Torquato Tasso: A Play

It is your name, just as it is mine.
I would take it amiss if it were another.
It pleases me that he can hide his feeling for you
In this double meaning.
I am content that he also remembers me
At the fair sound of this name.
The question here is not of a love
That seeks to master its object,
Exclusively to possess it, jealously
Wishing to deny the sight of it to any other.
When he occupies himself in blessed contemplation
With your worth, he may also
Take pleasure in my lighter nature.
He does not love us—forgive me for saying

From all spheres he carries what he loves
Down to a name that we bear,
And he shares his feeling with us; we seem
To love the man, and yet we only love
With him the highest thing that we can love.