Page:Amyntas, a tale of the woods; from the Italien of Torquato Tasso (IA amyntastaleofwoo00tass).pdf/21

 Tasso, by misfortune, afterwards took care of the publication of his miscellaneous poems during his mysterious imprisonment by the Duke; and recollected him with admiration after his death.—As to Tasso's precursors, we are not acquainted with the two intermediate ones; but to shew what an improvement either he or they had made, at so short a distance of time, upon the inventor of the Pastoral Drama, and at the same time to furnish another excuse for the mitigated conceits that he left remaining, it will be sufficient to lay before the reader the opening of Beccari's play. The speaker is a hopeless lover, "sighing like furnace."

Orrida selva, in cui piangendo spargo Gli ardenti miei sospir, gli accesi lai, Le focose fiammelle ond' io tutt' ardo; Del dimmi, onde avvien mai, che arida essendo,