eoccupied with the ceremonies
and festivities of a third marriage. No one attended to him or took heed
of his arrival; and, to quote his own words, "in a fit of madness" he
broke out into execrations of the ducal court and family, and of the
people of Ferrara. For the offence he was shut up in the Hospital of
Sant' Anna, and for many months treated as an ordinary lunatic. Of the
particulars of his treatment during these first eight months of his
confinement, apart from Tasso's own letters, there is no evidence. The
accounts of the hospital are lost, and the _Libri di spesa_ (_R. Arch.
di Stato in Modena_; _Camer. Ducale: Casa_; _Amministrazione_, Solerti,
iii. _Docu_. 47) do not commence till November 20, 1579. Two years
later, the _Libri di spenderia_ (Solerti, in. _Docu_. 51), from January,
1582, onward, show that he was put on a more generous diet; and it is
known that a certain measure of liberty and other indulgences were
gradually accorded. There can, however, be little doubt that for many
months his food was neglected and medical attendance withheld. His
statement, that he was denied the rites of the Church, cannot be
gainsaid. He was regarded as a lunatic, and, as such, he would not be
permitted either to make his confession or to communicate. Worse than
all, there was the terrible solitude. "E sovra tutto," he writes (May,
1580), "m'affligge la solitudine, mia crudele e natural nimica." No
wonder the attacks of delirium, the "unwonted lights," the conference
with a familiar spirit, followed in due course. Byron and Shelley were
ignorant of the facts; and we know that their scorn and indignation were
exaggerated and misplaced. But the "pity of it" remains, that the grace
and glory of his age was sacrificed to ignorance and fear, if not to
animosity and revenge. (See _Tasso_, by E. J. Hasell; _History of the
Italian Renaissance_, by J. A. Symonds; _Quart. Rev._, October, 1895,
No. 364, art. x.; _Vita di Torquato Tasso_, 1895, i. 312-314, 410-412,
etc.)]

[mi] {357} _And thou for no one useful purpose born_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[418] [Solerti (_Vita_, i. 418) combats the theory advanced by Hobhouse
(see _note_ x.), that Lionardo Salviati, in order to curry favour with
Alphonso, was responsible for "the opposition which the Jerusalem
encountered from the Cruscan Academy." He assigns their unfavourable
criticism to literary sentiment or prejudice, and not to personal
animosity or intrigue. The _Gerusalemme Liberata_