So independent in his conduct and so bold in his opinions was the author of the Secchia Rapita.  The composition of this poem grew out of the disputes which followed Tassoni’s Remarks on Petrarch.  He found himself assailed by two scurrilous libels, which were traced to the Count Alessandro Brusantini, feudal lord of Culagna and Bismozza.  Justice could not be obtained upon the person of so eminent a noble.  Tassoni, with true Italian refinement, resolved to give himself the unique pleasure of ingenious vengeance.  The name of the Count’s fief supplied him with a standing dish of sarcasm.  He would write a satiric poem, of which the Conte Culagna should be the burlesque hero.  After ten months’ labor, probably in the year 1615, the Secchia Rapita already went abroad in MS.[199] Tassoni sought to pass it off as a product of his youth; but both the style and the personalities which it contained rendered this impossible.  Privately issued, the poem had a great success.  ‘In less than a year,’ writes the author, ’more MS. copies were in circulation than are usually sent forth from the press in ten years of the most famous works.’  One professional scribe made 200 ducats in the course of a few months by reproducing it; and the price paid for each copy was eight crowns.  It became necessary to publish the Secchia Rapita.  But now arose innumerable difficulties.  The printers of Modena and Padua refused; Giuliano Cassiani had been sent to prison in 1617 for publishing some verses of Testi against Spain.  The Inquisition withheld its imprimatur.  Attempts were made to have it printed on the sly at Padua; but the craftsman who engaged to execute this job was imprisoned.  At last, in 1622, Tassoni contrived to have the poem published in Paris.  The edition soon reached Italy.  In Rome it was prohibited, but freely sold; and at last Gregory XV. allowed it to be reprinted with some canceled passages.  There is, in truth, nothing prejudicial either to the Catholic creed or to general morality in the Secchia Rapita.  We note, meanwhile, with interest, that it first saw the light at Paris, sharing thus the fortunes of the Adone, which it preceded by one year.  If the greatest living Italians at this time were exiles, it appears that the two most eminent poems of their literature first saw the light on foreign shores.

[Footnote 199:  For the date 1615 see Carducci’s learned essay prefixed to his edition of the Secchia Rapita (Barbera, 1861).]

The Secchia Rapita is the first example of heroico-comic poetry.  Tassoni claims in print the honor of inventing this new species, and tells his friends that ’though he will not pique himself on being a poet, still he sets some store on having discovered a new kind of poem and occupied a vacant seat.’  The seat—­and it was no Siege Perilous—­stood indeed empty and ready to be won by any free-lance of letters.  Folengo had burlesqued romance.  But no one as yet had