Sleep, Dreams and Insomnia in the Orlando Furioso Author(s): Daniel Rolfs Reviewed work(s): Source: Italica, Vol.

53, No. 4, Tasso-Ariosto (Winter, 1976), pp. 453-474 Published by: American Association of Teachers of Italian Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/478196 . Accessed: 15/10/2012 20:23
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SLEEP,

DREAMS

AND INSOMNIA

IN THE ORLANDO FURIOSO

In an appropriately irreverent essay on the subject of humor in the Orlando furioso,' Achille Campanile has observed that the knights of old, constantly riding from one adventure to the next, appear to have had little time for the more practical matters engaged in by the rest of humanity. Judging from Ariosto's poem in particular, he adds, one would further surmise that they had no need of food, or for that matter, the money to buy it with, since not only does Rinaldo lack a cent to his pocket but moreover Orlando, during the time of his rampages as a naked madman, appears to have lacked in pockets altogether. While Campanile's wry conclusion that such paladins must have lived on thin air is well taken, it must be noted that the numerous personages of the work, from the lowliest to the most noble, from the least important to the essential, do indeed share in common at least one primary human need - that of sleep. Indeed, within Ariosto's vast narrative one finds an entire populace of insomniacs, sleepers and dreamers who respond to and enrich the central themes of the poem. Certainly the major Ariostean theme served by the passages to be discussed is that of the poet's continual examination of the nature of human folly and its far rarer opposite, wisdom. Here, in the nocturnal world of those who seek rest from the trials and tribulations of their day, one finds, as elsewhere in the work, that human fallibility is owed principally to the traits of excess, imprudence, and naivete, while wisdom by contrast derives from adherence to the humanistic values of restraint and moderation, accompanied by a healthy degree of caution and skepticism based upon experience. As folly is by far the more abundant human property in the poem, the greater part of Ariosto's many scenes of insomnia, sleep and dreams attests to mankind's flaws rather than virtues. Given the number of its personages who are driven by countless longings and passions, it is not surprising that the
453

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world of the Orlando furioso is one largely populated by insomniacs. Little wonder, the poet seems to say, that so many are kept from a restorative and perspective-giving slumber, much less from any true serenity in their lives, for what they seek rest from is that which lies, ultimately, within themselves. Such appears to be the case with the many driven by the lowliest of passions, lust, which itself never sleeps (" il cieco... desir, che non assonna" 2), as seen in the poet's description of its domination of the perfidious Gabrina. Thus Bireno, "il " falso amante che i pensati inganni / veggiar facean (X, 19), lies awake at night, scheming how he will soon abandon one woman for another. A further example of the sleeplessness of those given to lust is seen in the tale of Iocondo, who is betrayed by his wife when he must leave her on a journey. Perhaps the faithless woman merely feigns insomnia on the preceding night in order to convince her husband that she grieves over his departure, but it is equally likely that she is kept awake by thoughts of the lover who will join her as soon as Iocondo steps out the door:
La notte ch'and6 inanzi a quella aurora che fu il termine estremo alla partenza, al suo Iocondo par ch'in braccio muora la moglie, che n'ha tosto da star senza. Mai non si dorme... (XXVIII, 17)

irony of the above lines, which describe the wife as nearly dying in her husband's arms, is perhaps a somewhat bitter one, yet in at least one episode of lust and insomnia one finds a more cheerful humor, and a recognition of what is only too human in Ariosto's noble hero Ruggiero. Here the knight, who has just been seized by passion for the Alcina while enchantress her island, retires to visiting his chambers to await the tryst she had promised earlier that evening. Surely no one would expect a lover to fall asleep at such a moment, yet the poet playfully reveals an impatient who is only too much awake in what would Ruggiero otherwise be a place of rest. Doubtless a somewhat ridiculous The

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figure lying between perfumed sheets, Ruggiero time and again raises his head the better to hear her approaching footsteps, then gets out of bed, opens the door, and looks to see if she is arriving at last. When the tardy Alcina does appear who knows how much later, he is of course more wide awake than ever, and rather indecorously leaps from his bed to embrace her (VII, 22 ff.). Yet if carnal desire often keeps the poet's characters from a sound rest, their other excesses are capable of no less, as suggested in the scene of Ruggiero's duelling challenge to his Saracen rival Mandricardo. When Ruggiero approaches his adversary's stockade and sounds his trumpet, Mandricardo would seem at the least a light sleeper. Indeed, restless and proud, and as driven by his own arrogance as are others by sexual appetite, this pagan seems incapable of surrender to anything, certainly not to a deep sleep. Thus, waking instantaneously at Ruggiero's call to battle, he begins his day with a rapid bound from bed and a shout for his arms:
Tosto che sente il Tartaro superbo, ch'alla battaglia il suono altier lo sfida, non vuol piu de l'accordo intender verbo, ma si lancia del letto, et arme grida. (XXX, 45)

More sympathetic instances of chronic sleeplessness among Ariosto's personages, however, are caused by their excesses related to love. A poignant case is that of the previously mentioned Iocondo, who, naively clinging to the rigid ideal of total fidelity from his wife, finds himself crushed by the knowledge that she has betrayed him. At the end of his tale, of course, his tears will become those of laughter rather than of sorrow, when he and his equally cuckolded companion King Astolfo find that even the two of them together cannot content the single woman they choose to share as a concubine. Just after learning that his wife has been unfaithful, however, Iocondo lacks this more tolerant view of human nature, and thus torments himself over what the poet believes he would

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DANIEL ROLFS

be wiser to accept. Indeed, he loses so much sleep and appetite that his face, once that of the handsomest of men, reveals the ravishment of his spirit:
Ne posa di n6 notte: il sonno lunge fugge col gusto, e mai non si raccoglie: e la faccia, che dianzi era si bella, si cangia si, che pii non sembra quella.

(XXVIII, 26).

Presumably Iocondo sleeps more soundly as he gains in wisdom by the end of the tale; in any case the narrator comments that when he and King Astolfo decide to return to their wives, neither ever again feels a pang of anxiety (s. 74). In their newly found serenity, the two form a marked contrast to the Saracen Rodomonte, to whom their story is told for comfort in his own great jealousy. Earlier, having desired Doralice and having lost her to King Mandricardo, the warrior has been shown riding through the forest and indulging in a foolish soliloquy on female treachery. At this moment, with a characteristically subtle touch, Ariosto portrays a passionate insomniac who inflicts his sleeplessness even upon the horse he rides!
E cosi quando volgendo il cor cavalca a gran e poco riposar al re, quando alla donna turbato, il Saracino giornate, e non assonna, lascia Frontino. (XXVII, 127)

Clearly, Rodomonte has little capacity for learning, for no sooner does he hear the innkeeper's tale of Iocondo and King Astolfo than he argues with all present as to its moral. Moreover, the story appears only to inflame his jealousy, as he now goes to bed as agitated as ever, in the belief that mere slumber can dispel the dark and gloomy air about him, which is less an attribute of nightfall than of his own troubled spirit. Of course he finds as little rest as before:
Posto ch'ebbe alle liti e alle contese termine il re pagan, lascii la mensa; indi nel letto per dormir si stese

SLEEP, DREAMS AND INSOMNIA

fin al partir de l'aria scura e densa: ma de la notte, a sospirar l'offese pii de la donna ch'a dormir, dispensa. (XXVIII, 85)

457

Although a far more sympathetic character - moreover, one who commands the poet's respect and affection for her role in founding the House of Este through her marriage to Ruggiero - Bradamante is nonetheless so troubled in love and given to excess that she is surely the longest suffering insomniac of all. Given her important function in the poem her flaws might be considered minor, yet in the first episode of her sleeplessness, in which she stays at Montalbano to await the promised arrival of Ruggiero twenty days hence, she clearly lacks in self-mastery, not to mention common sense. As though heedless of the simple folk adage that a watched pot never boils, she declines to take up some engrossing activity which might help pass the time, and instead concentrates only on counting the days until Ruggiero will at last be at her side. Worse still, she soon finds herself envying the bear, the dormouse and the badger, and longing to shorten her waiting by spending it in slumber. The predictable result of such impatience is total insomnia, which provides the rich irony that the subjective time she must await her knight is not at all reduced, as it would be if she slept even normally, but greatly increased, since she sleeps not at all. A victim of her own excesses, she can only toss upon her bed and long for dawn and dusk to run out their leisurely sequence:
Oh quante volte da invidiar le diero e gli orsi e ghiri e i sonnacchiosi tassi! che quel tempo voluto avrebbe intero tutto dormir, che mai non si destassi; ne potere altro udir, fin che Ruggiero dal pigro sonno lei non richiamassi. Ma non pur questo non puo far, ma ancora non puo dormir di tutta notte un'ora. Di qua di la va le noiose piume tutte premendo, e mai non si riposa. Spesso aprir la finestra ha per costume,

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DANIEL ROLFS
per veder s'anco di Titon la sposa sparge dinanzi al matutino lume il bianco giglio e la vermiglia rosa: non meno ancor, poi che nasciuto e '1 giorno brama vedere il ciel di stelle adorno.

(XXXII, 12-13). Doubtless this self-torture, which presumably continues as she waits in vain long beyond the twenty days prescribed, contributes greatly to Bradamante's rash behavior when she idle that learns the eventually gossip Ruggiero is soon to wed Marfisa. Thus, it is fitting that she returns to her room and flings herself upon the bed of her long insomnia just before voicing a final lament in which she resolves upon suicide. To be sure, Bradamante is protected from such foolishness by the poet's gentle humor, as she stands poised to plunge a sword into her breast only to realize that she has forgotten to remove her armor! Yet while the maiden is spared by this fortunate oversight, she remains consumed with jealousy, with the result that after having left Montalbano on new adventures in the subsequent canto, she alone among her companions lies awake

through the nights (XXIII, 59; 77). By the penultimate canto,

even though no longer concerned about Marfisa (whom she learns to be Ruggiero's long-lost sister), Bradamante has yet Now fearing Ruggiero dead and new causes for sleeplessness. and mistakenly believing herself obligated to marry Leone, she pours forth a lament which lasts until dawn (XLV, 102). Indeed, it is not until the poem's end and her marriage to at last freed from her own Ruggiero that this protagonist, impatience, jealousy and fear, can be presumed to find the sleep that goes with inner serenity. As will be seen, the narrative of Bradamante's first insomnia, which culminates in the temporary loss of senses leading to her attempt at suicide, presents on a smaller scale the pattern of the poem's central episode - that of an increasingly sleepless Orlando finally driven completely insane by his own passion. From Orlando's very first appearance in the work, in fact, the poet emphasizes the contrast between the knight's need for rest from his obsessions with love and the impossibility of

