Even Michael Angelo was exposed, during the greater part of his
life, to the persecutions of the envious--vulgar nobles, vulgar
priests, and sordid men of every degree, who could neither
sympathise with him, nor comprehend his genius. When Paul IV.
condemned some of his work in 'The Last Judgment,' the artist
observed that "The Pope would do better to occupy himself with
correcting the disorders and indecencies which disgrace the world,
than with any such hypercriticisms upon his art."
Tasso also was the victim of almost continual persecution and
calumny. After lying in a madhouse for seven years, he became a
wanderer over Italy; and when on his deathbed, he wrote: "I will
not complain of the malignity of fortune, because I do not choose
to speak of the ingratitude of men who have succeeded in dragging
me to the tomb of a mendicant"
But Time brings about strange revenges. The persecutors and the
persecuted often change places; it is the latter who are great--
the former who are infamous. Even the names of the persecutors
would probably long ago have been forgotten, but for their
connection with the history of the men whom they have persecuted.
Thus, who would now have known of Duke Alfonso of Ferrara, but for
his imprisonment of Tasso? Or, who would have heard of the
existence of the Grand Duke of Wurtemburg of some ninety years
back, but for his petty persecution of Schiller?
Science also has had its martyrs, who have fought their way to
light through difficulty, persecution, and suffering.
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