Discorsi dell’arte poetica

Intensely aware of the need to cultivate his poetic background, after completing the Rinaldo, Tasso turned his attention once more to the epic, in the Discorsi dell’arte poetica (“E scrissi i miei Discorsi quasi per ammaestramento di me stesso” in T. Tasso, Prose diverse, edited by C. Guasti, 2 vols, Florence, Le Monnier, 1875, vol. I, 435). In three Books, the Discorsi are based on a close interpretation of Aristotle’s Poetics and the assumption that Aristotle’s precepts, focusing on tragedy, could equally be applied to other genres, including epic poetry. His position was a response to Pigna and Giraldi who held that the chivalric epic, and thus the Furioso, was a new genre beyond Aristotelian categories. Tasso, however, included within the boundaries set by Aristotele a series of examples that aimed at ensuring readers’ enjoyment, as already indicated in his Preface to Rinaldo, but now with greater theoretical vigour. Thus the unity of the main plot had to be enriched with variety of episodes, had to have a historical basis but not from sacred history or recent events, so that the poet could add inventions of his own. Tasso also looked to classical models, especially Virgil’s work, and in the third Book discussed the style suited to epic. His idea of mediation and confidence in the possibility of a virtuous balance come across clearly in a famous passage from his Discorsi related to God’s “marvellous domain” and indicating Tasso’s youthful enthusiasm, which shortly afterwards was applied to the composition of his great epic.