But why repaint the picture of Italian decadence, or dwell again upon the fever of that phthisical consumption?
Men like Tasso saw nothing to attract attention in the rotten state of Ferrara.

They were only fascinated by the hectic bloom and rouged refinement of its Court.

And even the least sympathetic student must confess that the Court at any rate was seductive.

A more cunningly combined medley of polite culture, political astuteness, urbane learning, sumptuous display, diplomatic love-intrigue and genial artistic productiveness, never before or since has been exhibited upon a scale so grandiose within limits so precisely circumscribed, or been raised to eminence so high from such inadequate foundations of substantial wealth.

Compare Ferrara in the sixteenth with Weimar in the eighteenth century, and reflect how wonderfully the Italians even at their last gasp understood the art of exquisite existence! Alfonso II., who was always vainly trying to bless Ferrara with an heir, had arranged his second sterile nuptials when Tasso joined the Court in 1565.