Shakespeare Night Presents: Ariosto's ORLANDO FURIOSO, Canto X (and XI?)

THIS READING

Hi --

Today (Monday 4/20/26) I (Tom) plan to go ahead with Orlando Furioso, doing Canto 10 (and maybe Canto 11 as well). Here is a PDF of Cantos 9, 10, 11 from the Barbara Reynolds 1975 translation (Penguin Classics) ...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qXeP2lrwyLnEkaZjmYS8SRByeb973XaX/view?usp=sharing

For a guide to the characters (in the whole work):
https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Italian/AriostoListofCharacters.php

For Tomasso's excellent video guide, canto-by-canto, go into YouTube and search:
orlando furioso "tom la books" canto [number] summary and explanation

Here, from poetryintranslation.com, is a plot summary of Cantos 10 and 11 ...

CANTO X: RESCUED AND RESCUER
Canto X: 1-9: Ariosto on male fickleness
Canto X: 10-14: Bireno’s affections stray elsewhere
Canto X: 15-18: He and Olimpia reach a deserted island
Canto X: 19-26: Bireno abandons Olimpia on the isle
Canto X: 27-34: Olimpia’s lament
Canto X: 35-39: We return to Ruggiero who meets three of Alcina’s ladies
Canto X: 40-43: Ruggiero, spurning their pleas, finds himself pursued
Canto X: 44-47: He boards the ferry to Logistilla’s realm
Canto X: 48-51: Ruggiero employs the magic shield
Canto X: 52-56: Alcina is defeated
Canto X: 57-63: Logistilla’s castle
Canto X: 64-68: Ruggiero leaves Logistilla’s isle
Canto X: 69-73: His flight takes him to England
Canto X: 74-76: He arrives as Rinaldo is reviewing the troops
Canto X: 77-89: The various companies described
Canto X: 90-95: Ruggiero flies onward and sees Angelica bound to the rock
Canto X: 96-99: He is overcome by love and pity
Canto X: 100-106: He fights with the sea-monster
Canto X: 107-115: He employs the ring and frees Angelica

CANTO XI: ORLANDO AND THE SEA-MONSTER
Canto XI: 1-6: Angelica employs the ring and vanishes
Canto XI: 7-12: She sets out to seek her own realm
Canto XI: 13-17: Ruggiero comes upon a knight fighting with a giant
Canto XI: 18-20: The knight is Bradamante whom the giant bears away
Canto XI: 21-28: Ariosto’s tirade against ‘modern’ weapons
Canto XI: 29-32: Orlando reaches the island of Ebuda
Canto XI: 33-36: He prepares to attack the sea-monster
Canto XI: 37-41: He succeeds in tying it to the rock
Canto XI: 42-45: And ends the creature’s evil reign
Canto XI: 46-51: Orlando is attacked in turn by the islanders
Canto XI: 52-55: The Irish army lands, as he recognises Olimpia
Canto XI: 56-61: The Irish are led by King Oberto
Canto XI: 62-64: Orlando relates Olimpia’s story
Canto XI: 65-72: The King is smitten with love for her
Canto XI: 73-76: He vows to return her to her proper place
Canto XI: 77-83: Orlando continues his search for Angelica

--Tom

IF YOU ARE NEW...
At these Zoom meetings, we take turns reading aloud, paragraph by paragraph if it's a prose work, speech by speech if it's a play. (That is, we don't assign parts.) If it's a poem, we make a decision based on the poetic form.

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CURRENT SHAKESPEARE-NIGHT SCHEDULE
We generally read one work on the first and third Mondays and another work on the second and fourth Mondays.

• On the first and third Mondays of each month, Tom Frenkel will host.
• On the second and fourth Mondays of each month, Peter Shenkin will host.
• On the fifth Monday of a month (if there is one), we sometimes hold an "open mic", where participants are encouraged to sing a song, tell a joke, read a poem, or whatever. Sometimes we continue reading a work. And sometimes we take a vacation.

GENERAL INFORMATION
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We often have an informal discussion preceding and following the reading.

FUTURE READINGS

• 1st and 3rd Mondays: TBD
• 2nd and 4th Mondays: TBD
• 5th Mondays: Next is 29 June 2026: TBD.