This is what I wrote about it in my Roman diary: 'The face is mild and weak, especially in the thin short chin and feeble mouth.[77] The forehead round, and ample in proportion to the other features.

The eyes are small, but this may be due to the contraction of death.

The mouth is almost vulgar, very flat in the upper lip; but this also ought perhaps to be attributed to the relaxation of tissue by death.
Tasso was constitutionally inclined to pensive moods.

His outlook over life was melancholy.[78] [Footnote 77: Giov.

Imperiale in the _Museum Historicum_ describes him thus: 'Perpetuo moerentis et altius cogitantis gessit aspectum, _gracili mento_, facie decolori, conniventibus cavisque oculis.'] [Footnote 78: 'La mia fiera malinconia' is a phrase which often recurs in his letters.] The tone of his literary work, whether in prose or poetry, is elegiac--musically, often querulously plaintive.