Just as the _Aminta_ showed how unaffected Tasso could be when writing without preconceived theories of heightened diction, so the _Torrismondo_ displays an unstrained dignity of simple dialogue.

It testifies to the plasticity of language in the hands of a master, who deliberately chose and sustained different styles in different species of poetry, and makes us regret that he should have formed his epic manner upon so artificial a type.

The last chorus of _Torrismondo_ deserves to be mentioned as a perfect example of Tasso's melancholy elegiac pathos.
Meanwhile he began to be dissatisfied with the _Gerusalemme_, and in 1588 he resolved upon remodeling his masterpiece.

The real vitality of that poem was, as we have seen, in its romance.

But Tasso thought otherwise.