d, in fact, the princess soon
after descries him coming towards them:--

"Slowly he comes,
Stands still awhile as unresolved, then hastes,
With quicken'd step, towards us; then again
Slackens his pace, and pauses."

Tasso enters, and presents his _Jerusalem Delivered_ to his patron, the
Duke of Ferrara. Alphonso, seeing the laurel wreath on the bust of
Virgil, makes a sign to his sister; and the princess, after some
remonstrance on the part of Tasso, transfers it from the statue to the
head of the living poet. As she crowns him, she says--

"Thou givest me, Tasso, here the rare delight,
With silent act, to tell thee what I think."

But the poet is no sooner crowned than he entreats that the wreath
should be removed. It weighs on him, it is a burden, a pressure, it
sinks and abashes him. Besides, he feels, as the man of genius must
always feel, that not to wear the crown but to earn it, is the real joy
as well as task of his life. The laurel is indeed for the bust, not for
the living head.

"Take it away!
Oh take, ye gods, this glory from my brow!
Hide it again in clouds! Bear it aloft
To heights all unattainable, that still
My whole of life for this great recompense,
Be one eternal course."

He obeys, however, the will of the princess, who bids him retain it. We
are now introduced to the antagonist, in every sense of the word, of
Tasso,--Antonio, secretary of state. In addition to the causes of
repugnance springing from their opposite characters, Antonio is jealous
of the favour which the young poet has won at the court of Ferrara, both
with his patron and the ladies. This representative of the practical
understanding speaks with admiration of the court of Rome, and the
ability of the ruling pontiff. He says--

"No nobler object is there in the world
Than this--a prince who ably rules his people,
A people where the proudest heart obeys,
Where each man thinks he serves himself alone,
Because what fits him is alone commanded.

Alphonso speaks of the poem which Tasso has just completed, and points
to the crown which he wears. Then follow some of the unkindest words
which a secretary of state could possibly bestow on the occasion.

"_Antonio._--You solve a riddle for me. Entering here
I saw to my surprise _two_ crowned.

[_Looking towards the bust of Ariosto._

"_Tasso._ I wish
Thou could'st as