SLEEP, DREAMS AND INSOMNIA

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his attaining it. Here, kept awake in the Christian camp by worry over Angelica,3 Orlando berates himself for not having protected the maiden sufficiently and, likening her alone in the forest to a lamb among wolves, torments himself by imagining that another may have already forced the surrender of her virginity. In a Virgilian simile, the poet characterizes the quickness and restless nature of his thoughts:
La notte Orlando alle noiose piume del veloce pensier fa parte assai. Or quinci or quindi il volta, or lo rassume tutto in un loco, e non l'afferma mai: qual d'acqua chiara il tremolante lume, dal sol percossa o da' notturni rai, per gli ampi tetti van con lungo salto a destra et a sinistra, e basso et alto. (VIII, 71)

The fitful sleep which finally comes to the knight only serves to emphasize his inability to find even momentary peace as, awakened from a nightmare in which he imagines losing Angelica forever, he sets out at midnight in search of her (stanzas in keeping with his ominous first ap80-86). Significantly, in the pearance poem, Orlando is seen still seeking rest some fifteen cantos and numerous adventures later when he happens upon the spot which will provide the cause of his greatest anguish. Most ironically, the meadow into which he wanders, with its crystalline stream, shady trees and gentle noon breeze, seems to promise only tranquillity:
Giunse ad un rivo che parea cristallo, ne le cui sponde un bel pratel fioria, di nativo color vago e dipinto, e di molti e belli arbori distinto. II merigge facea grato l'orezzo al duro armento et al pastore ignudo; si che ne Orlando sentia alcun ribrezzo, che la corazza avea, l'elmo e lo scudo. Quivi egli entro per riposarvi in mezzo. (XXIII, 100-101)

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There the knight sees carved upon every tree the names " Angelica " and " Medoro," as well as the sonnet written by the latter in praise of their having found and consummated a great love. Now more tormented than ever, Orlando again vainly seeks relief in the oblivion of sleep. After reading and re-reading the inscriptions and attempting to deny their meaning through ever less likely explanations, he wanders dazed to a shepherd's house and asks to go directly to bed (s. 116). Yet " quando pii cerca ritrovar quiete," he finds only further cause for mental turbulence, as he now sees the same inscriptions carved all over the cottage and moreover hears the shepherd tell of how Angelica and Medoro stayed there and were married. Finally shown to his quarters, Orlando finds the feathers he lies upon harder than stone and more stinging than nettles. The contrast between his need for rest and the impossibility of his attaining it now reaches its highest point in the poem as he suddenly realizes the significance of the very bed he lies upon, and feels the shock and revulsion of the peasant who has just inadvertently stretched out to nap next to a snake:
sospira e geme, e va con spesse ruote
di qua di la tutto cercando il letto; e piu duro ch'un sasso, e piu pungente

che se fosse d'urtica, se lo sente. In tanto aspro travaglio gli soccorre che nel medesmo letto in che giaceva,
l'ingrata donna venutasi a porre

col suo drudo piu volte esser doveva. Non altrimenti or quella piuma abborre, ne con minor prestezza se ne leva, che de I'erba il villan che s'era messo per chiuder gli occhi, e vegga il serpe appresso. (122-123)

Leaping up in horror, the knight now wanders through the woods, only to end up at the very spot he first happened upon. At this point the poet twice emphasizes Orlando's physical and mental exhaustion (" e stanco al fin, e al fin di sudor

SLEEP, DREAMS AND INSOMNIA

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molle " s. 131; "afflitto e stanco " s. 132), just before adding that he now passes three nights with no sleep at all. Significantly, it is not until this point that the poet nudges his protagonist over the precipice into total insanity; on the fourth day, having stripped off his armor and reduced himself to the level of a naked beast, Orlando begins " la gran follia si orrenda " (s. 133). Thus the knight's chronic insomnia, metaphoric of the restlessness of his own passions and symptomatic of the madness to which he is finally driven by them, characterizes not only his first appearance in the poem, but its central episode as well. Yet if follies of excess frequently keep Ariosto's characters awake at night, others can cause them to sleep all too soundly, often with equally disastrous results. Relegating to our notes the instances in which the term is used in a purely poetic sense,4 as well as one case in which slumber is caused by magic,5 let us now turn to several episodes in which actual sleep is associated with error. In the theme of arms, for example, one finds that the surrender of consciousness at the wrong moment appears metaphorical for imprudence. Typical is the incident of Zerbino's overconfident sleep leading directly to his capture:
Zerbin che gli nimici aver lontani si crede, a questa ingiuria non aspetta, dal conte Anselmo, che si chiama offeso tanto da lui, nel primo sonno e preso. (XXIII, 50)

