. . . . irrigò di placida quiete
Tutte le membra al sonnachioso ...
The poet weakens the biblical image, and, in the gentle creations of his lyre, woman becomes no more than man's first dream. The sorrow of leaving uncompleted a pious work which he regarded as an expiatory hymn decided Tasso to condemn his profane songs to destruction.
Less respected by society than by the robbers, the poet received from Marco Sciarra[186], the famous leader of condottieri, the offer of an escort to take him to Rome[187]. He was presented at the Vatican, and the Pope addressed him in these words:
"Torquato, you do honour to the crown that honoured those who wore it before you."
Posterity has confirmed this eulogy. Tasso replied to the praises by quoting this line from Seneca:
Magnifica verba mors prope admota excutit.
Attacked by an evil which he foresaw was to cure all the others, he retired to the Convent of Sant' Onofrio, on the 1st of April 1595. He climbed up to his last refuge during a tempest of wind and rain. The monks received him at the gate where Domenichino's frescoes are fading away to-day. He greeted the fathers:
"I come to die among you."
O hospitable cloisters, deserts of religion and poetry, you have lent your solitude to outlawed Dante and to dying Tasso!
Tasso's death.