Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: D. O. M. TORQUATI TASSI HIC JACET HOC NE NESCIAS ESSE HOSPES FRES. HUIUS. ECCL. P. P. M. D. C. I. OBIIT ANNO MDXLV. Who can tread on the ashes of the honoured dead, and not feel the lesson that their silence breathes ? But in the memory of this highly gifted mortal such lesson is more peculiarly touching. When fortune ceased to persecute him, health, and strength and vigour failed. In the rude blast, the flower shed its perfume; but when the sun of fortune burst forth, that splendour proved too oppressive?it faded and died. The Pope gave Tasso a pension; he gained several lawsuits, and in fine, a glorious triumph awaited him. Fame wove a chaplet due to his talents; but death came with a rapid stride, and snatched it from him. The tomb opened beneath his feet;?he felt the doom awarded by Providence, and retired to this monastery of St. Onofrio, to contemplate that everlasting glory which mocks all earth-born greatness. Under this impression, he addressed a letter to Constantino, his faithful friend?and died. In the first burst of feeling, the Cardinal Cintro thought of paying every mark of respect to the memory of his friend; and to this end, but with a vain and pompous sentiment, he caused the body of the deceased to be arrayed in a Roman toga, to be crowned with laurels, and to be publicly displayed and carried through the principal streets of Rome, attended by all the Palatine court; then carried back to St. Onofrio. It was deposited finallybeneath the humble stone where it now lies. Funeral orations were prepared in Latin and Italian; and the Cardinal designed to have erected a magnificent mausoleum over his friend. But the grief of the Cardinal, it seems, soon subsided, many cares superseded those which he felt for the departed, and his intentions rem...