Mr. STEB B I NG'S Lives of the Italian Poets
is a creditable publica- tion: it is compiled with industry, and written with elegance : his fault is feebleness of conception and faintness of expression. The subject is admirably chosen : the Italian poets have been generally men whose lives possessed great interest, independent of their genius, and who, like DANTE, TASSO, and ALFIERI, lived romance as well as wrote it. Mr. STERBING'S work does no discredit to his plan ; hut the want of vigour and animation in his views of men and things, and the extreme flatness of his manner, have greatly diminished the pleasure we looked forward to in the perusal of this work: We will quote a short but fair specimen of the style of this author. It is the description of a scene between TASSO and the familiar which visited him, in the manner of SOCRATES'S ;rays:a.
"The time he passed at the Monastery of Mount Olivet was not idly spent. Besides undertaking some alterations in his Gerusalemine, he wrote a poem on the origin of the religious establishment in which he enjoyed so comfortable a retreat. Having finished the first book of this poem, he sent it to his friend, the well-known Marchese della Villa Giambatista Manso, his earliest and eloquent biographer, for perusal. "Tasso, notwithstanding all his misfortunes, had as many friends as most men, and the Marchese della Villa was one of the, warmest. Con- tented with rambling about the hills and woods, amid which the mo- nastery was embosomed, the poet resisted as long as he could all the in- vitations of his acquaintances to visit their houses. But Manso, a man of elegant mind, and whose perception of Tasso's feelings was as quick as his desire to soothe them, won his confidence, and rendered his society agreeable to him, by that unobtrusive but warm friendship, .whith is especially acceptable to a mind so desirous of sympathy, yet so irritable and suspicious as that of Tasso. Having thus gained the confi- dence of the poet, Manso at length succeeded in persuading him to accompany him to his estate at Bisaccio. Besides the beautiful situation of the villa, Tasso there enjoyed the society of numerous persons distin- guished for their talents, while to the graver pleasures of literary conversa- tion were added the lighter ones of gay and splendid assemblies, in which the Marquis sought to dissipate the melancholy of his venerated guest, by light and festive music, and the songs of improvisatori, whose facility of versifying he is reported to have said he envied, nature having denied him the command of such fluency. But his mind was still under the dominion of the strange illusions which had begun to affect it before he left the hospital of St. Anne. A change, however, it is worthy of remark, had in some degree taken place in the character of his supernatural visitants. While in the hospital, and agitated, night and day, by the apprehension of secret enemies, he was haunted by a demon whose chief attribute was a malicious cunning. Now that he was restored to freedom, and had been able to seek repose, and pass his time in meditating amid the grand and soothing scenes of nature, his intercourse was with a loftier spirit—with one that seemed to meet his thoughts midway to heaven, and to be sent to make his medi- tations more solemn and sublime. Manso, in a letter to the Prince of Conca, written while Tasso was staying at Bisaccio, gives a full account of the circumstances respecting the poet's supernatural visitant, having received the particulars from his own mouth as they used to sit convers- ing together before the fire. The writer observes, that he had used all the arguments in his power to convince him that his visions were the ef- fect of a diiordered imagination; showing the improbability of their reality from the consideration that he had no reason to fear that demons would
• be permitted to torment him, and that it would be presumptuous to sup- pose that an angel would be visibly sent for his consolation. To these ar- guments Tasso replied, that the uniform character of the vision with which he had now fOr some time past been haunted,'disproved the idea of Its not being real, imagination working more capriciously and wildly. 7 He remarked also, that the mind had not the power of reasoning distinctly while deluded by fancy; whereas he hadleld many and long and conti- nued conversations with the • spirit which attended him, and had heard from it things which neitherhe nor any other man had ever before beard, or read, or known. To which remark,' observes Manso, I still continued to object, till one day in the heat of our argument, he said, Since I cannot convince you by reason, I will undeceive you by experience, and will make see with your own eyes the spirit which you will not believe in from my words l' I accepted the proposal ; and the following day, while we were sitting alone by the fire, he turned his face towards the window, on which he fixed his eyes, and when I spoke to him, he made no answer. At last, he said, 'See ! the friendly spirit has courteously come to speak with me ; attend, and you will perceive the truth of my words.' I instantly turned my eye in the direction in which he pointed ; but though I looked intently, I could perceive nothing, except the rays of the sun, which entered the room through the window. While, however, I was looking, I heard Tor- quato commence a most sublime conversation with something or other ; for, though I neither saw nor heard any one but himself, his words, as he propounded and replied, were like those used by a person in earnest de- bate. From what he'said, I could easily comprehend what the replies were which he received, though they were unheard by the ear. And these reasonings were so grand and marvellous, from the sublimity of the things they contained, and from a certain something not common in dis- course, that I was almost stupified with wonder, and dared neither inter- rupt Tasso, nor make any inquiries respectiffg the spirit with which he had made me acquainted, but which I saw not. I therefore continued to listen, full of wonder and delight, and unheeded by Tasso, till, as I understood from his words, the spirit was leaving him, when he turned to me, and said, All doubts will now he for ever banished from your mind.' To which I answered, they are but increased; for I have heard many things worthy of marvel, but have seen nothing that you promised to show me to dissipate my incredulity. He replied, You have, per- haps, seen and heard much more than '—but there he stopped ; and as I did not dare to trouble him with any further questions, the conversa- tion ended."
"Manso returned to- Naples in the autumn, and Tasso again took up his residence in the monastery of Mount Olivet."
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