siege of Jerusalem.  For nearly a year he resided in different parts of France, and notwithstanding the numerous distractions of such a novel mode of life, he added many admirable stanzas to his great epic, inspired by the very scenes among which his hero, Godfrey, and his knights had lived.  He left just in time to escape the dreadful massacre of St. Bartholomew; but he may be said to have suffered indirectly on account of it.  Though treated with distinction by the French court, his personal wants were left unsupplied, and his patron, Cardinal Lewis, did not make up for this meanness.  Voltaire, therefore, had reason to indulge in a cynical sneer at the glowing accounts of his visit given by Italian writers; and Balzac’s statement that Tasso left France in the same suit of clothes that he brought with him, after having worn it for a year, is not without foundation.  This shabby treatment, however, was part of a wider State policy.  The year of Tasso’s residence in France was one of preparation for the massacre of St. Bartholomew; but in order to avert the suspicions of the intended victims, the Huguenots were treated with such extraordinary favour by the authorities that the Pope himself was incensed, and remonstrated with the King.  Tasso, ignorant of the dreadful secret, spoke candidly and vehemently against the reformed doctrines and those who professed them.  His patron therefore simulated deep indignation on account of this imprudence; and as the step fell in both with his personal avarice and his State policy, he broke off the cordial relations that formerly existed between them.

On the return of Tasso to Ferrara he occupied himself for about two months with the composition of a pastoral drama called the Aminta.  This species of poem, which originated with Theocritus, who represented the shepherds of Sicily nearly as they were, and was imitated by Virgil, who idealised the shepherd life, was revived at the court of Ferrara; and some years before a local poet wrote a pastoral describing a romantic Arcadia, which was acted at the palace, and seems to have inspired Tasso with the idea of writing one too.  But all previous pastorals—­the Sacrifizio of Beccari, the Aretusa of Lollio, the Sfortunato of Argenti—­were rough and incongruous medleys compared with the finished production of Tasso, which may be said to mark an era in the history of dramatic poetry.  Although Tasso himself did not think much of it, and did not take any steps to publish it, the judgment of his contemporaries and of posterity has placed it next in point of merit to the Gerusalemme; and by Italians it is especially admired for its graceful elegance of diction.  Leigh Hunt executed a very good translation of it, which he dedicated to Keats.  Its choruses, which are so many “lyrical voices floating in the air,” are very beautiful.  It was designed for the theatre, and was acted with great splendour at the court of Ferrara, and a few