Boiardo and Ariosto had painted the seductions of enchanted gardens, where valor was enthralled by beauty, and virtue dulled by voluptuous delights.

It remained for Tasso to give that magic of the senses vocal utterance.

From the myrtle groves of Orontes, from the spell-bound summer amid snows upon the mountains of the Fortunate Isle, these lyrics with their penetrative sweetness, their lingering regret, pass into the silence of the soul.

It is eminently characteristic of Tasso's mood and age that the melody of both these honeyed songs should thrill with sadness.

Nature is at war with honor; youth passes like a flower away; therefore let us love and yield our hearts to pleasure while we can.