, act iii. sc. 4, lines 3, 4;--see
Professor A. Brandl's _Goethe-Jahrbuch._ 1899, and Goethe's _Werke,_
1874, iii. 201, as quoted in Appendix II., _Letters,_ 1901. v. 503-514.]

THE LAMENT OF TASSO.

INTRODUCTION TO _THE LAMENT OF TASSO_.

The MS. of the _Lament of Tasso_ is dated April 20, 1817. It was
despatched from Florence April 23, and reached England May 12 (see
_Memoir of John Murray_, 1891, i. 384). Proofs reached Byron June 7, and
the poem was published July 17, 1817.

"It was," he writes (April 26), "written in consequence of my having
been lately in Ferrara." Again, writing from Rome (May 5, 1817), he asks
if the MS. has arrived, and adds, "I look upon it as a 'These be good
rhymes,' as Pope's papa said to him when he was a boy" (_Letters_, 1900,
iv. 112-115). Two months later he reverted to the theme of Tasso's
ill-treatment at the hands of Duke Alphonso, in the memorable stanzas
xxxv.-xxxix. of the Fourth Canto of _Childe Harold_ (_Poetical Works_,
1899, ii. 354-359; and for examination of the circumstances of Tasso's
imprisonment in the Hospital of Sant' Anna, _vide ibid._, pp. 355, 356,
note 1).

Notices of the _Lament of Tasso_ appeared in the _Gentleman's Magazine_,
August, 1817, vol. 87, pp. 150, 151; in _The Scot's Magazine_, August,
1817, N.S., vol. i. pp. 48, 49; and a eulogistic but uncritical review
in _Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine_, November, 1817, vol. ii. pp.
142-144.

ADVERTISEMENT

At Ferrara, in the Library, are preserved the original MSS. of Tasso's
Gierusalemme[173] and of Guarini's Pastor Fido, with letters of Tasso,
one from Titian to Ariosto, and the inkstand and chair, the tomb and the
house, of the latter. But, as misfortune has a greater interest for
posterity, and little or none for the cotemporary, the cell where Tasso
was confined in the hospital of St. Anna attracts a more fixed attention
than the residence or the monument of Ariosto--at least it had this
effect on me. There are two inscriptions, one on the outer gate, the
second over the cell itself, inviting, unnecessarily, the wonder and the
indignation of the spectator. Ferrara is much decayed and depopulated:
the castle still exists entire; and I saw the court where Parisina and
Hugo were beheaded, according to the annal of Gibbon.[174]

THE LAMENT OF TASSO.[175]