By Richard Garnett 241

Although, however, Tansillo's heart mightwell remain withits
lady, Tansillo's person was necessitated to join the frequent mari-
time expeditions of the great nobleman to whom he was attached,
Don Garcia de Toledo, against the Türks. The constant free-
booting of the Turkish and Barbary rovers kept the Mediterranean
in a State of commotion comparable to that of the Spanish Main
in the succeeding age, and these expeditions, whose picturesque
history remains to be written, were no doubt very interesting;
though from a philosophical point of view it is impossible not
to sympathise with the humane and generous poet when he
inquires :—

Che il Turco nasca turco, e '1 Moro moro,
E giusta causa questa, ond' altri ed io
Dobbiam incrudelir nel sangue loro ?

With such feelings it may well be believed that in his enforced
absence he was thinking at least as much of love as of war, and
that the following sonnet is as truthful as it is an animated picture
of his feelings:—

II

No length of banishment did e'er remove

My heart from you, nor if by Fortune sped

I roam the azure waters, or the Red,
E'er with the body shall the spirit rove :
If by each drop of every wave we clove,

Or by Sun's light or Moon's encompassed,

Another Venus were engendered,
And each were pregnant with another Love;

And