wished to do so he had only to give the order. At last, and not until the Duke had displayed a patience which is sufficient evidence that he had no animosity against his servant, Tasso in 1579 was imprisoned as mad in the hospital of Saint Anne. The treatment of the mad was everywhere harsh at that time, but the poet appears to have received exceptional kindness. Friends exerted themselves for him, some from pity, others moved by the desire to be thought patrons of literature. In 1586 he was released, on condition that he would not return to Ferrara. During the last years of his life he wandered from one Italian Court to another, always quarrelling with his patrons, but always finding protectors. He died at Rome in 1595, when he was about to be crowned as Poet Laureate on the Capitol. His _Jerusalem Delivered_ was printed in a pirated edition during his imprisonment.[117] [SN: _His work._] The bulk of Tasso’s work is very great. In addition to the _Rinaldo_, and two forms of the _Jerusalem_, he wrote the pastoral play _Aminta_, the tragedy of _Torrismondo_, much minor verse, many sonnets, and many treatises in prose. A large number of his letters have been preserved. In his latter years, and in the undeniable decadence of his powers, he wrote a long poem in blank verse on the _Seven Days of Creation_. Tasso’s minor work is no doubt of value for the study of his genius. His philosophic treatises, mostly in dialogue, would, I presume, for I cannot profess to speak of them with knowledge, be useful to the student of Italian thought under the Roman Catholic reaction. Even his play of _Torrismondo_, begun in his youth, and finished after his imprisonment in the hospital of Saint Anne, has a place in the history of the “classic” drama. In itself it is not attractive. It is an unpleasant, and even rather commonplace, story of suicide and accidental incest, frigidly told, with all the Senecan apparatus. The pastoral poem of _Aminta_ is of more historical importance, and has some biographical interest, while the subject suited Tasso’s faculty for tender images and luscious verse. But he owes his place in literature to his _Jerusalem Delivered_.