With regard to Ruggiero, the folly of an inopportune slumber is seen more clearly, for it is preceded by the observation that he has grown too sure of himself following his victory over Leone's entire army (" in tanta confidenzia era venuto / di sua fortuna e di sue gran valore " XLV, 5). In the next stanza the poet goes on to say that Fortune means to teach the knight a lesson for his presumption, just before having him taken prisoner in his sleep and sentenced to the cruel death from which he must be rescued. Like Zerbino and Ruggiero, perhaps

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even Notus the Wind might exercise more caution, for he too is captured, by means of a trap Astolfo sets while he sleeps unsuspectingly in his cave (XXXVIII. 30)! A far greater price than mere capture, however, must be paid for the arrogance of an entire army which fails to post sufficient sentries on the night following a great victory in battle. In the powerful stanzas which portray the sudden death met by many of Charlemagne's troops at the hands of Cloridano and Medoro, two Saracens who pass through the sleeping Christian camp in search of their fallen king,6 the poet repeatedly associates the victims' slumber with their imprudence and capacity for illusions. Such is seen in the killing of Malindo and Ardalico, two soldiers whose future, seemingly so bright after their having been knighted and promised lands for their valor in combat that same day, comes to naught in a single careless moment (XVIII, " 180). More ironic is the fate of the supposedly dotto" Alfeo, an astrologer who is cut down even as he sleeps secure in his own predictions for a long life which will end peacefully in the arms of his wife (stanzas 174-175). In the absence of caution and vigilance, however, such expectations can have no more substance than idle dreams, such as those of the intoxicated soldier Grillo, who imagines himself still drinking at the very moment that both wine and blood gush from the throat of his decapitated body (s. 176). Happy only those whose obliviousness to the reality of the moment is at least accompanied by love, as in the case of the Duke of Labretto and his mistress, who are beheaded in a sleeping embrace (s. 179). Throughout this eerie nocturnal scene, as in the episode of Ruggiero previously discussed, the poet repeatedly reminds his reader of the power of Fortune, as the lives and aspirations of these and many other sleepers are brought short by the pure chance that they happen to lie in the random path of two enemy marauders. Like his contemporary Machiavelli, then, Ariosto emphasizes the need for continual alertness against Fortune's sudden changes, and the consequences of failure to reckon with her. Some, nonetheless, may interpret the episode in a broader sense, as almost suggesting the futility of all human endeavor. Viewed in this light, the poet's nine stanzas of sleep

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and death attain a level of poignancy matched only by those depicting Astolfo's visit to the moon. As in the theme of Arms, sleep also serves a rich metaphorical function in the poet's theme of Love, yet with the added dimension of scenes in which characters awaken to harsh reality. Perhaps the most common folly in love is naivete, as seen in the case of the knight Grifone who, even when deserted by his lady Orrigille, clings to his illusions and shuns the warnings of her perfidy given by his own brother " di lui piu saggio" (XV, 104). After emphasizing the youth's lack of judgment in the following canto (XVI, 1-4; 14), the poet has Grifone encounter his lady on the road as she travels with another knight, only to believe her unlikely explanation that the two are brother and sister. Thus it is fitting that in the following canto, just as he has closed his eyes to reality while awake, Grifone soon closes his eyes in sleep, as gullible and unsuspecting as ever (" n6 dal compagno n6 d'altrui / temendo inganno, addormentato s'era " XVII, 114). Indeed, one finds a close parallel between the degree of his naivete and the soundness of his slumber, to which he seems almost a victim:
Non ebbe cosi tosto il capo basso, che chiuse gli occhi, e fu dal sonno oppresso cosi profundamente, che mai tasso ne ghiro mai s'addormento quanto esso. (s. 109)

As one would expect, the youth now pays the price for his obliviousness, as Orrigille's lover steals his horse and armor and appears before the king to claim credit for the joust Grifone had won on the previous day. Accordingly, Grifone's awakening is an awakening to reality, as he now berates himself for his past folly (" di sua sciocchezza indarno ora si duole " 7). A female counterpart to Grifone in greater measure is Olimpia, the daughter of the Duke of Zeeland, who because of her persistent love for Bireno refuses a political marriage and causes war to be waged against her father. Throughout her narrative, in which she seeks Orlando's aid in freeing her lover

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who is held hostage, the poet reveals not only the price she has already paid for her tenacity - namely, her fortune, much of her lands, and the lives of her brothers and father - but moreover her immense capacity for self-persuasion:
io credea e credo, e creder credo il vero, ch'amassi et ami me con cor sincero.8

