Last, but not least, he inherited something of the old Elysian smile which played upon the lips of Ariosto, from which Tasso's melancholy shrank discomfited, which Marino smothered in the kisses of his courtesans, and Chiabrera banned as too ignoble for Dircean bards.
This smile it was that cheered Tassoni's leisure when, fallen on evil days, he penned the _Socchia Rapita_.
Alessandro Tassoni was born in 1565 of a noble Modenese family.

Before completing his nineteenth year he won the degree of Doctor of Laws, and afterwards spent twelve years in studying at the chief universities of Lombardy.

Between 1599 and 1603 he served the Cardinal Ascanio Colonna both in Spain and Rome, as secretary.

The insight he then gained into the working of Spanish despotism made him a relentless enemy of that already decadent monarchy.

When Carlo Emmanuele, Duke of Savoy, sent back his Collar of the Golden Fleece in 1613 and drew the sword of resistance against Philip III., Tassoni penned two philippics against Spaniards, which are the firmest, most embittered expression of patriotism as it then existed.