Gia tal insegna acquisto l’avo, e poi
    La portar molti de’nipoti suoi.
       * * * * *
    E a questi segni ed al crin raro e bianco
    Monstrava esser dagli anni oppresses e stanco.
       * * * * *
    Fu qui vicin dal saggio Alchiso il Mago,
    Di far qualch’opra memorabil vago.
       * * * * *
                         Io son Rinaldo,
    Solo di servir voi bramoso e caldo.

[Footnote 68:  Rinaldo, cantos x. vii.]

[Footnote 69:  Canto i. 25, 31, 41, 64.]

The reduplication of epithets, and the occasional use of long sonorous Latin words, which characterize Tasso’s later manner, are also noticeable in these couplets.  Side by side with such weak endings should be placed some specimens, no less characteristic, of vigorous and noble lines:[70]

              Nel cor consiston l’armi,
    Onde il forte non e chi mai disarmi.
       * * * * *
                Si sta placido e cheto,
    Ma serba dell’altiero nel mansueto.

If the Rinaldo prefigures Tasso’s maturer qualities of style, it is no less conspicuous for the light it throws upon his eminent poetic faculty.  Nothing distinguished him more decidedly from the earlier romantic poets than power over pathetic sentiment conveyed in melodious cadences of oratory.  This emerges in Clarice’s monologue on love and honor, that combat of the soul which forms a main feature of the lyrics in Aminta and of Erminia’s episode in the Gerusalemme.[71] This steeps the whole story of Clizia in a delicious melancholy, foreshadowing the death-scene of Clorinda.[72] This rises in the father’s lamentation over his slain Ugone, into the music of a threnody that now recalls Euripides and now reminds us of mediaeval litanies.[73] Censure might be passed upon rhetorical conceits and frigid affectations in these characteristic outpourings of pathetic feeling.  Yet no one can ignore their liquid melody, their transference of emotion through sound into modulated verse.

[Footnote 70:  Rinaldo, Canto ii. 28, 44.]

[Footnote 71:  Canto ii. 3-11.]

[Footnote 72:  Canto vii. 16-51.]

[Footnote 73:  Canto vii. 3-11.]

That lyrical outcry, finding rhythmic utterance for tender sentiment, which may be recognized as Tasso’s chief addition to romantic poetry, pierces like a song through many passages of mere narration.  Rinaldo, while carrying Clarice away upon Baiardo, with no chaste intention in his heart, bids her thus dry her tears:[74]

    Egli dice:  Signora, onde vi viene
      Si spietato martir, si grave affanno? 
      Perche le luci angeliche e serene
      Ricopre della doglia oscuro panno? 
      Forse fia l’util vostro e ’l vostro bene
      Quel ch’or vi sembra insupportabil danno,
      Deh! per Dio, rasciugate il caldo pianto. 
      E l’atroce dolor temprate alquanto.