This poem would seem to imply that a part of the Jerusalem was written here, possibly the episode of Sophronia and Olindo, so dear to Tasso himself that though it was not an integral part of the epic he dared the Inquisition rather than comply with the demands of the censor that it should be stricken out. The description of Sophronia is admitted to have been intended to denote Leonora:
"Amongst them in the city lived a maid
The flower of virgins in her perfect prime,
Supremely beautiful! but that she made
Never her care, or beauty only weighed
In worth with virtue; and her worth acquired
A deeper charm from blooming in the shade,
Lovers she shunned, nor loved to be admired,
But from their praises turned to live a life retired."
Equally applicable to Tasso is that of Olindo, the lover who—
"Feared much, hoped little, and in nought presumed.
He could not or he durst not speak, but doomed
To voiceless thought his passion."
But during those "livelong summer days" the poet's passion was not utterly voiceless. The Amyntas is throughout a continual and unequivocal expression, and he daringly in the very prelude makes the god of love, who explains the scheme of the play, declare—
"For wheresoe'er I am, there I am Love,
No less in shepherds' than in heroes' hearts,
The unequal lot grows equal at my will,
My chiefest vaunt, my miracle is this."
Openly and repeatedly Tasso asserts that while he is not indifferent to literary distinction it is not the chief end which he has in view in writing the Amyntas.
"Deem not" (he says) "that all Love's bliss
At last is but a breath
Of fame that followeth.
Love's meed is love, it wooeth, winneth this.
Nathless the lover steadfast to his end
Hath laud ofttimes and maketh Fame his friend."
Goethe makes Tasso confide this double aim to Leonora and her reply shows that he did indeed win the meed he sought. "For what" the poet asks her "is more deserving to survive and silently to last for centuries than the confession of a noble love, confided modestly to gentle song?"
We follow step by step that wooing, finding it in the exquisite apostrophe to the golden age—which concludes: