Alphonso, Duke of Ferrara.
Leonora d'Este, sister of the Duke.
Leonora Sanvitale, Countess of Scandiano.
Torquato Tasso.
Antonio Montecatino, Secretary of State.
In Tasso we have portrayed to us the poetic temperament, with some
overcharge in the tendency to distrust and suspicion, which belongs, as
we learn from his biography, to the character of Tasso, and which again
was but the symptom and precursor of that insanity to which he fell a
prey. Both to relieve and develope this poetic character, we have its
opposite (the representative of the practical understanding) in Antonio
Montecatino, the secretary of state, the accomplished man of the world,
the successful diplomatist. It may be well to mention that the speeches
in the play given to Leonora d'Este, with whom Tasso is in love, are
headed _The Princess_; and it is her friend Leonora Sanvitale, Countess
of Scandiano, who speaks under the name of _Leonora_.
"ACT. I.--SCENE I.
_A garden in the country palace of Belriguardo, adorned with busts of
the epic poets. To the right, that of Virgil--to the left, that of
Ariosto._