There is, in truth, nothing prejudicial either to the Catholic creed or to general morality in the _Secchia Rapita_.

We note, meanwhile, with interest, that it first saw the light at Paris, sharing thus the fortunes of the _Adone_, which it preceded by one year.

If the greatest living Italians at this time were exiles, it appears that the two most eminent poems of their literature first saw the light on foreign shores.
[Footnote 199: For the date 1615 see Carducci's learned essay prefixed to his edition of the _Secchia Rapita_ (Barbera, 1861).] The _Secchia Rapita_ is the first example of heroico-comic poetry.
Tassoni claims in print the honor of inventing this new species, and tells his friends that 'though he will not pique himself on being a poet, still he sets some store on having discovered a new kind of poem and occupied a vacant seat.' The seat--and it was no Siege Perilous--stood indeed empty and ready to be won by any free-lance of letters.

Folengo had burlesqued romance.

But no one as yet had made a parody of that which still existed mainly as the unaccomplished hope of literature.