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TASSO, BERNARDO. 



TASSO, TORQUATO. 



hoping at least to become a Btatuary, if not a painter, he, in 1766, 

 went to Dublin, where ho was employed for some time as a sculptor 

 and modeller. There he became acquainted with Dr. Quiu, who was 

 making experiments in the beautiful art of imitating engraved gems 

 by means of coloured glass, or pastes, and who engaged him as his con- 

 fidential assistant. Having succeeded in effecting great improvements 

 in the art by their joint labours, Tassie was encouraged by his patron 

 to remove to London, and to follow it as a profession. He accordingly 

 reached London in 1766; and although owing to his diffidence and 

 modesty, he had to struggle with many difficulties, he gradually 

 emerged from obscurity, obtained a comfortable competence, and 

 established such a reputation, that the principal cabinets of Europe 

 were thrown open to him. Among his earliest patrons in the metro- 

 polis were the Society of Arts, who, in 1767, awarded him the sum of 

 ten guineas for imitations of ancient onyx. In 1775 Tassie, who then 

 resided in Compton Street, Soho, published a catalogue of the ancient 

 and modern gems in his collection, of which he sold pastes or sulphur 

 impressions at very moderate prices. The collection then amounted 

 to more than three thousand articles ; but it was subsequently much 

 extended, and in 1791 appeared a new catalogue, containing fifteen 

 thousand eight hundred articles, and forming two quarto volumes. 

 This work, which is not confined to a dry description of the gems, but 

 contains much useful information on that department of ancient art, 

 was compiled by Mr. R. E. Raspe, who prefixed to the catalogue an 

 introduction on the utility of such a collection of works of art, and on 

 the history of engraving upon hard stones, and the imitation of gems 

 by artificial pastes. The work contains also a frontispiece and fifty- 

 seven plates of gems, etched by David Allan. From Raspe's introduction 

 it appears that the demand for Tassie's pastes was encouraged, in the 

 first instance, by the jewellers, who introduced them into fashion by 

 setting them in rings, seals, bracelets, and other trinkets. He was very 

 caruful of his reputation, and would not issue imperfect impressions; 

 but the celebrity of his casts induced other and less skilful modellers 

 to sell their works under his name. About 1787 or 1788 Tassie 

 received an order from the empress of Russia for a complete set of his 

 gems, which he executed in the most satisfactory manner, in a 

 beautiful white enamel composition, so hard as to strike fire with 

 steel, and of such a texture as to take a fine polish, and to show every 

 touch of the artist with the greatest accuracy. Wherever it was 

 possible to do so, he coloured these in exact imitation of the originals ; 

 and in other cases such colours were used as might display the work 

 to advantage. Tassie's business was continued by his nephew, 

 William, on his premises in Leicester Square; and he added to the 

 collection a series of casts of coins from the museum of the late 

 Dr. William Hunter, of which he made a set by order of the Emperor 

 Alexander, to add to the gems executed for the empress by his uncle, 

 who died in 1799. Besides the branch of art for which he is prin- 

 cipally celebrated, Tassie displayed considerable talent in modelling 

 small portraits in wax, from which he frequently made pastes. He 

 was much respected in private life for his piety, simplicity, modesty, 

 and benevolence. 



TASSO, BERNARDO, born at Bergamo in 1493, lost his father 

 when a boy, and was brought up under the care of his uncle Luigi 

 Tasso, bishop of Recanati, who was living at Bergamo. The bishop 

 being murdered by robbers in 1520, Tasso left his native town, and 

 lived for several years at Padua and Venice, and other towns of 

 north Italy, where he displayed his talent for poetical composition. 

 In 1525 he engaged himself as secretary to Guido Rangone, who was 

 general of the Papal troops in north Italy. In 1529 he went to the 

 court of Ferrara, where he remained a short time. A volume of 

 Italian verses which he published at Venice in 1531 made him known 

 to Ftrraute Sanseverino, prince of Salerno, one of the principal Neapoli- 

 tan barons, who kept a princely court after the feudal fashion of the 

 times. The prince invited him to come to Naples, granted him a 

 handsome allowance, with the liberty of withdrawing himself from 

 time to time from his court to apply to his poetical studies in rural 

 retirement. Tasso accompanied the prince of Salerno in the expedi- 

 tion which Charles V. undertook against Tunis, in 1534. He was 

 afterwards sent to Spain, in 1537, on a political mission, and on his 

 return he spent some time at Venice, where he became acquainted 

 with the celebrated Tullia d'Aragona, the illegitimate daughter of a 

 cardinal of the royal house of Aragon, who was herself a poetess, and 

 led a very free life. Bernardo Tasso wrote verses in her praise, 

 Having at last disentangled himself from this connection, he returned 

 to Naples, where he soon after married a young lady of Sorrento 

 called Porzia de Rossi, by whom he had a son, Torquato. In 1547 an 

 insurrection broke out at Naples against the Spanish viceroy Don 

 Pedro de Toledo, who, in concert with Pope Paul III., wished to 

 establish the Inquisition in Naples after the fashion of Spain. The 

 people elected a sort of council composed of nobles and citizens under 

 the name of " Union for the service of God, the emperor, and the 

 city," to administer temporarily the affairs of the country. This body 

 chose the Prince of Sanseverino and the Prince of Sangro as its 

 deputies to proceed to Germany and lay their grievances before 

 Charles V. Bernardo Tasso, against the opinion of others, advised the 

 prince to accept this mission. Sanseverino found the emperor highly 

 incensed against the Neapolitans, and fearing for himself he went to 

 France and entered the service of Henry II., for which he was declared 



BIOG. Div. VOL. v. 



a rebel by Charles V., and his property was confiscated. Bernardo 

 Tasso followed his patron to France, where, after a time, he found 

 himself in great pecuniary distress. He then returned to Italy, and 

 went to the court of Guidobaldo, duke of Urbino, from whence he 

 passed to that of the Duke Gonzaga of Mantua, who made him 

 governor of Ostiglia, in which place he died in 1569. 



