These days almost no one has ever heard of Torquato Tasso, let alone that he was the preeminent European poet of the 16th century. His reputation rested on his pastoral play Aminta (1573), his epic poem Jerusalem Delivered (Gerusalemme liberata) (1581) and his reputation as a mad poetic genius. Jerusalem

Vanity, Thy Name is Woman Said no one. What Hamlet actually said was "Frailty, Thy name is woman" - referring to his mother's marriage to Claudius - but vanity has effectively pushed frailty aside. The painting below from around 1625 has various names: Vanitas, or The

Verona is the city of the Roman poet Catullus, the composer Salieri (of Amadeus fame), and three early Shakespearean plays: Romeo and Juliet; his "trial run" The Two Gentlemen of Verona and the ironic comedy The Taming of the Shrew, which is set in both Verona and Padua.