from Tasso

Torquato Tasso has long been regarded as one of the premier Italian Renaissance poets. He was born at Sorrento, on the southern shore of the Bay of Naples, not far from where a part of my own family originates. Born in 1544, Torquato was the son of Bernardo Tasso, himself an eminent poet, who was obliged through the misfortunes of a patron to leave his home in the kingdom of Naples, and his son was educated at Padua. It was in Padua that Torquato, at the age of eighteen, published a romantic poem called Rinaldo that brought him to the attention of the princes of Ferrara, the Este family. Stories circulated that he was infatuated with Leonora d'Este, or her sister Lucretia, but the truth suffers with time. Eventually Torquato came under the notice of the Inquisition, confessing to certain doubts of faith that were eventually dismissed as the illusions of hypochondria. Tasso died in 1595.

The Stout and Wise
Gerusalemme, x. 20.

Che sovente advien che 'l saggio e 'l forte
Fabro a se stesso e' di beata sorte.

They make their fortune who are stout and wise,
Wit rules the heavens, discretion guides the skies.