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Tasso, Torquato

Born Mar. 11, 1544, in Sorrento; died Apr. 25,1595, in Rome. Italian poet; son of the poet B. Tasso.

Tasso graduated from the University of Bologna in 1565. In 1572 he became the court poet of Alfonso II d’Este, duke of Ferrara. Influenced by the Counter-Reformation, Tasso renounced philosophical skepticism; he developed a morbid religiosity and a persecution complex. From 1579 to 1586, on the duke’s order, he was confined in a hospital for the insane. In the last years of his life he wandered the cities of Italy.

Tasso’s works combined traits of the Renaissance style with those of the succeeding styles of classicism and the baroque. His Renaissance nature and love lyrics of the 1560’s and early 1570’s gave way to naturalistic, hyperbolic baroque poetry, written between 1579 and 1586. Tasso’s pastoral drama Aminta (1573, published 1580), imbued with a pantheistic perception of the world and an awareness of the power of love, was a Renaissance work with a tendency toward classicism. The treatise Discourses on the Poetic Art (1565–66, published 1587) and its second version, Discourses on the Heroic Poem (1594), based on Aristotle’s poetics, constituted the theoretical basis of Tasso’s new mixed genre, which combined the classical epic with the chivalric narrative poem of L. Ariosto.

Tasso’s chief work was the historical narrative poem Goffredo(written 1574–75), published in full as Jerusalem Delivered (1580; Russian translation by D. Min, vols. 1–3,1900). While the poem dealt with the First Crusade, it also reflected the military clashes taking place during the 1570’s between the European nations and the Turks. It contrasted the principles of humanism and individualism, typical of the Renaissance, and the ethics of the Counter-Reformation. Tasso’s poetic model was the Iliad. The poem’s second version, Jerusalem Conquered (1593), reflected an orthodox Catholic viewpoint. Tasso’s works influenced Western European literature of the 17th and 18th centuries, and the figure of Tasso appeared in works by Goethe, Byron, and K. N. Batiushkov.

WORKS

Opere, vols. 1–33. Edited by G. Rosini. Pisa, 1821–32.
Tuttelepoesie. Edited by L. Caretti. [Milan, 1957.]
Opere[vols. 1–2. Milan, 1961–68].
In Russian translation:
Aminta. Moscow-Leningrad, 1937.

REFERENCES

Rozanov, M. Pushkin, Tasso, Aretino. [Moscow-Leningrad, 1937.]
De Sanctis, F. Istoriia ital’ianskoi literatury, vol. 2. Moscow, 1964.
Mokul’skii, S. S. Ital’ianskaia literatura: Vozrozhdenie i Prosveshchenie. Moscow, 1966.
Storia della letteratura italiana, vol. 4. Edited by E. Cecchi and N. Sapegno. [Milan, 1966.]

N. G. ELINA

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No references found	When he said that Milton's masque Comus "is as far superior to The Faithful Shepherdess as The Faithful Shepherdess is to the Aminta or the Aminta to the Pastor Fido," he assumed readers would recall these three works as having been created by, respectively, John Fletcher (1579-1625), Torquato Tasso (1544-1595), and Giovanni Battista Guarini (1538-1612). Scholar among rakes: Macaulay communes across the generations by Stove, R.J. / The American Conservative Un mare turbatissimo: la vita di Torquato Tasso ripercosa attaverso le lettere. Women and the politics of play in sixteenth-century Italy: Torquato ... by McClure, George W. / Renaissance Quarterly Torquato Tasso lived in an era profoundly influenced by the Catholic church and perceptions of religious difference, and his carefully selected subject of Christianity battling Islam is a conflict with a long history and reverberations that still persist today. Torquato Tasso and the Furore of Love, War and Madness by Cozzarelli, Julia M. / Italica	Toronto, University of Toropa Toropets Toropov, Andrei Toropov, Andrei Dmitrievich Toropov, Nikita Toropov, Nikita Aleksandrovich Tororo Toros Roslin torose torose load cast Torpare Torpedinidae Torpediniformes Torpedo torpedo air flask Torpedo Aviation Torpedo Boat torpedo defense net torpedo exercise head torpedo exploder mechanism Torpedo Tube torpedo warhead extension torpid Torpor Torquato Tasso Torquay torque torque amplifier torque arm torque constant torque converter torque motor torque reaction torque ripple torque viscometer torque wrench torque yarn torque-coil magnetometer torque-load characteristic torque-speed characteristic torque-tube flowmeter torque-type viscometer torque-winding diagram Torquemada Torquemada, Juan de Torquemada, Tomas de Torquemada, Tomás de torquemeter Torquilstone Front Torr	torpidly torpidness torpidness Torpids Torpids Torpids Torpids Torpify Torpitude Torpoint Mosquito Sailing Club torpor torpor torpor torpor torpor retinae torpor retinae torpor retinae torpor retinae torporifc torporific torporific torporific torporific Torposten TORQ Torqay Torqay Torquamada torquate torquated Torquato Tasso Torquay Torquay Torquay Torquay Boys Grammar School Torquay Old Grammarians Society Torquay United Football Club Torquay United Supporters' Trust Torquay, England Torquay, England Torquay, UK Torquay, UK torque torque torque torque torque Torque (jewellery) Torque (jewelry) torque amplifier torque arm torque constant torque converter torque converter torque converter Torque Converter Clutch Torque Converter Interrupt Actuator Torque Converter Lockup Actuator Torque Converter Rebuilders Association torque converters torque converters

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When he said that Milton's masque Comus "is as far superior to The Faithful Shepherdess as The Faithful Shepherdess is to the Aminta or the Aminta to the Pastor Fido," he assumed readers would recall these three works as having been created by, respectively, John Fletcher (1579-1625), Torquato Tasso (1544-1595), and Giovanni Battista Guarini (1538-1612).

Scholar among rakes: Macaulay communes across the generations by Stove, R.J. / The American Conservative

Un mare turbatissimo: la vita di Torquato Tasso ripercosa attaverso le lettere.

Women and the politics of play in sixteenth-century Italy: Torquato ... by McClure, George W. / Renaissance Quarterly

Torquato Tasso lived in an era profoundly influenced by the Catholic church and perceptions of religious difference, and his carefully selected subject of Christianity battling Islam is a conflict with a long history and reverberations that still persist today.

Torquato Tasso and the Furore of Love, War and Madness by Cozzarelli, Julia M. / Italica