Marfisa

Marfisa (also translated as "Marphisa") is a character in the Italian romantic epics Orlando innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo and Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto. She is the sister of Ruggiero but was separated from him in early childhood. She becomes queen of India and fights as a warrior for the Saracens, taking part in the siege of the fortress Albracca until her sword is stolen by Brunello. She falls in love with Ruggiero, unaware who he is until Atlantes reveals their background. Learning that her parents were Christian, she converts to the faith and joins the Emperor Charlemagne's army against the Saracens.

Marfisa
Marfisa Guerriera (Warrioress Marfisa, 1597) by Antonio Tempesta
First appearanceOrlando Innamorato
In-universe information
GenderFemale
OccupationWarrioress
RelativesRuggiero (brother)
ReligionFirst Muslim, then Christian

Quotation

Marphisa raised her face with haughty cheer,
And answered him: "Thy judgment wanders far;
I will concede thy sentence would be clear,
Concluding I am thine by right of war,
If either were my lord or cavalier
Of those, by thee unhorsed in bloody jar:
Nor theirs am I, nor other's, but my own,
Who wins me, wins me from myself alone.

Orlando Furioso (tr. by William Stewart Rose,), 26, 79

Legacy and influence

Italian playwright Carlo Gozzi composed his work La Marfisa Bizzara based on the homonymous character from Orlando furioso.[1]

Sources
  • Boiardo: Orlando innamorato ed. Giuseppe Anceschi (Garzanti,1978)
  • Ariosto:Orlando Furioso, verse translation by Barbara Reynolds in two volumes (Penguin Classics, 1975). Part one (cantos 1–23) ISBN 0-14-044311-8; part two (cantos 24–46) ISBN 0-14-044310-X
  • Ariosto: Orlando Furioso ed. Marcello Turchi (Garzanti, 1974)
  1. Luciani, Gérard. "La religion, ses institutions, ses problèmes en Vénétie à travers laMarfisa bizzarrade Carlo Gozzi". In: Dix-huitième Siècle, n°35, 2003. L'épicurisme des Lumières, sous la direction de Anne Deneys-Tunney et Pierre-François Moreau. p. 488. [DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/dhs.2003.2568]; http://www.persee.fr/doc/dhs_0070-6760_2003_num_35_1_2568

Further reading
  • Bateman, J. Chimène. "Amazonian Knots: Gender, Genre, and Ariosto's Women Warriors." MLN 122, no. 1 (2007): 1-23. Accessed June 28, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/4490786.
  • Cavallo, Jo Ann. "Marphisa, Eastern Queen." In: The World Beyond Europe in the Romance Epics of Boiardo and Ariosto, pp. 70-82. Toronto; Buffalo; London: University of Toronto Press, 2013. Accessed June 28, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/j.ctt5hjtmd.9.
  • Pavlova, Maria. Review [Reviewed Work: Les Mille et Un Visages de la virago: Marphise et Bradamante entre continuation et variation by Valentina Denzel]. The Modern Language Review 113, no. 1 (2018): 253-55. Accessed June 28, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/10.5699/modelangrevi.113.1.0253.
  • Roche, Thomas P. "Ariosto's Marfisa: Or, Camilla Domesticated." MLN 103, no. 1 (1988): 113-33. Accessed June 28, 2020. doi:10.2307/2904982.
  • Tomalin, Margaret. "Bradamante and Marfisa: An Analysis of the "Guerriere" of the "Orlando Furioso"." The Modern Language Review 71, no. 3 (1976): 540-52. Accessed June 28, 2020. doi:10.2307/3725747.

See also
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