Orlando Furioso Quotes

Nature made him, and then broke the mold.

La luna non è che il complemento della terra, il suo rovescio speculare, il luogo dove s’aduna tutto ciò che sulla terra si perde.

Ah, how I rue that what I could have done I did not do!

E quale è di pazzia segno più espresso che, per altri voler, perder se stesso?

perché si de’ punir donna o biasmare che con uno o più d’uno abbia commesso quel che l’uom fa con quante n’ha appetito e lodato ne va, non che impunito? Sono fatti in questa legge disuguale Veramente alle donne espressi torti

For I take it there are two things the imagination loves to do. It loves to embrace its objects completely, to take it in at a single glace, and see it as something harmonious, symmetrical, and self-explanatory. That is the classical imagination; the Parthenon was built for it. It also loves to lose itself in a labyrinth, to surrender to the inextricable. That is the romantic imagination; the Orlando Furioso was written for it. But Christian Theology does not cater very well for either. If Christianity is only a mythology, then I find the mythology I believe in is not the one I like best. I like Greek mythology much better, Irish better still, Norse best of all.

This dog won’t hunt. This horse won’t jump. You get the general drift. However, he keeps on trying, but the fire won’t burn, the kindling is wet, and the faint glow of the ember is weak and dying. He has no other choice then but to let It go and take a nap on the ground there, lying Next to her—for whom Dame Fortune has more Woes and tribulations yet in store.

Another is Artemisa is the dame, Renowned for love of her Mausolus, yea By so much greater, as it is more brave To raise the dead, than lay them in the grave.

Alla fine poeti e prosatori preferirono affidarsi al Bembo. Se così non fosse stato, l’inizio dell’Orlando furioso di Ariosto (uno dei primi a ritoccare alcuni passi del suo poema per seguire le regole del toscano enunciate da Bembo) invece che «Le donne, i cavalier, l’arme, gli amori, / le cortesie, l’audaci imprese io canto» avrebbe potuto suonare come: «Le rappresentanti del genere femminile, gli appartenenti al ceto equestre della classe aristocratica dell’impero e gli strumenti atti a procurare ferite in un contesto di guerra e/o contesa militare intrapresa da singoli o in gruppo seppure normata da condivise regole di buona creanza sono al centro del mio specifico interesse poetico in un’opera all’uopo composta in versi.» Insomma, ci è andata bene.

Le donne, i cavallier, l’arme, gli amori, le cortesie, l’audaci imprese io canto,

Can it be true?'--she cried--'shall I be fain To follow one, that strives to hide and fly? Esteem a man that has me in disdain? Pray him that never hears my supplant cry? Suffer who hates me o'er my heart to reign? One that his lofty virtues holds so high, T'were need some heaven-born goddess should descend From realms above, his stubborn heart to bend? ... Yea: rather of myself I should complain, Than the desire, to which I bared my breast Whereby was Reason hunted from her reign, And all my powers by stronger force opprest. Thus borne from bad to worse, without a rein I cannot the unbridled beast arrest; Who makes me see I to destruction haste, That I bitterness in death may taste. Yet, ah! why blame myself? Wherein have I Ever offended, save in loving thee? What wonder was it then that suddenly A woman's feeble sense opprest should be? Why fence and guard myself, lest bearing high Wise words, and beauty rare should pleasure me? Most wretched is the mortal that would shun To look upon the visage of the sun

happy those who learn wisdom at another’s expense!