ITALY
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ITALY
perfection of which it is capable, investing it with
tragic dignity and lyrical beauty. Carlo Goldoni
(1707-93) reformed Italian comedy, withdrawing it
from pedantry and buffoonery to the representation
of real life and character. With Giuseppe Baretti
(171S-S9), the critic who lashed literary affectations
and pleaded for virile sincerity in letters. Piedmont
made a significant entry into Italian literature. Finally,
two great poets arose, a Lombard priest and a Pied-
montese nobleman, who anticipated the new age and
used poetry as an instrument for social progress:
Giuseppe Pariiii (1729-99) and Vittorio Alfieri (1749-
1803). Parini's chief poem, "II Giorno", satirizes
the corrupt and effeminate life of the aristocracy, and
protests against the injustice of class; his "Odi",
no less admirable in style, bring the same virile note
into lyrical poetry. Alfieri, besides composing robust
sonnets and satires, produced a long series of austere
and powerful tragedies which are in the main a pro-
test against every kind of
tyranny and oppression, and a
trumpet-call to the nation to
put on the armour of manhness
and endurance.
Modern Literature. — At the beginning of the nineteenth cent ury the ideals of the French Revolution had penetrated into Italy, while the establishment first of the Cisalpine Republic and then of the short-lived Na- poleonic Italian kingdom in- spired national feeling and gave hope of ultimate inde|xnKlence. These events hail naturally a profound influence iipon Italian literature, which, fur the next fifty years, is divided lietween the Classic and the Romantic schools; the former attempt- ing to accomplish the work of renovation by adapting classical models to the new conditions, the latter appealing less to form than to the picturesque aspects of history (particularly of the Middle Ages), to popular senti- .^, Vittorio
ment, and to nature. _ '■ ran^ois-Xavier I abre,
Vincenzo Monti (1754-1828) is the head of the Classical school in poetry, though his earlier works belong to the preceding century. With no great originality, no stability of thought or constancy of ideals, he has inexhaustible fertility and a vigour of style that is frequently impressive. Ugo Foscolo (1778-1827) is, like Monti, a literary critic as well as poet, but a consistent patriot. His masterpiece, "I Sepolcri", is a poetical epistle in blank verse, classical in thought, lofty in style, and rich in imagery; the ■' Ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis ", his best known prose work, is an unwholesome and morbid pro- duction. Among minor writers of the Classical school are the poet Ippolito Pindemonte (1753-1828), the translator of the Odyssey, who answered Fos- colo's "Sepolcri" from the religious standpoint; Antonio Cesari (1760-1828), a priest of Verona, whose aim was to purify the language by the standard of the Tuscan writers of the Trecento; Giulio Perticari (1779-1822), the son-in-law of Monti, with whose linguistic labours in connexion with the revision of the " Vocabolario della Crusca" he was closelv associated; Carlo Botta (1766-1837), who attempted to follow in the footsteps of the Latin historians and the great Florentines of the sixteenth century. Belonging more to the Classic than the Romantic school, Gia- como Leopardi ( 17!lS-ls:;7) is a solitary and tragic figure. Domestic unhappiness. physical health early shattered by excessive^ application to study, unre-
quited love, combined with loss of the Catholic Faith,
in which he had been reared, drove him into crude
pessimism. No Italian since Petrarch had reached
the lyrical beauty of his "Canti", in which the con-
trast between the past and present of his country,
the worship of antiquity, political disillusion, hopeless
love, and, at length, even tlie contemplation of nature
find utterance in sheer despair.
The founder of the Romantic school is Giovanni Berchet (1783-1851), of Milan, who in 1816 charac- terized the Classical school as "poetry of the dead", and the Romantic school as "poetry of the living"; his own patriotic IjTies, a little later, won him the title of " the Italian Tyrta'us". To the Romanticists belongs the noblest figure in Italian literature of the nineteenth century, the great Catholic writer, Ales- sandro Manzoni (1785-1873), whose life was ruled, and his art inspired, by religion and patriotism alone. In his "Inni Sacri" (1815-22), he gives lyrical ex- pression to the chief mysteries of the Faith; in his ode on the death of Napoleon, " II Cinque Maggio", he passes judgment on the mighty conqueror's career in the light of religion. His lyrical dramas, " II Conte di Carmagnola" (1820) and "L'Adelehi" (1822), are defi- cient in true dramatic qualities, but notable for the choral in- terludes, patriotic no less than religious in their aim. The same ideals inform his mas- terpiece, "I Promessi Sposi" (1827), a reahstic romance with a historical background, as admirable in characterization and description, in pathos and in humour, as it is lofty in its idealism. To the school of Manzoni, similarly combining fervent Catholicism with na- tionalistic enthusiasm, belong Tommaso Grossi (1790--1853), poet and novelist; Silvio Pel- lico (1789-1854), whose "Le Mie Prigioni" describes with pathetic detail and Christian resignation his cruel imprisonment at the hands of the Austrians; and Cesare Cantii (1804-95), better known for his later voluminous works on history. Political considerations colour most of the literature of the mid- dle of the century, whether it be the historical writings of Cesare Balbo('l7S9-lS53),the satiricaland patriotic poems of Giuseppe Giusti (1809-50), the revolutionary lyrics of Gabriele Rossetti (17S3-1854), the tragedies of Giovanbattista Niccolini (1782-lSGl), or the once admired romances of Francesco Domenico (iuerrazzi (1804-73). The "Storia d'ltalia nel Medio Kvo" of Carlo Troya (1784-1858), the "Storia della Reinib- blica di Firenze" of Gino Capponi ( 1792- ls7(i), an<l the "Storia dei Mussulmani di Sicilia" of Michele Amari (1S(1(>-S9) are works of mure permanent value. Niccolo Toiumasi'o (1S02-74), poet and patriot, who united the stMdy of philology with that of philosophy, made his name dear to students of Dante and St. Catherine.
Midway between this epoch and our own, belonging by the character of his art to the old rather than to the new era, stands a true, though not a great, poet, Giacomo Zanella (1820-89), a learned professor and devout Catholic priest. In Zanella's work the cult of science, the love of nature, an ardent patriotism, and profound religious convictions are nobly lilended. He is at his best in his lyrics; and in the last of these, an ode to Leo XIII. he pleads for a reconciliation between Church and State, the wedding of the Cross
Alfieri
Uffizi Gallery, Florcn
