Abstract:
The title character of Robert Garnier's Bradamante (1582) evas introduced to French literature through the matiere chi France (Matter o1 France), epic poems written during the Middle Ages- The personage of Rradamante was expanded over time into that of the greatest female knight, whose exploits were chronicled by the Italian writers Matteo Maria Roiardo (Ur/undo Innamororo, 1495) and Ludovico Ariosto (Orlando Furio.co, 1522). It is from Ariosto's epic- that Gamier took the material for his tragicomedy. repatriating the fierce and chivalrous Bradamante into French literature and using the story of her battle against Saracen knights as an allegory for the political turbulence of France iii the late sixteenth century. The character of Bradamante has continued to inspire a variety of authors, from seventeenth-century playwrights to operatic composers. and even a children's author at the dawn of the twenty-first century.In addition to an introduction that explores the development of Bradamante as a literary figure, I have also written an English translation of Act IV of Garnier's Rhoda/ratite. Translation in general is like walking a tightrope: Faithfulness to the source language, readability in the target language, word choice and grammatical structure must all be weighed and the right balance must be struck. Transforming Garnet's Middle French from Alexandrine verse into sufficiently literary English prose proved to be as challenging as it was rewarding. I have included the French text published edited by Raymond LLebegue in Robert Cornier. Les Juifves. Rradamante. Posies diverse's (1949) for comparison.
