Ariosto in Scotland: John Stewart of Baldynneis's Roland Furious under the Patronage of King James

In this article I propose to discuss John Stewart of Baldynneis's version of Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso. Written between 1585 and 1589, this work precedes John Harington’s English translation, and was composed at the court of James VI of Scotland. It is a much abridged and truncated translation; but what is more important is that in undertaking this work the poet was entering a literary project conceived by his king, kinsman and dedicatee. Recently ascended the throne, James immediately showed a keen interest in poetic production and in literary theory, promoting a vernacular revival through a group of poets who would thereafter be grouped by modern critics under the common denomination of Castalians. With his Reulis and Cautelis (1584), James was setting down and proposing to his courtiers and fellow-poets a series of norms concerning poetic composition, stylistic and rhetorical rules, the choice of topics and topoi, and the correct precepts for a harmonious execution of the poetic work. John Stewart’s sense of duty towards his king (possibly coupled with his precarious position at court) induced him to obey perhaps supinely the king’s literary precepts, even when this meant a radical move away from Ariosto’s original intentions. Torn between literary and political authority, Stewart did choose Ariosto as a model to propose to his fellow poets, but through his abbregement of the original work he improved on it, mainly by means of drawing out the best in Ariosto and eliminating the bad, and in so doing he followed to the letter the king’s precepts on the point. The poet keeps the king as his constant interlocutor, and though such devices as a reiterated modesty topos proclaims its author’s active participation in the king’s project. Stewart finds in James’s precepts a guide to reformulate Ariosto’s matter according to poetic principles that are uniquely national.