and the court of
Ferrara. For Leonard Salviati, the principal and nearly the sole origin
of this attack, was, there can be no doubt,[581] influenced by a hope to
acquire the favour of the House of Este: an object which he thought
attainable by exalting the reputation of a native poet at the expense of
a rival, then a _prisoner of state_. The hopes and efforts of Salviati
must serve to show the contemporary opinion as to the nature of the
poet's imprisonment; and will fill up the measure of our indignation at
the tyrant jailer.[582] In fact, the antagonist of Tasso was not
disappointed in the reception given to his criticism; he was called to
the court of Ferrara, where, having endeavoured to heighten his claims
to favour, by panegyrics on the family of his sovereign,[583] he was in
turn abandoned, and expired in neglected poverty. The opposition of the
Cruscans was brought to a close in six years after the commencement of
the controversy; and if the Academy owed its first renown to having
almost opened with such a paradox,[584] it is probable that, on the
other hand, the care of his reputation alleviated rather than aggravated
the imprisonment of the injured poet. The defence of his father and of
himself, for both were involved in the censure of Salviati, found
employment for many of his solitary hours, and the captive could have
been but little embarrassed to reply to accusations, where, among other
delinquencies, he was charged with invidiously omitting, in his
comparison between France and Italy, to make any mention of the cupola
of St. Maria del Fiore at Florence.[585] The late biographer of Ariosto
seems as if willing to renew the controversy by doubting the
interpretation of Tasso's self-estimation[586] related in Serassi's life
of the poet. But Tiraboschi had before laid that rivalry at rest,[587]
by showing that between Ariosto and Tasso it is not a question of
comparison, but of preference.

11.

The lightning rent from Ariosto's bust
The iron crown of laurel's mimicked leaves.
Stanza xli. lines 1 and 2.

Before the remains of Ariosto were removed from the Benedictine church
to the library of Ferrara, his bust, which surmounted the tomb, was
struck by lightning, and a crown of iron laurels melted away. The event
has been recorded by a writer of the last century.[588] The transfer of
these sacred ashes, on the 6th of June, 1