CHAPTER VIII.
THE GERUSALEMME LIBERATA.
Problem of Creating Heroic Poetry--The Preface to Tasso's _Rinaldo_--Subject of _Rinaldo_--Blending of Romantic Motives with Heroic Style--Imitation of Virgil--Melody and Sentiment--Choice of Theme for the _Gerusalemme_--It becomes a Romantic Poem after all--Tancredi the real Hero--Nobility of Tone--Virgilian Imitation--Borrowings from Dante--Involved Diction--Employment of Sonorous Polysyllabic Words--Quality of Religious Emotion in this Poem--Rhetoric--Similes--The Grand Style of Pathos--Verbal Music--The Chant d'Amour--Armida--Tasso's Favorite Phrase, _Un non so che_--His Power over Melody and Tender Feeling--Critique of Tasso's Later Poems--General Survey of his Character.
In a previous portion of this work, I attempted to define the Italian Romantic Epic, and traced the tale of Orlando from Pulci through Boiardo and Ariosto to the burlesque of Folengo.

There is an element of humor more or less predominant in the _Morgante Maggiore_, the _Orlando Innamorato_, and the _Orlando Furioso_.

This element might almost be regarded as inseparable from the species.

Yet two circumstances contributed to alter the character of Italian Romance after the publication of the _Furioso_.

One of these was the unapproachable perfection of that poem.