Furthermore the brilliant being, who aroused the jealousies of rhymesters and of lovers, had one fatal failing--want of tact.

In 1568, for example, he set himself up as a target to all malice by sustaining fifty conclusions in the Science of Love before the Academy of Ferrara.

As he afterwards confessed, he ran the greatest risks in this adventure; but who, he said, could take up arms against a lover?
Doubtless there were many lovers present; but none of Tasso's eloquence and skill in argument.
In 1569, Tasso was called to his father's sickbed at Ostiglia on the Po.
He found the old man destitute and dying.

There was not money to bury him decently; and when the funeral rites had been performed by the help of money-lenders, nothing remained to pay for a monument above his graven What the Romans called _pietas_ was a strong feature in Torquato's character.

At crises of his life he invariably appealed to the memory of his parents for counsel and support.