentrated in the four scenes that conclude the play (Act 2, scene 6, and the three scenes of Act 3). Agrippino prepares for this climactic moment by interweaving the vicissitudes of other enamored characters: (1) Bradamante longing for her beloved Ruggiero; (2) Rinaldo seeking to challenge Orlando over Angelica; (3) the star-crossed lovers Isabella and Zerbino reuniting; and (4) Rodomonte pursuing Mandricardo for having abducted his beloved Doralice.