Read Ebook: Renaissance in Italy Volumes 6 and 7 (of 7) The Catholic Reaction by Symonds John Addington

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The seven years and four months of Tasso's imprisonment may be passed over briefly. With regard to his so-called dungeon, it is certain that, after some months spent in a narrow chamber, he obtained an apartment of several rooms. He was allowed to write and receive as many letters as he chose. Friends paid him visits, and he went abroad under surveillance in the city of Ferrara. To extenuate the suffering which a man of his temper endured in this enforced seclusion would be unjust to Tasso. There is no doubt that he was most unhappy. But to exaggerate his discomforts would be unjust to the duke. Even Manso describes 'the excellent and most convenient lodgings' assigned him in S. Anna, alludes to the provision for his cure by medicine, and remarks upon the opposition which he offered to medical treatment. According to this biographer, his own endeavors to escape necessitated a strict watch upon his movements. Unless, therefore, we flatly deny the fact of his derangement, which is supported by a mass of testimony, it may be doubted whether Tasso was more miserable in S. Anna than he would have been at large. The subsequent events of his life prove that his release brought no mitigation of his malady.

He was not disappointed. They received him into their houses, and for a while he sojourned in the Vatican. The year 1593 seems, through their means, to have been one of comparative peace and prosperity. Early in the summer of 1594 his health obliged him to seek change of air. He went for the last time to Naples. The Cardinal of S. Giorgio, one of the Pope's nephews, recalled him in November to be crowned poet in Rome. His entrance into the Eternal City was honorable, and Clement granted him a special audience; but the ceremony of coronation had to be deferred because of the Cardinal's ill health.

Meanwhile his prospects seemed likely to improve. Clement conferred on him a pension of one hundred ducats, and the Prince of Avellino, who had detained his mother's estate, compounded with him for a life-income of two hundred ducats. This good fortune came in the spring of 1595. But it came too late; for his death-illness was upon him. On the first of April he had himself transported to the convent of S. Onofrio, which overlooks Rome from the Janiculan hill. 'Torrents of rain were falling with a furious wind, when the carriage of Cardinal Cinzio was seen climbing the steep ascent. The badness of the weather made the fathers think there must be some grave cause for this arrival. So the prior and others hurried to the gate, where Tasso descended with considerable difficulty, greeting the monks with these words: 'I am come to die among you.'' The last of Tasso's letters, written to Antonio Costantini from S. Onofrio, has the quiet dignity of one who struggles for the last time with the frailty of his mortal nature.

'What will my good lord Antonio say when he shall hear of his Tasso's death? The news, as I incline to think, will not be long in coming; for I feel that I have reached the end of life, being unable to discover any remedy for this tedious indisposition which has supervened on the many others I am used to--like a rapid torrent resistlessly sweeping me away. The time is past when I should speak of my stubborn fate, to mention not the world's ingratitude, which, however, has willed to gain the victory of bearing me to the grave a pauper; the while I kept on thinking that the glory which, despite of those that like it not, this age will inherit from my writings, would not have left me wholly without guerdon. I have had myself carried to this monastery of S. Onofrio; not only because the air is commended by physicians above that of any other part of Rome, but also as it were upon this elevated spot and by the conversation of these devout fathers to commence my conversation in heaven. Pray God for me; and rest assured that as I have loved and honored you always in the present life, so will I perform for you in that other and more real life what appertains not to feigned but to veritable charity. And to the Divine grace I recommend you and myself.'

O, let him pass! he hates him much That would upon the rack of this tough world Stretch him out longer.

But Costantini was in Mantua; and this sonnet, which he had written for his master, remains Tasso's truest epitaph, the pithiest summary of a life pathetically tragic in its adverse fate--

Friends, this is Tasso, not the sire but son; For he of human offspring had no heed, Begetting for himself immortal seed Of art, style, genius and instruction.

In exile long he lived and utmost need; In palace, temple, school, he dwelt alone; He fled, and wandered through wild woods unknown; On earth, on sea, suffered in thought and deed.

