Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/608

 580 TASSO as a distinguished portrait, historical, and genre painter; but long struggles with adversity drove him to suicide. His principal produc- tions include " The Funeral of Dagobert at St. Denis" (for the museum of Versailles), "Death of Correggio," "The Slave Merchant," "Diana at the Bath," and " The Old Musician." TASSO, Bernardo, an Italian poet, born in Bergamo, Nov. 11, 1493, died in Ostiglia in September, 1569. He became in 1531 secre- tary to the prince of Salerno, and accompa- nied him in several expeditions of Charles V. In 1539 he settled at Sorrento with his bride, the celebrated Porzia de' Rossi. After her death he fled from the inquisition, became con- nected with the courts of Urbino and Man- tua, and ended his life as governor of Ostiglia. He wrote a heroic poem entitled ISAmadigi, founded on the story of Amadis de Gaul, con- taining 100 cantos. One of the episodes was expanded into a poem called Floridante, pub- lished after his death by his son. He also wrote sonnets, odes, and lyrics, a "Discourse on Poetry," and " Three Books of Letters." TASSO, Torqnato, an Italian poet, son of the preceding, born in Sorrento, March 11, 1544, died in Rome, April 25, 1595. He received his first education at Naples, and studied in Rome, Urbino, Venice, Padua, and Bologna. In 1562 he wrote his charming romantic poem Rinaldo, and about the same time began to prepare his epic on the delivery of Jerusalem by Godfrey of Bouillon. In 1565 he went to Ferrara as a gentleman in the suite of Car- dinal d'Este, whose brother, the duke Alfon- so II., received Tasso with great distinction. His grave and melancholy beauty, eloquence, and varied accomplishments enlisted general admiration, and endeared him to the duke's sisters Lucrezia, the future duchess of Urbi- no, and Eleonora, who became known as the special object of his adoration. After about a year's residence with the cardinal in Paris, where Charles IX., Catharine de' Medici, and the French poets showed him marked atten- tions, he became estranged from his patron, and, mainly through the influence of the prin- cesses, was in 1572 formally attached to the court of Ferrara, with a salary but without specific duties. His celebrated pastoral drama Aminta, was performed in 1573 with great splendor at the court, and afterward at Urbi- no. In 1575 he completed his great epic poem under the title of II Goffredo, which was afterward changed to Gerusalemme liberata. The duke, Eleonora, and Lucrezia (who had separated from her husband) gave him new evidences of their regard, and would hardly permit him to leave them. Yet in November, 1575, he went to Rome to submit his epic to Scipione Gonzaga, and received an invitation to enter the service of the Medici family, which he ultimately declined; but the hostility be- tween the Medici and Estes made him ever afterward believe that the duke had taken um- brage at his negotiation with them, although on his return to Ferrara he was received with the wonted cordiality. He was now liv- ing in perpetual fear of his enemies, whose numbers had increased with his fame, and of emissaries of the inquisition, although that tribunal had absolved him from the charge of heresy to which he had long fancied him- self liable on account of some passages in the Gerusalemme, At length he found his cor- respondence intercepted, and had a violent altercation with a deceitful friend who had purloined his private papers, with a view, he suspected, of giving the duke evidence of his relations with Eleonora, and he was charged with referring to his love for her in the episode of Sofronia and Olindo in his epic. But the duke expressed no other feeling about him ex- cepting an anxiety for the restoration of his mind, which he regarded, or feigned to regard, as diseased. Even after a murderous assault said to have been committed by Tasso in one of his frantic fits upon Lucrezia's servant, the duke released him after a brief confinement and permitted him to retire to a convent (June, 1577), where he was to remain till the resto- ration of his health. Tasso, however, fled in July to Sorrento, and reached his sister Cor- nelia's house in the disguise of a shepherd and in a wretched condition. Having regained his health, he became anxious to return, and at the instance of his friends the cardinals Albano and Gonzaga, the duke permitted him do so on condition of his putting himself under medical treatment. New indignities awaited him at Ferrara (February, 1578), despite the friendly disposition of Eleonora, He failed to recover his manuscripts, and, shunned by everybody, he fled again from city to city, everywhere re- garded as a maniac. At the court of Urbino he had a short interval of rest, but his appre- hensions of danger drove him to Turin. Here he was befriended by Eleonora's brother the marquis d'Este, and might have lived in peace ; but he hastened back to Ferrara in the vain hope that the celebration of the duke's third marriage with a princess of Mantua (early in 1579) would prove auspicious for a reconcilia- tion. He was not permitted to see any mem- ber of the ducal family, and the courtiers and lackeys insulted him so grossly that he broke out in vehement denunciations, and was com- mitted to the hospital of Santa Anna. Here he was surrounded by maniacs of the worst description, and treated with a harshness which excited the pity of Montaigne and other vis- itors. A garbled publication of the Gerusa- lemme in 1580 was followed in 1581 by genuine editions, which had a prodigious circulation, and gave such a prestige to his name that his situation was slightly improved, and many of his admirers availed themselves of the easier access to his cell. The death of Eleonora in 1581, which Lucrezia thought would irKake the duke relent, had no such effect; and while fortunes were made by the sale of his epic, Tasso lingered in prison. He was not released