Jerusalem Delivered

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"Clorinda Rescues Olindo and Sophronia" by Eugène Delacroix

Jerusalem Delivered (La Gerusalemme liberata) (1580) is a baroque epic poem by Italian poet Torquato Tasso which tells the (largely fictionalized) story of the First Crusade in which Christians knights, lead by Godfrey of Bouillon, battle Muslims in order to raise the siege of Jerusalem. The poem is composed of eight line stanzas grouped into 20 cantos of varying length.

The work belongs to the Renaissance tradition of the chivalric novel and the Italian epic poem, and Tasso frequently borrows plot elements and character types directly from Ariosto's Orlando furioso. Tasso's poem also has elements inspired by the classical epics of Homer and Virgil (especially in those sections of their works that tell of sieges and warfare).

Tasso's choice of subject matter, an actual historic conflict between Christians and Muslims (albeit with fantasical elements added), had an historical grounding and created compositional implications (the narrative subject matter had a fixed end point and could not be endlessly spun out in multiple volumes) that are lacking in other Renaissance epics. But like other works of the period which portray conflicts between Christians and Muslims, this subject matter had a topical resonance to readers of the period, as the Turkish empire was advancing through Eastern Europe.

One of the most characteristic literary devices in Tasso's poem is the emotional conundrum endured by characters torn between their heart and their duty, and this depiction of love at odds with martial valour or honor is a source of great lyrical passion in the poem.

Rinaldo and Armida, by Francois Boucher

The poem tells of the initial disunity and setbacks of the Christians and their ultimate success. The most famous sequences include the following:

Sofronia (in English: Sophronia), a Christian maiden of Jerusalem, accuses herself of a crime in order to avert a general massacre of the Christians by the Muslim king. In an attempt to save her, her lover Olinde accuses himself in turn, and each lover pleads with the authorities in order to save the other.
Clorinda, a female warrior-maiden, joins the Muslims, but she falls in love with the Christian knight Tancredi (in English: Tancred). During a night battle in which she sets the Christian siege tower on fire, she is mistakenly killed by her lover, but she converts to Christianity before dying. The character of Clorinda is inspired in part by Virgil's Camilla and by Bradamante in Ariosto; the circumstances of her birth (a Caucasian girl born to African parents) are modeled on the lead character (Chariclea) from the ancient Greek novel by Heliodorus of Emesa.
Another maiden of the region, the Princess Erminia (or "Hermine") of Antioch, also falls in love with Tancred and betrays her people to help him, but she grows jealous when she learns that Trancredi loves Clorinde. She returns to the Muslims, then steals Clorinde's armor and joins a group of shepherds.
The witch Armida (in English: Armide) (modeled on Circe in Homer and the witch Alcina in Ariosto's epic) enters the Christian camp asking for their aid; her seductions divide the knights against each other and a group leaves with her, only to be transformed into animals by her magic.
Armide tries to kill the greatest Christian knight Rinaldo (in English: Renaud; his name appears in Ariosto's Orlando furioso (III, 30)); he is the son of Bertoldo and was the reputed founder of the house of Este) but she falls in love with him instead and takes him away to a magical island where he becomes infatuated with her caresses and grows idle. Two Christian knights seek out the hidden fortress, brave the dangers that guard it and, by giving Rinaldo a mirror of diamond, force him to see himself in his effeminated and amorous state and to return to the war, leaving Armide heartbroken. (This sequence echoes a similar storyline in Ariosto: the witch Alcina ensnares the knight Ruggiero, but the spell is broken by a magic ring that the good sorceress Melissa brings him. Alcine grieves at this loss and desires death, but being a sorceress, she cannot die.)

The poem was immensely successful throughout Europe and over the next two centuries various sections were frequently adapted as individual storylines for operas, plays, ballets and masquerades; scenes from the poem were also depicted in paintings and frescoes (for example, at Fontainebleau in France).

Certain critics of the period however were less enthusiastic, and Tasso came under much criticism for the magical extravagance and narrative confusion of his poem. Before his death, he drastically rewrote the poem, giving this new version the title La Gerusalemme Conquistata, or "Jerusalem Conquered." This revised version is much maligned by modern critics however.