He knocked at death's door; yet he vanquished him With lofty prose and with undying rhyme; But fortune not, who laid him where he lies.

Guerdon for singing loves and arms sublime, And showing truth whose light makes vices dim, Is one green wreath; yet this the world denies.

The foregoing sketch of Tasso's life and character differs in some points from the prevalent conceptions of the poet. There is a legendary Tasso, the victim of malevolent persecution by pedants, the mysterious lover condemned to misery in prison by a tyrannous duke. There is also a Tasso formed by men of learning upon ingeniously constructed systems; Rosini's Tasso, condemned to feign madness in punishment for courting Leonora d'Este with lascivious verses; Capponi's Tasso, punished for seeking to exchange the service of the House of Este for that of the House of Medici; a Tasso who was wholly mad; a Tasso who remained through life the victim of Jesuitical influences. In short, there are as many Tassos as there are Hamlets. Yet these Tassos of the legend and of erudition do not reproduce his self-revealed lineaments. Tasso's letters furnish documents of sufficient extent to make the real man visible, though something yet remains perhaps not wholly explicable in his tragedy.

THE GERUSALEMME LIBERATA.

Canto i felici affanni, e i primi ardori, Che giovinetto ancor soffr? Rinaldo, E come il trasse in perigliosi errori Desir di gloria ed amoroso caldo.

Poi, ch'oprar non poss'io che di me s'oda Con mia gloria ed onor novella alcuna, O cosa, ond' io pregio n'acquisti e loda, E mia fama rischiari oscura e bruna.

The vision of Clarice, appearing like Virgil's Camilla, stirs him from this lethargy. He falls in love at first sight, as Tasso's heroes always do, and vows to prove himself her worthy knight by deeds of unexampled daring. Thus the plot is put in motion; and we read in well-appointed order how the hero acquired his horse, Baiardo, Tristram's magic lance, his sword Fusberta from Atlante, his armor from Orlando, the trappings of his charger from the House of Courtesy, the ensign of the lion rampant on his shield from Chiarello, and the hand of his lady after some delays from Malagigi.

The first and the most salient of these is a pronounced effort to heighten style by imitation of Latin poets. The presiding genius of the work is Virgil. Pulci's racy Florentine idiom; Boiardo's frank and natural Lombard manner; Ariosto's transparent and unfettered modern phrase, have been supplanted by a pompous intricacy of construction.

The effort to impose Latin rules of syntax on Italian is obvious in such lines as the following:

Torre ei l'immagin volle, che sospesa Era presso l'altar gemmato e sacro, Ove in chiaro cristal lampade accesa Fea lume di Ciprigna al simulacro:

or in these:

Umida i gigli e le vermiglie rose Del volto, e gli occhi bei conversa al piano, Gli occhi, onde in perle accolto il pianto uscia, La giovinetta il cavalier seguia.

Virgil is directly imitated, where he is least worthy of imitation, in the details of his battle-pieces. Thus:

Si riversa Isolier tremando al piano, Privo di senso e di vigore ignudo, Ed a lui gli occhi oscura notte involve, Ed ogni membro ancor se gli dissolve.

Quel col braccio sospeso in aria stando, N? lo movendo a questa o a quella parte, Ch? dalla spada ci? gli era conteso, Voto sembrava in sacro tempio appeso.

Mentre ignaro di ci? che 'l ciel destine, Cos? diceva ancor, la lancia ultrice Rinaldo per la bocca entro gli mise, E la lingua e 'l parlar per mezzo incise.

This Virgilian imitation yields some glowing flowers of poetry in longer passages of description. Among these may be cited the conquest of Baiardo in the second canto, the shipwreck in the tenth, the chariot of Pluto in the fourth, and the supper with queen Floriana in the ninth.

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:

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:

Egli dice: Signora, onde vi viene S? spietato martir, s? grave affanno? Perch? 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.

thel? legein Atreidas thel? de Kadmon adein, ha barbitos de chordais Er?ta mounon ?chei.

Noi morirem, ma non morremo inulti.

