, like the ancient Greek plays, in
gardens or in woods, where Nature supplied the scenery, and the
_scalinata_ or stage was only some rising piece of ground. Traces of
one of these sylvan theatres may still be seen in the grounds of the
Villa Madama, on the eastern slopes of Monte Mario near Rome; and one
cannot help thinking that a poem so redolent of the open air, so full
of Nature and still natural life, which Tasso himself called Favola
Boschereccia, or a Sylvan Fable, was better adapted for such a stage
than for the heated air and artificial surroundings of the Italian
theatres. Such a pastoral was in entire keeping with the manners of
the Italian peasants; and the scenes of Arcadia which it represented
might be seen almost everywhere in the beautiful valleys and
chestnut-covered hills of their native land. The exquisite loveliness
of the climate, and the simplicity and indolence of the people, lent
themselves naturally to such ideal dreams. And Tasso in his _Aminta_
only gave expression to the same happy thoughts which the same scenery
and the same people had ages before inspired in the mind of Virgil
when he wrote his Eclogues.

After a few months' quiet sojourn with Lucrezia d'Este, now Duchess of
Urbino, at that court, he was appointed secretary to the Duke of
Ferrara, in room of his rival Pigna, who for this reason became his
mortal enemy, and stirred up against him the persecution which
embittered his whole subsequent life. But standing high, as he did, in
the favour of the duke, he enjoyed for a while a season of calm
repose, during which he finished the great epic poem, which was
eagerly looked for throughout Italy. Anxious to make this cherished
work of his genius as perfect as possible, he unfortunately was
imprudent enough to submit portions of his work to all his learned
friends for their opinion. Besides in this way getting the most
contradictory advices, sacrificing his own independent judgment, and
imposing an unworthy yoke upon his genius, the result was that the
fragments of the poem passed from hand to hand, and so got into the
possession of the printers, who, eager to profit by the public
curiosity, pieced them together, and clandestinely printed them. Even
in this fragmentary form, the cantos that appeared in various cities
of Italy were received with unbounded applause. The author, as may be
imagined, was intensely annoyed at this wrong that had been done to
him, and wrote to the Pope, to the