Abstract
This essay proposes a close reading of Canto XX of Giovan Battista Marino’s Adone, focusing in particular on lines 250-376 in ottava rima. Here the author depicts a quintain, or Saracen joust, a test of skill in which knights must strike a pivoting wooden dummy. The episode is distinctly encomiastic in nature, for the contestants include members of the most important Roman families, as well as Pope Gregory XV’s nephew, Sergio Carafa and the Piedmontese princes. The article shows how Marino surprisingly goes to great lengths in his praise to depict the precise workings of such tournaments, which were a key feature of courtly festivities. The realism that pervades the quintain scene in Adone, both in terms of its specific terminology and its description of tournament rules, is not ascribable to the epic canon, but instead reflects the heightened awareness of courtly events that marked the early 17th century. It can thus be inferred that the weight that Marino gives to the ‘upper’ realm of the panegyric and the ‘lower’ domain of courtly festivities is much more balanced than once believed.
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