Art. 2.-TASSO'S LATER VERSE.

1. Vita di Torquato Tasso. By Angelo Solerti. Three vols. Turin: Loescher, 1895.

2. Tasso. By E. J. Hasell. Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1882. 3. Tasso and his Times. By W. Boulting. London: Methuen, 1907.

4. Lycidas. By the Rev. W. Tuckwell. London: Murray, 1911.

WHEN endeavouring to estimate the permanent value of a famous poet's work-and, like a renewable lease, every claim to immortality comes up periodically for confirmation-we at once ask what his countrymen think and say, and also what they are doing, in this respect. So regarded, there can be little doubt that Tasso is still a living force in literature. Carefully commentated editions of the 'Gerusalemme Liberata' and other works appear from time to time; the tercentenary in 1895 was adequately celebrated; and one of the most accomplished scholars of our day-also the severest critic of that portion of the verse which now concerns us, and author of the biography standing first on our list-has devoted many of his most fruitful years to a minute investigation of every record bearing on Tasso's career, and the still unsolved riddle of his imprisonment. Carducci, also, in that summing up of his country's literature which has almost the authority of a judicial decision, finds in Tasso the inspiration for some of his happiest pages, associating his name with that of Dante more closely than would carry assent in the case of any other poet. The in which this estimate occurs sheds considerable light on our subject, and we give it as quoted by Solerti in the concluding pages of the Life' of Tasso:

passage

'The Cinquecento has no figure at once so grave and gentle as that of Torquato Tasso. He is the legitimate heir to Dante Alighieri; he believes, and reasons upon his belief like a philosopher; he loves, and comments learnedly on love; he is an artist, and writes dialogues full of scholastic speculation intended to be Platonic. Like Dante, he has always something to reproach himself with, in his conscience, as a Catholic; his poem, essentially devotional and chivalric, is presided over by a moral allegory; and yet, he is ever in dread lest

he should have made it too profane; he reconstructs it, and presents it in a purified form; still, not entirely satisfied, he concludes with the poem of the Creation.

"Tasso is the only Christian of our Renaissance; with the spirit of which, on the other hand, he is so saturated that sensualism and mysticism are ever blending in his work; whereat he grieves, and repents, while others delight in it. But of this duality in his existence, fluctuating between ideality and sensualism, between mysticism and art, of this discordance in the life to which he was condemned-he, a paladin of the dark ages, a scholastic of the 18th century, Dante's successor, lost in the later Renaissance between Ariosto and Machiavelli, between Rabelais and Cervantesof this duality, this discord, he, innocent victim, must bear the pain; at which he becomes disheartened, even to madness. The cry of distress which breaks from him so melodiously amidst the martial strains of his great epic declares him, in this mingling of melancholy and voluptuousness, the first, in point of time, of modern poets. Like Chateaubriand, Byron and Leopardi, Tasso has the malady of the ages of transition.''

·

The continued interest thus shown in the author of the Gerusalemme' and the Mondo Creato' may of course partly depend on his name yet standing for certain principles, which his critics desire to maintain or overthrow. Those of socialistic tendencies see in the earlier of these poems a misleading glorification of the 'Prince,' of the 'super-' or 'archic' man; in the later, a plea for old-world beliefs to which they are bitterly opposed; and they refuse authority to the writer, whatever his poetic eminence, on the ground of incipient or actual insanity. Others, less convinced of the elevating influence on humanity of teaching the many to despoil and oppress the few, are glad to find in one who had learnt to estimate 'values' during the vicissitudes and contrasts of a strangely varied career, and whose genius compels attention, so powerful an advocate of fairer ideals. For, as Beni said in his memorial lines, and in this he was a true prophet:

'Industry, virtue, honour were here manifested that future

'Dello svolgimento della letteratura nazionale.' 'Opere di Carducci,' Bologna (Zanichelli), 1889; vol. i, pp. 182 3.

generations may have faith in them; wherefore our Tasso everywhere resounds (risuona il Tasso).'

As was seen in the passage just quoted, Carducci associates Tasso not only with Dante but also with some of the foremost men of recent times, suggesting that he epitomised the past and foreshadowed the future. Like Milton-his Puritan counterpart and equal-Tasso stands in fact as the last representative in his own country of the Renaissance, and seems to belong, at least in spirit, to the whole period of the intellectual movement dependent upon the revived learning that originated during the Crusades and is still active among us. As to the times in which his lot was cast, the fifty years of his troubled life (1544-95) appear as the connecting link between two worlds, one dying, the other struggling into existenceif we may slightly vary Matthew Arnold's phrase-yet with a distinctive character of their own, and as epochmaking as any since the Norman Conquest* of England. The treaty of Cateau Cambresis, the victory of Lepanto (which, by reviving a semblance of crusading ardour, helped forward the composition and publication of the 'Gerusalemme'), the Massacre of St Bartholomew, and the defeat of the Armada, fall well within this half century and have only to be mentioned for their historic import to be recognised. Scenes of splendour were also not uncommon; and one at Venice in celebration of Henry III's visit on his way home to assume the crown of France, impressed the popular imagination almost as much as the Field of the Cloth of Gold. This spectacle interests us, since, among the guests who came to honour the young monarch, appeared the sinister figure of Alphonso II of Este, whose murder of his sister's lover in circumstances of peculiar horror and dissimulation show him to have been capable of almost any atrocity.

