:/^^. n,M/,^, ?t?-'M.,. /■ r *'«%"|^.,,!l, %A ^H,.. V. '^^,^H«. */»:■• ' ^j *> :f '.t.^?'^^1'\ l/._;.A,V^i;j>-*i W^f- ^^jt^ IK ^^ ,>^'' i'\ ^ -^r ^^^ %\ . A ilBSWiai A"^'^[Ai ^uhlt^v' A^.m"^ v *?:^ vv'' ..yl ? LIBRARY OF CONGRESSi [SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT.] ^y[vny)W\s,^ L^^^t^; fiVtV; wm ;y,,X,X,*,«W-\jVV\ HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE FOURTH CANTO OP (SMiyDia iaAiB(DiLiDc HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS THE FOURTH CANTO ®iHiaiyDa ;i!^ia©aaiD3 CONT FINING DISSERTATIONS ON THE RUINS OF ROME; AN ESSAY ON ITALIAN LITERATURE. 6 BY JOHN HOBHOUSE, Esq. ^^n.t< or TRINITY COLl-EGK, CAMBRIDGE, M. A. AND F- R. 9 KBW-YORK: VUBI.ISUED BY KIRK fc MERCEIN, NO. 22 WALL-STREET. Primed by William A. Mercein. 1818. .61 ADVERTISEMENT. The reader of the Illustrations is requested to bear in mind the object with which they were originally written, and not expect to find in them a plan or order which can be discovered only with reference to the Fourth Canto of Childe Harold. They follow the progress of the Pilgrim, and were, indeed, as well as the notes now appended to the Canto, for the most part written whilst the noble author was yet em- ployed in the composition of his poem. They were, with the exception of the three or four last articles, put into the hands of Lord Byron, much in the state in which they now appear; and the partiality of friend- ship assigned to them the same place which is oc- cupied by the notes detached from them. But the writer, on his return to England, considered that the appendix to the Canto would thus be swelled to a disproportioned bulk, and that the numerous readers of the poetry would be better pleased if the choice, whether or not they were to be furnished with a vo- lume of prose, were to be left altogether to them- selves. Under this impression, such only of the no- tices as were more immediately connected with the text of the poem, were added to that work, and per- haps the writer may, even in the present instance, have to apologize for not being contented with les* copious extracts. Some of the longer notices of this volume are, it will be seen, dissertations not at all requisite for the VI intelligibility of Childe Harold, although they may illustrate the positions or the objects therein con- tained. The writer did not like to touch upon the topics connected with a view of the ruins of Rome, without recurring to the best authorities on that sub- ject. His researches naturally made him diffuse, and he will be well pleased if they have not made him desultory and tedious. He must own himself not to have been idle during the time employed in his in- vestigation, which occupied several months of his residence at Venice; but he will also confess, that it is very likely he ought to have protracted that time, and more carefully revised his compilation. Those who may discover the errors of these notices, are entreated to remember, that in questions depending upon the consultation of authorities, the most as- siduous attention may overlook a book, a phrase, or a word, which may change the whole face of the con- troversy; that industry and fairness may be demanded from all writers, but that the endless details of eru- dition forbid the antiquarian inquirer to hope for any other than qualified applause. It is trusted, however, that the information here collected is such as a traveller in Italy would wish to find prepared for him; and such also as those whose voyages are confined to their libraries may esteem, if not a substitute for an actual survey, at least an addition to their stock of knowledge on subjects which will never lose their interest, until the example of the greatest, the best, and the wisest of mankind, shall be found too painful and impracticable a lesson for modern degeneracy. CONTENTS. Page Attachment of the Italians to their distinguished Fellow- citizens 11 Essay on the Imprisonment of Tasso 13 Anecdotes of Alfieri 29 Account of the Ruin of the Temple on the Clitumnus 31 Ignorance of the Antiquaries in Italy — the Site of the Ban- dusian Fountain 35 The approach to Rome 37 Character of some Antiquaries who have treated of Rome .... 