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Marfisa
Matter of France character
Marfisa, detail from a fresco in the Villa Giustiniani Massimo [it] (Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1822–27)
First appearance	Orlando Innamorato
In-universe information
Gender	Female
Title	Queen of India
Occupation	Warrioress
Relatives	Ruggiero (brother)
Religion	First Muslim, then Christian

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.

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 eponymous character from Orlando furioso.

References

1. Luciani, Gérard (2003). "La religion, ses institutions, ses problèmes en Vénétie à travers la Marfisa bizzarra de Carlo Gozzi" [Religion, its institutions, its problems in Veneto through the Marfisa bizzarra by Carlo Gozzi] (PDF). Dix-huitième Siècle (in French). 35 (1): 487–497. doi:10.3406/dhs.2003.2568.

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)

Further reading

• Bateman, J. Chimène (2007). "Amazonian Knots: Gender, Genre, and Ariosto's Women Warriors". MLN. 122 (1): 1–23. doi:10.1353/mln.2007.0022. JSTOR 4490786. S2CID 201782811.
• Cavallo, Jo Ann (2013). "Marphisa, Eastern Queen". The World Beyond Europe in the Romance Epics of Boiardo and Ariosto. University of Toronto Press. pp. 70–82. ISBN 978-1-4426-4683-4. JSTOR 10.3138/j.ctt5hjtmd.9.
• Pavlova, Maria (2018). "Review of Les Mille et Un Visages de la virago: Marphise et Bradamante entre continuation et variation". The Modern Language Review. 113 (1): 253–255. doi:10.5699/modelangrevi.113.1.0253.
• Roche, Thomas P. (January 1988). "Ariosto's Marfisa: Or, Camilla Domesticated". MLN. 103 (1): 113–133. doi:10.2307/2904982. JSTOR 2904982.
• Tomalin, Margaret (July 1976). "Bradamante and Marfisa: An Analysis of the 'Guerriere' of the 'Orlando Furioso'". The Modern Language Review. 71 (3): 540–552. doi:10.2307/3725747. JSTOR 3725747.

See also

• List of woman warriors in legend and mythology
• Media related to Marfisa at Wikimedia Commons

• Characters in Orlando Innamorato and Orlando Furioso
• Fictional characters introduced in the 15th century
• Fictional female knights
• Fictional queens
• Legendary Arab people