L.

While sitting on this mossy stone:

Beneath the cliffs of Sorrento are shown corridors which are called the caves of Ulysses; they are stripped of every decoration. Homer has exactly described the shore; and one huge rock, near the landing-place, seems as if it might have been placed by Polyphemus before his den. The opposite Capreæ answers to Lachæa, from whence Ulysses, having quitted the Æolian isles a second time, proceeded with one vessel to Surrentum, and there encountered the Cyclop sailing from thence to the Læstrygones, near Gaieta, and after the destruction of his barks by the savages, gaining, with one only, the realm of Circe. The plain of Sorrento is a living picture of Homer's garden of Alcinous ; a realisation of the golden Hesperides-the substance for the vision. It is one vast orchard, but by no means resembling our insular ideas of an apple-orchard, for here flourish, entwined together, the pomegranate, mulberry, fig, vine, olive, walnut, peach, apricot, with whole groves of orange and lemon trees-to look down on which, from any eminence, is like looking down into Paradise: the very eye pours its blessing over the scene for the silent delight which it receives. Journal.

The Sirens yon

LI.

dim islands have forsook :

The Sirenuse, three small isles in the Posidonian gulph ;

they bore sway over the promontory of Minerva, and town of Massa: it was here Ulysses passed in safety. They are three small barren islets: a low ruined tower stands on one, the largest; being, perhaps, the remnant of some ancient temple; the other two are conical rocks. I could not behold them, grey-looking and isolated as they are, detached from the main continent, and appearing as specks on the immense ocean before them, without reflecting, and with a deep consciousness of joy, on the immutable and eternal nature of Genius! To the common, uninquiring eye, they are nothing; to the intellectual and the imaginative, they have a charm pervading every part of them, like the common light of day. They have been peopled with immortal spirits by a human being who created them from his own by a Mind, which, itself immortal and co-existent with time, has been able to throw a halo, which shall endure for ever, round their waste and barren sides; such are the powers of the creator-such the triumphs of the mind! Journal.

*

LIII.

Sorrento! who that blesses thy soft brow;

The soil around Sorrento is volcanic, and the vegetation one ocean of richest luxuriance. But that which renders Sorrento an eternal object of speculation to the geologist,

Longinus compared the Iliad and the Odyssey to the rising and the setting sun-an analogy as sublime as the subjects from whence it was drawn.

are, the sunken ravines, or rather, profound chasms in the earth, intersecting its plain, and tending to the sea; the ground, in all directions, has been rent asunder, in cracks of frightful depth, evidently separated by some great convulsion of Nature.

LVII.

Even in Tasso :

Muratori confesses that he was ignorant of the crime which confined Tasso to his cell, but asserts that the cause was not insanity, but from some hasty expressions spoken in choler against the Duke. Manso, the bosom friend of Tasso, throws no light on it; and, of seven or eight annalists of the day, only one asserts that he was confined at all. Tasso might have felt a pride in being patronised by Leonora of Este, but his heart was devoted to a humbler beauty: Lucretia Bendedio ranked the author of the "Pastor Fido" among her immortal suitors; of this passion, Leonora was the confidant.* It is also too certain that Leonora deserted the poet in the first days of his distress; and it is as well known, that Tasso did not vent a single grief over the bier of his supposed mistress. Tasso's great and sole fault, in the eyes of the Duke, was his desire for his natural freedom -in fact, to do as he liked; and not to feel that he was detained at Ferrara. In 1575 he fled to Rome, and this journey, or jaunt rather, was the cause of all his misfortunes. On his return, he found that his manuscript of " Jerusalem”

* See Hobhouse's Illustrations.

was withheld from him by Alfonso. All remonstrances and petitions were vain; till, at length, his passion broke forth in expressions which were carefully repeated: he was arrested by "his generous and magnanimous" sovereign, and confined to his prison as a madman. The obligations, then, of Tasso to the Duke, consisted in the seven years' imprisonment of the author, and the surreptitious publication of a mutilated manuscript. His muse was encouraged and confined to her laureate duties, and so carefully was her gratitude secured, and her recompense so exactly weighed, that the day before the Prince of Mantua secured the freedom of Tasso, he commanded the captive to compose a copy of verses, as an earnest of more elaborate efforts; even his clothes were not allowed him, unless worn and shown at court; his own letter will best speak the extent of his princely patronage.

"I send your worship five shirts-all of which want mend"ing! Give them to your relation: and let him know that "I do not wish them to be mixed with the others; and that "he will gratify me by coming one day with you to see me. "In the mean while I wait for that answer which your Lord"ship promised to solicit for me. I kiss your worship's

"hands.

"January 4th, 1585."

"Your faithful servant,

"TORQUATO Tasso."

"If you cannot come with your relation, come alone; I "want to speak to you: and get the cloth washed in which “the shirts are wrapped up. (!)

"To the very magnificent Signor," &c.

Such was the state of him who thought that besides God, to the poet alone belonged the name of creator: and who was also persuaded that he himself was the first Italian of that immortal race. It is gratifying to know that Alfonso had his recompense; deserted by all on his death-bed, he was interred without even decent honours. His last wishes were neglected: his will cancelled. His kinsman, Don Cæsar, shrunk from the Vatican's excommunication, and, after a short suspense, Ferrara passed away for ever from the house of Este.

LVIII.

The Exile came for quiet :

From the delightful scenery of Sorrento, Torquato Tasso was removed in his early infancy, though he appears to have retained a full recollection of its beauties. In latter life he revisited its scenes under circumstances of singular and romantic interest. Suffering under one of those afflicting delusions to which his state of mind gave rise,* Tasso fled from Ferrara, resolving to seek safety under the roof of his sister

Such appears to be the opinion, also, of Roscoe, from whom this interesting notice is taken.