40 A Dissertation on the Destroyers of the City of Rome, and an Account of the gradual disappearance of the Ruins 44 Tomb of the Scipios Ill Destruction of the Tombs near Rome 113 Doubts respecting the Circuit of the Walls of old Rome, and the Ruins in general 117 Remains of Republican Rome, and the comparative want of Interest attached to the Cesarean City 127 Notice of the Tomb of Cecilia Metella 130 Doubts respecting the Destruction of the Palace of the Cae- sars. Desolation of the Palatine 133 The Column and Forum of Trajan 138 Memoir on the Destruction of the Capitol 144 The Roman Forum. — Doubts respecting the Remains in that Quarter 150 Notices on the Romans of the middle Ages. — Of Cola di Ri- enzi. — Of the modern Senate and Government of Rome 159 The Destruction of the Coliseum 168 The Pantheon 182 Vlll Page Inquiry respecting the Story and the Site of the Temple of the Roman Piety 187 On the Castle of St. Angelo 190 Roman Catholic Religion, and the Ceremony of the Flagel- lants. — Probable Eflfects of Despotism in Italy 200 Account of some sepulchral Vases lately discovered in a Rock at Albano 207 ESSAY ON THE PRESENT LITERATURE OF ITALY, and a general Character of the Lives and Writings of Cesarotti, Parini, Alfieri, Pindemonte, Monti, and FoscoLO 221 Letters of Torq,uato Tasso never before published, with Translations 306 et seq. Letters written by Cola di Rienzi, Tribune of Rome, never before published, with Translations 326 etseq^ Facsimile of Tasso's Hand-writing ,-.,, , Drawings of the Albano Vases , .••..•.••• •••« HISTORICAL. ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE FOURTH CANTO OF CHILDE HAROLD. Stanza XXXI. And His their pride — An honest pride — and let it be their praise, To offer to the passing stranger'' s gaze His mansion and his sepulchre. J- HERE is no country which can contend with Italy in the honours heaped upon the great men of past ages : and the pre- sent race accuse themselves of living upon the labours of their ancestors, and, as is the usual reproach of heirs, of find- ing in their transmitted wealth an inducement to inactivity. The territorial divisions and subdivisions which contributed to the emulation of these luminaries themselves, has tended to the preservation of their fame; and the jealousy of each little district guards the altar of its individual divinity, not only as the shrine which is to attract the pilgrims of united Europe, but as the birthright which is to distinguish it amongst the children of the same mother, and exalt it to a preference above its im- mediate neighbours. Italian rivalry, in default of those con- tests which employed the arts and arms of the middle ages, now vents itself in the invidious comparison of individual fasti, and in the innocent ostentatious display not of deeds but names. Thus it is that there is scarcely a village in which the traveller is not reminded of the birth, or the residence, or /.he death, or the deeds of one or more of the offspring of a o 12 soil, fruitful in ever;y production, but more especially the land of men. The affection with which even the lower classes appropriate the fame of their departed countrymen is very striking to a foreigner; and such expressions as " our Corre- gio," and " our Ariosto," in the mouth of a peasant^ revive, as it were, not only the memory, but the man himself. When Napoleon made his progress through his Italian dominions, the inhabitants of Reggio received him with a fete, the principal decoration of which was a temple of immortality, painted at the end of a gallery, adorned with a double range of tablets, to the honour of those worthies for whose existence the world had been indebted to the dutchy of Reggio. The pretensions of Reggio may exemplify those of the other provinces of Italy, and the reader may not object to survey the pompous list. Boiardo, Signore di Scandiano, epico, del secolo xv. Guida da Lazara, giureconsulto, del secolo xiii. Ludovico Ariosto, nato a Reggio, da Daria Maleguzi, Reg- giana, lirico, comico, satirico, epico, del