Amongst these we may mention Alessandro Pepoli of Bologna, an enthusiastic lover of the drama, who attempted, and sometimes imprudently, to make new discoveries in his art. He died young in the year 1796. He has imitated Alfieri not in the construction of his plot, but in his eloquence, his precision, and his laconic dialogues.* But the most faithful of all the imitators of Alfieri is Giovanni Battista Niccolini, a Florentine by birth, who is very recently known in Italy as the author of a tragedy entitled Polyxena. From the worn-out materials of the ancient mythology, and the trite incident of a human sacrifice, he has formed a most beautiful tragedy, in which love is the conspicuous passion. Polyxena, the daughter of Priam, was, according to the tradition, the betrothed bride of Achilles at the period of his death, and was the victim immolated by Pyrrhus on the tomb of his father, after the capture of Troy. Niccolini, however, supposes that Polyxena, in the division of the captives, falls to the lot of The following lines, from the commencement of his Rotrude, are evidently in the manner of Alfieri : Se a me tu lo rapisti. ADAL. Intendo. ARIOV. Vuoi parlar di Rotrude; a lei sol pensi, Perdona, amico, Atto I. Sc. 1. Pyrrhus, as Cassandra to Agamemnon; that she is beloved by him, and loves him in her turn; but that the Gods have forbidden the return of the Greeks to their own country, until one of the daughters of Priam has been sacrificed by the hand of him who is dearest to her, to appease the shade of Achilles. The power of his fanatical feelings, which are well described throughout the whole drama, excites, in the breast of Pyrrhus, the most violent contest between filial piety and love. Polyxena at last dies by his hand, precipitating herself upon the sword with which he was about to strike Calchas. We find in this love plot, and in the sacrifice, some traces of the French school and the drama of Metastasio; but the purity of the conception, the simplicity of the action, the grandeur of the characters, which are all of the first cast, without confidants or idle attendants, and the power and elevation of the language, springing from the energy of the sentiments, and expressed with precision, are all of them worthy of a scholar of Alfieri. The merits to which this tragedian may lay an exclusive claim, are the lively representation of the time and scene of the drama, the locality of the poetry, if I may so express myself, and the many allusions which it contains to Grecian manners and history. Niccolini, fresh from the perusal of Homer and of Virgil, has preserved more of the customs and opinions of the Greeks, than may perhaps be allowable in the modern drama. He calls up to our imagination and impresses into his service all the poetical traditions which we find in the classics, while he enriches his poem with all the antique magnificence of the ruins of Troy; for it is within the yet smoking walls of that city that the scene of his tragedy is laid.* * I shall give a few extracts from this tragedy, which was represented in 1811, and which raised such brilliant expectations of the young author, whose first attempt it was. Calchas describes to Ulysses the apparition of Achilles : Coi Mirmidoni suoi sfidava in guerra E la Grecia, e gli Dei, dove d'Achille S'erge il sepolcro: in resta era ogni lancia(†), + This is an error in costume; it was only in the middle ages that the lance was ever put in the rest. But to return to Alfieri. In the collection of his works, published during his life, of eight volumes, five contain his E teso ogni arco, allor che i passi miei Contro il figlio d'Atreo. Tu, prole ingrata, Polyxena, Atto IV. Sc. 2. In the same act Cassandra is suddenly seized with the prophetic fervor, and reveals to Agamemnon the terrors of the future. Un figlio Simile a te; che ardisca, e tremi, e sia Innocente, nè reo; che la natura Vendichi e offenda; a che mi rendi, O Febo, Il pianto, e mira sull' Euboico lido Le fiamme utrici... Già la Grecia nuota La tragedies, which are known to every one; and the other three are filled with his political works and poems, with which very few persons are acquainted. A long treatise On the Prince and on Literature forms one of these volumes, and may, in point of elegance and force of style, be compared with the best writings in the Italian language. It is rich in thought and high sentiment; and treats, with profound ability and in every view, of that important question, the protection which it is said a prince ought to extend to literature, and the corrupting effects of this patronage upon literary men. The extreme bitterness, however, of the author's manner, and the affected style, which is evidently imitated from Machiavelli, take away all our pleasure in the perusal of this book. We are so well acquainted, before La folgore paterna. . . Eccomi in Argo: Vendica l'Asia, e la nefanda scure Cade pur sul mio collo. Ah! grazie, O Numi, Alfin libera io sono, e già ritrovo L'ombre de'miei . . . Che dissi ! Ah! ch' io vaneggio. In the first scene of the fifth act, Polyxena having determined to die, in order to expiate the love which she is ashamed of feeling for her father's murderer, thus takes leave of her sister Cassandra : Certo il mio fato, Non cercarne perchè. Meco sepolto Dono il mio sangue: nè acquistarne onore, Ma non perderlo è il frutto. Io non t' inganno : Lasciai la madre. Ah! tu mi guardi, e piangi! commencing it, with the prejudices of the author, that we sometimes combat opinions to which we might have yielded, had they been less roughly presented to us. Alfieri, like Machiavelli, treats every enquiry as a question of utility and not of morality; but his excessive bitterness has at least this advantage, that it does not conceal the contempt which he feels for those who stand in need of his melancholy counsels, and to whom they are addressed. The next volume contains another long dissertation On Tyranny, in which the same faults are observable, with even a greater exaggeration of principle, and with reasoning more palpably false. His panegyric on Trajan, which he supposes to have been written by Pliny, is a very favourable specimen of Alfieri's powers of eloquence, if, indeed, true eloquence can exist, when the author writes under an assumed character, and imagines himself the creature of another age, under the influence of other manners, and of other circumstances. Alfieri also attempted to write an epic in four cantos, in the ottava rima, entitled Etruria Vendicata. The hero is Lorenzino de' Medici, and the catastrophe is the murder of the contemptible Alexander, first duke of Florence. A conspiracy like this is perhaps little fitted to be the subject of an epic poem, in which we rather look for truth and nature, and an acquaintance with the human heart, than for the rich colourings of the imagination. In this poem, although the plot is in itself full of interest, it is yet rendered cold and flat by the ornaments with which the poet has surrounded it. All the supernatural part, the appearance of Liberty, of Fear, and of the shade of Savonarola, produces no other impression than a cold allegory would do. The poet does not appear to feel the truth of his verse any more than his readers. The liberties, also, which are taken with historical facts in the arrangement of the incidents, in the character of Lorenzino, and in the death of Alexander, appear to me to injure, instead of augmenting the effect; and to conclude, the style is absolutely destitute of dignity and of poetical attraction. It is not, however, reasonable to judge Alfieri by a work which he never avowed, and which, in all probability, he regarded as unfinished at the time when it was published without his consent. Five odes on the independence of America, nearly two |