His full wrath whose thou feelst as yet least | No sound was heard of clashing wars, Peace brooded o'er the hushed domain; Apollo, Pallas, Jove and Mars Held undisturbed their ancient reign 'Twas in the calm and silent night; His breast with thoughts of boundless sway: What recked the Roman what befell Within that province far away Went plodding home a weary boor; A streak of light before him lay, Fallen through a half-shut stable-door Across his path. He passed, for naught Told what was going on within; How keen the stars, his only thought, The air how calm and cold and thin! In the solemn midnight, Centuries ago. Oh, strange indifference! low and high Drowsed over common joys and cares; The earth was still, but knew not why The world was listening, unawares. How calm a moment may precede One that shall thrill the world for ever! To that still moment none would heed Man's doom was linked, no more to sever, In the solemn midnight, Centuries ago. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. TORQUATO TASSO. EW poets have presented so distinct an individuality and so romantic a career to the sympathetic reader as the famous author of the Jerusalem Delivered. His father, Bernardo, was one of the greatest preceding poets, but the glory of the author of Amadis de Gaul pales before the rising of his greater son. Torquato Tasso was born at Sorrento on the 11th of March, 1544, and began his education at the Jesuit school in Naples. He was from the first an enthusiastic student of Latin, Greek, rhetoric and poetry. He pursued these studies at Rome from 1554 till 1556, but they were then interrupted by the troubled condition of the times. Attracting the attention of the duke of Urbino, he became the companion and fellow-student of the young prince his son. This was the beginning of that social ambition which brought him into trouble at a later period. We find him in 1559, at Venice, studying Dante and Petrarch and emulous of Ariosto, who, dying in 1533, had left a claim to immortality in his splendid epic Orlando Furioso. In accordance with the wishes of his father, Tasso studied law at Padua in 1560; but, instead of a thesis, he astonished his friends by producing an epic entitled Ri naldo. This was published at Venice in 1562, and was received with great favor, not only as the work of a youth of seventeen, but for its own real merits. It seemed a reappearance of Ariosto himself. At Bologna, soon after, he was charged with writing satirical verses on several students; but, although he was acquitted, his disgust caused him to leave that place and go to Padua. There he began his great work the Gerusalemme Liberata, and by way of prolegomena he wrote three discourses on epic poetry—a sort of standard by which to write and to be judged. He repaired to the brilliant court of Ferrara in 1565, on the occasion of the marriage of Alfonso d'Este to a daughter of the emperor, and there he became acquainted with the duke's two sisters, Lucretia and Eleonora. This acquaintance colored all the rest of his life. Fascinated by both, he made enemies by his ardent attentions and partial success. The former married the duke of Urbino in 1570, and then the poet expended all his ardors of soul and pen upon Eleonora. His sentiment possessed him. The episode of Olindo and Sofronia in the Jerusalem Delivered is the story of this ill-starred passion. In 1573 he issued at Ferrara his pastoral drama Aminta and the tragedy of Torrismondo, and about the same time finished the Jerusalem. Its issue seemed to be the usher of the calamities which were to fall thick and fast upon him. Subjected to the meannesses of little critics and brought under the censorship of His Tasso's great epic describes the last campaign of that famous first crusade, under Godfrey de Bouillon and his gallant knights. It is remarkable for unity of action, grace of versification and harmony of diction. It has been translated into English by Hoole and Fairfax. the Church, it was required to be mutilated | cision, but the Jerusalem Delivered is known and modified; some of its finest parts were and read by many who have never even left out, and pirated editions were published. heard of the latter poem. All Italy was These wrought his naturally sensitive mind ringing with his praises; even a fierce banto a frenzy which caused him to say and to dit chief offered free and honored passage do unwarrantable things. It began to be It began to be through his outlawed dominion for himself rumored that he was insane. His private and his friends while the poet was going chest was surreptitiously