secolo xiv. Domenicho Toschi, Cardinale, Reggiano, giureconulto, del secolo xvi. Filippo Caroli, Reggiano, giureconsulto, del secolo xiv. Antonio Pacchioni, Reggiano, anatortiico, del secolo xvii. Cesare Magati, Scandianese, medico e chinirgo, del secolo xvii. Gianntonio Rocca, Reggiano, matematico, del secolo xvii. Antonio Allegri, detto il Corregio da Corregio, pittore, del secolo xvi. Tomaso Cambiatori, Reggiano, giureconsulto, oratorc, poeta, del secolo xvi. Sebastiano Conradi di Arceto, grammatico e critico, del se- colo xvi. Lelio Orsi, Reggiano, pittore, del secolo xvi. Vincenzo Cartari, Reggiano, tilologo, del secolo xvi. Rafaello Motta, Reggiano, pittore, del secolo xvi. Guido Panciroli, Reggiano, giureconsulto, storico, filologo, del secolo xvi. Ludovico Parisetti, Reggiano, poeta Latino, del secolo xvi. Gasparo Scaroffi, Reggiano, ceconomista, del secolo xvi. Luca Ferrari, Reggiano, pittore, del secolo xvii. 13 Domenico Ceccati, da Stiano, scultore ed intagliatorc, del isecolo xvii. Antonio Vallisnera da Scandiano, medico, naturalista, del secolo xvii. Pelegrino Sallandri, Reggiano, poeta, del secolo xviii. Agostino Parradisi, Reggiano, ceconomista, oralore, poeta, del secolo xviii. Francesco Fontanesi, Reggiano, poeta, del secolo xviii. Jacopo Zannoni da Montecchio, botanico, del secolo xvii, Lazari Spalanzani da Scandiano, naturalista, del secolo xviii. Laura Bassi di Scandiano, fisica, del secolo xviii. Carlo Antonioli da Corregio, filologo, del secolo xviii. Francesco Cassoli, Reggiano, poeta, del secolo xviii. Luigi Lamberti, Reggiano, filologo c poeta, del secolo xviii. Antonio Gamborini, Reggiano, teologo, del secolo xviii. Bonaventura Corti, Reggiano, fisico, del secolo xviii. Stanza XXXVF. And Tasso is their glory and their shame. Hark to his strain ! and then survey his cell ! In the hospital of St. Anna, at Ferrara, they show a cell, over the door of which is the following inscription : Rispettate, O Posteri, la celebrita di questa stanza, dove Torqualo Tasso infermo pru di tristezza che delirio, ditenuto dimoia anni vii mesi II, scrisse verse e prose, e fu rimesso in liberta ad instanza della citta di Bergamo, nel giorno vi Luglio 1586. The dungeon is below the ground floor of the hospital, and the light penetrates through its grated window from a small yard, which seems to have been common to other cells. It is nine paces long, between five and six wide, and about seven feet high. The bedstead, so they tell, has been carried off piecemeal, and the door half cut away by the devotion of those whom " the verse and prose" of the prisoner have brouglit to Ferrara. The above address to posterity was inscribed at the instiga- 14 tion of General Miollis, who filled Italy with tributes to her great men, and was not always very solicitous as to the authen- tic application of his record. Common tradition had assigned the cell to Tasso long before the inscription: and we may re- collect, that, some years ago, a great German poet was much incensed, not at the sufferings of the prisoner, but at the pre- tensions of the prison. But the author of Werter need not have felt so insulted by the demand for his faith. The cell was assuredly one of the prisons of the hospital, and in one of those prisons we know that Tasso was confined.* The pre- sent inscription, indeed, does exaggerate the merits of the chamber, for the poet was a prisoner in the same room only from the middle of March, 1579, to December, 1580, when he was removed to a contiguous apartment much larger, in which, to use his own expressions, he could philosophize and walkabout.! His prison was, in the year 1584, again en- larged. J It is equally certain, also, that once, in 1581, he was permitted to leave the hospital for the greater part of a day,§ and that this favour was occasionally granted to him in the subsequent years of his confinement. || The inscription is incor- rect, also, as to the immediate cause of his enlargement, which was promised to the city of Bergamo, but was carried into effect at the intercession of Don Vincenzo Gonzago, Prince of Mantua, chiefly OAving to the unwearied application of Antonio Constantino, a gentleman in the suite of the Florentine em- bassy.