Doppio sogno: autore e lettore alla disfida dell’intreccio

For the modern reader, the romances of chivalry written at the court of the Este constitute puzzling entities, governed by mysterious laws and lacking even the most basic temporal references. Fraught with such difficulties, the reader is tempted to indulge in the simple pleasure of reading and let the authors walk him through the narration instead. Quite the opposite can be said of the critics’ approach to these works. In fact, scholars have often tackled the problem of the ‘fabrica’ of the Inamoramento and of the Furioso, i.e. their shaping and construction, in an attempt to unveil the authors’ téchne. This study deals with the issue of the plot from the perspective of the entrelacement. This is a literary technique of French origin, which essentially consists in alternating and interweave the narration without focusing too long on any individual character. Ariosto borrows the technique from Boiardo, and takes it to its most spectacular limits, only to abandon it in the last part of the poem. In doing so, he ensures his own work a conclusion of notoriously classical inspiration, which for its ‘verticality’ closely resembles Vergil’s Eneid.