myself in the shadow of the same illustrious name with regard to the broken and lengthened lines too frequent in my transla tion. It is more difficult to polish a translation than an original work, since we are denied the liberty of retrenching or adding where the ear and taste cannot be satisfied. But there is no sufficient apology for imperfection. I can only hope by a candid acknowledgment of its existence to propitiate the critic, believing that no setting can utterly mar the lustre of such a gem, or make this perfect work of art unwelcome to the meditative few, or even to the tasteful many.

The beautiful finish of style is lost, and in lieu of the manytoned lyre on which the poet originally melodized his inspired conceptions, a hollow-sounding reed is substituted. But the harmony with which the plot is developed, the nicely-adjusted contrasts between the characters, the beauty of composition, worthy the genius of ancient statuary, must still be perceptible.

It is, I believe, a novelty to see the mind of a poet analyzed and portrayed by another, who, however, shared the inspiration only of his subject, saved from his weakness by that superb balance of character in which Goethe surpasses even Milton. This alone would give the piece before us a peculiar interest.

The central situation of Tasso, the manner in which his companions draw him out, and are in turn drawn out by him, the mingled generosity and worldliness of the Realist Antonio, the mixture of taste, feeling, and unconscious selfishness in Alphonso, the more delicate but not less decided painting of the two Leonoras, the gradual but irresistible force by which the catastrophe is drawn down upon us, concur to make this drama a model of Art, that art which Goethe worshipped ever after he had exhaled his mental boyhood in Werther. The following

remarks from an essay of A. W. Schlegel are probably now to the reader: "Goethe has painted Tasso from a close study of his works. He has even made use of extracts from his poems. Thus the greater part of what Tasso says about the golden age is taken from the beautiful chorus in the first act of Aminta. Many such things are lost upon those who are not familiar with the poems of Tasso, though they may not be insensible to the exquisite delicacy and care with which the portrait is finished throughout. In the historical circumstances, Goethe has preferred the authority of the Abbc Scrassi to the more generally consulted Manso. Serassi denics that the princess ever encour aged Tusso to pass the bounds of deference. Generally it is dangerous to finish a real life by an invented catastrophe, as Schiller has done with regard to the Maid of Orleans; but such clouds of doubt rest on portions of Tasso's life, and what is known of it is so romantic, that more liberty may be taken."

TASSO.

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

TORQUATO TAsso.

ALPHONSO, the second Duke of Ferrara. ANTONIO MONTECALIVA, Secretary of State.

ACT I.

SCENE 1.-A garden ornamented with busts of the epic poets.
I.
In front, on the right, is Virgil; on the left, Ariosto.

The PRINCESS, LEONORA SANVITALI, with garlands in their hands.

Prin.

You look at me and smile, my Leonora,
Then turn away your face and smile again:

Why do you not express to your companion
Those pleasing, pensive thoughts?

I mused, my princess,

On the sweet rural peace we now enjoy;

We live here like the careless shepherdesses,

And like them pass the hours in weaving garlands.

See what a variegated wreath is mine!

How many flowers and buds! But thine is laurel.
Thy lofty mind could joy in nothing less.

And to an honored head I consecrate
What I have twined amid such happy thoughts;
To Virgil's.
[She crowns the bust of Virgil.

And thou, Ludovico,

Whose fancy like the spring, sportive and blooming, Brought forth such wealth of buds and flowers, thou wilt not Disdain my motley offering. She crowns Ariosto's bust.