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1-1-1977 The oM slem Enemy in Epic: Ariosto, Tasso, and Camoens John Donnelly Marquette University, [email protected]

Published version. Yale Italian Studies, Vol. I, No. 1 (1977): 162-170. © 1977 Yale Italian Studies. Used with permission. The Moslem Enemy in Renaissance Epic: Ariosto, Tasso and Camoens

John Patrick Donnelly, S.J.

The Renaissance produced many tracts and descriptions dealing with Mos- lems, such as those by Ogier de Busbecq and Phillipe du Fresne-Canaye,' which remain the main source for gauging western attitudes toward Moslems, but these can be supplemented by popular literature which reflects, forms, and gives classic expression to the ideas and stereotypes of a culture.' This study examines and compares the image.of the Moslem in the three greatest epics of the sixteenth century, Ariosto's furioso, Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata, and Camoens's Os Lusiadas." All three epics enjoyed wide popularity and present Christian heroes struggling against Moslem enemies. , courtier to the d'Este lords of , first published in 1516 but continued to polish and expand it until 1532. With 38,728 lines, it is the longest poem of the Renaissance, perhaps of west- ern literature, to attain wide popularity. It describes the defense of Paris by and his against the Moors of Spain and Africa. This was traditional material already developed by the medieval chansons de geste and by of , who preceded Ariosto as court poet at Ferrara. The tone is light-hearted and the structure episodic and loose-jointed. Ariosto owes more to medieval romances than to classical epics. Except for the shadowy figure of Charlemagne, the characters and story are wholly fictional. Ariosto's casual attitude toward history is illus- trated by his remark that Syrian armor in Charlemagne's day was modelled on that of the French crusaders in the Holy Land." Religion plays little role, but Orlando furioso abounds in magic and wonderment. Very different is 's Gerusalemme lib erata, 15,728 lines long, which was completed in 1575 and published in 1581. Filled with liter- ary self-doubt and religious scruples, Tasso later recast it into the leaden

162 The Moslem Enemy in Renaissance Epic 163

Gerusalemme conquistata. Gerusalemme liberata describes the capture of Jerusalem by the . Some events and characters are historical, but most episodes hark back to Vergil and or flow from Tasso's idyllic imagination or religious conviction. Neither of the Italian epics has a national- ist thrust, but Tasso like Ariosto glorifies the fictional ancestors of his d'Este patrons. The Lusiads of the Portuguese Luis de Camoens is a shorter, more coherent national and historical epic that describes the voyage of Vasco da Gama to Calicut, which began Portuguese political and commercial power in the In- dian Ocean. The poet inserts into this story the history of the Portuguese struggle for freedom from the Moors and for empire in Asia. Most of the Lusiads, published at Lisbon in 1572, was written in Asia during the author's . years as a soldier and adventurer. The three authors show more knowledge of the geography and diversity of Moslem peoples than of their culture and religion. Epic convention, going back to Homer's catalogue of ships and Vergil's list of Italian tribes, led them to include lists of Moslem kings, nations and places." These are fairly accurate, but there are slips; for example, Ariosto makes the Tartars Moslems centuries before their conversion." The three epics never contrast eastern and western clothing, food, architecture or even military equipment and strategy. They display no interest even in Moslem polygamy but rather extrapolate western customs to the east. Thus Moslem women enjoy all the freedom and status of their western sisters. There are no references to veils and purdah. Indeed all three epics present Moslem women warriors fighting alongside their men; in Orlando and Clorinda in Gerusalemme liberata are leading Moslem . In part this most un-Islamic characterization recalls the of the and Camilla of the Aeneid, in part it adds spice to the stories. In general both the Italian epics present Moslem and Christian societies as similar, although both are romanticized. For this reason the poems reveal no preju- dice based on a sense of the superiority of western culture over oriental civi- lization. Nor indeed were western technology and politics in the sixteenth century such as to allow Europeans a feeling of cultural superiority. Neither is anti-Moslem sentiment based on racism, for these epics have no trace of a sense of European racialsuperiority over Turks and Arabs. Thus Ariosto can present the as the founder of the House of d'Este, his patrons." 164 John Patrick Donnelly, S.J.

