It seemed to him more than doubtful whether the enchanted forest did not come within the prohibitions of the Tridentine decrees.

As the revision advanced, matters grew more serious.

Antoniano threw out some decided hints of ecclesiastical displeasure; Tasso, reading between the lines, scented the style of the Collegium Germanicum.
[Footnote 15: Tasso consulted almost every scholar he could press into his service.

But the official tribunal of correction was limited to the above named four acting in concert with Scipione Gonzaga.] Speroni spoke openly of plagiarism--plagiarism from himself forsooth!--and murmured the terrible words between his teeth, 'Tasso is mad!' He was in fact driven wild, and told his tormentors that he would delay the publication of the epic, perhaps for a year, perhaps for his whole life, so little hope had he of its success.[16] At last he resolved to compose an allegory to explain and moralize the poem.

When he wrote the _Gerusalemme_ he had no thought of hidden meanings; but this seemed the only way of preventing it from being dismembered by hypocrites and pedants.[17] The expedient proved partially successful.
When Antoniano and his friends were bidden to perceive a symbol in the enchanted wood and other marvels, a symbol in the loves of heroines and heroes, a symbol even in Armida, they relaxed their wrath.