d.

"_Princess_:

My friend, the golden age hath passed away.
Shall I confess to thee my secret thoughts?
The golden age, wherewith the bard is wont
Our spirits to beguile, that lovely prime,
Existed in the past no more than now;
Still meet congenial spirits and enhance
Each other's pleasures in this beauteous world;
But in the motto change one single word
And say my friend,--What's fitting is allowed."

Perhaps Leonora did speak thus in the open discussion which followed the
reading of the poem as in that at the Court of Urbino when Cardinal
Bembo, distraught by his own rhapsody on love, stood silent as one
transported, and the lady Emilia to recall him to himself shook him
playfully, crying, "Have a care, Pietro, lest in this mood your soul
should be separated from your body."

And the gay Cardinal replied: "Madam, this would not be the first
miracle which Love hath wrought in me."

Certainly, Tasso's wooing, even at Villa d'Este, was not always a happy
one. In the following stanzas he tells of temporary despairs, but he
hints also of a great hope at his darkest moment:

"By what dim ways at last Love leadeth man
Unto his joy and sets him 'mid the bliss
Of his heart's heaven of love--then when he most
Thinketh him sunk in an abyss of bale;
O blest Amyntas--from thy fate
I augur for mine own, that so may she,
That fair untender maid, who in a smile
Of pity sheaths the steel of heartlessness,
So may she with true pity heal the hurt
Wherewith feigned pity pierced me to the heart."

In another beautiful passage it is not hope which he sings but rapture:

"Let him who serveth Love
Divine it in his heart, though scarce may he
Divine or give it voice."

What was the boon which gave Tasso so much bliss? Perchance no greater
than the one he celebrates in the exquisite lines:

_Stava Madonna ad un balcon soletta._

"My lady at a balcony alone
One day was standing, when I chanced to stretch
My arm on hers; pardon I begged, if so
I had offended her; she sweetly answered,
'Not by the placing of thy arm hast thou
Displeased me aught, but by withdrawing it
Do I remain offended!' O fond words!
Dear little love words, short but sweet, and courteous!
Courteous as sweet, affectionate as courteous!
If it were true and certain what I heard,
I shall be always seeking not to offen