Introduction

Although Ariosto relays Orlando's loss of sanity in painstaking psychological detail, he later reveals that the paladin's affliction is nothing less than divine retribution. After Orlando has spent three months wandering aimlessly and wreaking havoc wherever he goes, the period of punishment is over and God enlists Astolfo to restore his cousin's sanity. The English knight had already been a world traveler in the Innamorato, departing from Paris (discussed in Chapter 4) and reaching Cathay on horseback, then continuing on a circuitous route to the most disparate corners of the globe. In the Furioso, he travels not only by land and sea, but also by air, first upon a hippogriff that takes him to Africa, the entrance of hell, and the terrestrial paradise, and subsequently in a divine chariot that transports him to the moon where he will retrieve Orlando's wits.

Astolfo's aerial adventures constitute the core of sera 203. He appears in Act 1 descending from the sky on the hippogriff as he arrives in Nubia (Ethiopia), and he finds himself on the lunar surface by the final scene of Act 3. His divinely orchestrated mission to retrieve Orlando's wits, however, is not the exclusive focus of the play. His adventures are interwoven with additional narrative threads that revolve around the theme of the quest: (1) Bradamante finally decides to leave her family home in Montalbano to seek out Ruggiero; (2) the knights Sansonetto and Oliviero are intent on searching for Orlando; and (3) Rinaldo, although not mentioned in the summary, appears in one scene aiming to recover his horse Baiardo from Gradasso. Whereas Astolfo, following God's design, will succeed in restoring Orlando's sanity without having knowingly set out to do so, his peers are not as fortunate: Bradamante's reunion with Ruggiero will be obstructed and delayed until much later; Orlando's two friends Sansonetto and Oliviero are challenged, defeated, and imprisoned by Rodomonte; and Rinaldo simply wanders in vain. The juxtaposition of these various storylines in the play creates a contrast between the utter efficacy of divine intervention and the inherent difficulties of human undertakings.