fonso of Ferrara, and of his
subsequent disgrace and imprisonment for daring to lift his eyes in love
to a princess of the haughty House of Este, we have no space to speak
here. Let it suffice to say that he was one of the most charming,
virtuous, brilliant, manly figures, as he was also almost the last true
representative, of the great Italian Renaissance, the end of which may be
described as coinciding with his decease. According to his biographer
Manso, the author of the _Gerusalemme Liberata_ was singularly noble and
refined in appearance, though always possessed of an air of melancholy; he
was well-built, strong, active and resourceful, anything in fact but a
carpet-knight who spent his days in writing verse and dallying with
Italian court beauties:

"Colla penna e colla spada,
Nessun val quanto Torquato;"

sang the populace of Ferrara in honour of their illustrious Sorrentine
guest, for the Ferrarese delighted in the handsome stranger who could in
an emergency wield the sword as skilfully as he could ply his quill. Twice
only however did Tasso revisit the city of his birth, and each return home
was occasioned by deep tragedy. In 1577, wounded by the attacks of his
literary rivals and humiliated by the Duke Alfonso's discovery of his
infatuation for the Princess Leonora d'Este, the unhappy poet travelled
southward, reaching Sorrento in the disguise of a shepherd. Making his way
to the Casa Sersale, the house of his sister, now a widow with two sons,
Torquato passed himself off as his own messenger, and so eloquently did he
relate the story of his own grief and wrongs, that the tender-hearted
Cornelia fainted away at this recital. Having satisfied his mind as to his
sister's genuine affection, the pseudo-shepherd now revealed his true
character, whereupon the pair embraced with transports of joy, though it
was deemed prudent not to acquaint their friends with the arrival of
Torquato, who was represented to the good people of Sorrento as a distant
relative from Bergamo. Cornelia Sersale now entreated the poet to take up
his abode permanently in her house, and to forget the rebuffs of the cruel
world without in the enjoyment of family ties and affections; and well
would it have been for Torquato, had he accepted his sister's advice and
passed the succeeding years in simple rural pleasures. But restless and
inconsequent despite all his virtues, the poet must needs return to
Ferrara to bask in the presence of his b