It is certain indeed that many ladies were ready to show him their favours. The names of three at least were freely coupled with his in marriage⁠—Clorinda, Favilla, Euphrosyne⁠—so he called them in his sonnets.

To take them in order; Clorinda was a sweet-mannered gentle lady enough⁠—indeed Orlando was greatly taken with her for six months and a half; but she had white eyelashes and could not bear the sight of blood. A hare brought up roasted at her father’s table turned her faint. She was much under the influence of the Priests too, and stinted her underlinen in order to give to the poor. She took it on her to reform Orlando of his sins, which sickened him, so that he drew back from the marriage, and did not much regret it when she died soon after of the smallpox.