858 
T A S 
TA'SSELED, adj. Adorned with tassels.—A purse of 
leather —tasseled with silk. Chaucer. 
TA'SSES, s. Armour for the thighs. Ainsworth. 
TASSI (Agostino), the cognomen of an artist whose real 
name was Buonamici. He was born at Perugia in 1566, 
and studied at Rome under Paul Brill, and received some 
assistance in the school of the Caracci. His sea-ports, calms, 
and storms, were faithful transcripts of nature, and touched 
with great spirit and efficacy. His views of architectural 
subjects thrown into perspective, which are in the pontifical 
palace of Monte Cavallo, and in that of the Lancellotti fa¬ 
mily, are admirable in their kind. His greatest honour, 
however, is having been the instructor of Claude de Lor¬ 
raine. He died in 1642, aged 76. 
TASSISUDON, a city of Northern Hindostan, province 
of Bootan, of which it is the capital, and the residence oflhe 
Deb rajah. This town stands in a highly cultivated valley, 
about three miles in length, by one in breadth, intersected 
by the Tchintchieu river. On the surrounding mountains 
are some large timber trees, intermixed with fir and pine, and 
a great variety of flowering shrubs. The climate is esteemed 
exceedingly salubrious. The castle is built of stone, and 
forms a square, the walls of which are 30 feet high. The 
citadel is a very lofty building, consisting of seven stories, 
each from 15 to 20 feet high. From the centre of these rises 
a square piece of masonry, which supports a canopy of cop¬ 
per richly gilt, supposed to be immediately over the idol 
Mafia Moony. The rajah resides in the fourth story of this 
citadel, which might more properly be called a temple. 
The town is of considerable extent, and very populous. Its 
chief manufactures are brazen images, and paper made from 
the bark of a tree. Lat. 27. 50. N. long. 89. 30. E. 
TASSO (Bernardo), an eminent poet, born at Bergamo, 
of an ancient and noble family, in the year 1493, became 
an early proficient in the Greek and Latin classics. His 
uncle, the bishop of Recanati, who was his instructor and 
patron, and supplied the place of a parent when he lost his 
father, having been assassinated by robbers in 1520, Ber¬ 
nardo was under a necessity of quitting his native city, and 
in 1525 became secretary to count Guido Rangoni, general 
of the papal army. Having been for a short time occupied 
in a similar situation under the duchess of Ferrara, he after¬ 
wards pursued his studies at Padua and Venice. In 1531, 
he published at Venice a volume of poems, which induced 
Ferrante Sanseverino, prince of Salerno, to invite him to 
his court. Having accepted this invitation, he recommended 
himself to the prince, and obtained annual stipends, amount¬ 
ing to 900 ducats. He accompanied his patron in several 
expeditions, and accompanying him to Naples, he there 
married Porzia de’ Rossi, a lady of noble family. At Sor¬ 
rento, whither he removed, he for some time led a tranquil 
and studious life} until his patron, in 1547, incurred the 
displeasure of the imperial court by concurring in presenting 
a petition against the establishment of the inquisition at 
Naples. On this occasion the prince joined the French 
party, so that he was declared a rebel, and his property was 
confiscated. Influenced by respect for his patron, Bernardo 
accompanied him to France, where at first he obtained en¬ 
couragement, but being in process of time deprived of all 
suppoit, and having lost his wife, he requested the prince’s 
permission to leave him; and complying with an invitation 
to the court of Guidubaldo II., duke of Urbino, a distin¬ 
guished patron of literary persons, he was liberally compen¬ 
sated for his past sufferings, and made a member of the ce¬ 
lebrated Venetian academy. In 1563, he became secretary 
at the court of Mantua, and in the service of this court he 
died, in 1569, being then governor of Ostiglia. The duke 
of Mantua caused his remains to be honourably interred in 
that city, and a marble monument to be erected over his 
tomb, bearing the simple inscription, “ Ossa Bernardi Tassi.” 
