I ought not to speak of Tasso’s other poetry, or of his prose, for I have read little of either; though, as they are not popular with his countrymen, a foreigner may be pardoned for thinking his classical tragedy, Torrismondo, not attractive—­his Sette Giornate (Seven Days of the Creation) still less so—­and his platonical and critical discourses better filled with authorities than reasons.  Tasso was a lesser kind of Milton, enchanted by the Sirens.  We discern the weak parts of his character, more or less, in all his writings; but we see also the irrepressible elegance and superiority of the mind, which, in spite of all weakness, was felt to tower above its age, and to draw to it the homage as well as the resentment of princes.

[Footnote 1:  My authorities for this notice are, Black’s Life of Tasso (2 vols. 4to, 1810), his original, Serassi, Vita di Torquato Tasso (do. 1790), and the works of the poet in the Pisan edition of Professor Rosini (33 vols. 8vo, 1332).  I have been indebted to nothing in Black which I have not ascertained by reference to the Italian biographer, and quoted nothing stated by Tasso himself but from the works.  Black’s Life, which is a free version of Serassi’s, modified by the translator’s own opinions and criticism, is elegant, industrious, and interesting.  Serassi’s was the first copious biography of the poet founded on original documents; and it deserved to be translated by Mr. Black, though servile to the house of Este, and, as might be expected, far from being always ingenuous.  Among other instances of this writer’s want of candour is the fact of his having been the discoverer and suppresser of the manuscript review of Tasso by Galileo.  The best summary account of the poet’s life and writings which I have met with is Ginguene’s, in the fifth volume of his Histoire Litteraire, &c.  It is written with his usual grace, vivacity, and acuteness, and contains a good notice of the Tasso controversy.  As to the Pisan edition of the works, it is the completest, I believe, in point of contents ever published, comprises all the controversial criticism, and is, of course, very useful; but it contains no life except Manso’s (now known to be very inconclusive), has got a heap of feeble variorum comments on the Jerusalem, no notes worth speaking of to the rest of the works, and, notwithstanding the claim in the title-page to the merit of a “better order,” has left the correspondence in a deplorable state of irregularity, as well as totally without elucidation.  The learned Professor is an agreeable writer, and, I believe, a very pleasant man, but he certainly is a provoking editor.]

[Footnote 2:  In the beautiful fragment beginning, O del grand’Apennino:

  “Me dal sen della madre empia fortuna
  Pargoletto divelse.  Ah! di que’ baci,
  Ch’ella bagno di lagrime dolenti,
  Con sospir mi rimembra, e degli ardenti
  Preghi, che sen portar l’aure fugaci,
  Ch’io giunger non dovea piu volto a volto
  Fra quelle braccia accolto
  Con nodi cosi stretti e si tenaci. 
  Lasso! e seguii con mal sicure piante,
  Qual Ascanio, o Camilla, il padre errante.”