** But the address should not have confined itself to the re- * The author of the historical memoir on Italian tragedy saw this dun- geon in 1792, and, in spite of some hints from the English biographer of Tasso, was inclined to believe it to have been the original place of the poet's confinement. See Black's Life of Tasso, cap. xv. vol. ii. p. 97 : hut the site will not correspond with what Tasso says of his being re- moved to a neighbouring apartment, " assai piu commoda" — there is no such commodious neighbouring apartment on the same level. f La Vita di Torquato Tasso, scritta dall' abate Pierantonio Serassi, seconda edizione. ... in Bergamo, 1790, pp. S4 and 64, tom. ii. \ La Vita, k,c. lib. iii. p. 83, tom. ii- ^ La Vita, kc. lib. iii. p. 63, tom. ii. 11 Vide p. 83, ut sup. '^^ La Vita, &.c. lib. iii. p. 142, tom. ii. 15 spect due to the prison : one honest line might have been al- lotted to the condemnation of the gaoler. There seems in the Italian writers something like a disposition to excuse the Duke of Ferrara by extenuating the sufferings, or exaggerating the derangement of the poet. He who contemplates the dun- geon, or even the hospital, of St. Anna, will be at a loss to re- concile either the one or the other with that " ample lodge- ment" which, according to the antiquities of the house of Este, the partiality of Alfonso allotted to the man " whom he loved and esteemed much, and wished to keep near his per- son."* Muratori confesses himself unable to define the offence of the patient; and in a short letter devoted expressly to the subject, comes to no other general conclusion, than that he could not be called insane,! but was confined partly for chastisement, partly for cure, having probably spoken some indiscreet words of Alfonso. He makes no mention of the disease of the prince ; nor is it easy to discover that free ex- ercise of his understanding for which Mr. Gibbon has some- where praised this celebrated antiquary.^ Indeed, in his no- * " Ma perciocche questo principe I'amava e stimava forte, e non voleva privarsene elesse di alimentalo m ([uell' ampio luogo, con desiderio die ivi fosse curato anche il corpo suo. " Antichita Estensi, parte sec. cap. xiii, p. 405, ediz. fol. Mutin. 1740. t Lettera ad Apostolo Zeno, vide Tasso's Works, vol. x. p. 244. " Np mentecatto ne pazzo," are Muratori s words. See also p. 24£ and p. 243. He is a little freer spoken in this letter, but still says, " the wise prince did not give way to his angerP Muratori's Annals were attacked on their first appearance, as " uno de' libri piu fatali al principato Romano ;" to which the librarian replied, that " truth was neither Guelf nor Ghibelline." If he had thought that she was neither catholic nor protestant, he would not have slurred over the massacre of St. Bartholomew as an event which gave rise to many exaggerations from the Hugonots. " Lascero io dispu- tare ai gran Dottori intorno al giustificare o riprovare quel si strepitoso fatto ; bastando a me di dire, che per cagion d'esso immense esagerazioni fece il partito de gli Ugonoti, e loro servi di stimolo e scusa per ripigliar I'armi contra del Re." Annall ad an. 1572, torn. x. p, 464. In page 469, ibid, he talks of the great loss of France by the death of the murderer Charles IX. who, if he had lived, would have " extirpated the seed of heresy." \ For a fine and just character of Muratori, see, however, "the Anti- quities of the House of Brunswick," p. 641, vol. ii. quarto. Gibbon's Misc. Works 16 tice of this injustice, the librarian of the Duke of Modena, so far from seeming to forget the interests of the princely house which pensioned his labours, suggests rather the obvious re- flection, that when a writer has to obtain or repay any other patronage than that of the public, his first and paramount ob- ject cannot be the establishment of truth. Even the subject of an absolute monarchy is an unsafe guide on almost every topic. The over- rated La Bruyere was base enough to reckon the dragooning of the protestants amongst the most commendable actions of Louis XIV.