The large scale on which Machiavellism manifested itself in the discordant realm of France, the apparent breakdown of Catholicism as a national institution, struck Tasso with horror.  He openly proclaimed his views, and roundly taxed the government with dereliction of their duty to the Church.  An incurable idealist by temperament, he could not comprehend the stubborn actualities of politics.  A pupil of the Jesuits, he would not admit that men like Coligny deserved a hearing.  An Italian of the decadence, he found it hard to tolerate the humors of a puissant nation in a state of civil warfare.  But his master, Luigi d’Este, well understood the practical difficulties which forced the Valois into compromise, and felt no personal aversion for lucrative transaction with the heretic.  Though a prince of the Church, he had not taken priest’s orders.  He kept two objects in view.  One was succession to the Duchy of Ferrara, in case Alfonso should die without heirs.[10]

[Footnote 10:  Cardinal Ferdinando de’Medici succeeded in a like position to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.  But Luigi d’Este did not survive his brother.]

The other was election to the Papacy.  In the latter event France, the natural ally of the Estensi, would be of service to him, and the Valois monarchs, his cousins, must therefore be supported in their policy.  Tasso had been brought to Paris to look graceful and to write madrigals.  It was inconvenient, it was unseemly, that a man of letters in the Cardinal’s train should utter censures on the Crown, and should profess more Catholic opinions than his patron.  Without the scandal of a public dismissal, it was therefore contrived that Tasso should return to Italy; and after this rupture, the suspicious poet regarded Luigi d’Este as his enemy.  During his confinement in S. Anna he even threw the chief blame of his detention upon the Cardinal.[11]

After spending a short time at Rome in the company of the Cardinals Ippolito d’Este and Albano, Tasso returned to Ferrara in 1572.  Alfonso offered him a place in his own household with an annual stipend worth about 88 l. of our money.  No duties were attached to this post, except the delivery of a weekly lecture in the university.  For the rest, Tasso was to prosecute his studies, polish his great poem, and augment the luster of the court by his accomplishments.[12] It was of course understood that the Gerusalemme, when completed, should be dedicated to the Duke and shed its splendor on the House of Este.  Who was happier than Torquato now?  Having recently experienced the discomforts of uncongenial service, he took his place again upon a firmer footing in the city of his dreams.  The courtiers welcomed him with smiles.  He was once more close to Leonora, basking like Rinaldo in Armida’s garden, with golden prospects of the fame his epic would achieve to lift him higher in the coming years.

[Footnote 11:  See Lettere, vol. ii. p. 80:  to Giacomo Buoncompagno.]