opened, and the slowly and in sore pain to the monastery letters and poems there found disclosed his of St. Onofrio, where he died on the 25th secret and aspiring love. He had a per- of April, 1595. sonal conflict with one of his enemies and drove off a band of ruffians sent to attack him. He drew a dagger upon a servant in the ante-chamber of the duchess, and then, in 1577, he fled from Ferrara and took refuge for a year with a widowed sister at Sorrento. But his heart was in Ferrara. petitions to be permitted to return were unheeded; and when he did go back, the bitter expressions which escaped him on account of his treatment caused him to be arrested and placed in a madhouse, the hospital of St. Anna. His appeals for release were very touching; he wrote many of them in beautiful verse. He was becoming crazy, if he had not been before; and while he was thus in mental tortures in his prison the fame of his great poem was extending not only in Italy, but throughout Europe. While in prison he had a famous controversy concerning his poem with the renowned Accademia della Crusca, in which he was declared victorious. On the 10th of February, 1581, Eleonora died, and the poet, broken down in body and soul, was released from his imprisonment. In 1593 he published at Rome a pendant to his great epic, entitled Gerusalemme Conquis tada, which he preferred to the other. Not only does the world reverse this de What were the exact causes of Tasso's imprisonment has not been disclosed; doubtless his love-passages with Eleonora were chief among them. His intemperance of spirit, manner and expression gave color to the theory of his insanity, and in the eyes of his enemies warranted his imprisonment. interesting account of him is found in Richard H. Wilde's Love and Madness of Tasso. THE WILLIAM COLLINS. 66 An HE great poet has asked, "What's in a name?" We answer, Sometimes much." The subject of this sketch loses something of his claim to remembrance because he bears the same name as William Collins, the distinguished poet, and also that of his own son, William Wilkie Collins, the celebrated novelist. But when we succeed in disengaging him from his namesakes, we find real merit claiming a lasting reputation. William Collins, the artist-of whose attractive paintings "The Fisherman's Re- | land as long as she maintains her political turn" is one of the most noted and admired power. 66 was the son of a picture-dealer and desultory writer, and was born in London on the 18th of September, 1787. He studied under Etty in 1807. His first exhibited pictures were 'Boys at Breakfast" and 'Boys with Bird-Nests;" they attracted admiring attention, and in 1815 he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy. He preferred simple rustic scenes at firstchildren at play, swinging on gates, and such like but soon turned his attention to similar views by the sea fishermen, boats, prawn-fishing, bits of homely life by the shore. In 1820 he was made a Royal Academician, and by the advice of his friend Wilkie he went to Italy in 1837, and remained there for two years, making studies of Italian life. He also made essays in sacred historical art. His two pictures His two pictures "Christ with the Doctors in the Temple' and "The Two Disciples at Emmaus" were not very successful. He was elected in 1840 librarian of the Academy, and returned to his study of coast-fishing scenes, exhibiting every year pieces which were extremely popular. He was an earnest and conscientious worker and an ardent lover of nature. He died in 1847, and the next year his son Wilkie wrote a charming biography of him. So egregiously lazy was Thomson that he has been seen standing at a peach tree with both hands in his pockets eating the fruit as it grew. And once, being discovered in bed at a very late hour in the day, when he was asked why he did not rise, his answer was, "Troth, mon, I hae nae motive." It is recorded to the honor of Quin, the actor, that when Thomson was in great distress he visited him and told him he was in his debt. Thomson, who did not suppose that any man. could owe him a single farthing, answered with the jealousy of misfortune somewhat peevishly, as if he thought the assertion was meant to deride him. Quin answered, "Sir, I am one of many who are in your debt for the pleasure which your poem of the ‘Seasons' has afforded us, and you will give me. leave to discharge my portion of it now that there is a fit opportunity," and so saying presented him with a note for a hundred pounds. He was born in Ednamn, Roxburghshire, September 11, 1700; died in 1748. |