* Manso, the friend and biographer of Tasso, might have been expected to throw some light upon so important a portion of his history, but the five chapters devoted to the subject only encumbered the question with inconclusive discussion. What is still more extraordinary, it appears, that of seven or eight cotemporary Ferrarese annalists, only one has mentioned that Tasso was confined at all, and that one, Faustini, has as- signed a cause more laughable than instructive.! The later librarian of Modena was equally disingenuous with his prede- cessor, and had the confidence to declare, that by prescribing a seven years confinement Alfonso consulted only the health, and honour, and advantage, of Tasso, who evinced his con- tinued obstinacy by considering himself a prisoner.^ But, Avith the librarian's leave, the suspicion was justified by the apprehension of his Italian cotemporaries, who, in their sup- * The same writer declares " homage to a kins" to be the sole sufficing virtue of every good subject in a monarchy, " where there is no such thing as love of our country — the interest, the glory, and the service of the prince, supply its place." De la Republique, chap. x. For which sentiment our great obsolete poet has made honourable mention of him amongst his dunces, [The Dunciad, book iv. v. 522.] with whom he might be safely left, did he not belong rather to the rogues than the fools. f " II Duca Alfonso II. il fece rinchiudere per curarlo di una fistola che ]o travagliava." Vid Tiraboschi Storia della Letter. Ital. lib. iii. part iii. tom. vii. p. 1210, edit. Venet. 1 796. \ Credette egli perci6 che e all' onore e alia salute del Tasso niuna cosa potesse esser piu utile che il tenerlo non gia prigione, ma custodito intanto procurava con rimedj di calmarne I'animo e la fantasia. Ma cio che Alfonso operd al vantaggio del Tasso non servi che a renderne sempre peggiore la conditione — Gli parve esser prigione.'' Tiraboschi^. Storia, kc. lib. iii. tom. vii. par. iii- p. 131 S, edit Venet. 1796. 17 ^iications for his release, seldom gave him any other name. The same writer announced, in the first edition of his History of Italian Literature, that he had made the long-looked-for discovery as to the cause of Tasso's confinement, and had in- trusted the documents found in the archives of the house of Este, to the Abate Serassi. In his second edition he declared that his expectations, and those of all the learned world, had been answered by the life of the poet published by the Abate in 1785:* but the antiquary, still faithful to his patrons, did not mention, that it appears from every page of the biography, that the imprisonment must be attributed rather to the ven- geance and mean apprehensions of the prince, than to the ex- travagance of the poet. The Abate Serassi was acknowledged to be a perfect master of the " cinque cento," and he has perhaps spoken as freely as could be expected from a priest, an Italian, and a frequent- er of the tables of the great. He shows that he is labouring with a secret, or at least, a persuasion, which he is at a loss in what manner honestly to conceal ; and which, in spite of an habitual respect for the best of princes and the most illustrious * Storia, &.c. p. 1212, ut sup. The English author of the Lifeof Tasso seems half inclined to believe in the love of his poet for Leonora. [Black, chap. viii. vol i. p. 188, and chap. xiii. vol. ii. p. 2,] and quotes a passage in a letter to Gonzaga, omit- ted by Serassi, in which he talks of the princess having but little corres- ponded to his attachment [lb. chap. xiv. vol. ii. p. 59.] Mr, Walker, in his historical memoir, was bold enough to follow the old story even in the face of Serassi, who does, however, appear to have completely set- tled the question. Poetical gallantry will account for all the phenomena. Dr. Black himself wisely rejects that passion as the adequate cause of Torquato's insanity : but we may not perhaps subscribe to his opinion, that the poet lost his senses on account of