Note 564 — Chapter VII

The acute and learned critic Pio Rajna, whose two massive works of scholarlike research, I Reali di Francia (Bologna, 1872), and Le Fonti dell'Orlando Furioso (Firenze, 1876), have thrown a flood of light upon Chivalrous Romance literature in Italy, is at pains to prove that the Orlando Innamorato contains a vein of conscious humor. See Le Fonti, etc., pp. 24-27. I agree with him that Boiardo treated his subject playfully. But it must be remembered that he was far from wishing to indulge a secret sarcasm like Ariosto, or to make open fun of chivalry like Fortiguerra.