II. SECT. to light. Maffei found the first, and unquestionably the best, wandering about in manuscript, and in so imperfect a state that he hesitated, for awhile, at receiving the fugitive into his Teatro Italiano. At length however it found admission. And as it now lies before me, I shall transcribe a passage which has, perhaps, been more praised than it deserves. Cleopatra feeling the approach of death, sends for Augustus, and addresses him in the following words: Augusto omai son giunta Alla funesta ripa, e'l piede or pongo Nella Barca fatal, ch'a me s'accosta. Moro, e più che'l morire, Mi duol l'accusa data All' anima tua grande D'enfedeltà, di tradimento. É fiero L'aspetto della morte, Ma più fiero è l'aspetto Di sì gran colpa. Acoreo M' ha scoperto l'errore, o invitto eroe: Ricevi questi estremi Sospiri della vita, Con cui se n'esce unita alle preghiere L'anima supplicante. Consola il mio passaggio Col perdonar sì temerario ardire. Innocente tu sei, e fu del cielo Decreto, che'l fedele Agrippa Agrippa tuo dentro al real cortile Perdesse quella carta, In cui da giusto nume Fu scritta la mia morte. Io son la rea, Che ad Antonio, che me più che l'impero Del mondo apprezzar volle, Rotta ho la fede. É'l fallo mio sì grave, Che mi duol, che 'l mio petto Sol d'una sia capace. Nè giusto è, che ti lagni, Se la parca mi toglie il nobil dono, Che per vano desio, per Non dovuto; non merta fasto folle Asciuga il pianto Le lagrime d' Augusto un core infido. Le forbice fatale il debil filo Della vita cadente. Ombra adorata, Se qui d'intorno sei, Non isdegnar i prieghi D' un' anima pentita, e meco torna Al tenebrosa lido, ed assicura Alla tua Cleopatra il passo orrendo. Tu m' addita il sentier, tu segna l'orme; Di Cerbero feroce, SECT. II. Che Cerbero più fier mi fia la colpa, Che quest' oscuro è della morte il regno. Del freddo labbro è su la parte estrema, E per fuggir un sol sospiro aspetta. Fortuna hai vinto: o patria, o amici addio. The tragedies of Delfino had received their meed of praise, when the Corradino of Caraccio was represented for the first time in Rome in 1694, four years after the publication of his epic poem of L' Impero vendicato, which he considered as an undertaking less difficult to perform than the composition of a good tragedy. (s) It was under a similar impression that Alessandro Tassoni, author of La Secchia Rapita, suppressed his tragic powers. Muratori informs us he had seen an inedited tragedy entitled L'Errico, written by Tassoni, in his eighteenth year, which would have done honor, in every point of view, to a veteran poet, but which he could not be prevailed on to publish, either from diffidence of its merit, or of his own talents for such an undertaking.(t) Perhaps an (s) Aristotle seems to be of the same opinion: at least he deems a tragedy which attains its end effectually, more excellent than the epopee. Poet. cap. xxvi. "Non può l'epico metter sotto gli occhi le persone istesse con gli atti loro, e ricercar de' costumi le fibre tutte, come può il dramatico," says Maffei, in the Proem. to his Merope, p. 15. Certainly a poet who exhibits a faithful picture of " le fibre tutte de' costumi," executes no easy task. (t) Vita del Tassoni. other II. other cause may be assigned for his declining to write for the SECT. stage; I mean his idea of the unfitness of the Italian language, at that period, for tragedy.(u) We shall close our account of this age with this general observation, that the Italian tragic writers had not yet uniformly submitted to any established rule for the division of a tragedy. The Respiro of Piero Ingegneri, which appeared at Venice in 1609, is divided into seven acts; and the Vergerio of Pietro Paolo, another tragedy of this age, into ten. The latter, however, employed two nights in the representation, "breaking off in the middle" the first night, like a well known story in Hudibras. This we learn from the author himself, who had at least as much vanity as genius. Il mio Vergerio già felicemente Con una sola favola due notti Tenne lo spettator più volte intento: Chiudean cinque, e cinque atti gli accidenti Ne stava il giorno, che veniva appresso, (u) See Pens, Divers. p. 394. Ven. 1646. But SECT. 11. But the Italian dramatists of this age, not content with a tedious progress of the fable, often rendered their productions still more irksome by substituting cold declamation, formally repeated, for" dialogue animated by reciprocal contention." Voltaire speaking of the Italian tragedies of the period before us, says, "les pieces Italiennes etoient de belles declamations imitées du grec; mais les declamations ne touchent point le cœur. In fact the genius of the Italians seemed to be still overpowered by the sudden accession of learning in the preceding century, and they made no struggle to get free. |