Great men and famous women : a series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in history Volume 7 . e-ceived with indifference and contempt. By nature sensitive, and much excitedby his misfortunes, Tasso began to pour forth bitter invectives against the dukeand his court. Alfonso exercised a cruel revenge; for, instead of soothing theunhappy poet, he shut him up as a lunatic in the hospital of St. Anne. Vet,strange to say, notwithstanding his sufferings, mental and bodily, for more thanseven years in that abode of misery and despair, his powers
Great men and famous women : a series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in history Volume 7 . e-ceived with indifference and contempt. By nature sensitive, and much excitedby his misfortunes, Tasso began to pour forth bitter invectives against the dukeand his court. Alfonso exercised a cruel revenge; for, instead of soothing theunhappy poet, he shut him up as a lunatic in the hospital of St. Anne. Vet,strange to say, notwithstanding his sufferings, mental and bodily, for more thanseven years in that abode of misery and despair, his powers remained unbroken,his genius unimpaired ; and even there he composed some pieces, both in proseand 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 theauthors melancholy thoughts in elegant and poetic language. The Jerusa-lem had now been published and republished both in Italy and France, and. CO ccOz< o I- LLl II- o COCO < I- TORQUATO TASSO 37 Europe rang with its praises; yet the author lay almost perishing in close con-finement, sick, forlorn, and destitute of every comfort. In 1548, Camillo Pellegrini, a Capuan nobleman, and a great admirer ofTassos genius, published a Dialogue on Epic Poetry, in which he placed theJerusalem far above the Orlando Furioso. This testimony from a manof literary distinction caused a great sensation among the friends and admirers ofAriosto. Two academicians of the Crusca, Salviati and Rossi, attacked theJerusalem in the name of the academy, and assailed Tasso and his father in agross strain of abuse. From the mad-house Tasso answered with great modera-tion ; defended his father, his poem, and himself from these groundless invec-tives ; and thus gave to the world the best proof of his
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbiography, bookyear18
