In his Lettere poetiche, Tasso frequently indicated his intention to dedicate a final stage in the correction of his epic poem to matters concerning language and style. In letters to Gonzaga and his other revisors, he appeared quite open to suggestions and changes, but systematic work was not carried out before he lost control of his poem, and particularly in connection with the style of the Gerusalemme liberata, the criticisms of the Crusca weighed heavily. In actual fact, Tasso uses a range of styles in his epic: simple and functional in the narrative sections, covering the development of war; a middle style, the “stile fiorito” of lyric poetry, in the love episodes; a solemn style in the discourse of the most noble characters, Goffredo and Solimano, in the inspired section on the Crusaders journey to Jerusalem, and in the discourse of Pietro the Hermit. This flexibility, partly going against the univocal “majesty of epic poetry” discussed in the Discorsi, is absent from the Conquistata, which favours a deliberate eloquence that is both more austere and somewhat monotonous.

A. van Dyck, Rinaldo and Armida, Baltimore, Museum of Art