The origin and position of the paladins is openly
ridiculed, as in the tournament of donkeys in the second book, where
the knights appear with the most ludicrous armament. The poet utters
his ironical regrets over the inexplicable faithlessness which seems
implanted in the house of Gano of Mainz, over the toilsome acquisition
of the sword Durindana, and so forth. Tradition, in fact, serves him
only as a substratum for episodes, ludicrous fancies, allusions to
events of the time (among which some, like the close of cap. vi. are
exceedingly fine), and indecent jokes. Mixed with all this, a certain
derision of Ariosto is unmistakable, and it was fortunate for the 'Or-
lando Furioso' that the 'Orlandino,' with its Lutheran heresies, was
soon put out of the way by the Inquisition. The parody is evident when
(cap. vi, 28) the house of Gonzaga is deduced from the paladin Guidone,
since the Colonna claimed Orlando, the Orsini Rinaldo, and the house of
Este--according to Ariosto-- Ruggiero as their ancestors. Perhaps
Ferrante Gonzaga, the patron of the poet, was a party to this sarcasm
on the house of Este.
That in the 'Jerusalem Delivered' of Torquato Tasso the delineation of
character is one of the chief tasks of the poet, proves only how far
his mode of thought differed from that prevalent half a century before.
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