the objections made to his Jerusalem [chap. xv. vol ii. p. 91.] The biographer presumes him posi- tively mad, and argues on his case out of Pinel and Haslam, and others [chap. xii. vol. i. p. 808.] On this ground he supposes the harsh con- duct of the duke was adopted as necessary for the cure of Tasso [chap. XV. vol. ii. p. 87, and chap. xvi. vol. ii. p. 1 IS ;] and, if his meaning has not been mistaken, he almost apologizes for the prescription of Alfonso. It is no objection to Dr. Black's work, that the biographical details are trans- cribed from Serassi : but this circumstance must excuse the writer from having cited the original rather than the English author. 18 of cardinals, is sufficiently apparent to confirm our suspicion of Alfonso's tyranny. The Duke had not the excuse of Tas- so's presumption in aspiring to the love of the princely Leo- nora. The far-famed kiss is certainly an invention, although not of a modern date. The English were taught by a cotem- porary writer to believe that the Lydian boy and the goddess of Antium had precipitated Torquato into his dungeon,* and Manso hinted the same probability, but with much circum- spection. The tale was at last openly told in " The Three Gondolas,'^'' a little work, published in 1662, by Girolamo Brusoni, at Venice, and immediately suppressed.! Leonora of Este was thirty years old when Tasso came to Ferrara ; and this perhaps, notwithstanding that serene brow, where Love all armed was wont to expatiate, reconciled him to the reverence and wonder which succeeded to the first feelings of admiration and delight. | It is true that neither her age, nor the vermilion cloud which obscured the eyes of Lucres tia,§ rendered his Muse less sensible to the pleasure of being patronised by the illustrious sisters. Perhaps his intercourse with them was not altogether free from that inclination which * Mutis abditus ac nigris tenebris In quas preecipitem dedere caeci Infans Lj'dius, Antiique Diva; See some Hendecasyllables of Scipio Gentilis. Serassi la Vita del Tasso, &.C. lib. iii. p. 34. tom. ii. f Serassi calls it an operaccia. La Vita, &c. lib. ii. p. 169. tom. i. Mu- ratoii in his letter to Apostolo Zeno, p. 240. loc cit. tells the story from Carretta, who had heard it from Tassoni ; and though he hesitates about the kiss, seems to believe Tasso was in love with Leonora, p. 242. Mr. Gibbon [Antiquities of the House of Brunswick, p. 693.] turns the story to good account — he believes and makes a period. f E certo il primo di, clie '1 bel sereno Delia tua fronte agli ochi miei s' offerse, E vidi armato spaziarvi 1' Amore, Se non che riverenza allor converse E meraviglia in fredda selce "il seno Ivi peria con doppia morte il core. Canzone. La Vita, Sic. lib. ii. p. 148. tom i. I^ Questu nebbia si bclla e si vermiglia. Tass. Oper. vol. vi. p. 27, La Vita, Sic. lib. ii. p. 100. tom. i. 19 the charms of any female might readily excite in a tempera- ment too warm to be a respecter of persons. But his heart was devoted to humbler and younger beauties; and more particularly to Lucretia Bendedio, who had also to rank the author of the Pastor Fido amongst her immortal suitors.* Of this passion the princess Leonora was the confidante, and as- pired to the cure, by the singular expedient of persuading him to become the encomiast of one of his rivals-t It appears then that the biographer is justified in exclaiming against the scandal, which is incompatible with the rank and piety of a princess who was a temple of honour and chastity, and a single prayer of whom rescued Ferrara from the anger of heaven and the inundation of the Po.J It is, also, but too certain that Leonora deserted the poet in the first days of his distress ; and it is equally known that Tasso, who would not have forgotten an early flame, did not hang a single garland on the bier of his supposed mistress. § The biographer has kft it without doubt that the first cause of the punishment of Tasso was his desire to be occasionally, or altogether, free from his servitude at the court of Alfonso, and that the immediate pretext of his imprisonment was no