divided into that on revenue-yielding works, viz. railways, £4,122,589, and telegraphs, £142,410; and that on works not yielding revenue, £4.970.018. For local government purposes Tasmania is divided into municipalities, town boards, and road trusts. The rates are assessed on an assumed annual value, which in 1900 was £1,417,547, corresponding to a capital value of upwards of £28,000,000. The bulk of the revenue of the local government bodies is obtained from rates. The sources of revenue in 1905 were: government endowment, £5355; local rates, £71.920; and other sources, £83,187. The outstanding loans of municipalities amount to £697,133, of which the greater portion is represented by the indebtedness of the two chief cities, Hobart and Launceston. Defence.-Tasmania being a portion of the Commonwealth of Australia, its defence is undertaken by the federal government. The strength of the local forces is about 1500 officers and men.

Mining.-Mining is now the foremost industry, the gross production in 1905 being valued at £1,858,218 as compared with £1,500,000, the value of agricultural production, which is next in importance. Tasmania produces gold, tin, silver, copper and coal, and in 1905 the production of these minerals was valued at: gold, £312,380; silver and silver-lead, £465.094: copper, £672,010; tin, £346,092; and coal, £44.194. Beaconsfield is the chief goldfield, 26 miles north-west of Launceston. There are about 1500 persons employed mining for gold on the various fields. The Mount Zeehan and Dundas districts produce almost the whole of the silver at the present time, and most of the ore is sold to agents of the Australian and German smelting works. Tasmania is the largest producer of tin in Australasia, and a very large proportion of the tin hitherto produced has been obtained from alluvial deposits, the lodes, except at Mount Bischoff, having, comparatively speaking, been neglected. The Mount Bischoff mine, which is worked as an open quarry, is the largest producer of tin, and (with an original capital of £30,000) has paid over two millions sterling in dividends. The number of tin miners in the state is about 1170. Tasmania also takes the lead amongst the states in copper production: in 1896 there was a small production of £1659: in 1897 it grew to £317.437, in 1898 to £378.565, in 1899 to £761,880, and in 1900 to 1901,660; and although the production has since been considerably reduced it is still a great industry. This expansion was chiefly due to the enterprise of the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company, whose mine is situated at Gormanston. Coal-mining is carried on in various districts of the island, but the principal mines are at Mount Nicholas and Cornwall, in the Mount Nicholas Range; the output of the field is increasing, but no export trade is at present possible, the mines being situated too far from the seaboard. The number of men employed in coal-mining is 150, and the output about 52,000 tons per annum.

Manufactures are on a small scale, the number of establishments being about 440, and the hands employed 9000.

Agriculture. After being much neglected, agriculture received renewed attention in 1892 and the following years up to 1904, when the area under crop reached a total of 259,611 acres; since the year named there has been no increase, and the area cultivated may be placed at about 250,000 acres. The area under crop, at intervals of ten years, was as follows: 1861, 163.385 acres; 1871, 155,046 acres; 1887, 148,494 acres; 1891, 168,121 acres; and 1901, 224.352 acres. Wheat is the principal crop, and the yield is larger per acre and less variable than that of the Australian states: for the fifteen years ending with 1905 the average yield was 18.9 bushels per acre, ranging between 15 bushels in 1894 and 27 bushels in 1899. The oat crop is also much above the Australian average, and may be set down at 30 bushels an acre, but an average of 5 bushels higher is not infrequent. Tasmania is renowned for its fruit crops, and now that this fruit has found an opening in the British market, renewed attention is being devoted to the industry. In 1905 there were 12,683 acres of apples, 2098 acres of pears, 1111 acres of apricots, 1123 acres of plums, 426 acres of cherries, 498 acres of peaches, 2000 acres of strawberries, gooseberries and raspberries, and 1107 acres of currants. The crop for the same year included 1,100,000 bushels of apples, 75,000 bushels of pears, and nearly 170,000 bushels of other fruit. Tasmania finds its best markets for fruits in New South Wales and in Great Britain. The total value of the produce of Tasmanian farms now exceeds £1,250,000, which is equivalent to £4. 178. 5d. per acre cultivated.

