Page 173 - Costellazioni 5

DANIEL T. LOCHMAN, Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene

ence of a surprise encounter with a beautiful beloved as warrior re-
produces the embodiment of eros and potential (or realized) violence
as a mingled comic and tragic register of early modern romance nar-
rative and that reflects the uncertain status of women in positions of
social and political dominance.
Book 3, stanza 21, of Tasso’s work introduces another martial
maid, Clorinda, who is also revealed in a surprising way to a lover. In
this version, Clorinda recognizes the armor of her beloved, Tancred,
before they meet in ba le. Edward Fairfax’s 1600 English translation,
which provides a closer rendering of the Italian than did Harington’s
of Orlando Furioso, recalls the conflict between Britomart and Arthegall
in Book 4, Canto 6 of the Faerie Queene: 40

This while prick’d forth Clorinda from the throng,
And ‘gainst Tancredie set her spear in rest;
Upon their helms they crack’d their lances long,
And from her head her guilden casque he kest,
For every lace he broke and every thong,
And in the dust threw down her plumed crest,
About her shoulders shone her golden locks.
Like sunny beams on alabaster rocks. 41

40 On Fairfax see L.G. Kelly, “Fairfax, Edward (1568?–1632x5?),” in Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004),
doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9080.
41 Jerusalem Delivered, trad. Edward Fairfax (New York: Capricorn Books,
1963), 48-49. See Gerusalemme liberata, 3. 21 in the edition of Lanfranco Care i
(Milano: Mondadori, 1957).
Clorinda intanto ad incontrar l’assalto
va di Tancredi, e pon la lancia in resta.
Ferírsi a le visiere, e i tronchi in alto
volaro e parte nuda ella ne resta;
ché, ro i i lacci a l’elmo suo, d’un salto
(mirabil colpo!) ei le balzò di testa;
e le chiome dorate al vento sparse,
giovane donna in mezzo ’l campo apparse.

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