TASSO (Torquato), a justly celebrated Italian poet, was born at Sorrento in the kingdom of Naples, in 1544. He was the son of Bernardo Tasso, the author of several ingenious compositions both in verse and prose; and of Portia de Rossi, a lady of an illustrious family of Naples.
His father being obliged to accompany the prince of Salerno to the emperor Charles V. upon a deputation from Naples to remonstrate against erecting the inquisition there, committed the care of his son, then three years old, to Angeluzzo, a man of great learning; who, we are told, at this tender age began to teach him grammar: at four he was sent to the Jesuits college, and at seven was well acquainted with Latin and Greek. At 12 years of age he went from Rome to Mantua, where his father had entered into the service of the duke Guglielmo Gonzaga: he had then completed his knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages; he was well acquainted with rhetoric and poetry, and a master of Aristotle's ethics; he had also studied the precepts of Maurizio Cataneo with particular attention, and ever after reverenced him as a second father.
He was soon after sent to the university of Padua; and, in his 18th year, published his Rinaldo, a poem written upon the plan of Homer's Odyssey. This extended his reputation throughout all Italy; but greatly displeased his father, who foresaw that it would seduce him from studies of more advantage. He went to Padua, to remonstrate against his apparent purpose of giving himself up to philosophy and poetry, and made use of many very harsh expressions, which Tasso heard with a patience and tranquillity that made the old gentleman still more angry: "Of what use is that philosophy on which you value yourself so much?" "It has enabled me (replied Tasso) to endure the harshness of your reproofs."
He soon after went to Bologna, by the invitation of the city and college; but in a little time returned to Padua at the pressing instances of Scipio Gonzaga, who had been elected prince of the academy that had been established in that city by the name of the Etherei. He was incorporated into this society, and took upon himself the name of Pentito.
In this retreat he formed the design of his Jerusalem Delivered, invented the fable, disposed the parts, and determined to dedicate it to the house of Este; but whether to Alfonso II. the last duke of Ferrara,
Tasso. rara, or his brother the cardinal Luigi, to whom he had already dedicated his Rinaldo, he was yet in doubt. Being pressed by both the brothers to reside with them at Ferrara, he consented. The duke gave him an apartment in his palace, where he lived in peace and affluence, and prosecuted his work; which he now determined to dedicate to the duke, and which was published by his patrons, book by book as he finished them.
When he was about 27, he published a pastoral comedy called Aminta; which was received with universal applause, as a master-piece in its kind, and is the original of the Pastor Fido and Filli di Sciro.
In the 30th year of his age he finished his Jerusalem, and the whole was reprinted and published together: the success of it was astonishing; it was translated into Latin, French, Spanish, and even the Oriental languages, almost as soon as it appeared.
But it was Tasso's fate to become wretched from the moment that he gained the summit of reputation: very soon after his Jerusalem was published, he lost his father, who died at Ostia upon the Po, the government of which place had been given him by the duke of Mantua; his Jerusalem was attacked by a swarm of ignorant, but petulant critics, who gave the preference to the rhapodies of Pulci and Boyardo; and the perfidy of a friend drew upon him much greater misfortunes.
This friend was a gentleman of Ferrara, to whom Tasso had indirectly communicated some transactions of a very delicate nature concerning his patron the duke, with whom he lived. This secret being betrayed, Tasso reproached his friend for his treachery; and this reproach was retorted in such a manner as provoked Tasso to strike him. A challenge immediately ensued, and the opponents met and engaged; but during the encounter, three brothers of Tasso's antagonist came up, and all fell upon him together: Tasso defended himself so well, that he wounded two of them, and kept his ground against the others till some people came up and parted them. This made a great noise at Ferrara, where nothing was talked of but the valour of Tasso; and it became a kind of proverb, "That Tasso, with his pen and his sword, was superior to all men."
The duke being informed of the quarrel, banished the brothers from his dominions, confiscated their estates, and Tasso himself he shut up in prison under pretence of securing him from any future attacks of his enemies.
Tasso found means to escape from this confinement, after having suffered it about a year; and, being now about 34 years of age, retired to Turin, where he was soon known and recommended to the duke of Savoy, who showed him many marks of esteem and affection: but Tasso, fearing that the duke of Ferrara would require him to be delivered up, and that then the duke of Savoy would choose rather to comply than forfeit the friendship of that prince, precipitately set out for Rome alone, and without proper necessaries for such a journey.
He got safe, however, to Rome; where he went directly to his friend Maurizio Cataneo, who received him with great kindness, and the whole city seemed to rejoice at the presence of so extraordinary a person.
He was visited by princes, cardinals, prelates, and all the learned in general. But being impatient of exile, he took measures to make his peace with the duke, and succeeded.