Tasmania shows a decline in sheep-breeding, yet the state is singularly well adapted for sheep-raising, and its stud flocks are well known and annually drawn upon to improve the breed in the other states. Nor have the other branches of the pastoral industry shown much expansion, as the following table will show:

Tasmania does a large trade with Victoria and New South Wales as well as with Great Britain. The principal exports in 1905 and their values were: wool, £401,958; gold, £187.873; tin and ore, £257,256; silver and ore, £318,971; copper, £569,052; farm, fruit and vegetable products, £477,866; timber, £78,380. The imports represent £14, 15s. 10d. and the exports £20, 14s. per inhabitant. The chief ports of the state are Hobart, where the shipping entered in 1905 amounted to 645,000 tons, and Launceston, 223,000 tons; Strahan on the west coast has also a considerable trade. Railways. The railways open for traffic in 1905 had a length of 619 miles, of which 463 were government and 155 private lines. The progress of railway construction will be seen from the following figures: open for traffic, 1871, 45 miles; 1881, 168 miles; 1891, 425 miles; and 1905, 619 miles. The railways, both state and private, are of 3 ft. 6 in. gauge. The capital expended on government lines up to 1905 was £3,920,500; the gross carnings in that year were £243.566, and the working expenses £171,630; leaving £71,936 as the net earnings. This last-mentioned sum is equal to 1.83 per cent. on the capital expenditure; and as the average interest upon outstanding loans is 3.73 per cent., the railways are carried on at a loss of 19 per cent. The private railways show somewhat better returns; the Emu Bay and Mount Bischoff line, 103 miles in length, constructed at a cost of £565,365, returned in 1904 about 3:22 per cent., and the Mount Lyell Company's railway, 22 miles long, costing £220,333, returned nearly 6 per cent.

The roads maintained by the road trusts and boards of the colony extend over 7695 miles, of which 4146 were macadamized; the annual expenditure thereon.is over £35.768.

Posts and Telegraphs.-There were 379 post offices and receiving offices in 1905, and 327 telegraphic stations; 12,616,000 postcards and letters, 2,800,000 packets, and 7,200,000 newspapers were received and despatched. The postal revenue amounted to £116,132, and the expenditure to £109.389; these sums include telegraph and telephone business. The telegraph messages sent numbered 496,000. The telephone system is being rapidly extended, and at the beginning of 1906, 1371 miles of line were being worked. Banking. There are four banks of issue, of which two are local The note institutions; their united assets average £3.576,700. circulation is about £150,000, and the deposits £3,520,000, about half bearing interest.

History.-Tasmania, or, as it was originally called, Van Diemen's Land, was discovered in 1642 by the Dutch navigator Tasman (q.v.) who named the territory after his patron, Van Diemen. The island was subsequently visited in 1772 by a French naval officer, Captain Marion du Fresne; in 1773 by Captain Furneaux, of the British man-of-war " Adventure "; in 1777 by the great circumnavigator Captain Cook; by Bligh in 1788, and again in 1792, when he planted fruit trees. In the same year the French navigator D'Entrecasteaux visited the south portion of the island and surveyed the coast. In 1798 Bass sailed through the strait which now bears his name, and discovered Van Diemen's Land was an island. In 1800 the French explorer Baudin, in command of the ships' Géographe " and "Naturaliste," surveyed the south of the island, and reports of his proceedings having reached the British officials at Sydney, they determined to forestall the French and take possession of Van Diemen's Land.

In 1802 the "Cumberland," a small schooner, landed at King's Island in Bass Strait, and in 1803 Lieutenant Bowen was sent by Governor King of New South Wales to form a settlement on the south coast of Van Diemen's Land. He had aboard his two ships, the "Lady Nelson " of 60 tons and the whaler " Albion " of 306 tons, three officials, a lance-corporal and seven privates of the New South Wales Corps, six free men and twenty-five convicts, together with an adequate supply of live stock, and