The names also of many celebrated or notorious

* History is read in so many different ways that perhaps the influence of the Norman Conquest of England on the larger stage of the world may not be so generally recognised as is here assumed. Yet, but for the new direction given by Foreign Kings' to English affairs, it seems probable that these islands would have become the conscript appendage of France in the 14th, or of Spain in the 16th century; with the necessary consequence that French or Spanish would now be spoken at the Antipodes, in Africa, and in N. America where English is now the dominant tongue,

persons belong to this epoch and diversify Solerti's pages. Towards the close of Tasso's life-if so remarkable an incident may be taken a little out of its turnthe brigand Sciarra offered him an escort (declined on moral grounds) when journeying through the disturbed country between Naples and Rome. Finding his courtesy refused, yet determined apparently to figure advantageously in the Poet's history, Sciarra withdrew his forces to a distance so that Tasso might pass without alarm. Returning to an earlier period, lovers of Aldine editions will be interested to hear that the head of this famous publishing house paid our author a visit when in prison at Ferrara, where he found him half-clad and ill fed; probably also complaining, as he does in letters about this time (Sept. 1582), of his unwashed condition, his matted hair and beard, and the annoyance caused by cats, whose wild eyes at night, in pursuit of their prey, looked like evil spirits glaring through the darkness. A little later (July 1586), we meet with the young prince of Mantua, who plays so poor a part in legends of the Admirable Crichton, but who here appears in the character of a deliverer and obtains from Alphonso the provisional release of his victim. Apparently the state of Tasso's health, unless he were to be left to diean alternative the Duke may have shrunk fromnecessitated this relief.

It is, however, clear that, while living under Mantuan protection, the poet was in danger of being sent back into confinement; and, some twelve months later, hearing that Alphonso was to visit the young prince, who had now succeeded to the Dukedom, Tasso shortly fled from Sassuolo, the little watering place where he was staying, intending to seek safety in Rome. A day later he arrived at Bologna, where he was entertained with apparent hospitality by a brother poet and man of letters, Costantini, who, in odious contrast to the halfpenitent Sciarra, now plays the part of an intentional but ineffective Judas. We will, however, leave Tasso for a moment, as he stands wrapt in his long cloak that swept the ground' and takes a courteous farewell at the door of his false friend (who immediately sent information to the Duke), briefly to describe the curious relic of mediæval piety, or superstition, which was the first

important halting-place on this perilous journey, and which to the believing eyes of the hunted man must have appeared like the House Beautiful' to Christian.

About fifteen miles south of Ancona, situated on a hill near the coast and with sunny views over the eastern spurs of the Apennines, stands the Sanctuary of Loreto, a shrine that still enjoys much reputation, more than half a million votaries being said to resort to it annually in search of bodily health or mental repose. The object of their veneration is a small brick building, which, according to the legend, was miraculously transplanted from Nazareth (as the relics of the 'Three Wise Men' were carried to Milan before finally resting at Cologne), and is believed to be the same that once sheltered the Holy Family. In 336 A.D. the aged Empress Helena, mother of Constantine, made a pilgrimage to the house, where it originally stood, and caused a basilica to be erected over it; but, owing to Saracenic incursions, the basilica fell into decay, and in 1291 the cottage is said to have been removed by the hands of angels during the night to the coast of Dalmatia, where it remained three years. For some unknown reason it was again removed and deposited near Recanati, where it now stands, on ground then belonging to a widow, named Laureta, whence its name.

Pilgrimages soon began to be organised in honour of this manifestation of Divine power; houses were built for the accommodation of believers, who flocked thither in large numbers; and since that time an ever-increasing tide of suffering humanity has flowed and ebbed round the stately structure, built outside the cottage, and known as the Chiesa della Santa Casa. Among those who have thus testified their reverence for the humble dwelling, all ranks in life are represented; and a complete list would be found to include some of the greatest names in European history. And all bring gifts or peace-offerings of some kind; doubtless whatever they consider most acceptable, or of highest value, whether of gold or precious stones, of which there is great store, or pictures, or statuary, or other forms of art in silver or bronze; or candles, that quickly burn away; or wreaths of flowers, or promises of amendment; or, occasionally, hymns of praise in honour of the patroness of the shrine.