The shapelessness of Moslem culture in the Italian epics, at least, flows from ignorance. The treatment of Moslem religion adds positive distortion to ignorance. There is no effort to stress the real common elements of Chris- tianity and Islam-both are revealed, ethical monotheisms founded by men sent from God, whose teachings are contained in sacred books. Both urge prayer, almsgiving, and fasting. The Koran shows great respect for Jesus, Mary, and John the Baptist. On these points the epics are silent. Indeed, they equate Moslems with pagans. Paradoxically they follow medieval tradition in conceptualizing Islam as similar to Christianity in areas where the two re- ligions have little in common. Thus Ariosto invents a Moslem clergy after the western pattern." The chansons de geste fabricated a Moslem trinity of Mohammed, Tervagant and Apollin, vestiges of this surface when Ariosto de- scribes Moslems as worshipping Mohammed and Tervagant.? We are spared medieval calumnies against Mohammed, for instance, that he fell drunk and was devoured by hogs. In general the role of the prophet is assimilated to that of Christ. Thus Moslems make vows to Mohammed, they invoke his help in battle, and even worship him. When faced with defeat, they call upon him and vow temples, shrines and altars.'? Some Moslem customsare re- corded correctly: circumcision, the prohibition against wine, and against the use of religious statues; but to judge from these poems, the main purpose of the mosques is to display the armor and trophies of defeated Christian heroes.!1 The only reference to the content of the Koran incorrectly asserts that it sanctions the Turkish practice of carrying off Christian youths to be- come janissaries.'? Although the epics mention political differences among Moslems and squabbles among their leaders, they never advert to the religious divisions within Islam. Indeed, the only reference to Protestantism serves to contrast Christian religious diversity with Moslem unity-"sempre unidos. "13 Most likely this remark of Carnoens comes from a desire for rhetorical effect rather than from ignorance of long standing western efforts to playoff Shi'ite Persia against the Sunni Turks. Moslems also engage in unlikely behavior. Thus in Orlando furioso Medor, who is otherwise presented sympathetically, prays to the moon as the pagan triple Diana.!4 In Gerusalemme liberata Ismeno the wizard and Aladine, King of Jerusalem, steal an icon of the Vir- gin Mary and install it in a mosque as a talisman.'! The three poems endow their Moslem protagonists with many favorable The Moslem Enemy in Renaissance Epic 165

