post of honour and danger; the indomitable spirit of Solimano; the circumspect valour of Emireno, devoid of illusion, and with no aim but the fulfilment of duty—are noble traits, and the more so as the poet found them in himself. The very last incident in the poem, Goffredo's interference to save his gallant enemy Altamoro, is one that could have occurred to no one less noble and courteous than the author of the Jerusalem. It is very different from Bradamante's behaviour to Atlante in the Orlando Furioso.
Another honourable characteristic is Tasso's love of science and discovery, revealed by many passages in his minor poems and his dialogues, and in the Jerusalem by the noble prophecy of the Columbus to be. His sonnet to Stigliani, hereafter to be quoted, appears to hint that with better health and fortune he would himself have taken the exploits of Columluis as the subject of another epic; and he is said to have remarked that the only contemporary poet against whom he felt any hesitation in measuring himself was Camoens, the singer of the discoveries of the Portuguese. This theme, often essayed, and never with success, would have favoured Tasso's genius in so far as it exempted him from describing single combats and pitched battles. His battle-pieces are not ineffective, but he is evidently more at home among the sorceries of Armida's enchanted garden:
" 'Ah mark! he sang, 'the rose but now revealed,
Fresh from its veiling sheath of virgin green,
Unfolded yet but half, half yet concealed,
More fair to see, the less it may be seen.
Now view its bare and flaunting pride unsealed;
All faded now, as though it ne'er had been
The beauteous growth, that while it bloomed retired,
A thousand maids, a thousand youths desired.
