Me from my mother’s bosom my hard lot Took when a child.  Alas! though all these years I have been used to sorrow, I sigh to think upon the floods of tears which bathed her kisses on that doleful morrow: 

I sigh to think of all the prayers and cries She wasted, straining me with lifted eyes:  For never more on one another’s face was it our lot to gaze and to embrace!  Her little stumbling boy, Like to the child of Troy, Or like to one doomed to no haven rather, Followed the footsteps of his wandering father.]

[Footnote 3:  Rosini, Saggio sugli Amori di Torquato Tasso, &c., in the Professor’s edition of his works, vol. xxxiii.]

[Footnote 4:  Lettere Inedite, p. 33, in the Opere, vol. xvii.]

[Footnote 5:  Entretiens, 1663, p.169 quoted by Scrassi, pp. 175, 182.]

[Footnote 6:  Suggested by Ariosto’s furniture in the Moon.]

[Footnote 7:  This was a trick which he afterwards thought he had reason to complain of in a style very different from pleasantry.]

[Footnote 8:  Alfonso.  The word for “leader” in the original, duce, made the allusion more obvious.  The epithet “royal,” in the next sentence, conveyed a welcome intimation to the ducal car, the house of Este being very proud of its connexion with the sovereigns of Europe, and very desirous of becoming royal itself.]

[Footnote 9:  Serassi, vol i. p. 210.]

(Footnote 10:  “Alla lor magnanimita e convenevole il mostrar, ch’amor delle virtu, non odio verso altri, gli abbia gia mossi ad invitarmi con invito cosi largo.” Opere, vol. xv. p. 94.]

[Footnote 11:  The application is the conjecture of Black, vol. i. p. 317.  Serassi suppressed the whole passage.  The indecent word would have been known but for the delicacy or courtliness of Muratori, who substituted an et-cetera in its place, observing, that he had “covered” with it “an indecent word not fit to be printed” ("sotto quell’et-cetera ho io coperta un’indecente parola, che non era lecito di lasciar correre alle stampe.” Opere del Tasso, vol. xvi. p. 114).  By “covered” he seems to have meant blotted out; for in the latest edition of Tasso the et-cetera is retained.]

[Footnote 12:  Black’s version (vol. ii. p. 58) is not strong enough.  The words in Serassi are “una ciurma di poltroni, ingrati, e ribaldi.” ii. p. 33.]

[Footnote 13:  Opere, vol xiv. pp. 158, 174, &c.]

[Footnote 14:  “Prego V. Signoria the si contenti, se piace al Serenissimo Signor Duca, Clementissimo ed Invitissimo, the io stia in prigione, di farmi dar le poche robicciole mie, the S.A.  Invitissima, Clementissima, Serenissima m’ ha promesse tante volte,” &c. Opere, vol. xiv. p. 6.]

[Footnote 15:  “Altera Torquatum cepit Leonora poetam,” &c.]

[Footnote 16:  Vie du Tasse, 1695, p. 51.]