o the picturesque verse, and to the
unflagging liveliness of style, this epic is still popular in Italy.
It has besides given rise to endless imitations, not only in Italian
but in many other languages. It forms part of the great Charlemagne
Cycle, of which the last epic is Ricciardetto, by Fortiguerra, a
priest who wagered he too could compose a string of adventures like
those invented by Ariosto. He won his wager by adopting the characters
already made famous by Boiardo and Ariosto, and selected as his hero a
younger brother of Rinaldo mentioned by his predecessors.

GERUSALEMME LIBERATA, OR JERUSALEM DELIVERED

Torquato Tasso, one of the three great Italian poets, was born at
Sorrento in 1544, and, after receiving his education in various
Italian cities, conceived, while at the University of Padua, the idea
of writing an epic poem, using an episode in the First Crusade as his
theme. In 1572 Tasso became attached to the court of Ferrara, where
the duke and his two sisters delighted in his verses, admired his
pastoral Aminta, and urged him to finish his projected epic.

During his sojourn at this court Tasso fell in love with Eleonora,
sister of the duke, to whom he read the various parts of his epic as
he completed them, and for whose sake he lingered at Ferrara, refusing
offers of preferment at Paris and at Florence. Although he completed
his epic in 1575, he did not immediately publish it, but sent copies
to Rome and Padua for criticism. The learned men to whom he submitted
his poem criticised it so freely that the poet's sensitive nature was
greatly injured thereby. Almost at the same time the duke discovered
the poet's passion for his sister. Furious to think Tasso should have
raised his eyes to a princess, yet afraid he should carry his talents
elsewhere, the duke, pretending to deem him insane, placed him under
close surveillance. While Tasso was thus a prisoner, sundry false
accusations were brought against him and his poem was published
without his consent.

Although Tasso contrived several times to escape from Ferrara, he
invariably came back there, hoping to be reconciled to the duke. It
was only in 1586 that he left this place for good and betook himself
to Rome and Naples, where he was forced to live on charity. Just as he
was about to be publicly crowned in Rome for his epic, he died there,
at the age of fifty-two (1595).

The epic "Jerusalem Delivered" contains an account of the Crusade of