I post this for Jim Nohrnberg, partly because he asked and partly because I
find it at least as interesting as the "answer" turned out to be:
Oriande the Fay is the fairy/mistress who raised Maugis d'Aygremont (=
Ital. Malagigi in the romanzi), in the Fr. Romance of Maugis and His
Brother Vivian, sons of Duke Bevis of the same place. She rescues Maugis
in his enfance story -- he it is who wins the talking horse Bayard and the
sword Flamberge (= Ital. Fusberta).
Oriana is the beloved of Amadis de Gaul. (Her name figures in the triumph
of Gloriana's, so to speak, and she herself as an ideal in Don Quixote's
Dulcinea; the name, as that of the Duchesse de Guermantes, is still going
strong in Proust's Oriane, though it may take some stretching to see Marcel
himself as an Amadis in the story).
Oriander is unknown to or unrecallable by me -- the ending of the name
sounds vaguely Athenian, and/or like the kind of name to be borne by a
(Frenchified?) character in a Late Renaissance or Restoration Heroic
Romance Drama or Romance Fiction of similar vintage; but wild guesses just
get one in trouble. --JCN
David Lee Miller
Department of English
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY 40506-0027
859-257-6965 (office)
859-252-3680 (home)
859-323-1072 (fax)
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