This is the summary my Renaissance Lit class was given for Cantos 7 and 8 from Book 3. Don't they make you want to read it?
"These cantos treat the adventures of the true and false Florimells. Always in flight, Florimell narrowly escapes a series of disasters. The son of a witch in whose cottage she takes refuge is smitten with passion for her; when she escapes in the night the witch sends a hyena 'that feeds on women's flesh' to capture or kill her. To escape him she leaps into the boat of an aged fisherman who promptly tries to rape her; she is saved by the god Proteus, who carries her off to his bower in the sea and presses his suit to her continually, in every shape and guise. Meantime, to save her pining son from death, the witch creates for him a false Florimell made of snow but he loses her quickly to the braggart knight Braggadochio, who himself loses her to a stranger knight. Meanwhile, Sir Satyrane (1.6) tames the hyena and rescues the Squire of Dames (a knight whose name reflects his promiscuity) from the giantess Argante, a figure of unnatural lust in female form. These two knights meet up wiht a third, Paridell, and all seek shelter from a sudden thunderstorm in Malbecco's castle."
I'm not making this up. Honestly.
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