of Tyre speaks of the wood where Tasso has laid the scene of so many enchantments. Here Godfrey procured timber for the construction of his military engines. It will be seen how closely Tasso had studied the originals, when I come to quote the historians of the Crusades.

E'l capitano

Poi ch'intorno ha mirato, a i suoi discende.

From the hill descends

The Christian chief and joins his warlike friends.
The city view'd, he deems th'attempt were vain
O'er craggy rocks the steepy pass to gain.

The

Then on the ground that rose with smooth ascent, Against the northern gate he pitch'd his tent ; And thence proceeding to the corner tow'r, Encamp'd at length the remnant of his pow'r ; But could not half the city's walls enclose, So wide around the spacious bulwarks rose. But Godfrey well secures each several way That might assistance to the town convey. You are absolutely transported to the spot. camp extends from the gate of Damascus to the corner tower at the source of the brook Cedron and the entrance of the valley of Jehoshaphat. The ground between the city and the camp is exactly as Tasso has represented it, very level and well adapted for a field of battle, at the foot of the walls of Solyma. Aladine is seated with Erminia in a tower situated between two gates, whence they survey the combat in the plain and the camp of the Christians. This tower is still standing, with several others, between the gate of Damascus and that of Ephraim.

In the episode of Olindo and Sophronia, in the second book, we meet with two extremely correct local descriptions:

Nel tempio de Cristiani occulto giace, &c.

An altar by the Christians stands immur'd
Deep under ground from vulgar eyes secur'd;
The statue of their goddess there is show'd,
The mother of their human, buried god.

This church, now denominated the Sepulchre of the Virgin, stands in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and has been described in a preceding page. Tasso, by a licence granted to poets, places this church within the walls of Jerusalem.

The mosque, in which the image of the Virgin is set up, agreeably to the advice of the sorcerer, is evidently the mosque of the Temple.

Io là donde riceve

L'alta vostra meschita e l'aura e'l die, &c.

Where the high dome receives the air and light,
I found a passage favour'd by the night.

The first onset of the adventurers, the single combats of Argantes, Otho, Tancred, and Raymond of Toulouse, take place before the gate of Ephraim. When Armida arrives from Damascus, she enters, says the poet, at the extremity of the camp. It was in reality near the gate of Damascus, on the west side, that the last tents of the Christians must have stood.

I place the admirable scene of Erminia's flight towards the northern extremity of the valley of Jehoshaphat. When Tancred's lover has passed the gate of Jerusalem with her faithful squire, we are told

that she

went

Obliquely winding down the hill's descent.

She could not therefore have left the city by the gate of Ephraim, for the road leading from that gate to the camp of the Crusaders passes over perfectly level ground; she chose rather to make her escape by the eastern gate, which was less liable to suspicion and guarded with less vigilance.

Erminia arrives in solitaria ed ima parte, in á deep and solitary recess; she directs her attendant to go and speak to Tancred. This deep and solitary recess is distinctly marked at the upper end of the valley of Jehoshaphat, before you turn the northern angle of the city. There Erminia might await in safety the return of her messenger: but, unable to conquer her impatience, she ascends the eminence and descries the distant tents. In fact, on leaving the channel of the brook Cedron, and proceeding northward, a person must have perceived the camp of the Christians on the left. Then follow those admirable stanzas:

Now was the night in starry lustre seen,
And not a cloud obscured the blue serene :
The rising morn her silver beams displayed,
And deck'd with pearly dew the dusky glade.

With anxious soul th' enamour'd virgin strays
From thought to thought in love's perplexing maze
And vents her tender plaints and breathes her sighs
To all the silent fields and conscious skies.

Then, fondly gazing on the camp, she said:
Ye Latian tents, by me with joy surveyed!
From you methinks the gales more gently blow,
And seem already to relieve my woe!
So may kind Heaven afford a milder state
To this unhappy life, the sport of fate!
As 'tis from you I seek t'assuage my care,
And hope alone for peace in scenes of war!
Receive me then, and may my wishes find
That bliss which love has promised to my mind;
Which e'en my worst of fortune could afford,
When made the captive of my dearest lord!
I seek not now, inspired with fancies vain,
By you my regal honours to regain :
Ah oh! be this my happiness and pride,
Within your shelter humbly to reside!

So spoke the hapless fair, who little knew
How near her sudden change of fortune drew;
For, pensive while she stood, the cloudless moon
Full on th' unheedful maid with splendour shone ;
Her snow-white vesture caught the silver beam;
Her polish'd arms return'd a trembling gleam;
And on her lofty crest, the tigress, rais'd,
With all the terrors of Clorinda blaz'd.

When, lo! (so will'd her fate) a numerous band
Of Christian scouts were ambush'd near at hand,
These Polyphernes and Alcander guide.

;

It

Alcander and Polyphernes must have been stationed somewhere near the Royal Sepulchres. is to be regretted that Tasso has given no description of these subterraneous monuments, for the

delineation of which his genius peculiarly qualified him.

It is not so easy to determine the spot where the fugitive Erminia meets with the shepherd on the bank of the river; but as there is only one river in this country, and as Erminia has left Jerusalem by the eastern gate, it is probable that Tasso meant to place this charming scene on the shore of the Jordan. In this case, I acknowledge it to be an unaccountable circumstance that he has not mentioned the name of the river: but it is certain that this great poet has not adhered so closely as he ought to have done to scriptural records, from which Milton has elicited so many beauties.

As to the lake and castle in which the enchantress Armida confines the knights whom she has seduced, Tasso himself informs us that the lake here meant is the Dead Sea :

At length we drew to where in dreadful ire
Heaven rain'd of old on earth a storm of fire,
T'avenge the wrongs which Nature's laws endur'd
On that dire race to wicked deeds inur'd;
Where once were fertile lands and meadows green,
Now a deep lake with sulph'rous waves was seen.

One of the finest passages in the poem is the attack of the Christian camp by Solyman. The sultan marches in the night amid the thickest darkness, for, according to the sublime expression of the poet,

A deeper gloom exulting Pluto made,

With added terrors from th' infernal shade.