CHAP. XII. A. D. 1577. on me, and that his anger was much kindled against me. But your highness perhaps may not know to what end I say these things, and this I shall now declare. I confess that I deserve punishment for my faults, and I thank your highness that he has absolved me from them; I confess that I deserve to be purged of my melancholy humours, and I thank your highness that he causes this to be done. Of this I am certain, however, that in many things I am not an humourist, and that your highness is (pardon, I beseech you, this expression,) as much as any prince in the world can be. * You will not believe that I have suffered persecutions in your service, and yet I have undergone most cruel and deadly ones; you believe that you have liberated me from the inquisition, and yet I am fastened more than ever." After having entreated the duke to use due diligence to investigate every thing fully on these points, he proceeds: "Do not deny me this favour, oh, most just prince! in this extremity of my melancholic humour, and this you ought to do, as well on your own, as on my account. If I shall know that this is granted, I shall use the purgatives not only willingly, but with a chearful heart. Indeed, I think these necessary on every account, as I well know that the having suspected your highness, and having spoken publicly of mere suspicions, is Tasso is here retorting on Alphonso the charge of being filled with melancholy humours, that is, of mental derangement. "Confesso d'esser degno di purga per lo mio umor melancolico, e ringrazio, V. A. che mi fà purgare; ma son sicuro che in molte cose Io non son umorista, e che è V. A. (perdoni la supplico questa parola) quanto possa esser Principe del mondo." a folly which requires a cathartic. But in other respects, oh, However favourably disposed the duke might be towards Torquato, he could not help being wearied out with these suspicions and expressions. He was led, too, to give less credit to the accusations of the poet against others, as his mistrust extended to himself. Besides, that mixture of madness and of wisdom which were united in the same unhappy person, would have the effect of making his wanderings seem in some sort voluntary, and that appear obstinacy, which was in fact delirium. Whether Alphonso was really angry, or thought that rigour would be useful, I know not, but he forbade our bard to write, either to himself, or to the Duchess of Urbino. This circumstance increased, to an infinite degree, his agitation and his fears, so that, as soon as he found a solitary moment, he resolved to provide for his security by flight. At the conclusion of a former chapter, we have seen Torquato sheltered from the fury of fortune, in what he then CHAP. XII. A. D. 1577. Aet. 33. Tasso resolves to fly from Ferrara. CHAP. XII. A. D. 1577. considered as a safe and tranquil harbour. * We are to behold him once more a wandering mariner, launching on the ocean of life, with reason frequently not at the helm, and dashed by the waves and among the rocks of misery. "If a man, who has reflected, (says Condorcet on an analogous occasion,) if a man, who has reflected, could be tempted to be proud of any thing, how capable is such an example of restoring him to himself? of shewing him that the advantages, the most real and personal, are not more certain than those with which the most frivolous vanity is apt to be elated; that the gifts of nature are as frail as those of fortune; that a man, without ceasing to be himself, may cease to be all that he was; and that nothing but the insensible derangement of some organ is necessary to tear at once, from a superior genius, all that distinguished him even from the beings the most inferior to the generality of mankind.”† * Tu magnanimo Alfonso! il qual ritogli Gerus. lib. c. I. st. 4. And thou, Alphonso! who from fortune's ire, + Eloge de M, Bertin. |