DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61894#0107
Ch. III.
THROUGH ITALY.
89
tion of a becoming monument as a duty and an
honor peculiarly appropriated to himself, and
though he found himself obliged to defer the dis-
charge of the friendly office year after year, yet
he never could be induced to allow any other
person to fulfil it in his stead. Death however
deprived him of the honor of erecting a tomb to
Tasso ; and to the Cardinal Bevilacqua alone,
is the public indebted for the present monument
rather decent than magnificent, with a short in-
scription. Every English traveller who feels the
sublimity of Milton, and knows how much the
British bard owes to the Tuscan poet, will hasten
to the church of St. Onofrio, and at the tomb of
Torquato Tasso, hail the muse that inspired their
rival strains.
Che di caduchi allori
Non circonda la fronte in Helicona ;
Ma su ne Cielo infra i beati chori
Ha di stelle immortali aurea corona 1
Sebastiano, a church erected by Constantine
in memory of the celebrated martyr whose name
it bears, has a handsome portico and contains
some good pictures and paintings. It is how-
ever more remarkable for being the principal
entrance into the catacombs which lie in its
neighborhood.
THROUGH ITALY.
89
tion of a becoming monument as a duty and an
honor peculiarly appropriated to himself, and
though he found himself obliged to defer the dis-
charge of the friendly office year after year, yet
he never could be induced to allow any other
person to fulfil it in his stead. Death however
deprived him of the honor of erecting a tomb to
Tasso ; and to the Cardinal Bevilacqua alone,
is the public indebted for the present monument
rather decent than magnificent, with a short in-
scription. Every English traveller who feels the
sublimity of Milton, and knows how much the
British bard owes to the Tuscan poet, will hasten
to the church of St. Onofrio, and at the tomb of
Torquato Tasso, hail the muse that inspired their
rival strains.
Che di caduchi allori
Non circonda la fronte in Helicona ;
Ma su ne Cielo infra i beati chori
Ha di stelle immortali aurea corona 1
Sebastiano, a church erected by Constantine
in memory of the celebrated martyr whose name
it bears, has a handsome portico and contains
some good pictures and paintings. It is how-
ever more remarkable for being the principal
entrance into the catacombs which lie in its
neighborhood.