landed at Risdon, near Hobart, where he was joined shortly afterwards by fifteen soldiers and forty-two convicts. In 1807, Colonel Paterson occupied Port Dalrymple on the north side of the island. During the same year Colonel Collins, who had failed in an attempt to colonize the shores of Port Phillip, transferred his soldiers, convicts and officials to the neighbourhood of Hobart, and was appointed commandant of the infant settlement. Provisions were scarce and dear, communication with the rest of the world was infrequent, and in 1807 the community was threatened with starvation, and flour was sold at £200 per ton. The difficulties of the settlers were increased by the hostility of the blacks. The first collision took place at Risdon, a few days after the landing of Lieutenant Bowen's expedition, and for this the white settlers were entirely responsible. Hostilities between the races were incessant from 1802 till 1830. An attempt was made in the year 1830 to drive the natives to one corner of the island, but without success. In the following year, however, Mr George Robinson induced the remnant of the blacks to leave the mainland and take refuge, first in South Bruni and subsequently in Flinders Island, their numbers having then diminished from 5000, the original estimate of the aboriginal population, to 203. In 1842 there were only 44, in 1854 they had diminished to 16, and the last pure-blooded Tasmanian died in 1876, at the age of seventy-six. There are, however, a few persons possessing more or less aboriginal blood in some of the islands of the Bass Strait.

Some persons who had settled at Norfolk Island when that island became a penal depot were transferred to Van Diemen's Land in 1805. But the growth of population was extremely slow, and in 1808 a census showed that there were only 3240 people on the island, including officials, military and convicts, and whatever measure of prosperity was enjoyed by the free inhabitants arose from the expenditure by the imperial government upon the convict settlement. In the year named settlers began to arrive. To every free immigrant was given a tract of land in proportion to the amount of capital brought by him to the colony-the possession of £500 entitling the holder to 640 acres, and so in proportion, a very liberal view being taken as to what constituted capital. To every free settler was assigned, if desired, the services of a number of convicts proportionate to the size of his holding. These were fed and clothed by the settler in return for their labour, and the government was relieved of the expense of their support and supervision. The assignment system was eventually abandoned in consequence of its moral and economic evils, but it cannot be denied that while it lasted the colony made substantial progress. In 1821 the population had grown to 7400; the sheep numbered 128,468; the cattle, 34,790; horses, 550; and 14,940 acres of land were under crops. As the number of free settlers in the colony increased an agitation arose for more political freedom and improved administration; especially was there a demand for a free press and for trial by jury. These requests were gradually granted. Courts of justice were substituted in 1822 for courts-martial; and in. 1825 the colony was made independent of New South Wales, Colonel Arthur being appointed governor. In 1828 the Van Diemen's Land Company commenced sheep-farming on a large scale in the north-west district of the island under a charter granted three years before, and in 1829 the Van Diemen's Land Establishment obtained a grant of 40,000 acres at Norfolk Plains for agriculture and grazing. In 1834 Portland Bay, on the mainland of Australia, was occupied by settlers from Van Diemen's Land, and in 1835 there was a migration, large when compared with the population of the island, to the shores of Port Phillip, now Victoria. At that date the population was 40,172, a large proportion being convicts, for in four years 15,000 prisoners had been landed. The colony was prosperous, but the free settlers were not at all satisfied with the system of government, and an agitation commenced in Van Diemen's Land, as well as in New South Wales, for the introduction of representative institutions and the abolition of transportation. This system was abolished in New South Wales in 1840, after which date the island was

the receptacle for all convicts not only from the United Kingdom, but from India and the colonies, and it was not until 1853 that transportation to Van Diemen's Land finally ceased; in the same year representative institutions were introduced, the name of the colony was changed to Tasmania, and three years later the colony was granted responsible government.

The discovery of gold in Victoria produced a very remarkable effect upon Tasmania. All kinds of produce brought fabulous prices, and were exported to Victoria in such quantities that the exports rose from a value of £665,790 in 1851 to £1,509,883 in 1852, and £1,756,316 in 1853, while the population diminished in almost equal ratio. It was estimated that in 1842 there were 38,000 adult males in the colony, but in 1854 their numbers had diminished to 22,261. For many years the island was inhabited by greybeards and children; the young men and women of all classes, so soon as they had reached manhood and womanhood, crossed Bass Strait, and entered upon the wider life and the more brilliant prospects which first Victoria, and subsequently New South Wales and Queensland, afforded them. It was not till the sixties that Tasmania embarked upon a new period of prosperity. In the early days little was known about the western half of the island. Its mineral wealth was not suspected, although as far back as 1850 coal of fair quality had been found between the Dee and the Mersey rivers, and gold had been discovered in two or three localities during 1852. In 1860 two expeditions were equipped by the government for a search for gold and other minerals, and although it was some years before there was any important result, the discoveries of these explorers directed attention to the mineral wealth of the island.

