Words could not be plainer than these.  Yet, in spite of them, such was the allurement of the cage for this clipped singing-bird, that Tasso went obediently back to Ferrara.  Possibly he had not read the letter written by a greater poet on a similar occasion:  ’This is not the way of coming home, my father!  Yet if you or others find one not beneath the fame of Dante and his honor, that will I pursue with no slack step.  But if none such give entrance to Florence, I will never enter Florence.  How!  Shall I not behold the sun and stars from every spot of earth?  Shall I not be free to meditate the sweetest truths in every place beneath the sky unless I make myself ignoble, nay, ignominious to the people and the state of Florence?  Nor truly will bread fail.’  These words, if Tasso had remembered them, might have made his cheek blush for his own servility and for the servile age in which he lived.  But the truth is that the fleshpots of Egyptian bondage enticed him; and moreover he knew, as half-insane people always know, that he required treatment for his mental infirmities.  In his heart of hearts he acknowledged the justice of the duke’s conditions.

[Footnote 37:  Manso, p. 147.  Here again the believers in the Leonora liaison may argue that by prison he meant love-bondage, hopeless servitude to the lady from whom he could expect nothing now that her brother was acquainted with the truth.]

[Footnote 38:  Lettere, vol. i. p. 233.]

An Epistle or Oration addressed by Tasso to the Duke of Urbino, sets forth what happened after his return to Ferrara in 1578.[39]

[Footnote 39:  Lettere, i. pp. 271-290.]

He was aware that Alfonso thought him both malicious and mad.  The first of these opinions, which he knew to be false, he resolved to pass in silence.  But he openly admitted the latter, ’esteeming it no disgrace to make a third to Solon and Brutus.’  Therefore he began to act the madman even in Rome, neglecting his health, exposing himself to hardships, and indulging intemperately in food and wine.  By these means, strange as it may seem, he hoped to win back confidence and prove himself a discreet servant of Alfonso.  Soon after reaching Ferrara, Tasso thought that he was gaining ground.  He hints that the duke showed signs of raising him to such greatness and showering favors upon him so abundant that the sleeping viper of Court envy stirred.  Montecatino now persuaded his master that prudence and his own dignity indicated a very different line of treatment.  If Tasso was to be great and honored, he must feel that his reputation flowed wholly from the princely favor, not from his studies and illustrious works.  Alfonso accordingly affected to despise the poems which Tasso presented, and showed his will that:  ’I should aspire to no eminence of intellect, to no glory of literature, but should lead a soft delicate and idle life immersed in sloth and pleasure, escaping like a runaway from the honor of