And as the birdling doyh attendant fly,
Lured by the hand that tempting food detains,
Moved by like cause it follows you and plains,
Pining for consolation from your eye.
Gently within your hand the roamer take
Into your breast, and let it nestle there,
Soothed to great blissfulness in narrow span,
Until at length its soul in song awake,
And its dear woe and your great worth declare
From Adria's shore to shores Etrurian."
Such verses are too deeply felt for mere compliment, and, if sincere, could only be addressed to some one much above himself in station. In another sonnet a consciousness of presumption is clearly indicated:
"Of Icarus and Phaethon hast read?
Thou'lt know how one was in these waters whirled,
When he with orient light would wake the world,
And with sun's fire endiadem his head;
That other in the sea, which rashly spread,
His waxen wings he voyaging unfurled;
So headlong evermore the man be hurled
Who ways divine with mortal foot would tread.
But who shall quake in difficult emprise
If Gods attend him? What is not allowed
To Love, who knits in one all things divine?
Forsaking heavenly spheres that sing and shine,
By him Diana to a shepherd bowed,
And Ida's youth was rapt unto the skies."
Neither Tasso nor Leonora, however, was of an amorous temperament; and there is no reason to suppose that he experienced any great difficulty in keeping his passion within Platonic bounds. The hidden flame may well have wrought him to the production of his unsurpassed Aminta in 1572–73. But in 1574 a severe illness marks an era in his life; he is never again quite the same man.