The political history of the colony after the inauguration of responsible government, until it became in 1901 one of the states of Federated Australasia, was not important. State aid to religion, which was given to any denomination which would receive it, was abolished; local self-government was extended to the rural as well as to the urban districts; a policy of semiprotection was introduced; the island was connected by a submarine cable to the mainland of Australia, and thence to the rest of the civilized world; and the population, which was only 99,328 in 1870, was nearly doubled. Like her neighbours, Tasmania organized a defence force, and was able to send a contingent to South Africa in 1900. (T. A. C.)

AUTHORITIES.-J. Bonwick, Daily Life and Origin of the Tasmanians (London, 1870); J. Fenton, A History of Tasmania (Hobart, 1884); Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, On the Flora of Australia; its Origin, Affinities, and Distributions. An Introductory Essay to the Flora of Tasmania (London, 1859); T. C. Just, Tasmaniana; a Description of the Island and its Resources (Launceston, 1879); J. L. Gerard Krefft, Notes on the Fauna of Tasmania (Sydney, 1868); George Thomas Lloyd, Thirty-three Years in Tasmania Home in Tasmania; or, Nine Years in Australia (New York, and Victoria (London, 1862); Mrs Louisa Anne Meredith, My 1853); Tasmanian Friends and Foes-Feathered, Furred, and Finned (Hobart, 1881); Royal Society of Tasmania, Papers and Proceedings (Hobart); H. Ling Roth and M. E. Butler, The Aborigines of Tasmania (2nd ed. Halifax, 1899).

TASSIE, JAMES (1735-1799), Scottish gem-engraver and modeller, was born of humble parentage at Pollokshaws, near Glasgow, in 1735. During his earlier years he worked as a stonemason, but, having seen the collection of paintings brought together in Glasgow by Robert and Andrew Foulis, the printers, he removed to Glasgow, attended the academy which had been established there by the brothers Foulis, and became one of the most distinguished pupils of the school. Subsequently he visited Dublin in search of commissions, and there became acquainted with Dr Quin, who had been experimenting, as an amateur, in imitating antique engraved gems in coloured pastes. He engaged Tassie as an assistant, and together they perfected the discovery of an "enamel," admirably adapted by its hardness and beauty of texture for the formation of gems and medallions. Dr Quin encouraged his assistant to try his fortune in London, and thither he repaired in 1766. At first he had a hard struggle to make his way. But he worked on steadily with the greatest care and accuracy, scrupulously destroying all

Impressions of his gems which were in the slightest degree inferior or defective. Gradually the beauty and artistic character of his productions came to be known. He received a commission from the empress of Russia for a collection of about 15,000 examples; all the richest cabinets in Europe were thrown open to him for purposes of study and reproduction; and his copies were frequently sold by fraudulent dealers as the original gems. He exhibited in the Royal Academy from 1769 to 1791. In 1775 he published the first catalogue of his works, a thin pamphlet detailing 2856 items. This was followed in 1791 by a large catalogue, in two volumes quarto, with illustrations etched by David Allan, and descriptive text in English and French by Rudolph Eric Raspe, enumerating nearly 16,000 pieces.

In addition to his impressions from antique gems, Tassie executed many large profile medallion portraits of his contemporaries, and these form the most original and definitely artistic class of his works. They were modelled in wax from the life or from drawings done from the life, and-when this was impossible-from other authentic sources. They were then cast in white enamel paste, the whole medallion being sometimes executed in this material; while in other cases the head only appears in enamel, relieved against a background of ground-glass tinted of a subdued colour by paper placed behind. His first large enamel portrait was that of John Dolbon, son of Sir William Dolbon, Bart., modelled in 1793 or 1794; and the series possesses great historic interest, as well as artistic value, including as it does portraits of Adam Smith, Sir Henry Raeburn, Drs James Beattie, Blair, Black and Cullen, and many other celebrated men of the latter half of the 18th century. At the time of his death, in 1799, the collection of Tassie's works numbered about 20,000 pieces.

