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1839.] subject as its essential uniformity would admit of, by placing beside the poet, as the companion of his wanderings, a young and innocent being, Angioletta, the niece of the keeper of the Hospital, whose heart has unconsciously become devoted to him in his cell at St Anne's; and by throwing around the last scene of his life the consoling impression derived from the general acknowledgment of his greatness, and the preparations for his coronation in the Capitol. His play opens with the seventh year of Tasso's imprisonment in the Hospital of St Anne's, after many attempts had been made in vain to induce Alfonso to relax the rigour of his confinement. The arrival of the Duke's sister, Lucretia, the Duchess of Urbino, determines Leonora to make another and a last appeal to the compassion of her brother, through the Duke of Urbino, the Duke of Mantua, and the Countess Sanvitale Scandiano, who are expected at the court of Ferrara. Meantime she announces her resolution of seeing Tasso once more—though without speaking to him—in his cell; which she is informed by the keeper is possible, by placing herself in an upper gallery surrounding the cells, whence she could see without being seen by the object of her interest and pity. The fourth scene introduces us to the Hospital of St Anne's and Tasso's cell.

He comes to announce that the Signer Montecatino, the bearer of a message from the Duke, is without, and demands admittance to the poet. Tasso refuses to see him, and bursts out into a strain of invective against his mingled pride and baseness, as a being who crawls in the dust before his superiors, and looks as if he disdained to breathe the same air with those beneath him. The Keeper replies—

This touches you not. For you are his equal— A noble like himself.
 * Tas.You rave, methinks;

These veins I would lay open on the spot Were there one drop of blood within them which Resembled him! What? I like him—no—never! Thanks be to Heaven, that I am not his like!
 * Keep. I meant not that; I only meant that you,

Like him, were noble.
 * Tas.Understand me rightly.

In sooth I am not proud. How should I be? I have indeed but little cause to be so. I know myself, and to my God 'tis known I look not with indulgence on my failings.