Leonora d'Este and 7asso 
 
W. von Kaulbach, Artist      J. L. Rvaab, Engraver 
 
 
 
                     Tasso 
 LOWL Y I come to bring my work to thee, 
      And yet I linger before presenting it. 
      Although apparently it seem complete, 
Too well I know it is unfinished still. 
But, if I cherished once an anxious fear, 
Lest I should bring thee an imperfect word, 
A new solicitude constrains me now,; 
I would not seem ungrateful, nor appear 
Unduly anxious, and as to his friends, 
A man can say but simply, " Here I am," 
That they, with kind forbearance, may rejoice. 
So I can only say, - Receive my work!" 
 
Of you alone I thought while I composed; 
You to delight, was still my highest wish, 
You to enrapture, was my final aim. 
Who ddth not in his friends behold the world 
Deserves not that of him the world should hear. 
Here is my fatherland and here the sphere 
In which my spirit only comes to dwell, 
                      Goethe's " Torqualo Tasso."