qualities, partly because the nature of epic demands this. 's prowess only enhances Achilles's victory. In the two Italian epics the Moslem paladins are uniformly brave and mighty in arms. Most of these champions fall into two groups. Some are scheduled for conversion to Christianity, for instance Ruggiero, Marfisa, Sobrino, Clorinda; these are paragons of all knightly vir- tues. Another group is destined to fall before Christian arms. They are praised for their fame and prowess, which they demonstrate by defeating Christian knights of the second rank, just as Hector defeats Patroclus. Never- theless, the valor of Ariosto's , and , just as that of Tasso's Argante, Solimano , and Tisaferno, is flawed by ferocity and pride." Several episodes present Moslem cruelty, but this is balanced by in- stances of Christian cruelty, as in the sack of Jerusalem.!? Several Moslems appear as able rulers or wise counsellors. Ariosto especially credits the Mos- lems with compassion and with loyalty to their lord at great cost to self." The Moslems at Mozambique received da Gama's men in friendly fashion . until they realized that they were Christians; the rival Moslem king of Malindi and his people got along splendidly with the Portuguese despite differences in religion." Some Moslems are sincere and even saintly in their own faith.?" There are no charges against the Moslems of laziness, sensuality, or lustful- ness." The knights and sailors of these epics are far from home, but they seldom give thought to the women they have left behind. Love between man and woman is usually across religious lines. Partly this is a convention which goes I back to the chansons de geste. In most cases love leads to religious conver- sion. It is usually Moslem women who fall in love with Christian knights (Fiordiligi loves , Isabela loves , Erminia loves Tancred, Arminda loves ), but there are variations. , the Christian amazon, marries the ex-Moslem Ruggiero. Infatuation for leads Rambaldo to renounce Christianity .12 Tasso and Camoens stress Moslem vice more than Ariosto. Thus the Portu- guese epic frequently portrays Moslems as cowards in battle." More serious, Tasso and especially Carnoens charge them with treachery and trickery, vices totally opposed to the knightly ideal." Instances of magic are common in both Italian epics. For Ariosto there is no difference in the nature and func- tion of Christian and Moslem magic, which merely increases the wondrous 166 John Patrick Donnelly, S.J. and imaginative quality of his poem. Not so with Tasso. Magic appears as a favorite weapon of the Moslems, and in their hands it is sinister rather than merely marvelous. The leading Moslem wizards, Ismeno and Idraote, employ diabolical help." Associated with them is the witch Armida, Idraote's niece. In contrast, the Christian hermit-seer who helps frustrate Armida's charms expressly rejects diabolical help and attributes his magic to the close study of the stars and the hidden powers of natural objects. Not unexpectedly, Tasso has the devil helping the Moslem cause." During the sixteenth century, conversions from Christianity to Islam surely outnumbered those in the opposite direction. Ariosto mentions without bitterness fifteen thousand Christian renegades living in Cairo." Tasso presents three renegades: Ismeno, Rambaldo and Emireno." The first is totally hateful, but the other two at least fight courageously for their new faith. More central to these epics are the Moslems who become Christians: Ruggiero, Marfisa, Sansonetto, Brandimarte and Sobrino in Ariosto." Clorinda and Armida in Tasso ." In The Lusiads the Moroccan Moncaide joyfully joins da Gama's ex- pedition in Calicut and saves it by warning the Christians of a Moslem plot. He then converts to Christianity. 31 All these converts except Armida are vir- tuous and amiable both before and after their conversion. The joy our poets take in securing their conversion again suggests a religious basis of their atti- tude toward Moslems. Unlike the chansons de geste, these epics do not engage in crude libel; they do not give Moslems ridiculous names, picture them as afflicted with physical deformities, or stress their cruelty.P Ariosto shows the least preju- dice even though his subject and style comes closest to the chansons. Much of his bias seems a mere vestige of that tradition. He does not take himself too seriously and strives to entertain rather than teach or edify. The opening incident exemplifies the tone of Orlando furioso. The Christian Rinaldo and the Moslem Ferran happen on , the fair princess of Cathay. As they fight over her, she escapes. Realizing this, Ferran suggests that they both mount his horse in pursuit. Ariosto comments: Oh gran bonta de'cavallieri antiqui! Eran rivali, eran di fe diversi, e si sentian degli aspri colpi iniqui The Moslem Enemy in Renaissance Epic 167

per tutta la persona anco dolersi, e pur per selve oscure e calli obliqui insieme van senza sospetto aversi;" Tasso and Carnoens are more bitter toward Moslems. We have noted how Camoens stresses their cowardice and Tasso their treachery. Both dwell on the obdurate hatred of Moslems for Christians. Like their paladins both poets feel entitled to match blow for blow. "Love thy enemy" never enters the picture. The Moslem is hateful because he has always been hated by Chris- tians and has hated them. The poets hate Islam because it is false and because Christianity is true.P" Ignorance prevents them from effective argument against Moslem beliefs and practice; indeed, their tendency to assimilate Islam to Christianity made criticism dangerous because it might also under- mine Christianity. Personal experience may have sharpened their hatred. In 1559 Turkish corsairs sacked Tasso's hometown of , killing and en- slaving most of the inhabitants. During the sack young Tasso was with his father in , but for weeks his sister Cornelia, who became lost fleeing to the hills, was counted among the missing. 35 Camoens lost an eye while cam- paigning as a young soldier against the Moors in Morocco. His best years, 1553 to 1570, were spent in Asia where he fought on the Red Sea and the Malabar coast. From da Gama to Camoens's own generation, the Portuguese built their eastern empire in the teeth of Moslem opposition. During the years when Tasso and Camoens were writing, hostility between Christians and Moslems was steadily rising. The years 1559 to 1565 were characterized by Turkish supremacy in the Mediterranean. This was checked by the Turkish failure to capture Malta in 1565. The next year the Turks broke their long truce with the Hapsburgs in . In 1569 the Turks tried to take Kazan and Astrakhan from the Russians, and the Moriscos of Granada revolted from Philip II, who crushed them without mercy. Mean- while the militant kings of Algiers occupied Tunis, a Spanish satellite. The next year the Turks attacked Venice both in the Balkans and by a successful invasion of . Venice, Philip II and Pius V replied by forming the Holy League. In 1571 the League fleet under Don Juan of Austria destroyed the Turkish fleet off Lepanto in the largest galley battle in naval history. The Sultan tried to brush off the loss as a singed beard and rebuilt his fleet. The war dragged on until 1577, but Venice could not stand the financial strain 168 John Patrick Donnelly, S.J.

