and the noble ingenuousness to dream that Italian princes might be roused to sink their rancors in a common effort after independence.  As a matter of fact, Estensi, Medici, Farnesi, Gonzaghi, all the reigning houses as yet unabsorbed by Church or Spain, preferred the predominance of a power which sanctioned their local tyrannies, irksome and degrading as that overlordship was, to the hegemony of Piedmontese Macedon.  And like all Italian patriots, strong in mind, feeble in muscle, he failed to reckon with the actual soldierly superiority of Spaniards.  Italy could give generals at this epoch to her masters; but she could not count on levying privates for her own defense.  Carlo Emmanuele rewarded the generous ardor of Tassoni by grants of pensions which were never paid, and by offices at Court which involved the poet-student in perilous intrigue.  ‘My service with the princes of the House of Savoy,’ so he wrote at a later period, ’did not take its origin in benefits or favors received or expected.  It sprang from a pure spontaneous motion of the soul, which inspired me with love for the noble character of Duke Charles.’  When he finally withdrew from that service, he had his portrait painted.  In his hands he held a fig, and beneath the picture ran a couplet ending with the words, ‘this the Court gave me.’  Throughout his life Tassoni showed an independence rare in that century.  His principal works were published without dedications to patrons.  In the preface to his Remarks on Petrarch he expressed his opinion thus:  ’I leave to those who like them the fruitless dedications, not to say flatteries, which are customary nowadays.  I seek no protection; for a lie does not deserve it, and truth is indifferent to it.  Let such as opine that the shadow of great personages can conceal the ineptitude of authors, make the most of this advantage.’  Believing firmly in astrology, he judged that his own horoscope condemned him to ill-success.  It appears that he was born under the influence of Saturn, when the sun and moon were in conjunction; and he held that this combination of the heavenly bodies boded ’things noteworthy, yet not felicitous.’  It was, however, difficult for a man of Tassoni’s condition in that state of society to draw breath outside the circle of a Court.  Accordingly, in 1626, he entered the service of the Pope’s nephew, Cardinal Lodovisio.  He did not find this much to his liking:  ’I may compare myself to P. Emilius Metellus, when he was shod with those elegant boots which pinched his feet.  Everybody said, Oh what fine boots, how well they fit!  But the wretch was unable to walk in them.’  On the Cardinal’s death in 1632 Tassoni removed to the Court of Francesco I. of Modena, and died there in 1635.