Editing Torquato Tasso (section)

===The ''Gerusalemme Liberata''===
The ''[[Jerusalem Delivered|Gerusalemme Liberata]]'' or ''Jerusalem Delivered'' occupies a larger space in the history of European literature, and is a more considerable work. Yet the commanding qualities of this epic poem, those which revealed Tasso's individuality, and which made it immediately pass into the rank of classics, beloved by the people no less than by persons of culture, are akin to the lyrical graces of ''[[Aminta]]''.{{sfn|Symonds|1911|pp=443–444}}

In the ''Gerusalemme Liberata'', as in the ''Rinaldo'', Tasso aimed at ennobling the Italian epic style by preserving strict unity of plot and heightening poetic diction. He chose Virgil for his model, took the [[First Crusade]] for subject, infused the fervour of religion into his conception of the hero, Godfrey. But his natural bent was for romance.{{sfn|Symonds|1911|p=444}}

As he had done in ''Rinaldo'', Tasso adorned ''Gerusalemme Liberata'' with a number of romantic episodes, which have proved more popular and influential than the grand sweep of the main theme. Thus, while the nominal hero of ''Gerusalemme Liberata'' is [[Godfrey of Bouillon]] ("Goffredo"), the leader of the First Crusade, and the climax of the epic is the capture of the holy city,{{Citation needed|date=April 2021}} Tasso's Goffredo, who is a mixture of Virgil's pious [[Aeneas]] and [[Counter-Reformation|Tridentine]] Catholicism, is not the real hero of the epic. Instead, the reader is attracted to the stories of Ruggiero, fiery and passionate Rinaldo, melancholy and impulsive Tancredi, and also by the chivalrous [[Saracens]] with whom they clash in love and war.{{sfn|Symonds|1911|p=444}}

The action of the epic turns on three stories of interaction between noble beautiful pagan women and these Crusaders. ''[[Armida]]'', a beautiful witch, is sent forth by the infernal senate to sow discord in the Christian camp. Instead, she is converted to the true faith by her adoration for a crusading knight, and quits the scene with a phrase of the [[Mary, the mother of Jesus|Virgin Mary]] on her lips. Clorinda, a brave female warrior, dons armor like Ariosto's [[Marfisa]], fights a duel with her devoted lover, and receives baptism at his hands as she lies dying. Finally, Erminia, hopelessly in love with Tancredi, seeks refuge in the shepherds' hut.{{sfn|Symonds|1911|p=444}}

These stories rivet the reader's attention, while the battles, religious ceremonies, conclaves and stratagems of the campaign are less engaging. Tasso's great invention as an artist was the poetry of sentiment. Sentiment, not sentimentality, gives value to what is immortal in the ''Gerusalemme''. It was a new thing in the 16th century, something concordant with a growing feeling for woman and with the ascendant art of music. This sentiment, refined, noble, natural, steeped in melancholy, exquisitely graceful, pathetically touching, breathes throughout the episodes of the ''Gerusalemme'', finds [[Metre (poetry)|metrical]] expression in the languishing cadence of its mellifluous verse, and sustains the ideal life of those seductive heroines whose names were familiar as household words to all Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.{{sfn|Symonds|1911|p=444}}

The epic was finished in Tasso's thirty-first year; when the manuscripts lay before him the best part of his life was over, his best work had been already accomplished. Troubles immediately began to gather round him. Instead of having the courage to obey his own instinct, and to publish the ''Gerusalemme'' as he had conceived it, he yielded to the excessive scrupulosity which formed a feature of his [[paranoia|paranoid]] character. The poem was sent in manuscript to a large committee of eminent literary men, Tasso expressing his willingness to hear their strictures and to adopt their suggestions unless he could convert them to his own views. The result was that each of these candid friends, while expressing in general high admiration for the epic, took some exception to its plot, its title, its moral tone, its episodes or its diction, in detail. One wished it to be more regularly classical; another wanted more romance. One hinted that the [[Inquisition]] would not tolerate its supernatural machinery; another demanded the excision of its most charming passages, the loves of ''Armida'', ''Clorinda'' and ''Erminia''. Tasso had to defend himself against all these ineptitudes and pedantries, and to accommodate his practice to the theories he had rashly expressed.{{sfn|Symonds|1911|p=444}}

Tasso's self-chosen critics were not men to admit what the public has since accepted as incontrovertible. They vaguely felt that a great and beautiful romantic poem was imbedded in a dull and not very correct epic. In their uneasiness they suggested every course but the right one, which was to publish the ''Gerusalemme'' without further dispute.{{sfn|Symonds|1911|p=444}}

Tasso, already overworked by his precocious studies, by exciting court life and exhausting literary industry, now grew almost mad with worry. His health began to fail him. He complained of headache, [[malaria|malarious]] fevers, and wished to leave Ferrara. The ''Gerusalemme'' was laid in manuscript upon a shelf. He opened negotiations with the court of [[Florence]] for an exchange of service. This irritated the duke of Ferrara. Alfonso hated nothing more than to see courtiers (especially famous ones) leave him for a rival duchy. Moreover, Alfonso was married to a [[Huguenots|French Calvinist]] princess and thus justly worried about antagonizing the more orthodox powers in Italy, concentrated in Florence and Rome.{{sfn|Symonds|1911|p=444}}