Orlando Furioso in Milton: Heroic flights and true heroines

Comparative Literature, Spring 1997 by James H Sims

Ecco non lungi un bel cespuglio vede

di prun fioriti e di vermiglie rose,

che de le liquide onde al specchio siede,

chiuso dal sol fra I'alte quercie ombrose;

cosi voto nel mezzo, che concede

fresca stanza fra l'ombre piu nascose:

e la foglia coi rami in modo e mista

che 'I sol non v'entra, non che minor vista.

(OF 1.37)

Close by she noticed a beautiful thicket of flowering hawthorn and red roses mirrored in the limpid rippling water and sheltered from the sun by tall shady oaks. It was hollowed in the middle and offered a refreshing bower amid the deepest shade: the branches and leaves were so disposed that no sunnor indeed any lesser observer-could peep in.

(Waldman)

Stepping forth from this lovely place, Angelica could easily be mistaken for Diana or Venus, se bella ed improvisa mostra (1.52.2), "so radiant and unlooked-for is her appearance" (Waldman). Similarly, as Eve departs from Adam shortly before the scene in which Satan discovers her, she is compared to Diana (Delia) as she "Delia's self / In gait surpass'd and Goddess-like deport" (PL 9.388-39) . As Sacripant, who has feared that Angelica has been despoiled by other men, delightedly prepares to "pluck the morningfresh rose" (OF 1.58.1, Waldman) in spite of Angelica's tears, Satan, tortured by the sight of pleasure "not for him ordain'd" (PL 9.470), now determines to seize his chance to ruin Eve, "opportune to all attempts, / Her Husband . . . not nigh" (9.481-82), declaring, "Save what is in destroying, other joy / To me is lost" (9.478-79).

Although the romance genre's "long and tedious havoc" of "gorgeous Knights / At Joust and Tournament" (PL 9.30,36-37) may have been rejected by Milton (the battles of the angels in Book 6 indicate otherwise), he certainly did not reject the romance epic's typical exaltation of the beauty and attraction of the feminine form, nor its conventional description of the selfish and egotistical passion which drives the male in pursuit. Just as Angelica "brings together an edenic landscape exempt from seasonal change with the perfection of the human form,"" 30 Eve becomes "herself the pleasance, the locus amoenus of Milton's poem, Eden personified" (Sims, "Delicious Paradise" 169-70). Both Angelica and Eve represent that which is eternally sought after at the same time that its loss is lamented, the essence of Eden breathing "Grace that won who saw to wish her stay" (PL 8.43)-a phrase that describes Eve leaving the company of Adam and Raphael, but aptly fits Angelica as well. The self-seeking admiration and desire that Angelica and Eve, even in Paradise, innocently arouse, whether in Sacripant or Satan, are always in danger of bringing about destruction; only in those with hearts where "Love unlibidinous reign[s], nor jealousy / Was understood" (5.449-50) is such beauty safe.

The allusions associating Eve with Angelica challenge the reader to view Angelica from a fresh perspective while recognizing in Eve the poignant beauty and vulnerability of Angelica. Milton's Eve in her floral bower, unwittingly threatened by a destructive tempter, reflects Ariosto's Angelica in her refuge of roses, naively assuming that she can safely reveal herself to and manipulate to her own ends the knight whose only interest is her maidenhead. Recognizing in the characterization of Eve an association with Angelica encourages a more sympathetic response to Ariosto's heroine-certainly much more sympathetic than to Harington's maligned Angelica-than is often the case. For instance, if one assumes that the narrator's comments about Sacripant's wishful thinking mean that Angelica has lied to him about being a virgin (OF 1.55), glimpses of Angelica in Milton's Eve should cause reconsideration of the textual evidence. (Eve is not a virgin for very long in Milton's poem, but her "bed is undefil'd and chaste pronounc't," PL 4.761). Although Ariosto's narrator says of Angelica's claim of virginity, "Forse era ver, ma non per* credibile / a chi del senso suo fosse signore" (1.56.1-2; It "may have been true, but scarcely plausible to anyone in his right mind," Waldman), the effect is to emphasize Sacripant's self-delusions rather than to cast doubt on Angelica's word. This effect is confirmed later in the poem when the narrator makes clear that Angelica's maidenhead was indeed preserved for her true love, Medoro: