Couple of excerpts from Orlando Furioso (tr. Barbara Reynolds) which depict poet's views on gender.
This first excerpt is from the opening of Canto V.
1
No creatures on the earth, no matter whether
Of peaceful disposition, mild and kind,
Or fierce and merciless as wintry weather,
Are hostile to the females of their kind.
The she-bear and her mate in sport together,
The lion and the lioness, we find;
The she-wolf and the wolf at peace appear;
The heifer from the bull has naught to fear.
Of peaceful disposition, mild and kind,
Or fierce and merciless as wintry weather,
Are hostile to the females of their kind.
The she-bear and her mate in sport together,
The lion and the lioness, we find;
The she-wolf and the wolf at peace appear;
The heifer from the bull has naught to fear.
2
What dreadful plague, what fury of despair
In our tormented bosoms now holds sway,
That wives and husbands constantly we hear
Wounding each other with the things they say?
With scratching, bruising, tearing out of hair,
Assault and battery, in bitter fray
They drench with scalding tears the marriage-bed,
And not tears only; sometimes blood is shed.
In our tormented bosoms now holds sway,
That wives and husbands constantly we hear
Wounding each other with the things they say?
With scratching, bruising, tearing out of hair,
Assault and battery, in bitter fray
They drench with scalding tears the marriage-bed,
And not tears only; sometimes blood is shed.
3
Not only a great wrong, but in God’s sight
An outrage against Nature he commits
Who with his gentle helpmeet stoops to fight,
Or in her face a lovely woman hits,
Or harms a hair upon her head; but quite
Inhuman is the man who her throat slits,
Or chokes or poisons her; he, in my eyes,
Is not a man, but fiend in human guise.
An outrage against Nature he commits
Who with his gentle helpmeet stoops to fight,
Or in her face a lovely woman hits,
Or harms a hair upon her head; but quite
Inhuman is the man who her throat slits,
Or chokes or poisons her; he, in my eyes,
Is not a man, but fiend in human guise.
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Another excerpt from earlier in the poem, the canto IV, depicts Rinaldo's outrage at the unequal and unjust laws governing sexuality. Ginevra is a Scottish princess who is rescued by Rinaldo. Her name is Italianised version of Guinevere and her story in the poem has parallels with that of the namesake queen in the Arthurian tales.
63
Rinaldo thought a while and then he said:
‘A damsel is condemned to death because
She gave her lover solace in her bed
Who with desire for her tormented was?
A curse upon the legislator’s head!
And cursed be all who tolerate such laws!
Death rather to such damsels as refuse,
But not to her who loves and life renews.
64
‘And in my view it makes no difference
If the report is false or if it’s true,
For this does not affect her innocence
(I’d praise her anyway, if no one knew).
I know just what to say in her defence.
So now a trusty guide I ask of you
To lead me to the accuser. I’ll not waver,
For, as God is my help, I hope to save her.
65
‘I will not say she did not do this deed.
Lest I am wrong, it would be ill-advised;
But I will say that even if she did,
She does not merit to be thus chastised.
And I will say that mad and bad indeed
He was who first this evil law devised,
Which from the statute-book should be erased
And by a wiser measure be replaced.
66
‘If the same ardour, if an equal fire
Draws and compels two people ever more
To the sweet consummation of desire
(Which many ignoramuses deplore),
Why should a woman by a fate so dire
Be punished who has done what men a score
Of times will do and never will be blamed,
Nay, rather, will be praised for it and famed?
67
‘This inequality in law much wrong
Has done to women. With God’s help, I mean
To show that to have suffered it so long
The greatest of iniquities has been.’
Rinaldo’s logic carried them along.
The ancient forefathers were justly seen
To be unjust to have consented to it;
Also the king, who could and should undo it.
