This is the first sign of any serious failure in Tasso's health.

At the end of August 1574, however, the _Gerusalemme_ was finished, and in the following February he began sending the MS.

to Scipione Gonzaga at Rome.

So much depended on its success, that doubts immediately rose within its author's mind.

Will it fulfill the expectation raised in every Court and literary coterie of Italy?
Will it bear investigation in the light of the Dialogues on Epic Poetry?
Will the Church be satisfied with its morality; the Holy Office with its doctrine?
None of these diffidences assailed Tasso when he flung _Aminta_ negligently forth and found he had produced a masterpiece.