TASSO, TonquATo, a celebrated Italian poet, was born at Sorreno on the 11th March 1544. At a school of the Jesuits at Naples, to which he went at the age of five, he made such rapid progress, that in the 7th year of his age he recited composi tions of his own, both in prose and verse. At the age of 12, he entered the University of Padua, and so premature was the development of his intellec tual faculties, that in his 17th year he received de grees in canon and civil law, philosophy, and divin ity. Invited to Bologna by the celebrated Cesi, his talents became very conspicuous; but having com posed a defamatory poem, he was deprived of his books, and thought it prudent to retire to Castelve tro, under the patronage of Count Rangoni. In 1562, at the age of 18, he published at Venice his poem of 11 Rinaldo, a work on the plan of the Odys sey, which he dedicated to Cardinal D'Este, in con sequence of which he was invited to the Court of Ferrara, where he is said to have carried on his great work of the Gerusalemme Liberata, six cantos of which were composed in his 17th year. In the year 1571, he accompanied the cardinal to the Court of Charles IX. of France, where he was well received; and, on his return in 1572, he caused his dramatic pastoral of .fiminta to be represented. About this time seven cantos of his Jerusalem De livered, which had been lent to his friends in MSS., were copied and disseminated through Italy; and in 1577, the 4th canto was printed at Genoa in a poeti cal collection. In 1580, portions of 16 cantos were printed at Venice; but in 1581 there appeared three editions of this great work, the last of which, pub lished. at Ferrara, is regarded as the most genuine.
The circumstances which led to this carelessness respecting his works sprung out of a mental disease under which he doubtless laboured. This state of mind has been ascribed to a rash affair of love which touched the honour of the family of Alphonso, Duke of Ferrara, and which terminated in the con finement of Tasso in a lunatic hospital by the order of that prince. After his liberation, he lived at Rome with Cardinal Cinzio Aldrohrandini, who obtained a pension for him from Pope Clement VIII. In this retreat, in 1593, he published his
Gerusalemme Conquisita, which is a sort of recom position of his former work. This zealous patron had arranged a solemn poetical coronation of the poet in the capitol, but his own illness interfered with the immediate execution of the plan, and an attack pregnant with danger disabled Tasso from receiving so high an honour. lie was removed to the convent of St. Onofrio, where the consolations of religion were administered to him by his affec tionate friend, and where he died full of piety and hope in April 1595, in the 51st year of his age. A monument was erected to his memory in the Church of St. Onofrio, by Cardinal Bonifacio Be vilacque.
Tasso was in person tall, active, and well propor tioned. In society he was silent, grave, and polite, and kind and affectionate in all his social relations.
Besides his Jerusalem Delivered, and the other works already mentioned, he wrote his Sella Gior nata, or works of the seven days,.which relates to sacred subjects, the tragedy of Torremond, and a great number of treatises, dialogues, and letters on various topics.
Lord Byron has done honour to the memory of this great poet by his "Lament of Tasso," publish ed in 1817, and to which he has prefixed the follow ing notice:—" At Ferrara (in the library) are pre served the original MSS. of 'I'asso's Gerusalemme, and of Guarini's Pastor Fido, with Letters of Tasso, one from Titian to Ariosto; and the ink-stand and chair, the tomb and the house of the latter. But as misfortune has a greater interest for posterity, and little or none for the cotemporary, the cell where Tas so was confined in the hospital of St. Anna attracts a more fixed attention than the residence or the mo nument of Ariosto; at least it had this effect on me.
"There are two inscriptions, one on the outer gate, the second over the cell itself, inviting, unnecessa rily, the wonder and the indignation of the specta tor. Ferrara is much decayed and depopulated; the castle still exists entire; and I saw the court where Parisina and Cluzo were beheaded, according to the annal of Gibbon."