This of course is a reminiscence of Dido's last words, and the difference between the two situations creates a disagreeable incongruity. The nod of Jove upon Olympus is translated to express the fiat of the Almighty ; Gabriel is tricked out in the plumes and colors of Mercury ; the very angels sinning round the throne become 'dive sirene' ; the armory of heaven is described in terms which reduce Michael's spear and the arrows of pestilence to ordinary weapons ; Hell is filled with harpies, centaurs, hydras, pythons, the common lumber of classical Tartarus ; the angel sent to cure Goffredo's wound culls dittany on Ida ; the heralds, interposing between Tancredi and Argante, hold pacific scepters and have naught of chivalry . It may be said that both Dante before Tasso, and Milton after him, employed similar classical language in dealing with Christian and mediaeval motives. But this will hardly serve as an excuse; for Dante and Milton communicate so intense a conviction of religious earnestness that their Latinisms, even though incongruous, are recognized as the mere clothing of profoundly felt ideas. The sublimity, the seriousness, the spiritual dignity is in their thought, not in its expression; whereas Tasso too frequently leaves us with the certainty that he has sought by ceremonious language to realize more than he could grasp with the imagination. In his council of the powers of hell, for instance, he creates monsters of huge dimensions and statuesque distinctness; but these are neither grotesquely horrible like Dante's, nor are they spirits with incalculable capacity for evil like Milton's.

Stampano alcuni il suol di ferine orme, E in fronte umana ban chiome d'angui attorte; E lor s'aggira dietro immensa coda, Che quasi sferza si ripiega e snoda.

Against this we have to place the dreadful scene of Satan with his angels transformed to snakes , and the Dantesque horror of the 'vermo reo che 'l mondo fora' . Again when Dante cries--

O Sommo Giove, Che fosti in terra per noi crocifisso!

we feel that the Latin phrase is accidental. The spirit of the poet remains profoundly Christian. Tasso's Jehovah-Jupiter is always 'il Re del Ciel'; and the court of blessed spirits which surrounds his 'gran seggio,' though described with solemn pomp of phrase, cannot be compared with the Mystic Rose of Paradise . What Tasso lacks is authenticity of vision; and his heightened style only renders this imaginative poverty, this want of spiritual conviction, more apparent.

His frequent borrowings from Virgil are less unsuccessful when the matter to be illustrated is not of this exalted order. Many similes have been transplanted with nice propriety. Many descriptions, like that of the approach of night , of the nightingale mourning for her young , of the flying dream , have been translated with exquisite taste. Dido's impassioned apostrophe to Aeneas reappears appropriately upon Armida's lips . We welcome such culled phrases as the following:

l'orticel dispensa Cibi non compri alia mia parca mensa .

Premer gli alteri, e sollevar gl'imbelli .

E Tisaferno, il folgore di Marte .

Va, vedi, e vinci .

Ma mentre dolce parla e dolce ride .

Ch? vinta la materia ? dal lavoro .

Non temo io te, n? tuoi gran vanti, o fero: Ma il Cielo e il mio nemico amor pavento .

It may, however, be observed that in the last of these passages Tasso does not show a just discriminative faculty. Turnus said:

Non me tua fervida terrent Dicta, ferox: Di me terrent et Jupiter hostis.

From Jupiter to Amor is a descent from sublimity to pathos. In like manner when Hector's ghost reappears in the ghost of Armida's mother,

Quanto diversa, oim?, da quel che pria Visto altrove ,

the reminiscence suggests ideas that are unfavorable to the modern version.

In his description of battles, the mustering of armies, and military operations, Tasso neither draws from mediaeval sources nor from experience, but imitates the battle-pieces of Virgil and Lucan, sometimes with fine rhetorical effect and sometimes with wearisome frigidity. The death of Latino and his five sons is both touching in itself, and a good example of this Virgilian mannerism . The death of Dudone is justly celebrated as a sample of successful imitation :

Cade; e gli occhi, ch'appena aprir si ponno, Dura quiete preme e ferreo sonno.

The wound of Gerniero, on the contrary, illustrates the peril of seeking after conceits in the inferior manner of the master :

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