cit._ p.

215.] [Footnote 63: This letter proves conclusively that, whatever was the nature of Tasso's malady, and however it had enfeebled his faculties as poet, he was in no vulgar sense a lunatic.] On April 25, Tasso expired at midnight, with the words _In manus tuas, Domine_, upon his lips.

Had Costantini, his sincerest friend, been there, he might have said like Kent: O, let him pass! he hates him much That would upon the rack of this tough world Stretch him out longer.
But Costantini was in Mantua; and this sonnet, which he had written for his master, remains Tasso's truest epitaph, the pithiest summary of a life pathetically tragic in its adverse fate-- Friends, this is Tasso, not the sire but son; For he of human offspring had no heed, Begetting for himself immortal seed Of art, style, genius and instruction.
In exile long he lived and utmost need; In palace, temple, school, he dwelt alone; He fled, and wandered through wild woods unknown; On earth, on sea, suffered in thought and deed.
He knocked at death's door; yet he vanquished him With lofty prose and with undying rhyme; But fortune not, who laid him where he lies.
Guerdon for singing loves and arms sublime, And showing truth whose light makes vices dim, Is one green wreath; yet this the world denies.
The wreath of laurel which the world grudged was placed upon his bier; and a simple stone, engraved with the words _Hic jacet Torquatus Tassus_, marked the spot where he was buried.
The foregoing sketch of Tasso's life and character differs in some points from the prevalent conceptions of the poet.

There is a legendary Tasso, the victim of malevolent persecution by pedants, the mysterious lover condemned to misery in prison by a tyrannous duke.

There is also a Tasso formed by men of learning upon ingeniously constructed systems; Rosini's Tasso, condemned to feign madness in punishment for courting Leonora d'Este with lascivious verses; Capponi's Tasso, punished for seeking to exchange the service of the House of Este for that of the House of Medici; a Tasso who was wholly mad; a Tasso who remained through life the victim of Jesuitical influences.