The duke received him with great appearance of satisfaction, and gave him fresh marks of his esteem. But Tasso having made some attempts on the princes Leonora, whom he has celebrated in several of his verses, the duke her brother, believing, or pretending to believe, that his ill conduct proceeded from a disordered understanding, caused him to be strictly confined in the hospital of St Anne. Tasso applied to the duke, by every friend he had, to release him from this confinement; but the duke coldly answered, that instead of endeavouring to procure the enlargement of a person in his condition, they ought rather to exhort him to submit patiently to such remedies as was judged proper for him. Tasso was certainly disordered in his mind, whether as the effect or cause of this confinement: he was conscious that he laboured under some distemper, and he believed the cause of it to be supernatural, and fancied himself haunted by a spirit that continually disordered his books and papers; to which, however, the tricks played him by his keepers might contribute. He continued, notwithstanding, to solicit the interposition of all the powers in Italy, to whom he could find means to apply, particularly the emperor and the pope; but without success. At last, after he had been a prisoner seven years, Vincentio Gonzaga prince of Mantua came to Ferrara among other great personages, during the festivals and rejoicings that were held there on the marriage of Cæsar of Este with Virginia of Medicis, procured his liberty, and took him with him to Mantua, he being then in the 42d year of his age.
At Mantua he lived about a year in great favour with the prince, and in all the splendour and affluence which the favour of great princes confers: but he was weary of a state of dependence, however splendid and luxurious; and therefore resolved to go to Naples, and endeavour to recover his mother's jointure, which had been seized by her relations when he went into exile with his father Bernardo. With this view, he procured letters of recommendation to the viceroy; and having taken leave of the prince of Mantua, he went first to Bergamo, where he staid some time, and from thence proceeded to Naples.
At Naples he immediately commenced a suit at law for the recovery of his right, and divided his time between a prosecution of that and his studies. But during the summer he retired to Bisaccio, with one Giovanni Batista Manfo, with whom he had contracted an intimate friendship.
Tasso, who was now in his 45th year, appeared to Manfo, while they were at Bisaccio, to be affected with a melancholy, which had very singular effects: he therefore very frequently questioned him about them; and Tasso told him that he had a familiar spirit, with whom he frequently and freely conversed. Manfo treated this as an illusion, but Tasso still affirmed it to be real; and telling him that the spirit would meet and converse with him the next day, invited him to be present. Manfo coming at the hour appointed, saw Tasso fix his eyes with great earnestness upon a window, and perceiving him to continue without motion.
tion, he called him several times by his name; Tasso made no reply, but at length cried out with great vehemence, "There is the friendly spirit that is come to converse with me; look, and be convinced that what I have said is true." Manzo looked, not without some surprise, but saw nothing except the sunbeams which shone through the window: he was just going to ask where the pretended spirit was, when he was prevented by Tasso's speaking with great earnestness to some imaginary being, sometimes putting questions, and sometimes giving answers, in a manner so pleasing, and with such elevation of expression, that Manzo had no desire to interrupt him: the conversation at last ended by the supposed departure of the spirit; when Tasso, turning round to his friend, asked if his doubts were removed; to which he made no reply, being so much amazed that he gladly waved all farther conversation on the subject.
Finding his law-suit not likely to be soon determined, he went from Naples to Rome, where he continued about a year, in high favour with Pope Sextus Quintus; and then went to Florence, at the pressing invitation of Ferdinando grand duke of Tuscany, who had been cardinal at Rome when Tasso first resided there.
Having spent about another year at Florence, he returned again to Naples; and there applied himself to correct his Jerusalem Delivered. Soon after the publication of this work, Hippolito Aldobrandini succeeded Sextus Quintus to the papacy, by the name of Clement the VIIIth; and his two nephews, Cynthio and Pietro Aldobrandini, were created cardinals. Cynthio, who was a great patron of learning and genius, and had known Tasso when he last resided at Rome, prevailed with him once more to leave his retreat at Naples, and live with him in that city. Here he continued till his 50th year; and being then again weary of his situation, and desirous to prosecute his law-suit, he obtained permission to retire once more to Naples, where he took up his abode with the Benedictine fathers, in the convent of St Severin. Cardinal Cynthio, however, found means to recall him again to Rome, after a very short absence, by having prevailed with the Pope to confer upon him the honour of being publicly and solemnly crowned with laurel in the Capitol.
He set out from Naples to receive this honour, with a preface that he should never return; and arrived at Rome in the beginning of the year 1595, being then about 51 years old: he was met at the entrance of the city by many prelates and persons of distinction, and was introduced by the two cardinals to the Pope, who complimented him by saying, "That his merit would confer as much honour on the laurel he was about to receive, as the laurel had formerly conferred on others." Orders were immediately given to decorate not only the Pope's palace and the Capitol, but all the principal streets through which the procession was to pass: but Tasso, whether from an habitual dejection of mind, or a secret sensation of the first approaches of a disease which he apprehended would be fatal, declared that all these pompous preparations would be in vain.
It happened, that while they were waiting for fair weather to celebrate the solemnity, cardinal Cynthio
fell sick; and, before he was perfectly recovered, Tasso himself was taken ill, and died on the 15th day of his sickness, aged 51. His poems have acquired him an immortal reputation. The principal of them are, 1. Jerusalem delivered. 2. Jerusalem conquered. 3. Rinaldo. 4. The Seven Days of the Creation. 5. The tragedy of Torimond. 6. Aminta, &c. All Tasso's works were printed together at Florence in 1724, in six volumes folio, with the pieces for and against his Jerusalem delivered. A pompous edition of this last poem was printed at Venice in 1745, in folio. The best edition of Mirebaud's French translation is that of Paris in 1735, in two volumes duodecimo. His Aminta and Gierusalemme liberata, have been translated into English.