Although in the following canto the poet warns that such maidens should be wary of immature youths, often given to facile vows and swayed by fickle appetite (X, 1-9), clearly one so determined as Olimpia can learn only through bitter experience. Consequently, when finally reunited with Bireno thanks to Orlando's efforts, she suspects nothing as the two set sail for his kingdom, even though the youth is already inflamed with passion for the young girl he has taken aboard to give in marriage to his brother. Moreover, Olimpia welcomes Bireno's wish to sleep alone with her upon the deserted island at which their ship later harbors for the night. Lulled by the isolation of the place, by the seeming end to all of her past anxieties, and above all by a false sense of security at the very moment that Bireno lies awake scheming to abandon her, she soon falls into a sleep as profound as her naivete:
I1 travaglio del mare e la paura che tenuta alcun di l'aveano desta, il ritrovarsi al lito ora sicura, lontana da rumor, ne la foresta, e che nessun pensier, nessuna cura, poi che '1 suo amante ha seco, la molesta; fur cagion ch'ebbe Olimpia si gran sonno, che gli orsi e i ghiri aver maggior nol ponno. (X, 18)

Like Grifone in the episode just discussed, Olimpia awakens both literally and figuratively to reality, yet here the poet plays upon the scene with a subtlety, detail and gradualism which make it one of the most memorable of the poem. At dawn, in a state still closer to sleep than consciousness, she

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gropes for Bireno beside her, first with her hands, then, more concerned, with her arms, finally even with her legs. Little by little coming into consciousness, she now proceeds from a purely tactile means of perception to one seemingly closer to the intellect, by opening her still sleepy eyes:
Ne desta ne dormendo, ella la mano per Bireno abbracciar stese, ma invano. Nessuno truova: a se la man ritira: di nuovo tenta, e pur nessuno truova. Di qua l'un braccio, e di la l'altro gira; or l'una, or l'altra gamba; e nulla giova.

Caccia il sonno il timor: gli occhi apre, e mira:

non vede alcuno...9

Although awakening further with each mounting wave of anxiety, and finally running to the shore to tear her hair and call out Bireno's name, Olimpia attains her fullest degree of consciousness in more than mere physiological terms only when she climbs a high rock to scan the horizon and sees his ship already far in the distance. Thus, commensurate with the dimensions of her entire narrative, with its political complications, warfare, and Orlando's heroic intervention, her sleep of innocence and awakening to reality are portrayed on a grand scale. In keeping with his largely negative portrayal of sleep, as seen in the episodes just cited, Ariosto for the most part also associates dreams with some misperception of reality. Setting aside an exception to this statement, which concerns Fiordiligi's prophetic dream of Brandimarte's death,10 as well as various instances in which the poet characterizes the wonder of some phenomenon by likening it to a dream,l1 let us now turn to three final episodes which explore man's capacity for error. Certainly the most humorous concerns the origins of the happy love of Ricciardetto and Fiordispina. Their tale begins as the latter, happening upon a sleeping Bradamante in the forest one day, mistakes the armor-clad maiden for a man, only to find herself in love with one whom she later learns to be of

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her own sex. Thus, when the two become friends and share a bed that same night, their states of mind form a sharp contrast, as Bradamante sleeps while a frustrated Fiordispina suffers the wakefulness of passion:
Commune il letto ebbon la notte insieme, ma molto differente ebbon riposo; che l'una dorme, e l'altra piange e geme che sempre il suo desir sia piu focoso. (XXV, 42)

As Fiordispina finally drifts off somewhat later, the poet reveals with a vivid Dantesque simile that his characters' dreams can attest to an inner restlessness no less than the insomnia which often precedes them:
Come l'infermo acceso di gran sete, s'in quella ingorda voglia s'addormenta, ne l'interrotta e turbida quiete, d'ogn'acqua che mai vide si ramenta; cosi a costei di far le sue voglie liete l'imagine del sonno rappresenta. (s. 43)

As the simile would suggest, the maiden soon dreams that Bradamante has been changed in sex, only to awaken to reality - like Olimpia, but with bawdier results - groping in vain for the object of her desire. The story continues as Bradamante subsequently relates the strange incident to her twin brother Ricciardetto, who, having fallen in love with Fiordispina long ago, decides to fulfill his desires by impersonating his sister. Yet when Ricciardetto joins the maiden in bed by this plan, and tells her that he, " Bradamante," has been into a his most even man, magically changed convincing demonstrations of this fact cannot keep her from believing that she is dreaming once more. Thus, having earlier mistaken a dream for reality, she now makes exactly the opposite error:
cosi la donna, poi che tocca e vede quel di ch'avuto avea tanto desire,

SLEEP, DREAMS AND INSOMNIA agli occhi, al tatto, a se stessa non crede, e sta dubbiosa ancor di non dormire; e buona prova bisogno a far fede che sentia quel che le parea sentire. " Fa, Dio," disse ella " se son sogni questi, ch'io dorma sempre, e mai pii non mi desti." (66-67)

