A volume of elegies appeared on this occasion; but Tasso's Muse uttered no sound.[54] He wrote to Panigarola that 'a certain tacit repugnance of his genius' forced him to be mute.[55] His rival Guarini undertook a revised edition of his lyrics in 1582.

Tasso had to bear this dubious compliment in silence.

All Europe was devouring his poems; scribes and versifiers were building up their reputation on his fame.
Yet he could do nothing.

Embittered by the piracies of publishers, infuriated by the impertinence of editors, he lay like one forgotten in that hospital.

His celebrity grew daily; but he languished, penniless and wretched, in confinement which he loathed.