36 ARTISTS AND AUTHORS whom the poet ventured, it is said, to declare an affection which, according to some historians, did not remain unrequited. The portrait of Olinda, in the beau- tiful episode which relates her history, is generally understood to have been de- signed after this living model ; while some have imagined that Tasso himself is not less clearly pictured in the description of her lover, Sofronio. There was also another Eleanor, a lady of the court with whom the poet for a while imag- ined himself in love. But about this time, whether from mental uneasiness, or from constitutional causes, his conduct began to be marked by a morbid irritabil- ity allied to madness. The " Jerusalem " was surreptitiously printed without having received the author's last corrections ; and he entreated the duke, and all his powerful friends, to prevent such an abuse. Alfonso and the pope himself endeavored to satisfy Tasso's demands, but with little success. This circum- stance, and other partly real, partly imaginary troubles, augmented so much his natural melancholy and apprehension, that he began to think that his enemies not only persecuted and calumniated him, but accused him of great crimes ; he even imagined that they had the intention of denouncing his works to the Holy Inquisition. Under this impression he presented himself to the inquis- itor of Bologna ; and having made a general confession, submitted his works to the examination of that holy father, and begged and obtained his absolu- tion. His malady, for such we may surely call it, was continually exasperated by the arts of his rivals ; and on one occasion, in the apartments of the Duch- ess of Urbino, he drew his sword on one of her attendants. He was imme- diately arrested, and subsequently sent to one of the Duke's villas, where he was kindly treated and supplied with medical advice. But his fancied injuries (for in this case they do not seem to have been real) still pursued him ; and he fled, destitute of everything, from Ferrara, and hastened to his sister Cor- nelia, then living at Sorrento. Her care and tenderness very much soothed his mind and improved his health ; but, unfortunately, he soon repented of his hasty flight, and returned to Ferrara, where his former malady soon regained its pow- er. Dissatisfied with all about him, he again left that town ; but, after having wandered for more than a year, he returned to Alfonso, by whom he was re- ceived with indifference and contempt By nature sensitive, and much excited by his misfortunes, Tasso began to pour forth bitter invectives against the duke and his court. Alfonso exercised a cruel revenge ; for, instead of soothing the unhappy poet, he shut him up as a lunatic in the hospital of St. Anne. Yet, strange to say, notwithstanding his sufferings, mental and bodily, for more than seven years in that abode of misery and despair, his powers remained unbroken, his genius unimpaired ; and even there he composed some pieces, both in prose and verse, which were triumphantly appealed to by his friends in proof of his san- ity. To this period we may probably refer the " Veglie," or " Watches " of Tas- so, the manuscript of which was discovered in the Ambrosian Library, at Milan, toward the end of the last century. They are written in prose, and express the author's melancholy thoughts in elegant and poetic language. The "Jerusa- lem" had now been published and republished both in Italy and France, and
