VIEW OF THE LITERATURE OF THE SOUTH OF EUROPE. CHAPTER XXI. Alfieri and his school continued. THE publication of Alfieri's first four tragedies was, perhaps, the greatest epoch in the literary history of Italy, during the eighteenth century. Up to that period the nation, contented with their languid love-plots and effeminate dramas, considered the rules of dramatic composition to be firmly established, and the boundaries of the art for ever stationary at the point at which their tragic writers had fixed them; attributing the fatigue which they felt during the representation of pieces, which had no attractions to rivet their attention, to the want of poetical talents in the authors, and not to the false idea which they themselves had formed of the art. The sudden appearance of four compositions so novel, elevated, and austere, immediately led to an enquiry into the essence of the dramatic art. Alfieri attempted to throw off the disgraceful yoke, under which, in Italy, the human intellect laboured, and every high-minded Italian, who lamented over the humiliation of his country, was united to him by the bonds of mutual sympathy. Thus was the taste for the noblest species of tragedy mingled with the love of glory and of liberty. The theatre, which had been so long considered the school of intrigue, of languor, of effeminacy, and of servility, was now regarded by the first Italians as the only nurse of mental vigour, of honour, and of public virtue. Their critics at last dared, with noble pride, to turn their eyes to the dramatic writers of other nations, whose superiority had long been a humiliating reflection. Though divided in opinion upon the laws and the essence of the drama, they all united in applauding the elevation, the nobleness, and the energy of Alfieri's sentiments; and opinions, which, till that time, had been banished from Italy, burst forth at once, like the long suppressed voice of public feeling. Even within the narrower boundaries of the critical art, we are astonished at the profundity and variety of knowledge which were at this period displayed by men whose talents had been hitherto unknown, and who |