Orlando furioso: language and style

One cannot discuss the ‘language’ and the ‘style’ of the Furioso without considering the three different editions the book went through. The most evident aspect is that of the linguistic normalisation based on  the lessons imparted in the Prose della volgar lingua by Bembo, which characterise the third edition of 1532. This type of operation put an end to the XV century koinè, based on Lombard and Latin usage, particularly evident in Boiardo and already mitigated in the first edition of the Furioso in 1516. Whilst sticking to the linguistic structure of Petrarch, Ariosto withholds the possibility of mediating between models, with various types of inferences, of Dantean and XV century origin, within the flow of a ‘courtly classicism’, open to the varietas, aimed at the contemporary reader and not fossilized on the model described by Bembo. The use of the language and style of Petrarch does not occur naturally within a lyrical vision but is linked to the narrative structure of the ottava rima or octave. Alongside this type of regularisation Ludovico also pays attention to the reduction of the asymmetrical constructions into more harmonious forms (such as, for example, in the initial verse of the first canto, with the change from the first edition: ‘Di donne e cavallier li antiqui amori’ to the third: ‘Le donne, i cavallier, l’arme gli amori’). The work of linguistic and stylistic correction done by the poet in the three editions is imposing. ‘The major part of Ariosto’s corrections represent a spiral absorption, central, lyrical, of the enunciation primarily continual, horizontal’ (Contini). Correction is seen as the ‘art of removing’ and is often accompanied by the insertion of lyrical or pathetic elements. For an example, see XLVI, 59, 1-2, I which goes from ‘Quale il nettunio Egeo rimase quando / si fu alla mensa inhospitale accorto’ to: ‘Quale il canuto Egeo rimase, quando / si fu alla mensa scelerata accorto’.