Gerusalemme Liberata was a great critical success when it was published in 1581. Tasso was hailed as the greatest poet in all of Europe for combining the Heroic, the Romance, and the Moral tales in one poem. The early English translations spoke highly of Tasso's moral plan and his political allegory. Italian critics, who had originally hated the poem, claimed Tasso as the poetic successor to Dante and Virgil. This praise did not make Tasso happy, partly because he did not believe it and partly because he felt the poem had too much erotic and supernatural content. The poem did not provide Tasso with economic security because there were no notions of copyright, but its popularity did help secure Tasso the post of Poet Laureate of Rome in 1594. Tasso's reputation and the poem's critical impact continued to grow after his death.

The English poets seemed to be...