Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 046.djvu/448

436 I cherish this persuasion, when my spirit O'erlooks the future with prophetic eye; That immortality shall yet surround me, And Tasso's name live on in other times, When yours with all its pomp shall he forgotten.
 * Mont. In this, methinks, your dreams go something far!
 * Tas. It may be so; I am, they say, at court

Not always master of my perfect mind, Construe my words, then, as the place suggests In which you hear them. And now, once for all, Explain the message which his Highness sends.

The message is far enough from being consolatory. In answer to a letter which the poet had addressed to the Duke, the courtier bears a verbal answer, strictly prohibiting every such application in future, under the penalty of having his imprisonment rendered more close and rigorous than before; the letters which he may write to others are to be submitted to Montecatino's inspection, and those only forwarded of which he approves. Last comes the unkindest cut of all—even the Princess returns his letter unopened. Montecatino retires, accompanied by the keeper; a scene of passionate explosion on the part of Tasso, followed by exhaustion, succeeds. Angioletta sings him to sleep, and retires into the side apartment. Leonora and the keeper appear in the gallery above.

Act Second opens in Tasso's chamber, as before. The Keeper is attempting to persuade Tasso that the appearance of the Princess was a mere delusion of the imagination. The poet tells him his efforts are in vain; that he knows it was the Princess herself who had visited his cell; he infers that his