Ruggeriana -- d'Este -- Boiardo -- Ariosto -- Astyanax's real name was Skamandrios.

Speranza

Ruggero's genealogy was dwelt on by Boiardo (Orlando Innamorato, Canto III, v., stzs. 18 ff. Astianatte.

According to the usual classic account, Astyanax was hurled by the Greeks from the walls of Troy, so that he might not become the progenitor of another Trojan race.

The escape of Astyanax, related here, is told also by Boiardo, III, v. 20.

The legend according to which Astyanax becomes a colonizer of Sicily is probably a relatively recent elaboration of certain late Greek traditions to the effect that he survived to found a new Troy and even shared in the founding of Rome.

Cf. PaulyWissowa, Real-Sncydopadie der classischen Allertumswissinschaft, new ed., Stuttgart, 1896, s.v. Astyanax: "Nach spateren Sagen blieb er am Leben und griindete ein neues Troia und die Stadte Skepsis und Arisbe am Ida (Schol. Iliad, XXIV, 735; Strab., XIII, 607, . . .). Von zwei Sòhnen des Hektor, Oxynios und Skamandros, die nach Lydien gerettet wurden und nachher mit Aineias am Ida wohnten, berichtet auch Konon.

It is to be remembered that the real name of Astyanax was Skamandrios.

Nach Schol. und Tzetz. zu Lyc. 1226 war A. mit seinem Bruder Sapernios sogar an der Grundung Roms (!) beteiligt."

It may be added that there is a tradition of Trojan colonists in Sicily.

76.—2. padre, i.e.^ Troiano (cf. I, 1, v. 3, note): avo, i.e.,

Agolante. zio, i.e., Almonte.—3. Ruggiero, i.e.,

Ruggiero of Risa, the father- feron = fecero.
 

80. —5.

According to Boiardo (Orlando Inn., II, xxi, 52), Agramante dubbed Ruggiero knight.
 

81. —1. promesse = promise.—6. re di Tartaria, i.e.,

Mandncardo, by whom Ruggiero was seriously wounded in a duel before the latter slew him: cf. XXX, 66 ff.

Marfisa was then in the Saracen camp, and it was her attentions to Ruggiero (82, vv. 1-2; cf. XXXII, 34) that first excited Bradamante's jealousy.—

8. Lasciato, etc., i.e., left unable to move or take steps to leave Agramante.

83.—5. divisa, 'makes clear.'

Canto XXXVLI

5.—5. Almonte.

According to another view of Ariosto himself (XXX, 83, v. 1), it was Troiano, Agramante's father, who had slain Ruggiero's father.

In the earlier Italian account in the prose

Aspramonte, it was Almonte who did the deed.— 8. maggior, 'forebears.'
 

7. —1. Arli, 'Aries.'—4. parentado, i.e.,

their prospective relationship, in view of the hoped-for union of Ruggiero and Bradamante.

At the same time it should be noted that both Ruggiero's and Bradamante's houses were descended from the Trojans: cf. IlI, 17, and XXXVI, 70.

 

8. —6. Ricciardo. Perhaps Richard of Normandy, who figures in the Old French chansons: otherwise, he is some relative of Bradamante's.— 7.

Ricciardetto, the brother of Bradamante and Rinaldo.

10.—2. Turpino: cf. XIII, 40, v. 2, note.

22. —6. leggi, 'laws,' i.e., 'doctrines,' 'dogmas,' etc.

23. —2. arcivesco = arcivescovo: so also the shortened form vesco = vescovo is said to exist in certain parts of Tuscany.—4. le voi la: levare dal lavacro = tenere a battesimo, fare il compare.—6. ampolla, cf. XXXIV, 87. v. 1.—7. ciel più basso, i.e., the heaven or sphere or the Moon.

24. —2. altezza, i.e., the mountain on which was the Terrestrial Paradise.—4-8. The healing powers of this herb remind us of those of the fish-gall with which Tobias restored his father's sight (Book of Tobit, Chap. XI): cf. Rajna, p. 648, for the mention of other remedies, one of which is described by Herodotus as used by a king of the valley of the Nile, while a second is said to have been in the possession of Prester John.

