Orlando Furioso

The structure that Ariosto uses in Orlando Furioso—interlacing narratives—is found throughout the chivalric romance genre. The device consists of embedded and multilayered narrative frames: first, that of the narrator and his audience; next, the stories of the main characters, including Orlando, Astolfo, Ruggiero, and Bradamant, which interrupt and overlap with each other; and finally, the stories of the people the main questing knights encounter.

In the first framing layer, the narrator explains his intended audience and where he gets his material. In the introduction of most cantos, the narrator addresses various audience members, including “my Lord” (106) and “Ladies” (339). At various times, the narrator also mentions his sources: “Federigo Fregoso” (499), “Turpin” (131, 214, 340, 406, 534, etc.), as well as an “author” whose “name does not matter” (287). The narrator asserts that the overlapping and interrupted nature of the stories comes from this source material: for instance, Turpin “makes a digression at this point and returns to the place where Pinabello of Maganza was slain” (271).

In the second layer, the narrator frequently switches between his main characters, almost always teasing a moment of action or a cliff hanger before moving to a different character. The narrator compares interlacing narratives to cooking and sewing: “As varying the dishes quickens the appetite, so it is with my story: the more varied it is, the less likely it is to bore my listeners. / To complete the great tapestry on which I am working I feel the need for a great variety of strands” (136). This is a statement on craft: The narrator asserts that sticking with one story, rather than moving between different stories, is boring.

The narrator jokingly blames his characters for the interlacing narrative structure. For example, at the beginning of Canto 32, he says:

I remember that I was to relate to you a suspicion (I did promise but then it slipped my mind) which had embittered fair Bradamant against Ruggiero [...] That was to be my song, but I started on another, for Rinaldo intruded, and then Guidone, who kept me busy as he held up Rinaldo’s journey awhile (384).

The characters supposedly distract the narrator and influence the structure of the poem.