and the inkstand and chair, the tomb and the house of the latter. But, as misfortune has a greater interest for posterity, and little or none for the cotemporary, the cell where Tasso was confined in the hospital of St. Anna attracts a more fixed attention than the residence or the monument of Ariosto at least it had this effect on me. There are two inscriptions, one on the outer gate, the second over the cell itself, inviting, unnecessarily, the wonder and the indignation of the spectator. Ferrara is much decayed, and depopulated: the castle still exists entire ; and I saw the court where Parisina and Hugo were beheaded, according to the annal of Gibbon.

I

Long years! — It tries the thrilling frame to bear,
And eagle-spirit of a Child of Song,

Long years of outrage, calumny, and wrong;
Imputed madness, prison'd solitude,

And the mind's canker in its savage mood,
When the impatient thirst of light and air
Parches the heart; and the abhorrèd grate,
Marring the sunbeams with its hideous shade,
Works through the throbbing eyeball to the brain
With a hot sense of heaviness and pain.

And bare, at once, Captivity display'd

Stands scoffing through the never-open'd gate,

Which nothing through its bars admits, save day,

And tasteless food, which I have eat alone

Till its unsocial bitterness is gone;

And I can banquet like a beast of prey,

Sullen and lonely, couching in the cave

Which is my lair, and it may be my grave.1

All this hath somewhat worn me, and may wear,
But must be borne. I stoop not to despair;
For I have battled with mine agony,
And made me wings wherewith to overfly
The narrow circus of my dungeon wall,
And freed the Holy Sepulchre from thrall;
And revell❜d among men and things divine,
And pour'd my spirit over Palestine,
In honour of the sacred war for Him,
The God who was on earth and is in heaven,
For he hath strengthen'd me in heart and limb.
That through this sufferance I might be forgiven,
I have employ'd my penance to record

How Salem's shrine was won, and how adored.

II

from me none.

But this is o'er, my pleasant task is done: 2-
My long-sustaining friend of many years!
If I do blot thy final page with tears,
Know, that my sorrows have wrung
But thou, my young creation! my soul's child!
Which ever playing round me came and smiled,
And woo'd me from myself with thy sweet sight,
Thou too art gone and so is my delight:
And therefore do I weep and inly bleed

With this last bruise upon a broken reed.

1 Tasso was released after seven years of imprisonment. 2 The writing of "Jerusalem Delivered."

Thou too art ended what is left me now?

For I have anguish yet to bear

and how?

I know not that but in the innate force

Of my own spirit shall be found resource.

I have not sunk, for I had no remorse,

1

Nor cause for such they call'd me mad and why?
Oh Leonora! wilt not thou reply?1
I was indeed delirious in my heart
To lift my love so lofty as thou art;
But still my frenzy was not of the mind;
I knew my fault, and feel my punishment
Not less because I suffer it unbent.

That thou wert beautiful, and I not blind,
Hath been the sin which shuts me from mankind;
But let them go, or torture as they will,
My heart can multiply thine image still;
Successful love may sate itself away,

The wretched are the faithful, 't is their fate
To have all feeling save the one decay,
And every passion into one dilate,

As rapid rivers into ocean pour;

But ours is fathomless, and hath no shore.

III

Above me, hark! the long and maniac cry
Of minds and bodies in captivity.

And hark! the lash and the increasing howl,

1 Leonora d'Este, sister of Alfonso, by whom Tasso was imprisoned. The belief that his punishment was because of love for the Princess Leonora is no longer accepted.

And the half-inarticulate blasphemy!

There be some here with worse than frenzy foul,
Some who do still goad on the o'er-labour'd mind,
And dim the little light that's left behind
With needless torture, as their tyrant will

Is wound up to the lust of doing ill.

With these and with their victims am I class'd,

'Mid sounds and sights like these long years have pass'd;

'Mid sights and sounds like these my life may close : So let it be, for then I shall repose.

IV

I have been patient, let me be so yet;

I had forgotten half I would forget,

But it revives Oh! would it were my lot

To be forgetful as I am forgot!

Feel I not wroth with those who bade me dwell

In this vast lazar-house of many woes?

Where laughter is not mirth, nor thought the mind,
Nor words a language, nor e'en men mankind;
Where cries reply to curses, shrieks to blows,
And each is tortured in his separate hell —
For we are crowded in our solitudes

Many, but each divided by the wall

Which echoes Maduess in her babbling moods;
While all can hear, none heed his neighbour's call-
None! save that One, the veriest wretch of all,
Who was not made to be the mate of these,
Nor bound between Distraction and Disease.
Feel I not wroth with those who placed me here?

Who have debased me in the minds of men,

Debarring me the usage of my own,

Blighting my life in best of its career,

Branding my thoughts as things to shun and fear?
Would I not pay them back these pangs again,
And teach them inward Sorrow's stifled groan?
The struggle to be calm, and cold distress
Which undermines our Stoical success?
No! still too proud to be vindictive, I
Have pardon'd princes' insults and would die.
Yes, Sister of my Sovereign! for thy sake
I weed all bitterness from out my breast,
It hath no business where thou art a guest;
Thy brother hates but I can not detest;

- but I can not forsake.

V

Look on a love which knows not to despair,
But all unquench'd is still my better part,
Dwelling deep in my shut and silent heart
As dwells the gather'd lightning in its cloud,
Encompass'd with its dark and rolling shroud,
Till struck, forth flies the all-ethereal dart!

-

And thus at the collision of thy name

The vivid thought still flashes through my frame, And for a moment all things as they were

Flit by me; they are gone

I am the same.

And yet my love without ambition grew;

I knew thy state, my station, and I knew
A princess was no love-mate for a bard;