PREFACE. of AN union of three circumstances seems necessary to fit a subject, in a high degree, for the pen the biographer: The person of whom he writes must have been eminent; his life must have been various, and eventful; and the documents which remain of it must be numerous and accurate. All these circumstances are to be found, in a singular degree, in the subject that I have chosen. There are, indeed, few men in human story, whose names awaken curiosity like that of Tasso, or whose lives are better fitted to ex a |