And thus admired by all, unheeding all,
Forth steps the noble maid.
It is impossible to mistake, in this finished and exquisite portrait, the matured beauty, the negligent attire, and love of solitude which characterised Leonora: the resemblance was so perfect, as to be universally recognised and acknowledged. But is it not, as M. Ginguené remarks, equally certain that Tasso has pourtrayed himself as Olindo?
Ei che modesto è, com' essa è bella,
Brama, assai, poco spera, nulla chiede!
He, full of modesty and truth,
Loved much, hoped little, and desired nought!
Has he not in the verse
Ed o mia morte avventurosa appiena,
breathed forth all the smothered passion of his soul?—
Ed o mia morte avventurosa appiena!
Oh fortunati miei dolci martiri!
S'impetrerò che giunto seno a seno
L'anima mia nella tuo bocca io spiri,
E venendo tu meco a un tempo meno
In me fuor mandi gli ultimi sospiri!
And O! how happy were my death! how blest
These tortures,—could I but the meed obtain,
That breast to breast, and lip to lip, our souls
Might flee together, and our latest sighs
Mingle in death.
This episode is critically a defect in the poem: it seems to stand alone, unconnected in any way with the main action; he acknowledged this; but he absolutely, and obstinately, refused to alter it, or strike it out. He, who was in general amenable to criticism, even to a degree of weakness, willed that it should stand an everlasting monument of his tenderness, and of the virtues and the charms of her who inspired it:—and thus it has been.