25. —2. Biserta, the capital of Agramante's realm.

26. —5. secondando = seguendo.

27. —8. cole, 'venerates: sublima, 'extols.'

29. —5. monte. The poet may have meant the Lupata Mountains in Africa.—6. l'Orse, 'the Bears,' constellations of the North, and therefore used here for the North.—8. furioso, sc., vento austrino.

30. —1 ff. The incident parodies one in the Odyssey, X. 19 ff., where Aolus imprisons the winds in a leather bottle and presents it to Ulysses, so as to make him sure of his return to Ithaca. Here, if the dreaded South wind is imprisoned, Astolfo need not fear sand-storms in the desert.

31. —2. luce, i.e., day.—6. l'Atlante, 'the Atlas Mountains.'

32. —5. parte, 'distributes.'

33. —2. maestro, i.e., St. John. The metamorphosis of stones to men recalls at once the ancient myth of Deucalion and Pyrrha, who threw behind them stones from which there sprang up men and women: cf. Ovid, Meta., I, 399 ff.—5. lece, 'is permitted': cf. Latin licet.

34. —6. dava di mano, 'grasped,' 'seized.'

35. —6-7. In Boiardo's Orlando Inn., II, xxii, 11 ff., and xxviii, 50 ff., we find these same personages left in charge of Biserta by Agramante.

36. —2. battendo l'ali, i.e., flying, speeding.—3. avviso, in apposition with legno.

38.—2. 'Non ... pensai': cf. Valerius Maximus, De factis dictisque memorabilibus, VIII, ii, 2: "Scipio Africanus turpe esse aiebat in re militari dicere: 'Non putaram.'"—4. discorso, 'reasoning.' —6. qui si versa, 'herein consists.'

63.—5. This device of a single combat to settle a great war is an old one in epic tradition. A similar proposition is made by Hector in the Iliad, III, and by Turnus in the Mneid, XII. So also Argante, in the Gerusalemme lib., VI, desires to venture all on a single combat: see post, p. 427.

Canto XXXIX

20.—5. vendetta: cf. I, 1, v. 7.

21.—3. mena, 'drives': cf. IV, 37, v. 5.—8. terra=città.

22. —8. Dudone. In the conflict at Monaco between Saracens and Christians, as described by Boiardo, II, xiv, in his account of the first passage of the Saracens, Dudone was captured by Rodomonte (re di Sarza: cf. Orlando Fur., XIV, 25, v. 3), and was later sent to Biserta in Africa for safekeeping.

23.—4. del Danese fu lignaggio, an abbreviated construction for fu del lignaggio del Danese. The Danese is Uggiero il Danese (in Old French Ogier le Danois), a leading knight of Charlemagne's surroundings and the father of Dudone.

24. —1. paladin, 'paladin' or 'count (county) palatine': cf. the Latin comes palatinus. Only Charlemagne's greatest knights were made counts of the palace.

25. —5. Acquamorta, 'Aiguesmortes' in Southern France.

26.—1 ff. Cf. Romizi, Fonti latine dell' Orl. Fur., p. 78: "Lo stupendo miracolo, per cui furono convertite in navi le frondi gittate in acqua da Astolfo, rammenta il mirabile monstrum, per il quale vediamo nell' Eneide prender figura di ninfe marine alle navi di Enea, allorche stavano per essere bracciate da Turno (X, 80 e segg., cfr. Ov., Meta., XIV, 530-565). Il bisogno differente di Astolfo e di Enea indusse l'Ariosto a creare, Virgilio a salvare con una miracolosa metamorfosi le navi." Cf. also Rajna, p. 549.

28. —2. gabbia, a kind of 'crow's-nest' up high on the mast.—8. Nocchier, 'helmsmen': padron, 'skippers,' 'masters': pennesi = sottopiloti, according to Petrocchi, Novo Dizionario, and otherwise explained as 'stower' or 'store-keeper': perhaps the pennese had some of the functions of a boatswain.

29.—1. foro = furono.

30. —5. cognato, i.e., Oliver, brother of Alda, who was Roland's spouse (or betrothed).

31. —4. calar, 'descend,' i.e., 'land.'—8. Progne, 'Procne,' i.e., the swallow: loquace nido, i.e., the chattering young; cf. Vergil, ÌEneid, XII, 474-5:

"Pervolat et pennis alta atrìa lustrat hirundo,
Fabula parva legens nidisque loquacibus eacas."

32. —1. imperlai augello, i.e., the eagle, the imperial standard of Charlemagne.—2. gigli, i.e., the French lilies or fleur-de-lis: pardi, the English leopards: cf. X, 77.—3-4. Cf. Vergil, Mneid, II, 379-380:

"Improvisum aspris veluti qui sentibus anguem
Pressit humi nitens."

33.—2. di piatto: cf. XXXVI, 55, v. 4, note.— 6. agli suo* = ai suoi = ai loro.—8. Volson =volsero, vollero.

39.—3. ponte. Rodomonte (the autore of v. 6) was defendmg a bridge against ali comers. Brandimarte, comine along with Fiordiligi, was attacked and defeated by him: cf. XXXI, 65 ff.

43.—8. Bardin, an old servant of Brandimarte's family.

45.—3. Divi =santi: so also numi in XXXIII, 115, v. 4 (ante, p. 282).

47.—6. Dudon santo. Dudone was called 'saintly,' because of his austere and exemplary life: cf. Boiardo, Orlando Inn., II, x, 13:

"Ma poi di tal bontà si dava il vanto -
Ch era appellato in soprannome il Santo."

Cf. later, XL, 76, v. 5.

48.—4. entrar, i.e., enter in under Roland's shower of blows, approach him.

52. —4. puon = possono: può seems to have given puonno on the analogy of ha, hanno, and the like.

53. —3. sale - salta.

56.—1. sette: the sacred and symbolical nature of the number seven is well known: cf. the seven deadly sins, the seven cardinal virtues, etc.

58.—1. da, i.e., 'issuing from,' or =dopo, 'after.' —8. Cf. XXXVI, 26, v. 8 (ante, p. 307).

60. —3. "Solvite me"; from Vergil, Eclogues, VI, 24, where Silenus, having been bound while asleep by Chromis and Mnasylus, utters these words upon awakening.—5. avieno = avevano.

61. —8. quanto, etc., i.e., his position as the leading champion of Christendom against the Saracens.

66.—i. terra =ci«d, i.e., Aries, near which the campaigning had been going on.

74.—7. guerra, i.e., the war which Charlemagne carried into Spain against him and of which the battle at the pass of Roncesvaux was an incident. With this the Old French Chanson de Roland deals, as does also Pulci's Morgante. Ariosto, some think, judging by his Cinque Canti, also had the intention of carrying on the action of his Orlando Furioso to the scene of Roland's death in that battle, and the ultimate destruction of Marsilio and his following.

78.—6. aggia=a66io.

80.^-6. ferri, 'grappling-irons.' But Papini, in his edition of the poem, says that ferri = ancore, and interprets the passage as meaning that the Christians vessels anchored in such a way as to form a chain about those of the Saracens.

81. —1. fermo = fecero. — 3. denno = diedero.— 5. cominciaro oprar: note the suppression of the preposition between these verbs.

Canto XL

6.—5. consume. This form, used here instead of consuma, is more in accord with the Latin thirdconjugation verb, consumit.

8.—2. Brigliadoro, 'Golden Bridle,' a horse of Roland's appropriated by Mandricardo, at the time that he took the objects discarded by the frenzied hero (Canto XXIV). When Mandricardo was overcome by Ruggiero in a duel, the horse and other possessions of Roland became his (XXX, 75),