Bernardo Tasso wrote a romantic poem in ottava-rima, entitled 

 'Amadigi,' the subject of which is taken from a Spanish romance. 

 [A.MADIS DE GAULA.] The plot or plots of Tasso's poems are deficient 

 in interest, but the style is good, and the poet excels in hia descriptions 

 and comparisons, but he indulges at timea in licentious strains. After 

 writing hia poem, he detached one of the episodes and swelled it into 

 a separate poem, entitled ' Floridante,' which was published after his 

 death by his eon. He also wrote five books of 'rirne,' eclogues, 

 hymns, odes, sonnets, and other lyrics, some of which are admired for 

 their imagery and smoothness of versification. He introduced in the 

 Italian language that species of poetry which is called 'pescatoria* 

 and ' mariuaresca,' being descriptive of tbe habits and occupations of 

 fishermen and mariners. His letters have been published in three 

 volumes. 



TASSO, TORQUA'TO, son of Bernardo, was born at Sorrento, in 

 1544. At the age of ten he was sent for by his father, then an exile, 

 and after some time spent with him in several towns of north Italy, he 

 went to the University of Padua to study law, for which however he 

 had little inclination. At the age of eighteen he composed hia first 

 poem ' Rinaldo,' in twelve cantos. The subject is romantic, and is 

 taken from the old chivalric legends concerning Charlemagne and his 

 wars with the Moors. Bernardo was at first angry with his son for 

 neglecting his mor j serious studies, but at last he relented, and gave 

 his consent to the publication of the poem, which Torquato dedicated 

 to the Cardinal Luigi d'Este, brother of Alfonso IT., duke of Ferrara. 

 In 1566 the cardinal took him into his service as a gentleman attendant, 

 and introduced him to his brother the duke, and to his two unmarried 

 sisters, Lucrezia and Eleonora. He was well received by oil, and 

 admitted into their familiar society. Tasso was young and amorous; 

 he had been for some time passionately in love wir.h Laura Peperara, a, 

 lady of Mantua, to whom he addressed many sonnets and other verses 

 after the manner of Petrarch, styling her his Laura. This lady, with 

 whom he had probably become acquainted during a visit which he 

 paid to his father at Mantua in 1564, came some years after to Ferrara 

 as a lady of honour of the duchess, and was married to Count Turchi 

 of Ferrara. But in tbe mean time Tasso appears to have been struck 

 with the personal attractions and mental accomplishments of the 

 Princess Eleonora, the duke's sister, and already in 1566 there is a 

 sonnet by him beginning ' Nel tuo petto real da voci sparte,' which is 

 evidently addressed to a princess of a sovereign house. From that 

 time he continued to write amatory verses evidently addressed to the 

 same person, whom he styles hia ' donna,' or mistress. In some of 

 them he mentions the name of Eleonora, but as there were several 

 ladies of that name at different times at the court of Ferrara, this has 

 given rise to various surmises about the person meant. At last Tasso 

 avowed in several ways his love for the princess, though, from the 

 existing usages of society, it was impossible that he could ever have 

 obtained her hand. Most of the sonnets and other lyrics, which are 

 evidently intended for this object of his second love, are conceived in 

 a respectful and somewhat melancholy strain, as if the writer felt the 

 hopelessness of his passion. The disparity of rank was in those times 

 an insurmountable obstacle to any legitimate result of such an attach- 

 ment, and_ the house of Este was one of the proudest in Italy. Like 

 Petrarch, Tasso seems to have obtained friendship only in return for 

 his love. But there are some of Tasso's compositions written between 

 1567 and 1570, in which he assumes the tone of a favoured lover. 

 Such are the two sonnets " Donna di me doppia vittoria aveste" and 

 " Prima colla belth, voi mi vinceste," the dialogue between love and a 

 lover, beginning " Tu ch' i piu chiusi affetti," and the madrigal which 

 begins " Soavissimo bacio." From the context, although no name is 

 mentioned, they all evidently allude to the same object as the other 

 amatory verses addressed to his ' donna.' There are also some auto- 

 graph lines of Tasso discovered by Mai among the Falconieri 

 manuscripts, and published by Betti at Rome (' Giornale Arcadico,' 

 October 1827), in which Eleonora is mentioned by name : 



" Quando sara che d'Eleonora mia 

 Possa godermi in libertade atnore ? 

 Ah, pietoso il destin tanto mi dia ! 

 Addio cetra, addio lauri, addio rossore." 



It would appear that these verses, having been abstracted from 

 Tasso's papers by some enemy, and shown to Duke Alfonso, first 

 roused his suspicions. 



Professor Rosini, in his able essay upon the ' Love of Tasso and the 

 Causes of his Imprisonment,' Pisa, 1832, proves, in opposition to the 

 assertion of Serassi and others, that Eleonora d'Este was the object of 

 the above compositions, as well as of all the others addressed to his 

 ' donna.' It is the four compositions last alluded to that constitute 

 the real guilt of Tasso : they boast in prurient language of favours 

 received, which, according to the best circumstantial evidence, were 

 never granted, and which, if even granted, ought not to have been 

 mentioned. And Tasso himself must have felt this, for when he set 



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