THE "GERUSALEMME LIBERATA."
Problem of Creating Heroic Poetry--The Preface to Tasso's
_Rinaldo_--Subject of _Rinaldo_--Blending of Romantic Motives with
Heroic Style--Imitation of Virgil--Melody and Sentiment--Choice of
Theme for the _Gerusalemme_--It becomes a Romantic Poem after
all--Tancredi the real Hero--Nobility of Tone--Virgilian
Imitation--Borrowings from Dante--Involved Diction--Employment of
Sonorous Polysyllabic Words--Quality of Religious Emotion in this
Poem--Rhetoric--Similes--The Grand Style of Pathos--Verbal
Music--The Chant d'Amour--Armida--Tasso's Favorite Phrase, _Un non
so che_--His Power over Melody and Tender Feeling--Critique of
Tasso's Later Poems--General Survey of his Character