other than disrespectful mention of the Duke and his court. In 1575 he resolved, notwithstanding the advice of the Dutchess of Urbino, to visit Rome, and enjoy the indulgence of the jubilee, and this " error increasing the suspicion already entertained at court, that he was in search of another ser- vice," was the origin of his misfortunes. II Alfonso detained * La Vita, &ic. lib. ii. p. 157. torn. i. + La Vita, ut sup. Pigna was this rival. f Quando del P6 tremar I' altcre sponde Ferrara dannegiando e dentro, e fuora; Un sol prego di te, casta Leonora, Spense 1' ire del ciel giuste e profonde. Sonetto di Filippo Binaschi. See La Vita, fac. lib. ii. p. 170. torn. i. {^ La Vita, Sic. lib. iii. pp. 12, 48, 50. torn. ii. II " Perciocchfe da un si fatto errore si pu6 dir che avesscro origine ]e sue disavventure, essendosi con cid accresciuto a dimisura il sospetto, che gia si aveva alia corte,ch' egli cercasse altro serviKio." — La Vita, Sic. lib- iL pp. 2S2, 233. torn. i. 3 20 him at Ferrata by the expectation of unreahzed favours,* and also by withholding his Jerusalem, which he would not allow the author to carry with him to Venice, nor, although he had promised the delivery of the manuscript to Cardinal Albani, would consent to restore after the flight of Tasso to Rome.t An habitual melancholy, a morbid sensibility, irritated by the injuries of his rivals and the treachery of his friends, had driven him into an excess against an individual of the court: but Alfonso did not punish him for drawing his knife: he was merely conlined to his apartment, and from this confinement and the medicine, which he equally dreaded, found means to escape.^ But he felt an anxiety to recover his manuscript, and, although the Cardinal Albano and Scipio Gonzaga dis- suaded him from trusting himself at the court of Alfonso, re- turned to Fcrrara. He there found that the Jerusalem had been put into other hands, and that the Duke, after refusing to hear him mention the subject, denied him, at last, all access to himself and the princesses. The biographer presumes that this treatment is to be partly charged upon the poet, who, instead of putting himself into a course of medicine, ate and drank to excess; but he candidly owns that Tasso had a right to his own property, the fruits of his own genius. § He again retired, and again returned, in opposition to the entreaties of the Marquis Philip of Este, and others, who were better ac- * " II Duea m' ha fatto moiti favori, ma io vorrei friitti e non fiori." — In a letter from Tasso to Scalabritio. La Vita, &,c. lib. ii. p. 245. torn. i. f " Forse perchfe incresceva al duca e alle principessc il perdere dopo la persona del poeta anche i suoi pregiati componimenti." — An innocent observation of the Abate's. La Vita, &,c, lib. iii. p. 7. torn. i. J " Iiilanto il Tasso cominci& a lasciarsi piirgare, ma di nialissimo animo." La Vita, Sic lib. ii. p. ^83- torn. i. Poor Tasso thought the ex- cellence of a physician consisted in prescribing medicines not only saluti- ferous bnt agreeable : " Perchfe come V. S. sa, 1' eccelienza de' medici consistc in buona parte in dar le medicine non solo salntifere, ma piace- vole." — Tass. Oper. vol. x. p. 860. Lettera a Biaggio Bernardi. La Vita, fcc. lib iii. p. 81. torn. ii. ^ " Per altro sebbene sia da credersi clic molte di si fatte cose fossero soltanto effVtto della sua imaginazione, e ch' egli anzi avessc irritato quell' ottimo principe col non aver voluto prestarsi ad una purgarigorosa ad ugni modo sembra, che so gli viovesse almeno rcstituire il suo poema" Xa Vita, &,c lib. iii. p. 13. tom-ii. 21 quaintcd than himself with the character of Alfonso.