household of Alfonso.  Eventually, Alessandro Sersale was consigned to Odoardo Farnese, and Antonio to the Duke of Mantua.  In 1585 new sources of annoyance rose.  Two members of the Delia Crusca Academy in Florence, Leonardo Salviati and Bastiano de’Rossi, attacked the Gerusalemme.  Their malevolence was aroused by the panegyric written on it by Cammillo Pellegrini, a Neapolitan, and they exposed it to pedantically quibbling criticism.  Tasso replied in a dignified apology.  But he does not seem to have troubled himself overmuch with this literary warfare, which served meanwhile to extend the fame of his immortal poem.  At this time new friends gathered round him.  Among these the excellent Benedictine, Angelo Grillo, and the faithful Antonio Costantini demand commemoration from all who appreciate disinterested devotion to genius in distress.  At length, in July 1586, Vincenzo Gonzaga, heir apparent to the Duchy of Mantua, obtained Tasso’s release.  He rode off with this new patron to Mantua, leaving his effects at S. Anna, and only regretting that he had not waited on the Duke of Ferrara to kiss his hand as in duty bound.[56] Thus to the end he remained an incorrigible courtier; or rather shall we say that, after all his tribulations, he preserved a doglike feeling of attachment for his master?

[Footnote 54:  Lacrime di diversi poeti volgari, &c. (Vicenza, 1585).]

[Footnote 55:  Lettere, vol. ii. p. 103.  The significance of this message to Panigarola is doubtful.  Did Tasso mean that the contrast between past and present was too bitter?  ’Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.’]

[Footnote 56:  All the letters written from Mantua abound in references to this neglect of duty.]

The rest of Tasso’s life was an Odyssey of nine years.  He seemed at first contented with Mantua, wrote dialogues, completed the tragedy of Torrismondo and edited his father’s Floridante.  But when Vincenzo Gonzaga succeeded to the dukedom, the restless poet felt himself neglected.  His young friend had not leisure to pay him due attention.  He therefore started on a journey to Loreto, which had long been the object of his pious aspiration.  Loreto led to Rome, where Scipione Gonzaga resided as Patriarch of Jerusalem and Cardinal.  Rome suggested Southern Italy, and Tasso hankered after the recovery of his mother’s fortune.  Accordingly he set off in March 1588 for Naples, where he stayed, partly with the monks of Monte Oliveto, and partly with the Marchese Manso.  Rome saw him again in November; and not long afterwards an agent of the Duke of Urbino wrote this pitiful report of his condition.  ’Every one is ready to welcome him to hearth and heart; but his humors render him mistrustful of mankind at large.  In the palace of the Cardinal Gonzaga there are rooms and beds always ready for his use, and men reserved for his especial service.  Yet he runs away and mistrusts even that friendly