and soon dropped out. The Sultan was worried about the Sophy and in- creasingly turned his interest to the Persian frontier, while Philip II had the bleeding sore of the Netherlands to attend.:" The Lusiads, published in 1572, and Gerusalemme liberata, completed in 1575, surely reflect the tension and exaltation of the Lepanto era. All three epics demand new crusades against the Moslem. Given Ariosto's serene and secular outlook and the Italian preoccupation with the Wars of when he was writing, his plea for a crusade comes as a surprise. It would be convenient to dismiss this passage as conventional piety, but Ariosto seems terribly earnest. Nowhere else does he speak so directly and passionately to his own generation. It is the destruction of Italy and the mutual slaughter of Christians that leads him to direct their arms against the Turk.:" Tasso's plea for renewed crusades is more distinctly religious and depends less on direct statement than on his whole subject matter and treatment." For Camoens the Moslem remains the inveterate and predes- tined enemy of . The prologue of his epic urges King Sebastian, to whom the poem is dedicated, to strike new terror into Moslem hearts and win new lands to the true faith. The whole world will tremble and the Moor will gaze in terror at the exploits of Portuguese arms in Africa and the seas beyond. Again and again he extolls the medieval Portuguese kings who de- feated and expelled the Moslems. When da Gama's expedition is about to leave Lisbon, Camoens brings forward a patriarchal figure who speaks for the poet in criticizing empire building in the Indies and in urging war against the Moslems in Africa. The final verses of The Lusiads invite Sebastian to level the fortifications of Morocco. When the King accomplishes this, Camoens's muse will sing his exploits so that all mankind will recognize him as the second Alexander. Unlike the first Alexander, Sebastian will not need to envy Achilles for having Homer to immortalize his deeds." The sequel is well known. Sebastian rewarded Carnoens with a small pension, but he did not need the poet to urge a crusade." His limited in- telligence and quixotic imagination were fixed on a Moroccan campaign. He ignored the cautions of his advisors and of Philip II, the prudent king. Sharif 'Abd al-Malik answered the crusade with jihad. Poorly led, hungry, exhausted by the desert sun, the Portuguese went down to total defeat at Alcazarquivir on August 4,1578. Sebastian perished on the battle field with half his army; the The Moslem Enemy in Renaissance Epic 169 survivors were enslaved or held for ransom. Two years later Camoens died, and Philip II asserted his hereditary claims to Portugal." The last crusade suggests that great has no claim to wise policy.

1. Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, Turkish Letters, translated by E. S. Forester, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968); Philippe du Fresne-Canaye, Le voyage du Levant, edited by Henri Hauser, (Paris, 1897). Under Turkengefabr Karl Schottenloher lists thirteen columns of sixteenth-century tracts, Bibliographie zur Deutschen Geschichte im Zeitalter der Glaubenspaltung, 1517-1585, (Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1957), IV, pp. 677-683. 2. For an introduction to Christian attitudes toward Islam: Paul Coles, The Ottoman Impact on Europe, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1968); R. W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the , (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1962); Norman Daniel, Islam and the West: The Making of an Image, (Edinburgh: The University Press, 1958). For attitudes towards Moslems in English literature, see Samuel C. Chew's The Crescent and the Rose: Islam and England during the Renaissance, (Oxford: , 1937). The 1975 University of Chicago dissertation of Henry Y. K. Tom, "The Wonderful Voyage: Chivalric and Moral Asia in the Imagination of Sixteenth Century Italy, Spain, and Portugal," examines Ariosto and Camoens but concentrates on South and East Asia rather than on Moslems. 3. For the enormous bibliography on Ariosto, Tasso, and Carnoens, see the entries under their names in the annual MLA International Bibliography. Henceforward the notes will abbreviate Orlando furioso as OF, Gerusalemme liberata as GL, and Os Lusiadas as L; reference numbers are to canto and octave. 4. OF17: 73. 5. OF 14: 11-32; GL 18: 4-32; L 3: 6-19,7: 12-22. 6. OF 14: 30. 7. The attitude toward black Africans shows traces of racism. In Gerusalemme liberata Clorinda is the daughter of the Ethiopian king and his black but beautiful queen. Clorinda turns out white because the decorations around the marriage bed depict a beautiful white girl. Tasso's curious biology goes back to Quintillian (12: 13-14). The black Christians of Ethiopia are viewed fairly favorably (12: 21-26), but African Mos- lems are a black and ugly lot (17: 32). The leading blacks of Orlando furioso are the Nubians who help the Christian attack on Bizerta (38: 35-64). Da Gama's sailors fight a skirmish with black Africans, whom they rather unfairly accuse of treachery (L 5: 28-36). 8. OF 38: 81-85,40: 13. C. Meredith jones, "The Conventional Saracen of the Songs of Geste ," Speculum, 16,1942, p. 210. 9. jones, p. 210; OF 12: 60,38: 18. 10. OF 18: 55, 38: 86,40: 13; GL 20: 113,7: 17. jones, p. 213. 11. OF 42: 5,29: 22;GL2: 50,20: 85;OF18: 55. 12.L7:13. 170 John Patrick Donnelly, S.J.

13.L7:9. 14. OF 18: 184. 15. GL 2: 6-7. 16. E.g., OF 18: 25; GL 19: 26. 17. OF 16: 24-25; GL 1: 87,19: 29-30; L 3: 64. 18. OFI4: 24, 38: 65; GL 11: 29; OF 18: 170,19: 2, 19: 11,25: 81. Also GL 9:86,17:32. 19. L 1: 54-63,2: 71-113,6: 1-5. 20. OF 41: 43; L 7: 33-36. 21. But Tasso hints at pederasty between Solimano and Lesbino, 9: 81-87. 22. Jones,p.220;OF46:73;GL5:75. 23. L 1: 89-91,2: 25-28, 3: 67, but elsewhere Carno ens praises their <;ourage, 3: 50. 24. GL 19: 25,19: 89, 19: 129; L 1: 69-70,1: 96-101,2: 61-66. 25. GL 2: 1-4, 13: 5-12,4: 20. Jones, p. 218. 26. GL 14: 42; 4: 1,7: 99-101. 27. OFI5: 64. 28. GL2: 2,5: 75,7: 33-35,17: 32. 29. OF22-36,41: 59, 38: 7, 15: 95,41: 39,46: 60. 30. GL 12: 65,20: 136. 31. L 9: 15. 32. Jones, p. 205. 33. OFl: 22. 34. GL 9: 19,16: 47; L 1: 69-70,1: 93,2: 9,7: 10,3: 20,3: 82, 3: 112; OF 8: 69. 35. C. P. Brand, Torquato Tasso, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965), p. 8. 36. Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, translated by Sian Reynolds, (New York: Harper and Row, 1973), II, pp. 967-1185. 37. OF 17: 73-79. 38. GLI7:93-94. 39. L 1: 7-8, 1: 15,3: 23-118,4: 94-104, 10: 156. 40. H. H. Hart, Luis de Camoens and the Epic of the Lusiads, (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962), p. 195. 41. Braude!, II, 1178-1184; E. W. Bovill, The Battle of Alcazar, (London: Batchworth Press, 1952).