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Torquato Tasso (1544–1595)
Tasso, Torquato (täs’sō). An Italian poet, son of Bernardo Tasso; born at Sorrento, Italy, March 11, 1544; died at Rome, April 25, 1595. In 1562, he published a romantic epic, ‘Rinaldo,’ in 12 cantos; and in 1573 he wrote for a court festivity his ‘Aminta,’ a pastoral drama. In 1575 his ‘Jerusalem Delivered’ was completed. In 1579 he was confined for seven years in a lunatic asylum. On his release, he roved restlessly from place to place. In 1594 Pope Clement VIII. invited him to come to Rome to be crowned on the Capitoline Hill; but he died before the ceremony could take place. Besides the poems mentioned, he wrote ‘Torismondo,’ a number of lyrical poems, dialogues, and essays, and a reworking of ‘Jerusalem Delivered’ called ‘Jerusalem Conquered.’ (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).