SOURCE: Fichter, Andrew. “Tasso: Romance, Epic, and Christian Epic.” In Poets Historical: Dynastic Epic in the Renaissance, pp. 112-55. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1982.

In the following essay, Fichter calls Gerusalemme liberata. “a true Christian epic,” based on the theme of redemption.

The dynastic couple in Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata consists of Rinaldo, the strong right arm of Goffredo, commander of the Christian forces in the First Crusade, and Armida, who until her sudden conversion in the poem's closing stanzas plays the part of the meretrix, the principal agent of the demonic plot (instigated by Pluto himself) to subvert the Christian cause. Armida may seem a surprising choice for the role of progenitress of the House of Este,¹ but Tasso could not have found a more effective means of illustrating the scope of Christian deliverance, the theme of his poem. Tasso's dynastic heroine is no Bradamante, no championess...