Translating the Pope and the Apennines: Harington's version of the \+i\Orlando Furioso.\-i

Sir John Harington's translation of the "Orlando furioso", published in 1591, was the first attempt to cast Ariosto's masterpiece into English. The principal frames of reference in Ariosto's poem which Harington has to address in presenting the work for an audience in Elizabethan England are fourfold: geographical allusions; religious and ecclesiastical matters; politics and patrons; and cultural allusions both contemporary and literary-historical. The article concentrates mainly on the first two of these, making only brief allusions to the other two topics.