Editing Torquato Tasso (section)

===Difficult relationships in the Court of Ferrara===
[[File:Daniele da Volterra (formerly attributed to Girolamo da Carpi) - Portrait of a Gentleman.jpg|right|thumb|176px|Alfonso II d'Este, portrait by [[Girolamo da Carpi]] ]]
Alfonso thought, moreover, that, if Tasso were allowed to go, the [[Medici]] would get the coveted dedication of that already famous epic. Therefore, he bore with the poet's humours, and so contrived that the latter should have no excuse for quitting Ferrara. Meanwhile, through the years 1575, 1576 and 1577, Tasso's health grew worse.{{sfn|Symonds|1911|p=444}}

Jealousy inspired the courtiers to malign and insult him. His irritable and suspicious temper, vain and sensitive to slights, rendered him only too easy a prey to their malevolence.{{sfn|Symonds|1911|p=444}}

In the course of the 1570s Tasso developed a persecution mania which led to legends about the restless, half-mad, and misunderstood author. He became consumed by thoughts that his servants betrayed his confidence, fancied he had been denounced to the [[Inquisition]], and expected daily to be poisoned.{{sfn|Symonds|1911|p=444}} Literary and political events surrounding him upset his mental state, escalating his stress and social troubles.

In the autumn of 1576 Tasso quarrelled with a Ferrarese gentleman, Maddalo, who had talked too freely about some same-sex love affair; the same year he wrote a letter to his homosexual friend Luca Scalabrino dealing with his own love for a 21-year-old young man Orazio Ariosto;<ref>Robert Aldrich, Garry Wotherspoon. ''Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History'', 2013.</ref>{{efn|"I love him, and I'm ready to love him for several months, because the impression of this love into my soul is too much strong, and is impossible to erase it in a few days... I call my feeling 'love' and not just affection, because after all love it is. I wasn't aware of that before, because I didn't yet feel inside me none of those sexual appetites that love generally awakes, not even when we were in bed together. But now I clearly perceive that I have been and is not a friend, but a quite honest lover, because I feel a terrible pain, not only because he doesn't respond to my love, but also because I can't talk with him with that freedom I was used to, and being far from him pains me very much." Giovannai Dall'Orto: Torquato Tasso}}<ref>Angelo Solerti. ''Vita di Torquato Tasso'', Loescher, Torino-Roma 1895, vol. 1, pp. 247–250</ref> in the summer of 1577 he drew his knife upon a servant in the presence of Lucrezia d'Este, duchess of [[Urbino]]. For this excess he was arrested; but the duke released him, and took him for a change of air to his country seat of [[Villa Belriguardo]]. What happened there is not known. Some biographers have surmised that a compromising liaison with Leonora d'Este came to light, and that Tasso agreed to feign madness in order to cover her honour, but of this, there is no proof. It is only certain that from Belriguardo he returned to a Franciscan convent at Ferrara, for the express purpose of attending to his health. There the dread of being murdered by the duke took a firm hold on his mind. He escaped at the end of July, disguised himself as a peasant, and went on foot to his sister at Sorrento.{{sfn|Symonds|1911|p=444}}

The conclusions were that Tasso, after the beginning of 1575, developed a mental malady, which, without amounting to actual insanity, rendered him fantastical and insupportable, a cause of anxiety to his patrons. There is no evidence whatsoever for the later romantic myth that this state of things was due to an overwhelming passion for Leonora. The duke, contrary to his image as a tyrant, showed considerable forbearance. Though a rigid and unsympathetic man, as egotistical as any princeling of his era, to Tasso he was never cruel; unintelligent perhaps, but far from being that monster of ferocity as which was later portrayed. The subsequent history of his connection with the poet corroborates this view.{{sfn|Symonds|1911|p=444}}

While with his sister at Sorrento, Tasso yearned for Ferrara. The court-made man could not breathe freely outside its charmed circle. He wrote humbly requesting to be taken back. Alfonso consented, provided Tasso would agree to undergo a medical course of treatment for his melancholy. When he returned, which he did with alacrity under those conditions, he was well received by the ducal family.{{sfn|Symonds|1911|p=444}}

All might have gone well if his old maladies had not revived. Scene followed scene of irritability, moodiness, suspicion, wounded vanity and violent outbursts.{{sfn|Symonds|1911|p=444}}