His nephew, WILLIAM TASSIE (1777-1860), also a gem engraver and modeller, succeeded to James Tassie's business and added largely to his collection of casts and medallions. His portrait of Pitt, in particular, was very popular, and circulated widely. When the Shakespeare Gallery, formed by Alderman Boydell, was disposed of by lottery in 1805, William Tassie was the winner of the prize, and in the same year he sold the pictures by auction for a sum of over £6000. He bequeathed to the Board of Manufactures, Edinburgh, an extensive and valuable collection of casts and medallions by his uncle and himself, along with portraits of James Tassie and his wife by David Allan, and a series of water-colour studies by George Sanders from pictures of the Dutch and Flemish schools.

(J. M. G.)

TASSO, TORQUATO (1544-1595), Italian poet, was the son of Bernardo Tasso (1493-1569), a nobleman of Bergamo, and his wife Porzia de' Rossi. He was born at Sorrento on the 11th of March 1544. His father had for many years been secretary in the service of the prince of Salerno, and his mother was closely connected with the most illustrious Neapolitan families. The prince of Salerno came into collision with the Spanish government of Naples, was outlawed, and was deprived of his hereditary fiefs. In this disaster of his patron Tasso's father shared. He was proclaimed a rebel to the state, together with his son Torquato, and his patrimony was sequestered. These things happened during the boy's childhood. In 1552 he was living with his mother and his only sister Cornelia at Naples, pursuing his education under the Jesuits, who had recently opened a school there. The precocity | of intellect and the religious fervour of the boy attracted general admiration. At the age of eight he was already famous. Soon after this date he joined his father, who then resided in great indigence, an exile and without occupation, in Rome. News reached them in 1556 that Porzia Tasso had died suddenly and mysteriously at Naples. Her husband was firmly convinced that she had been poisoned by her brother with the object of getting control over her property. As it subsequently happened, Porzia's estate never descended to her son; and the daughter Cornelia married below her birth, at the instigation of her maternal relatives. Tasso's father was a poet by predilection

and a professional courtier. When, therefore, an opening at the court of Urbino offered in 1557, Bernardo Tasso gladly accepted it. The young Torquato, a handsome and brilliant lad, became the companion in sports and studies of Francesco Maria della Rovere, heir to the dukedom of Urbino. At Urbino a society of cultivated men pursued the aesthetical and literary studies which were then in vogue. Bernardo Tasso read cantos of his Amadigi to the duchess and her ladies, or discussed the merits of Homer and Virgil, Trissino and Ariosto, with the duke's librarians and secretaries. Torquato grew up in an atmosphere of refined luxury and somewhat pedantic criticism, both of which gave a permanent tone to his character. At Venice, whither his father went to superintend the printing of the Amadigi (1560), these influences continued. He found himself the pet and prodigy of a distinguished literary circle. But Bernardo had suffered in his own career so seriously from addiction to the Muses and a prince that he now determined on a lucrative profession for his son. Torquato was sent to study law at Padua. Instead of applying himself to law, the young man bestowed all his attention upon philosophy and poetry. Before the end of 1562 he had produced a narrative poem called Rinaldo, which was meant to combine the regularity of the Virgilian with the attractions of the romantic epic. In the attainment of this object, and in all the minor qualities of style and handling, Rinaldo showed such marked originality that its author was proclaimed the most promising poet of his time. The flattered father allowed it to be printed; and, after a short period of study at Bologna, he consented to his son's entering the service of Cardinal Luigi d'Este. In 1565, then, Torquato for the first time set foot in that castle at Ferrara which was destined for him to be the scene of so many glories, and such cruel sufferings. After the publication of Rinaldo he had expressed his views upon the epic in some Discourses on the Art of Poctry, which committed him to a distinct theory and gained for him the additional celebrity of a philosophical critic. The age was nothing if not critical; but it may be esteemed a misfortune for the future author of the Gerusalemme that he should have started with pronounced opinions upon art. Essentially a poet of impulse and instinct, he was hampered in production by his own rules.

