This article seeks to problematize our understanding of Tasso’s depiction of Goffredo in the Gerusalemme Liberata. I do so by considering how Tasso revised three passages of the Gottifredo—his poem’s original title—in response to his censors’ recommendations: specifically, I discuss Goffredo’s failed attempt to win Sveno’s sword (omitted from canto 8 of the Liberata), and then turn to the Christian captain’s reactions to Armida’s seduction of his men in canto 4 and to Rinaldo’s killing of the fellow crusader Gernando in canto 5. I argue that, particularly as his character was initially delineated in the Gottifredo, the Christian captain is neither a monolithic embodiment of virtue nor a personification of Tasso’s supposed authoritarianism. Goffredo is, instead, the complex persona of a political and military leader who reveals the flaws buried beneath an apparently impermeable surface.
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