* The Duke now refused to admit him to an audience. He was re- pulsed from the houses of all the dependants of the court ; and not one of the promises which the Cardinal Albano had ob- tained for him were carried into effect. Then it was that Tasso, " after having suffered these hardships with patience for some time, seeing himself constantly discountenanced by Ihe Duke and the princesses, abandoned by his friends, and derided by his enemies, could no longer contain himself within the bounds of moderation, but giving vent to his choler, publicly broke forth into the most injurious expressions ima- ginable, both against the Duke and all the house of Este, as well as against the principal lords of the court, cursing his pasf service, and retracting all the praises he had ever given in his v^erses to those princes, or to any individual connected with them, declaring that they were all a '' gang of poltroons, in- grates, and scoundrels." These are the words of SerassijT and for this offence was Tasso arrested, and instead of being" punished, such is the hint of his biographer, was, by his " ge- nerous and magnanimous" sovereign, conducted to the hos- pital of St. Anna, and confined in a solitary cell as a madman. From repeated passages in his letters, from the intercessions made in his favour by so many of the Italian potentates,^ from the condition annexed to his release, by which the Duke of Mantua stipulated that he would guarantee against any lite- rary reprisals from the poet against his persecntor,§ there can be no doubt but that these injurious expressions, and these alone, were the cause of the confinement of Tasso : so Ihat, as the unwillingly convinced biographer is obliged to ex- * La Vita, Uc. lib. iii. p. 31. torn. ii. t " Che tutti in quel momento space id per una ciiirma di poltroni, in- grati, e ribaldi." La Vita, &tc, lib. iii. p. 38. tom. ii. I La Vita, fcc. lib. iii. p. 128. torn. ii. Bergamo tempted Alfonso by the present of an antique fragment, p. 128. ut sup. <^ " Ma riflettendo, che i poeti sono di loro natura gC7ins IrritaMle, e te- mendo percio cheTorquato, trovandosi libero, non volesse coU' armi for- midabili dtlla suapenna vcndicarsi della lunga prigionia, e de' mali trat- tamenti riccvuti a quella corte, non sapea risolversi a lasciarlo uscire da' suoi stati, ?enza prima essere assicurato, eh' ci non tenterebbe cosa alcuna contro 1' onore c la riverenza dovuta a un si gran principe com' egli era.'' — La Vita, &c. lib. iii. p. 128. tom. ii. 2^ claim, it appears extraordinary that so iiiany fables should have been dreamt of to account for the motive of his long im- prisonment.* Had that which Montaigne called "his fatal vivacity" directed itself against any others than the Duke and court of Ferrara, or had it preyed, as the Frenchman thought, upon himself alone, t a prison would not have been the prescription for such harmless extravagance. It has been before mentioned that he was only nine months in the first dungeon allotted to his crime, or, as his tyrant called it, his cure; but to one whose disease was a dread of solitude, and whose offence was a love of liberty, the hos- pital of St. Anna wasy of itself, a dungeon. J It is certain that for nearly the first year he endured all the horrors of a solitary sordid cell, and that he was under the care of a gaoler whose chief virtue, although he was a poet and a man of letters, was a cruel obedience to the commands of his prince. § Whatever occasional alleviations were allowed to his distress, he was a prisoner to the last day of his abode in the hospital, and he felt that there was perpetually a door barred between him and the relief of his body and his soul.|| His misfortune was * " Cosicche sembra cosa strana, come altri abbia potuto sognare tante favole, come si e fatto intorno al motivo della sua lunga prigionia." La Vita, 8ic. lib. iii. p. S4. torn. ii. f " N' a t' il pas de quoi savoir grfe a cette sienne vivacite meurtriere,'* kc. he. Essais, fcc. liv. ii. cap. xii. p. 214. torn. ii. edit, stereot. 1811. t " E '1 timor di continua prigionia molto accresce la mia mestizia ; e 1' accresce I' indegnita, clie mi conviene usare ; e lo squallore della barba, e delle chiome, e degli abiti, e la sordidezza, e '1 succidume fieramentc m' annojano: e sovra tutto m' afflige la solitudine, mia crudele e natural nemica, della quale anco nel mio buono state era talvolta cosi molestato che in ore intempestive m' andava ccrcando, o andava ritrovando com- pagnia." Letter from Tasso to Scipio Gonzaga. Oper. vol. x. p. 386 La Vita, &