ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the translations of Sir John Harington. Since its first appearance in 1591, Sir John Harington's translation of Ludovico Ariosto's masterpiece, Orlando Furioso, in 'English Heroical Verse', has divided readers and critics as to its quality. The chapter expresses the study of Harington's translation both in itself, and as a key to a better understanding of the poetics of sixteenth-century translation. To understand the significance of the English Furioso in the context of late sixteenth-century translation theory and practice, Harington's deviations from his original ought to be classified according to the reasons which produced them, rather than to their immediate literary consequences. Accordingly, Harington's alterations is classified along three lines: first, the changes he made in order to 'demonstrate' that the Furioso was an epic poem; secondly, the way he tried to turn, at least in part, Ariosto's work into his own; and thirdly, the alterations, conscious or not, which made Ariosto's work acceptable as English courtly poetry.