Of his poems, belonging to the class of “ Romanesque,” 
here were two; viz., “ Amadigi,” consisting of 1G0 cantos, 
and “ II Floridante,” left unfinished, but corrected and pub¬ 
lished by his son Torquato, at Bologna, in 1587. His other 
works are five books of “ Rime,” with various kinds of 
T A S 
poems, such as eclogues, elegies, hymns, odes, &c. He 
was also the author of “ A Discourse concerning Poetry,” 
and “ Letters,” of which an edition has been given in three 
volumes. 
TASSO (Torquato), pre-eminent as an Italian poet, was 
the son of Bernardo and Porzia de Rossi, born at Sorrento, 
March 11, 1544, and sent at the age of five years to the 
Jesuits’ school, at Naples. Here his proficiency was so 
rapid, that in two years he recited, publicly, verses and ora¬ 
tions of his own composition. At Bergamo, whither the 
circumstances of his family constrained him to remove, he 
prosecuted the study of Latin and Greek with such success, 
that at the age of twelve years, he was admitted into the uni- 
versity of Padua. Here his proficiency in various branches 
of literature was so signal, that in his seventeenth year he 
was honoured with degrees in the four branches of canon 
and civil law, theology, and philosophy. For law he had 
no predilection; but all the powers and affections of his 
mind were devoted to poetry. Thus distinguished, he was 
invited by the celebrated Cesi to Bologna, in the schools 
and academies of which city his talents were eminently dis¬ 
played. During his residence in Bologna, he was charged 
with having written some defamatory verses, and deprived of 
his books; and though he avowed his innocence, he thought 
proper to withdraw from the city to a place called Castle- 
vetro, where he was protected by the Count Rangoni. Some 
time after this event he settled at Padua, and acquired dis¬ 
tinction among the academicians denominated “ Eterei.” 
At the age of eighteen years, he had published at Venice his 
poem of the Romanesque class, entitled “ II Rinaldo,” 
which he dedicated to Cardinal Luigi d'Este, in conse¬ 
quence of which he was invited, in 1566, to the court of 
Ferrara, where he was liberally accommodated, and where, 
it is said, he prosecuted the execution of his plan of the 
“ Gerusalemme Liberatasix cantos of which were com¬ 
posed in the 17th year of his life. In 1571, he accom¬ 
panied the Cardinal d’Este into France, where he was ho¬ 
nourably received by Charles IX. and his court, and also by 
all the learned men of Paris. In the following year he re¬ 
turned to Italy, and caused to be represented his dramatic 
pastoral of “ Aminta.” Several cantos of his “ Gerusa¬ 
lemme” were at this time dispersed in MS. throughout Italy, 
and in 1579, the fourth canto was printed in a collection of 
poems at Genoa. In the following year, fragments of 16 
cantos were published at Venice, and we may naturally 
imagine that this mode of introducing to public notice a 
work on which he had bestowed much attention and labour, 
excited his displeasure. In 1581, three editions were print¬ 
ed; and of these, the third at Ferrara has been considered as 
that which first exhibited this celebrated work in its genuine 
form. It has occasioned some degree of surprise, that Tasso 
himself did not guard against these incorrect publications, 
by committing his work to the press in a more perfect state. 
His negligence in this respect has been attributed to some 
mental malady under which he laboured. Of the cause of 
this malady, different accounts have been given. Tiraboschi 
has narrated a variety of circumstances, which operating on 
a mind like that of Tasso, might have contributed to pro¬ 
duce, or at least to aggravate the mental disorder under 
which he laboured. His first provocation seems to have 
been excited by a courtier, who divulged the secret of his 
amours, in the presence-chamber of Alfonso, duke of Fer¬ 
rara, and whom he publicly insulted, so that he was under 
a necessity of defending himself with his sword against the 
aggressor and his three brothers. The brothers were ba¬ 
nished, and Tasso was confined to his apartment. Disturbed 
in his mind, and dreading worse consequences, he made his 
escape, wandered to Turin, Rome and Sorrento, and at 
length obtained permission to return to Ferrara. Suspecting 
some hostile design, he withdrew to the court of Urbino, and 
again returned to Ferrara. Here his disorder was so mani¬ 
fest, that Alfonso ordered him to be shut up in a hospital 
appropriated to lunatics. The evidence of his disorder is said 
by some to have been an indecorous liberty which he took in 
saluting the princess Leonora, the. duke’s sister; but others 
have 