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Given the improbable circumstances of this amusing tale, Fiordispina can hardly be faulted for her reaction, yet elsewhere in the poem the confusion of dreams with reality proves a weightier matter. Such is the case in a different episode involving Bradamante, who foolishly interprets as false a dreamvision which the reader knows to represent the truth. Here, following one of the sleepless nights she suffers while awaiting Ruggiero in vain at Montalbano, she finally closes her eyes at dawn and beholds his image, which chides her for doubting him, reaffirms his love, and reveals that he has been kept from joining her and converting to Christianity because of wounds sustained in combat (XXXIII, 60-61). Knowing Ruggiero's noble character, and more importantly, having long since heard Melissa's prophecies (III, 8 ff.), Bradamante has every reason to believe this vision, yet her jealousy causes her to regard it as an idle dream. As if to compound her error, she now totally rejects what she takes to be reality and clings to what she considers a hopeless illusion, thus indulging in escapism no less than many others in the poem. Her lament, then, filled with its false dichotomy between the sweetness of slumber and the bitterness of awakening, is as ironic as it is lyrical:
Fu quel che piacque, un falso sogno; e questo che mi tormenta, ahi lassa! e un veggiar vero. I1 ben fu sogno a dileguarsi presto, ma non e sogno il martire aspro e fiero. Perch'or non ode e vede il senso desto quel ch'udire e veder parve al pensiero? a che condizione, occhi miei, sete, che chiusi il ben, e aperti il mal vedete? I1 dolce sonno mi promise pace, ma l'amaro veggiar mi torna in guerra:

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DANIEL ROLFS I1 dolce sonno e ben stato fallace, ma I'amaro veggiare, ohime! non erra. Se '1 vero annoia, e il falso si mi piace, non oda o vegga mai piii vero in terra: Se '1 dormir mi da gaudio, e il veggiar guai, possa io dormir senza destarmi mai.12

Yet if Bradamante's folly is to mistake the reality of Ruggiero's love for a dream, Orlando's - by far the greater is to mistake the dream of Angelica's love for reality. Certainly the knight's pathetic illusions can be understood as a " dream " in the figurative sense of the word, as in one character's remark that " l'amar senza speme /e sogno e ciancia " (XXV, 49). Yet this common metaphor is given literal form in Orlando's first appearance in the poem. Portrayed suffering a bout of insomnia over his obsessions with Angelica, it will be recalled, the knight falls into an initially pleasant sleep in which he imagines himself contemplating the maiden's beauties as she sits at the bank of a river surrounded by flowers. A tempest soon arises, however, which causes him to seek shelter, only to hear Angelica call for his help while another voice proclaims that he will never see her eyes again. Clearly in its rich symbolism this dream proves to be highly prophetic, as the tempest which arises prefigures Orlando's own madness, which in turn causes him not to " see," that is not even to recognize Angelica when he last encounters her just before she rides out of sight forever. Yet to an equal degree the dream contains a strong element of wish-fulfillment, indeed one which represents the very basis of Orlando's folly in love, namely, that in calling out for his aid the maiden favors him alone. Firm as this belief may be within Orlando's naive code of chivalry which demands that the fairest damsel favor the most valorous knight,13 it is of course a severe self-deception. Thus, in ignoring its prophetic truths and perceiving only its expression of his illusions, Orlando from the beginning can be said to pursue an idle dream, both figuratively and literally, as he immediately sets out at midnight to go to Angelica's rescue. The association of Orlando's illusions with his dream at this point in the poem is

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later complemented by the simile which describes his return to reality. Captured after his mad rampages, held down and made to inhale from the jar containing his lost senses which Astolfo has retrieved from the moon, he finally comes back into his right mind like one awakening from a dream which has turned into a nightmare:
Come chi da noioso e grave sonno, ove o vedere abominevol forme di mostri che non son, ne ch'esser ponno, o gli par cosa far strana et enorme, ancor si maraviglia, poi che donno e fatto de' suoi sensi, e che non dorme; cosi, poi che fu Orlando d'error tratto, resto maraviglioso e stupefatto. (XXXIX, 58)

From the foregoing discussion Ariosto's treatment of insomnia, sleep and dreams would appear totally critical of man. Nonetheless, the poet does indeed present an occasional ideal with regard to his character's nocturnal habits, as will be seen last in two highly atypical episodes. In the first, one finds that insomnia can serve not only negatively, as a function of one's susceptibility to harmful excess, but also positively, as a prod to conscience. Here a troubled Ruggiero finds himself caught in a difficult dilemma which demands an honorable solution, as he wishes to join Bradamante and convert to Christianity, yet fears what will be said of his courage if he chooses to abandon his fellow Saracens at the very moment that a besieged Agramante has summoned their aid. Torn thus between love, a call to God, and the need to protect his illustrious name, he alone lies awake in the Saracen camp:
Intanto sopravenne e gli ai signori e ai sergenti fuor ch'a Ruggier; che, gli punge il cor sempre occhi chiuse il pigro Sonno, per tenerlo desto, un pensier molesto. (XXV, 80).

