Tasso, Torquato
Tasso, Torquato ( 1544 – 95 ),son of Bernardo Tasso (author of an epic on Amadis of Gaul ). He was born at Sorrento and spent many years at the court of Ferrara. He was from early life in constant terror of persecution and adverse criticism, and his conduct at Ferrara was such as to make it necessary for the duke, Alphonso II of Este, to lock him up as mad from 1579 to 1586 . The legend of his passion for Leonora d'Este , the duke's discovery of it, and his consequent imprisonment was for long widely believed; Milton refers to it (in a Latin poem), Byron's The Lament of Tasso is based on it, and Goethe 's play Torquato Tasso ( 1790 ) supports it, as does Donizetti 's opera ( 1833 ) of the same title. Tasso was released on condition that he would leave Ferrara, and he spent the rest of his life wandering from court to court, unhappy, poverty-stricken, and paranoid, though widely...
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