Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/609

 TASSO mtil July, 1586, and only after repeated ap- m sals from the most influential quarters and after his health had reached its lowest ebb, and then solely on condition of remaining in charge of Duke "William of Mantua, who showed him much kindness. After William's death he lade in 1587 ineffectual attempts to better his jrtunes in Rome, and in 1588 to recover his trimony at Naples. For the rest of his life le almost continually travelled from Naples to Rome and from Rome to Naples, enjoying in the latter city his residence at the monastery of [ount Olivet ; but he was finally obliged to ive in a charitable asylum at Rome until the rand duke of Tuscany came to his rescue and ivited him to visit Florence (1590). Here, everywhere else, he received distinguished lough empty honors. In a subsequent jour- ley to Rome, the famous brigand Sciarra re- frained from molesting him and his travelling sompanions, and showed great deference for is genius. In 1593 appeared his Oerusalemme mquistata, a remodelled form of his first epic, to which he alone regarded it as supe- rior. It was dedicated to Cardinal Cinzio Aldobrandini, who thereupon induced Pope Clement VIII. to crown Tasso in the capitol. He reached the Vatican on Nov. 10, 1594, but after a relapse of his fever he was taken at his request to the monastery of St. Onofrio, on the Janiculum, where he died before the time assigned for his coronation. The tribula- tions of the poet, the peculiar condition of his mind, his relations with the princess Eleonora, and the duke's proceedings against him, have given rise to many conflicting statements, and thrown a pathetic halo over his life and ge- nius. Goethe has made him the hero of a cel- ebrated drama; Hallam regarded him as su- perior to Virgil in grace, though inferior in vigor ; Ranke and other eminent scholars have written on him extensively; Lamartine has called him " the crusader of poetry ;" and Fried- rich Schlegel places him above Ariosto on ac- count of his melodious versification and pic- turesque and impassioned delineations of love. The academy della Crusca, however, bitterly contested at the time Tasso's superiority over Ariosto. The most complete of the early gen- uine editions of the epic appeared at Parma (4to, 1581), and the most correctly printed among the latest editions is that of Padua (3 vols. 24mo, 1827-'8). It has been translated into most Italian dialects and into Latin, re- peatedly into English, French, German, Span- ish, Portuguese, Polish, and Russian, and in 1875 into modern Greek. The best transla- tion into English is by Edward Fairfax (Lon- don, 1600; latest American ed., New York, 1855) ; and the most recent English version is by Sir J. K. James (2 vols., 1865). The Ge- rusalemme has cast Tasso's other works into the shade, although his Rime or lyrical poems are unsurpassed in their descriptions of disap- pointed love, and the choruses in his other- wise unsuccessful tragedy Torrismondo are re- TASTE 581 markable for pathetic sweetness. His prose dialogues, moral treatises, and other minor works are also entitled to more attention than they have received. The most complete edi- tion of his works is by Rosini (33 vols., Pisa, 1821-'32). A good select edition appeared at Milan (5 vols., 1823-'5). His principal biog- raphers in Italian are his friend Manso (Naples, 1619) and Serassi, whose work is the most complete (Rome, 1785; new ed., Florence, 1858) ; and in English, Black (2 vols. 4to, Ed- inburgh, 1810) and R. Milman (2 vols., Lon- don, 1850). See also "Conjectures and Re- searches concerning the Love, Madness, and Imprisonment of Torquato Tasso," by Rich- ard Henry Wilde (2 vols. 12mo, New York, 1842) ; Sulla camafinora ignota delle venture di Tatso, by Capponi (2 vols., Florence, 1840- '46) ; a complete chronological edition of his correspondence, by C. Guasti (5 vols., 1852-'5) ; and Degli amore e della prigione di Tatso, by L. Cibrario (Turin, 1862). TASTE, the sense by which we distinguish the sapid properties of bodies, through the sensory apparatus in the mouth. Though the tongue takes the principal cognizance of gusta- tory sensations, the soft palate and its arches and the fauces share in this office. The nerves of taste are the lingual branch of the trifacial or fifth pair of cerebral nerves, distributed to the mucous membrane of the anterior two thirds of the tongue, and the glosso-pharyn- geal nerve, which supplies the base of the tongue, the soft palate, pillars of the fauces, and upper part of the pharynx. The glosso- pharyngeal nerve .is also regarded as the chan- nel by which disagreeable impressions produ- cing nausea and vomiting are propagated to the medulla oblongata. The exact seat of the sense of taste has been determined by placing in contact with various parts of the mucous membrane small sponges moistened with some sweet or bitter fluid, like a solution of sugar or quinine. It is thus found that the power of perceiving savors resides in the whole upper surface (dorsum) of the tongue, its point and edges, the soft palate, the fauces, and part of the pharynx. The most acute sensibility to taste is found in the base, tip, and edges of the tongue, while it is less marked in the mid- dle of its upper surface, and almost or entirely wanting in its inferior surface. These parts are also supplied with general sensibility by the same nerves which communicate to them the sense of taste ; and in the tip and edges of the tongue the general sensibility is even un- usually acute, as compared with the external integument or other mucous membranes. (See TONGUE.) Owing to the existence of these two kinds of sensibility in the organs of taste, we must distinguish between the different im- pressions produced upon them by foreign sub- stances. The sapid qualities, properly speak- ing, which we distinguish by the sense of taste alone, are such as we designate by the terms sweet, sour, alkaline, salt, bitter, &c., besides