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Finally Ruggiero's sleeplessness forces him into the decision that he will first uphold his duty and his honor before joining Bradamante in her faith and in marriage. After rising from bed to write her an explanation for his delay, he no sooner closes the letter than he closes his eyes, his conscience now clear, to a peaceful sleep followed by a gentle awakening. The correctness of his decision appears reflected in the lyricism of the passage:
Chiusa ch'ebbe la lettera, chiuse anco gli occhi sul letto, e ritrovb quiete; che '1 Sonno venne, e sparse il corpo stanco col ramo intinto nel liquor di Lete: e posb fin ch'un nembo rosso e bianco di fiori sparse le contrade liete del lucido oriente d'ogn'intorno, et indi usci de l'aureo albergo il giorno.14

Probably the moral content of this episode derives less from an ideal deeply held by the poet than from his need to solve a practical problem, namely, how to keep his protagonists separated in the interests of plot, yet in such a way that Ruggiero can maintain his honor as a mythical progenitor of the House of Este. But for whatever reason, here one finds at least one instance in the poem in which insomnia attests to human virtue rather than folly. Perhaps the same could be said with regard to the seemingly purifying rest which occurs in the last episode to be discussed in this study, one which contains elements of allegory and is thus unusually explicit in its didactic content. Rinaldo, it will be recalled, having drunk from a magical fountain of love in Boiardo's Orlando innamorato,15 supposedly continues to be
inflamed with passion for Angelica in Ariosto's sequel as well 16 to such a degree that at one point the poet likens him, " con senno non troppo piu saldo" (XXVI, 8), to the mad Orlando. Indeed, the knight experiences much the same mental anguish as his cousin when he learns that the maiden has fallen in love and given her virginity to another. In the following passage, which states that Rinaldo's sleep would not be troubled for so small a matter as pursuing her all the way back to Cathav, it

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is implied that, like Orlando, he will surely suffer such torment over her loss of chastity:
La partita d'Angelica non molto sarebbe grave all'animoso amante; ne pur gli avria turbato il sonno, o tolto il pensier di tornarsene in Levante: ma sentendo ch'avea il suo cor colto un Saracino le primizie inante, tal passione e tal cordoglio sente, che non fu in vita sua, mai, pih dolente. (XLII, 40)

state of mind is again associated with restlessness when, having set out to follow Angelica, he is soon attacked by a monster representing his own jealousy, for it is described as a beast of a thousand lidless eyes which never sleeps (" mill'occhi in capo avea senza palpebre, / non puo serrarli, e non credo che dorma " s. 47). Since the consequences of Rinaldo's passion so closely resemble those of other characters given to excess, it is significant that his subsequent cure is clearly portrayed in terms of rest, as the Knight of Disdain now intervenes on his behalf and leads him to drink from a magic fountain of scorn with the words " il posar qui non fia nocivo," to which he answers " m'ha cosi il brutto mostro travagliato, che / '1 riposar qui mi fia comodo e grato " (s. 62). Furthermore, one notes that the sleep Rinaldo later enjoys on the same night is of a rare tranquillity in the poem. Doubtless the poet alludes to Rinaldo's comfort in part to emphasize the wonder of the boat which transports him in his slumber, yet within the broader context of the narrative his repose also appears one of his newly found serenity: Rinaldo's
La proferta a Rinaldo accettar piacque, e molto ringrazio l'oste cortese: poi senza indugio la, dove ne le acque

da' naviganti era aspettato, scese.

Quivi a grande agio riposato giacque, mentre il corso del fiume il legno prese, che da sei rami spinto, lieve e snello pel fiume ando, come per l'aria augello.

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DANIEL ROLFS Cosi tosto come ebbe il capo chino, il cavallier di Francia adormentosse... (XLIII, 52-53

Certainly, however, the sleep experienced by Ruggiero and Rinaldo in these last two episodes proves an exception to the poet's more customary treatment of his characters' nocturnal lives. In conclusion, as seen in nearly a score of passages, Ariosto enhances the major themes of his work with reference to his protagonists' all too human need to rest from the adventures which they pursue by day. As has been noted, not only their frequent insomnia, but the nature of their sleep and the content of their dreams attest for the most part to man's capacity for falling short of perfection. Yet such portrayals are fitting and constitute a significant ingredient in the art of a poet whose constant interest has been aptly characterized as " la vita nella sua inarrestabile mobilita," and whose emblem
might well have been " homo sum." 17

DANIEL ROLFS The University of Michigan

1 See " L'umorismo dell'Ariosto," in L'ottava d'oro (Milano: Fratelli Treves Editori, 1930), I, 205-239. 2 Orlando furioso, ed. Remo Ceserani (Torino: U.T.E.T., 1962), XXI, 34. Except where further comments follow in this section, all quotations from Ariosto's poem will be cited in the text by canto and stanza from this edition, to whose notes I am indebted for some of the following observations regarding literary derivations. 3 Also in love with Angelica, the Saracen Sacripante suffers in much the same way, " ch'in amarla non assonna " (I, 49). 4 Ariosto often uses words for sleep in this way, such as in characterizing the remoteness of an island by its fishes which slumber in the deep (XL, 45), or the fearful prophecies of Cassandra with reference to her sleepless nights (XLVI, 80). Elsewhere the term can describe a state of mind, such as that of being deeply preoccupied (XXVII, 33), or being stunned by a blow or a magical force (XLVI, 124; XXII, 89). Most commonly, it is used as synonymous with death (X, 56; XX, 61; XXI, 11). A further instance in which sleep serves in a non-literal context is seen in one of the poet's humorous allegorical episodes. Here the angel Michael, having been ordered by God to find Silence, so that the latter can aid the Christians in a surprise assault upon the Saracens, fails to find this ally in the churches and monasteries, which he has long since

