In the three subsequent acts, there is still less of action; and we may as well relate at once what there remains of plot to be told, and then proceed with our extracts. Through the mediation of the princess and her friend, this quarrel is in part adjusted, and Tasso is released from imprisonment. But his spirit is wounded, and he determines to quit the court of Ferrara. He obtains permission to travel to Rome. At this juncture he meets with the princess. His impression has been that she also is alienated from him; her conversation removes and quite reverses this impression; in a moment of ungovernable tenderness he is about to embrace her; she repulses him and retires. The duke, who makes his appearance just at this moment, and who has been a witness to the conclusion of this interview, orders Tasso into confinement, expressing at the same time his conviction that the poet has lost his senses. He is given into the charge of Antonio, and thus ends the drama. Glancing back over the three last acts, whose action we have summed up so briefly, we might select many beautiful passages for translation; we content ourselves with the following. The princess and Leonora Sanvitale are conversing. There has been question of the departure of Tasso. "_Princess._--Each day was _then_ itself a little life; No care was clamorous, and the future slept. Me and my happy bark the flowing stream, Without an oar, drew with light ripple down. Now--in the turmoil of the present hour, The future wakes, and fills the startled ear With whisper'd terrors. "_Leonora._ But the future brings New joys, new friendships. "_Princess._ Let me keep the old. Change may amuse, it scarce can profit us. I never thrust, with youthful eagerness, A curious hand into the shaken urn Of life's great lottery, with hope to find Some object for a restless, untried heart. I honour'd him, and therefore have I loved; It was necessity to love the man With whom my being grew into a life Such as I had not known, or dream'd before. At first, I laid injunctions on myself To keep aloof; I yielded, yielded still, Still nearer drew--enticed how pleasantly To be how hardly punish'd! "_Leonora._ If a friend Fail with her weak consolatory speech, Let the still powers of this beautiful world, With silent healing, renovate thy spirit. "_Princess._--The world _is_ beautiful! In its wide circuit, How much of good is stirring here and there! Alas! that it should ever seem removed Just one step off! Throughout the whole of life Step after step, it leads our sick desire E'en to the grave. So rarely do men find What yet seem'd destined them--so rarely hold What once the hand had fortunately clasp'd; What has been giv'n us, rends itself away, And what we clutch'd, we let it loose again; There is a happiness--we know it not, We know it--and we know not how to prize."