The five years between 1565 and 1570 seem to have been the happiest of Tasso's life, although his father's death in 1569 caused his affectionate nature profound pain. Young, handsome, accomplished in all the exercises of a well-bred gentleman, accustomed to the society of the great and learned, illustrious by his published works in verse and prose, he became the idol of the most brilliant court in Italy. The princesses Lucrezia and Leonora d'Este, both unmarried, both his seniors by about ten years, took him under their protection. He was admitted to their familiarity, and there is some reason to think that neither of them was indifferent to him personally. Of the celebrated story of his love for Leonora this is not the place to speak. It is enough at present to observe that he owed much to the constant kindness of both sisters. In 1570 he travelled to Paris with the cardinal. Frankness of speech and a certain habitual want of tact caused a disagreement with his worldly patron. He left France next year, and took service under Duke Alfonso II. of Ferrara. The most important events in Tasso's biography during the following four years are the publication of the Aminta in 1573 and the completion of the Gerusalemme Liberata in 1574. The Aminta is a pastoral drama of very simple plot, but of exquisite lyrical charm. It appeared at the critical moment when modern music, under Palestrina's impulse, was becoming the main art of Italy. The honeyed melodies and sensuous melancholy of Aminta exactly suited and interpreted the spirit of its age. We may regard it as the most decisively important of Tasso's compositions, for its influ ence, in opera and cantata, was felt through two successive centuries. The Gerusalemme Liberata occupies a larger space in the history of European literature, and is a more considerable work. Yet the commanding qualities of this epic poem, those which revealed Tasso's individuality, and which made it

immediately pass into the rank of classics, beloved by the people no less than by persons of culture, are akin to the lyrical graces of Aminta. It was finished in Tasso's thirty-first year; and when the MS. lay before him the best part of his life was over, his best work had been already accomplished. Troubles immediately began to gather round him. Instead of having the courage to obey his own instinct, and to publish the Gerusalemme as he had conceived it, he yielded to the critical scrupulosity which formed a secondary feature of his character. The poem was sent in manuscript to several literary men of eminence, Tasso expressing his willingness to hear their strictures and to adopt their suggestions unless he could convert them to his own views. The result was that each of these candid friends, while expressing in general high admiration for the epic, took some exception to its plot, its title, its moral tone, its episodes or its diction, in detail. One wished it to be more regularly classical; another wanted more romance. One hinted that the Inquisition would not tolerate its supernatural machinery; another demanded the excision of its most charming passages the loves of Armida, Clorinda and Erminia. Tasso had to defend himself against all these ineptitudes and pedantries, and to accommodate his practice to the theories he had rashly expressed. As in the Rinaldo, so also in the Jerusalem Delivered, he aimed at ennobling the Italian epic style by preserving strict unity of plot and heightening poetic diction. He chose Virgil for his model, took the first crusade for subject, infused the fervour of religion into his conception of the hero Godfrey. But his own natural bias was for romance. In spite of the poet's ingenuity and industry the stately main theme evinced less spontaneity of genius than the romantic episodes with which, as also in Rinaldo, he adorned it. Godfrey, a mixture of pious Aeneas and Tridentine Catholicism, is not the real hero of the Gerusalemme. Fiery and passionate Rinaldo, Ruggiero, melancholy impulsivé Tancredi, and the chivalrous Saracens with whom they clash in love and war, divide our interest and divert it from Goffredo. On Armida, beautiful witch, sent forth by the infernal senate to sow discord in the Christian camp, turns the action of the epic. She is converted to the true faith by her adoration for a crusading knight, and quits the scene with a phrase of the Virgin Mary on her lips. Brave Clorinda, donning armour like Marfisa, fighting in duel with her devoted lover, and receiving baptism from his hands in her pathetic death; Erminia sceking refuge in the shepherd's hut-these lovely pagan women, so touching in their sorrows, so romantic in their adventures, so tender in their emotions, rivet our attention, while we skip the battles, religious ceremonies, conclaves and stratagems of the campaign. The truth is that Tasso's great invention as an artist was the poetry of sentiment. Sentiment, not sentimentality, gives value to what is immortal in the Gerusalemme. It was a new thing in the 16th century, something concordant with a growing feeling for woman and with the ascendant art of music. This sentiment, refined, noble, natural, steeped in melancholy, exquisitely graceful, pathetically touching, breathes throughout the episodes of the Gerusalemme, finds metrical expression in the languishing cadence of its mellifluous verse, and sustains the ideal life of those seductive heroines whose names were familiar as household words to all Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Tasso's self-chosen critics were not men to admit what the public has since accepted as incontrovertible. They vaguely felt that a great and beautiful romantic poem was imbedded in a dull and not very correct epic. In their uneasiness they suggested every course but the right one, which was to publish the Gerusalemme without further dispute. Tasso, already overworked by his precocious studies, by exciting court-life and exhausting literary industry, now grew almost mad with worry. His health began to fail him. He complained of headache, suffered from malarious fevers, and wished to leave Ferrara. The Gerusalemme was laid in manuscript upon a shelf. He opened negotiations with the court of Florence for an exchange of service. This irritated the duke of Ferrara. Alfonso hated nothing more than his courtiers leaving him for a rival duchy.