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abandoned. Instead, Michael finally finds Silence, along with fellow residents Idleness, Sloth and Forgetfulness, in a dark cave in Arabia, which is the House of Sleep (XIV, 75 ff.). 5 As in the narrative of Angelica having been put to sleep by a magic spell cast by the hermit who would ravish her unawares. Certainly in its ironic conclusion the episode responds to the poet's concerns with human folly. As if caught in his own spell, the frustrated old man falls asleep beside her from sheer exhaustion following his futile attempts to remedy his impotency (VIII, 48-50). 6 Classical sources for this episode are the narrative of Euryalo and Nisus, from Virgil's Aeneid, Bk. IX, and that of Hopleus and Dymas from Statius' Thebaid, Bk. X. Repugnant as the idea of killing sleeping soldiers may appear, Ariosto does not criticize the practice, but on the contrary portrays the Saracen marauders, especially Medoro, in mostly favorable terms. Similarly, a Christian as noble as Rinaldo kills sleeping enemies (XXXI, 49-52). Only Orlando refuses to do so when confronted with the opportunity (" Di tanto core e il generoso Orlando, / che non degna ferir gente che dorma "), yet his magnanimity is also clearly associated with his folly in love, as he prefers to seek out those who are awake in order to ask the whereabouts of Angelica (IX, 4). 7 XVII, 17. Presumably Grifone is now the wiser in matters of love, but, it would appear, hardly free from error, as he is again deceived in his sleep and seized with others by Pinabello three cantos later (XX, 105). 8 IX, 23. Cf. Inf. XIII, 25: " cred'io ch'ei credette ch'io credessi... " Note that Dante's play upon the verb is a stammering which attests to his incredulity when confronted by souls transformed into trees and by the sin of suicide itself, whereas Ariosto's imitation conveys Olimpia's total belief. Ultimately, however, her words probably betray the inner doubt of one whose self-persuasions must be so fervent. 9 X, 20-21. These stanzas and the one following are directly translated from the episode of Ariadne in Ovid's Heroides, X, 7-27. 10 See XLIII, 155-156. Dreams and visions of course are common not only in poetry of the genre but in literature as a whole. For precedents to Ariosto's specific dream sequences, see Pio Rajna's Le fonti dell'Orlando Furioso (Firenze: Sansoni, 1896). For an excellent discussion of dream typology in general, see the chapter " Typical Uses of the Dream in Western Literature " from Manfred Weidhorn's Dreams in Seventeenth Century English Literature (The Hague / Paris: Mouton, 1970), pp. 44-59. 11 Upon hearing Melissa's prophecy, Bradamante wonders if she is asleep or awake (III, 33); Angelica fears that she dreams when she realizes that she is wearing the magic ring which can make her invisible (XI, 6); Ferrau sees Angelica vanish from before his eyes like a phantom at the departure of sleep (XII, 59); Iocondo at first believes that he is dreaming when he sees the Queen betraying her husband with a dwarf (XXVIII, 35); Adonio, entering an enchanted palace, does not know if he is drunk, dreaming, or mad (XLIII, 134). Given the abundance of such scenes and of Ariosto's brilliant fantasies throughout the poem, it is not surprising that some scholars have used the term " dream" as a metaphor to characterize the entire work. See, for example, the chapter entitled " I1 Sogno" in Giuseppe Raniolo's analysis of the poem (Lo

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spirito e l'arte dell'Orlando Furioso, Milano: Mondadori, 1929, pp. 49-65), and the section entitled " il nobile sognare del Furioso " in Attilio Momigliano's study (Saggio sull'Orlando Furioso, Bari: Laterza, 1946, pp. 316-323). 12 XXXIII, 62-63. Cf. Ovid, Heroides, XV, 123 ff. In a sense Bradamante's mistaking of reality for an idle dream is prefigured in the preceding canto, in which she accuses Merlin and Melissa of having created in her a false hope by means of their prophecies, and attributes their motive to envy of her sweet slumbers (" erano forse invidiosi / dei miei dolci, sicuri, almi riposi " XXXII, 25). 13 This and other aspects of the psychology of Orlando's illusion that he is reciprocated in his love for Angelica are well analyzed by Andrea Guastarelli in his study Personaggi del poema uriostesco (Milano: Vallardi, 1938), pp. 32 ff. 14 XXV, 93. The first part of the passage is modeled after Virgil's Aeneid, Bk. V, 854-856. 15 See Bk. II, Canto XV, 58-61. 16 Despite this aspect of his character as inherited from Boiardo, Ariosto's Rinaldo is in reality among the most level-headed personages of the entire poem, as seen even in the first canto when he breaks off a duel with his rival Ferraiu so that the two can see Angelica together (I, 18-21). Such discrepancies, however, need not detract from the didactic content of the episode to be discussed; indeed, probably Ariosto chooses so practical a character as one who can convey its lessons to the reader most convincingly. 17 Mario Marti, " Ludovico Ariosto," Letteratura italiana: I Maggiori (Milano: Marzorati, 1956), p. 349 and p. 361. Indeed, as to the emblem " homo sum," one notes that those in need of rest from their obsessions with love appear to include the poet himself (see XXIV, 3).