I.

SECT. prose composition, denominated OPERA TRAGICA DI LIETO FINE,(k) published in 1642, by Giacint' Andrea Cicognini, who is said, by Crescimbeni, to be the inventor of this equivocal species of drama.(1)

In Riccoboni's Catalogue des tragedies Italiennes, the drama which ranks next, in chronological order, to the Cianippo, is Della Passione di nostro Signor Giesu Christo. But may we not ask, how it got there? For this drama was written by Giuliano Dati, Bishop of San Leo, who flourished about the year 1445; and is supposed to be one of the first speaking dramas in the Italian language. It has, therefore, been unjustly degraded by Riccoboni: it should have stood at the head of his list, or have been totally omitted, as unworthy a place amongst the genuine effusions of the tragic

muse.

66

Indeed, Riccoboni has apologised for noticing it: Quoique je me sois determiné à ne mettre dans mon catalogue aucunes des représentations sacrées que nous avons en très-grand nombre, je n'ai pas voulu manquer pourtant d'y inserer, celle-ci, parceque les circonstances en sont remarquables. Les représentations de la passion de Jesus Christ et des martyrs, étoient représentées communement dans des eglises et cela se faisoit la semaine de la passion, et la semaine sainte. Celle que je rapporte ici fut représentée le

(k) Ven. per Nicolò Pezzana. The prologue to this piece, like the Loas of the Spaniards, is a dialogue in verse. The interlocutors are, Cupid, Mercury, and Death.

(1) Della volg. poesia, tom. v. p. 185.

jeudi

I.

jeudi-saint dans l'amphithéâtre (of Rome); on ne sçait point SECT. en quelle année." Had Riccoboni been a little more sedulous in his enquiries, he might have discovered, that this drama continued to be represented in the coliseum, during a long series of years; and that, in open contempt of the unities of Aristotle, it begins with the last supper, and ends with the crucifixion. But let us dismiss this unworthy offspring of the tragic muse, and hasten to

Il Torrismondo of the immortal Tasso, a production that sheds lustre on the period before us. This noble tragedy, which, according to the abate Serassi, was not only written without the aid of the books (m) necessary to assist in constructing the fable, in embellishing the subject, or in firing the genius of the author, but, amidst a variety of distractions, in "sickness and in sorrow," is yet allowed to rank with the happiest effusions of Melpomene. Il Torrismondo del Tasso," says Crescimbeni, "tra le più scelte tragedie largamente risplende." However, we must not conceal, that there are several passages in this tragedy disgraced with conceits, and that some of the descriptions are too diffuse; but

(m) Tasso, in his letters, often complains to his friends of the want of books, particularly during his confinement in St. Anne's, where he was even sometimes denied pen, ink, and paper, and often left in total darkness when the sun withdrew its beams from the grate of his dungeon. A sonnet, addressed to his cat, is preserved, in which he begs she will indulge him with the light of her eyes, in order that he might finish a poem, on which he was then employed. The sonnet concludes thus:

Fatemi luce a scriver questi carmi.

the

I.

SECT. the vivid colouring, which glows in the description of the
nocturnal inquietudes of Alvida, and in that of her death,
casts a ray of dazzling brilliancy over all the faults of this
piece. I shall transcribe the first of those celebrated pas-
sages.

Un non so che d'infausto, o pur d'orrendo
Ch' a me confonde, un mio pensier dolente,
Lo qual mi sveglia, e mi perturba, e m' ange
La notte, e'l giorno. Oime! gia mai non chiudo
Queste luci già stanche in breve sonno,
Ch'a me forme d'orrore, e di spavento
Il sogno non presenti; ed or mi sembra,
Che del fianco mi sia rapito a forza
Il caro sposo, e senza lui solinga

Gir

per via lunga, e tenebrosa errando,
Or le mura stillar, sudare i marmi,
Miro, o credo mirar, di negro sangue,
Or da le tombe antiche, ove sepolte
L'alte regine fur di questo regno,
Uscir gran simolacro, e gran rimbombo;
Quasi d'un gran gigante, il qual rivolga
Incontra al ciel Olimpo, e Pelia, et Ossa,
E mi scacci dal letto e mi dimostri,
Perch 'ìo vi fugga da sanguigna sferza,

Una orrida spelunca, e dietro al varco

Poscia mi chiuda, onde, s'io temo il sonno,

E la quiete, anzi l'orribil guerra.

De' notturni fantasmi a l'aria fosca.

A namelss

A nameless horror chills my faculties,
Whose unknown cause is far beyond the ken
Of scar'd imagination. Sorrow's hand
Blends her confusion o'er the dismal scene.
Night follows days,-in vain ;-for present still
It harrows up my soul: before my eyes,

Or to my wakeful fancy when I doze,

Still frowns the hideous prospect. Now, it seems
My faithful spouse is sever'd from my side,

And leaves me wand'ring thro' a boundless gloom.
And oft by day the melancholy walls.

And figur'd marbles seem to blush with gore.
And often from the old imperial tombs,
Where sleep the consorts of Norwegian kings,
Rushes the giant spectre with a noise

As when Ægæon storm'd the walls of heaven,
And launch'd Olympus at the wond'ring stars.
He frights me from my couch, and points below
A drear asylum, gloomy and profound;
And, lest I should retreat, with menace loud
Secures the pass
behind. It is not sleep,

But those tremendous forms that people night,
I dread.

Here, indeed, we discover the author of the Gerusalemme Liberata. Nor is his hand less evident in the chorus to the first act, which, he confesses to a friend, cost him many a sleepless night. The mysterious replies of Indovino to the

SECT

I.

SECT. ardent enquiries of Torrismondo, prepare the mind for the catastrophe, at the same time that they seem to invest it with a darker cloud;(m*) and, while the horrors of the plot are thickening fast, Rosmonda's description (n) of the abode of the enchantress in the wilds of Dacia, where Alvida lay so long concealed, has the happy effect of what is termed, by landscape-painters, a repose.

Appresso un antro,

Che molte sedi ha di polito sasso,

E di pumice rara oscure celle

Dentro non sol, ma bel teatro, e tempio,
E' tra pendenti rupi alte colone,
Ombroso, venerabile, secreto,

Ma lieto il fanno l'erbe, e lieto i fonti,

E l'edere seguaci, e i pini, e i faggi,.
Tessendo i rami, e le perpetue fronde,

Sì ch' entrar non vi possa il caldo raggio..

Ne le parti medesme entro la selva

{m*) If the fable of this tragedy has any foundation in history, it must have been

Scritta ne'i libri, ch' arsero in Egitto,

for now it cannot be discovered in any work extant. Yet the author does not employ either of the previous preparations, customary in his time, of argument or prologue; though he seems to recommend the use of the latter, on such occasions, in a letter to the patriarch of Jerusalem, dated" de Ferrara il 3 d'Aprile, 1576." The prologue, says he, “deve, à mio giuditio, conformarsi, se non nel nome, almeno nell' offitio, e negli effetti, la parte dell' epopeia, ch'è prima in ordine, et in essa devono farsi tutte le narrationi delle cose passate, (se però alcuna particolar ragione no'l vieta) e dirsi tutto ciò, che parve per introduction della favola, e per maggior chiarezza delle cose, c' hanno à seguitare."