152 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



dramatic literature received a new accession in 

 Goldoni, whose comedies are still the glory of 

 the Italian stage. He had a rival in Count 

 Gazzi, whose works, nevertheless, are far 

 inferior to Goldoni 's in humor and brilliancy. 

 What Goldoni did for comedy, Alfieri accom- 

 plished for Italian tragedy. This author justly 

 stands at the head of modern Italian litera- 

 ture. His tragedies, odes, and lyrics exhibit 

 an eloquence and fervor of thought which are 

 scarcely reached by any other author. His 

 principal works are Saul, ^fyrrha, Octacia, 

 Brutus the Second, and Philip il. Since the 

 commencement of this century, Italy has not 

 been barren of authors. Pinderrionte, who 

 has published several volumes of dramatic 

 poetry : Ugo Foscolo, author of a poem called 

 The Sepulchre: Manzoni. who wrote / Pro- 

 iin-asi Spoai (The Betrothed), a charming 

 romance of life on the shores of Lake Como ; 

 Silvio Pellico, whose Le Mie Prigione is a nar- 

 rative of his sufferings in the 'prison at Spiel- 

 berg, and Xiccolini, equally celebrated as a 

 poet and prose writer. Mazzini, Triumvir of 

 Rome during the brief period of the Republic, 

 and Gioberti distinguished themselves as 

 Italian authors, as did also Leopardi. 



During the last half-century the rapid prog- 

 ress of political events in Italy seems to have 

 absorbed the energies of the people, who have 

 made little advance in literature. For the 

 first time since the fall of the Roman empire 

 the country has become a united kingdom, 

 and in the national adjustment to the new 

 conditions, and in the material and industrial 

 development which has followed, the new lit- 

 erature has not yet, to any great extent, found 

 voice. Yet this period of natural formation 

 and consolidation, however, has not been 

 without its poets, among whom a few may be 

 here named. Aleardo Aleardi (d. 1882) is 

 one of the finest poetical geniuses that Italy 

 has produced within the last century, but his 

 writings show the ill effects of a poet sacrific- 

 ing his art to a political cause, and when the 

 patriot has ceased to declaim, the poet ceases 

 to sing. Prati (1815-1884), on the other 

 hand, in his writings exemplifies the evil of a 

 poet refusing to take part in the grand move- 

 ment of his nation. He severs himself from 

 all present interests and finds his subjects in 

 sources which have no interest for his contem- 

 poraries. He has great metrical facility and 

 his lyrics are highly praised. Carducci, like 

 Aleardi, is a poet who has written on political 

 subjects ; he belongs to the class of closet 

 democrats. His poems display a remarkable 

 talent for the picturesque, forcible, and epi- 

 grammatic. The poems of Zanella are nearly 

 all on scientific subjects connected with human 



feeling, and entitle him to a distinguished 

 place among the refined poets of his country. 

 A poet of greater promise than those already 

 spoken of is Arnaboldi, who has the endow- 

 ment requisite to become the first Italian poet 

 of a new school, but who endangers his posi- 

 tion by devoting his verse to utilitarian 

 purposes. 



The tendency of the younger poets is to 

 . realism and to representing its most material- 

 istic features as beautiful. Against this cur- 

 rent of the new poetry Alessandro Riz/.i. 

 Guerzoni, and others have uttered a strong 

 protest in poetry and prose. 



Among historians, Capponi is the author of 

 a history of Florence ; Zini has continued 

 Farina's history of Italy; Bartoli. Settembrini. 

 and De Sanctis have written histories of Italian 

 literature ; Yillari is the author of able works 

 on the life of Machiavelli and of Savonarola, 

 and Berti has written the life of Giordano 

 Bruno. In criticism philosophic, historical, 

 and litei-ary, Florentine, De Sanctis, Massa- 

 rani, and Trezza are distinguished. Barili, 

 Farina, Bersezio, and Giovagnoli are writers 

 of fiction, and Cossa, Ferrari, and Giacosa are 

 the authors of many dramatic works. The 

 charming books of travel by De Amicis are 

 extensively translated and very popular. 



SPANISH LITERATURE. 



The earliest essay in Spanish literature is 

 the Chronicle of the ('i<l, which is supposed to 

 have been written about the middle of the 

 twelfth century. In form the poem is suffi- 

 ciently barbarous, though the language is 

 remarkably spirited and picturesque. It has 

 been the fount of numberless songs and legends 

 through the later centuries. It narrates the 

 adventures of Ruy Diaz de Bivar, the C'id 

 Campeador. 



In the following century, Gonzales de Berceo, 

 a monk, wrote nine voluminous poems on tin- 

 lives of the saints. Alfonso X. of Castile, 

 whose reign terminated in 1284, was the 

 author of a poem entitled The Philosopfn /'.- 

 Stone, besides several prose works. The first 

 author of the fourteenth century was Prince 

 Don John Manuel, who wrote a prose work 

 entitled Count Lucanar, a collection of t 

 embodying lessons of policy and morality, 

 lie was followed by Pedro Lopez de Ayala and 

 Mendoza. Marquis de Suntillana; though the 

 latter belongs properly to the next century, 

 lie produced a number of works, both prose 

 and poetry, all of which were remarkable for 

 the erudition they displayed. Some of his 

 lighter poems are very graceful and melodious. 



Under the reign of Charles V. Spanish liter- 

 ature first reached its full development. After 



