ADVERTISEMENT. Ar Ferrara (in the library) are preserved the original MSS. of Tasso's Gierusalemme and of Guarini's Pastor Fido, with letters of Tasso, one from Titian to Ariosto; 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 mich decayed and depopulated; the castle still exists entie; and I saw the court where Parisina and Hugo were baeaded, according to the annal of Gibbon. THE LAMENT OF TASSO. I. LONG years! It tries the thrilling frame to bear nd eagle-spirit of a Child of song ong years of outrage, calumny and wrong; aputed madness, prison'd solitude, ud the mind's canker in its savage mood, Stands scoffing through the never-open'd gate, And I can banquet like a beast of prey, Which is my lair, and—it may be-my grave. nd made me wings wherewith to overfly The narrow circus of my dungeon wall, In honour of the sacred war for him, How Salem's shrine was won, and how adored. II. But this is o'er-my pleasant task is done: Know that my sorrows have wrung from me none. But still my frenzy was not of the mind; That thou wert beautiful, and I not blind, Hath been the sin which shuts me from mankind; My heart can multiply thine image still; But ours is fathomless, and hath no shore. III. Above me, hark! the long and maniac cry And hark! the lash and the increasing howl, There be some here with worse than frenzy foul, Some who do still goad on the o'er-labour'd mind, 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; VOL. X. |