subject as its essential uniformity would admit of, by placing beside the poet, as the companion of his wanderings, a young and innocent being, Angioletta, the niece of the keeper of the Hospital, whose heart has unconsciously become devoted to him in his cell at St Anne's; and by throwing around the last scene of his life the consoling impression derived from the general acknowledgment of his greatness, and the preparations for his coronation in the Capitol. His play opens with the seventh year of Tasso's imprisonment in the Hospital of St Anne's, after many attempts had been made in vain to induce Alfonso to relax the rigour of his confinement. The arrival of the Duke's sister, Lucretia, the Duchess of Urbino, determines Leonora to make another and a last appeal to the compassion of her brother, through the Duke of Urbino, the Duke of Mantua, and the Countess Sanvitale Scandiano, who are expected at the court of Ferrara. Meantime she announces her resolution of seeing Tasso once more—though without speaking to him—in his cell; which she is informed by the keeper is possible, by placing herself in an upper gallery surrounding the cells, whence she could see without being seen by the object of her interest and pity. The fourth scene introduces us to the Hospital of St Anne's and Tasso's cell.
Angioletta. It is a mild and lovely day of spring,
Tho birds are twittering, and the flowers exhale
Sweet scents: soft airs come breathing through the window.
Tasso. Why speak to me of spring—of flowers—perfumes
For me there comes no spring—there comes no autumn;
The wheels of time stand still above my head,
Year follows year, and still immovable
Upon the brazen dial of my sorrows
The index seems to stand!
I have forgotten the sweet scents of spring,
The tints which deck the swelling breast of autumn,
While stretch'd upon my torturing rack I lie,
A Titan fetter'd to the ground, and feel
A universe of suffering lies above me.
Ang. O sir, be patient, be composed: you know
How much this agitation injures you.
Tas. O would it did! O would it could destroy me
But 'tis not so: Alas! of sevenfold steel
This frame is fashion'd, sickly as it seems:
Blows fall with giant force upon my head,
But cannot shatter it. O! 'tis pitiful!
Ang. Here comes my uncle.
He comes to announce that the Signer Montecatino, the bearer of a message from the Duke, is without, and demands admittance to the poet. Tasso refuses to see him, and bursts out into a strain of invective against his mingled pride and baseness, as a being who crawls in the dust before his superiors, and looks as if he disdained to breathe the same air with those beneath him. The Keeper replies—
This touches you not. For you are his equal—
A noble like himself.
Tas.You rave, methinks;
These veins I would lay open on the spot
Were there one drop of blood within them which
Resembled him! What? I like him—no—never!
Thanks be to Heaven, that I am not his like!
Keep. I meant not that; I only meant that you,
Like him, were noble.
Tas.Understand me rightly.
In sooth I am not proud. How should I be?
I have indeed but little cause to be so.
I know myself, and to my God 'tis known
I look not with indulgence on my failings.
