ABSTRACT
Selene Scarsi traces the fortune of Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso through the earliest, partial rendition of selected episodes and Harington’s first translation of the entire text. The chapter examines the appropriation of the Ginevra and Bradamante episode from the Furioso, which is also a remote source for Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, in Beverley’s, Whetstone’s, and Spenser’s different adaptations. Unlike the earliest two renditions, Spenser’s version is much condensed and focuses on the celebration of temperance. Ariosto’s story is reduced to its barest essentials in the direction of a consistent stress on the negative effects and passions of intemperance. In so doing, Spenser displays an intimate knowledge of Ariosto’s poem, being “able to interpret, modify, intertwine, and elaborate on episodes, characters, passages as he feels appropriate to what and whom he is writing”. The chapter concludes with a skilful synthesis of Harington’s misogynistic changes in his complete translation of the Furioso.
