ABSTRACT
Both the format of the volume and its critical commentary are influenced by Italian models, although Harington throughout attempted to adapt them to an English audience’s particular interests, often by substituting English for Italian exempla and anecdotes. For the format’s chief elements, though not for their arrangement, Harington relied mainly on the Venice text of 1584 annotated by Ruscelli, with its scholarly apparatus: ‘arguments’ and annotations for each canto, an advertisement to the reader, various essays, a life of Ariosto, and an index of names and places. Especially important is the ‘Preface or rather, a Briefe Apologie of Poetrie,’ in which Harington claims an elevated role for the epic poet similar to Spenser’s: ‘I beleeve that the reading of a good Heroicall Poeme may make a man both wiser and honester.’ In order to demonstrate that the epic is essentially allegorical and hence not frivolous, Harington appends a four-part interpretation to the end of each canto. This includes, first, ‘The Morall,’ involving some fairly primitive and platitudinous moralizing ‘approving vertuous actions and condemning the contrarie’; second, ‘The Historie,’ an explication of actual historical elements underlying the romance narrative; third, ‘Allegorie,’ differing from ‘The Morall’ in attempting more complex and sophisticated interpretation on a relatively more continuous level; and (rather more rarely) ‘Allusion,’ which identifies the occasional elements of classical mythology to which Ariosto refers.