He thought, moreover, that, if Tasso were allowed to go, the Medici would get the coveted dedication of that already famous epic. Therefore he bore with the poet's humours, and so contrived that the latter should have no excuse for quitting Ferrara. Meanwhile, through the years 1575, 1576, 1577, Tasso's health grew worse. Jealousy inspired the courtiers to calumniate and insult him. His irritable and suspicious temper, vain and sensitive to slights, rendered him only too easy a prey to their malevolence. He became the subject of delusions,-thought that his servants betrayed his confidence, fancied he had been denounced to the Inquisition, expected daily to be poisoned. In the autumn of 1576 he quarrelled with a Ferrarese gentleman, Maddalo, who had talked too freely about some love affair; in the summer of 1577 he drew his knife upon a servant in the presence of Lucrezia d'Este, duchess of Urbino. For this excess he was arrested; but the duke released him, and took him for change of air to his country seat of Belriguardo. What happened there is not known. Some biographers have surmised that a compromising liaison with Leonora d'Este came to light, and that Tasso agreed to feign madness in order to cover her honour. But of this there is no proof. It is only certain that from Belriguardo he returned to a Franciscan convent at Ferrara, for the express purpose of attending to his health. There the dread of being murdered by the duke took firm hold on his mind. He escaped at the end of July, disguised himself as a peasant, and went on foot to his sister at Sorrento.

The truth seems to be that Tasso, after the beginning of 1575, became the victim of a mental malady, which, without amounting to actual insanity, rendered him fantastical and insupportable, a misery to himself and a cause of anxiety to his patrons. There is no evidence whatsoever that this state of things was due to an overwhelming passion for Leonora. The duke, instead of acting like a tyrant, showed considerable forbearance. He was a rigid and not sympathetic man, as egotistical as a princeling of that age was wont to be. But to Tasso he was never cruel-hard and unintelligent perhaps, but far from being that monster of ferocity which has been painted. The subsequent history of his connexion with the poet, over which we may pass rapidly, will corroborate this view. While at Sorrento, Tasso hankered after Ferrara. The court-made man could not breathe freely outside its charmed circle. He wrote humbly requesting to be taken back. Alfonso consented, provided Tasso would agree to undergo a medical course of treatment for his melancholy. When he returned, which he did with alacrity under those conditions, he was well received by the ducal family. All might have gone well if his old maladies had not revived. Scene followed scene of irritability, moodiness, suspicion, wounded vanity and violent outbursts. In the summer of 1578 he ran away again; travelled through Mantua, Padua, Venice, Urbino, Lombardy. In September he reached the gates of Turin on foot, and was courteously entertained by the duke of Savoy. Wherever he went, "wandering like the world's rejected guest," he met with the honour due to his illustrious name. Great folk opened their houses to him gladly, partly in compassion, partly in admiration of his genius. But he soon wearied of their society, and wore their kindness out by his querulous peevishness. It seemed, moreover, that life was intolerable to him outside Ferrara. Accordingly he once more opened negotiations with the duke; and in February 1579 he again set foot in the castle. Alfonso was about to contract his third marriage, this time with a princess of the house of Mantua. He had no children; and, unless he got an heir, there was a probability that his state would fall, as it did subsequently, to the Holy See. The nuptial festivals, on the eve of which Tasso arrived, were not therefore the occasion of great rejoicing to the elderly bridegroom. As a forlorn hope he had to wed a third wife; but his heart was not engaged and his expectations were far from sanguine. Tasso, preoccupied as always with his own sorrows and his own sense of dignity, made no allowance for the troubles of his master. Rooms below his rank, he thought, had been assigned him.