The Italian Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533) was the greatest narrative poet of the Italian Renaissance. His richly human masterpiece, "Orlando furioso," adds a native bent for narration to an exquisitely polished octave stanza. Ludovico Ariosto was born...

William Shakespeare's comedy, 'Much Ado about Nothing,' is seen as a play built on the recurrent theme of a woman erroneously accused of whoredom. The Hero-Claudio plot in the play is compared with Ariosto's Ariodante and Ginevra and to Spenser's Phedon-Claribell plot in the...

Although Ludovico Ariosto always hated travelling, the Orlando furioso provides a compelling landscape of multiple locations, exotic place names, uncharted geographical spaces, and marvellous journeys. This essay examines what it might mean when the literary imagination of a home-loving poet embarks on such...

In the following essay, Wiggins argues that Ariosto's rendering of Rodomonte suggests a complex, paradoxical, human character.

In the following essay, Verdicchio questions whether the use of allegory and irony in the Alcina episode of the Furioso renders Ariosto's work modern or postmodern.