ALFIER1 ALGARDI. 



107 



end of Aug. 1792, when he fled from Paris, and 

 escaped the horrors of the ensuing September. He 

 lost his books, and the greatest part of the complete 

 edition of his tragedies, published by Didot, in five 

 vols. Afterwards he lived with his inseparable 

 companion at Florence, resumed his usual labours, 

 wrote his satires, and six comedies, and, in his last 

 years, studied the Greek language. With the Greek 

 poetry he did not become acquainted till his course 

 was nearly finished. He died in the midst of these 

 labours, Oct. 8, 1803. He was buried in the church 

 of Santa Croce, at Florence, between Machiavelli 

 and Michael Angelo, where a beautiful monument 

 by Canova covers his remains. A. has distinguished 

 himself as a dramatic poet in three different depart- 

 ments. He has written six comedies, twenty-one 

 tragedies, and a tramelogedia, so called. All these 

 works are to be looked upon as the efforts of a great 

 spirit employed out of its proper sphere of action. 

 Disgusted with idleness, and desirous to distinguish 

 himself, A. became a poet. It was wholly impos- 

 sible, for one who seldom contented himself with 

 performing lialf of any design, to propose to himself 

 a moderate degree of excellence in that which he 

 had made the business of his life. He expressed 

 his hope that his high exertions would associate his 

 name with those of all the great poets that Italy 

 had possessed. His noble efforts disarm the severity 

 of criticism. He was worthy to attain what he 

 could not attain. Above the degeneracy of his 

 contemporaries, cherishing, too, a deep abhorrence 

 of despotism, and possessed of a proud, free, and 

 passionate heart, A. was animated with a political 

 rather than a poetical spirit. In the midst of a de- 

 based people, he wished to inspire the spiritless with 

 strength, courage, and freedom of thought ; but he 

 disdained the arts of persuasion. He purposely 

 threw aside all ornament, and wished to attain his 

 end by loftiness of thought, strong brevity, and 

 manly earnestness; but he forgot that, in doing 

 this, he must throw off the peculiar characteristics 

 of a poet. His tragedies are abrupt and stiff; the 

 plots simple, even to barrenness ; the verse hard 

 and unpleasing ; and the language devoid of that 

 attractive splendour, by which the poet stirs the in- 

 most soul of man. Nevertheless, he is the first 

 tragic writer of Italy, and has served as a model for 

 those who have followed him. If, in his youth, the 

 genius of A. was too stiff for tragedy, he must, of 

 necessity, fail when he attempted comedy in his old 

 age, long after the sweet deceptions of life had 

 vanished. His comedies, like his former works, liad 

 a serious, and, generally, a political aim ; they are 

 barren of invention ; their plots are without interest ; 

 the characters, as in his tragedies, only general 

 sketches, without individuality. They are, there- 

 fore, far inferior to his tragedies, and, indeed, are 

 not worthy of his lofty spirit. We consider A.'s 

 Abel the most successful of all his dramatic works. 

 This he called a tramelogedia, a name as novel as 

 the work itself. He invented this species of drama 

 intermediate between the tragedy and opera, and 

 intended to have written six pieces in this form. 

 His genius, which was the most successful when 

 'east restrained, here found its proper sphere, and if 

 the species can stand before the critic, then the in- 

 vention and execution of Abel make it, without 

 doubt, a fine poetic work. Besides his dramas, A. 

 has written an epic poem in four cantos, several 

 lyrical pieces, sixteen satires, and poetical transla- 

 tions from Terence, Virgil, and some portions of 

 jEschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes. 

 After his dentil appeared the Misogalfo, a monument 

 of his liatred towards the French; and his autobio- 

 graphy, a striking exhibitior of his character. His 



complete works appeared at Padua and Brescia in 

 1809 and 1810, 37 vols. 



ALFRED THE GREAT, king of England, one of the 

 most illustrious rulers on record, was born at 

 Wantage, in Berkshire, A. D. 849. He ascended 

 the throne of England in 872, at a time when the 

 Danes, or Normans, who were formidable to the 

 Saxons as early as the year 787, had extended their 

 conquests and devastations very widely over the 

 country. A.'s efforts against them were at first un- 

 successful, and he concluded some treaties which 

 were not kept on their side. He was obliged to 

 fly in disguise, and remained, for more than a year, 

 in the service of a shepherd. In this situation, he 

 formed the design of freeing his country. He 

 ordered his subjects to hold themselves in readines? 

 against the enemy, gave them intelligence of his 

 retreat, and informed himself of the condition of the 

 Danes. He went, disguised as a harper, into the 

 camp of king Guthrum, and, having ascertained 

 that the Danes felt themselves secure, hastened 

 back to his troops, led them against the enemy, and 

 gained such a decided victory, that the Danes begged 

 for peace. Those who were already in the country 

 he allowed to remain there, on the condition that 

 they and their king should embrace Christianity. A. 

 now built forts, and exercised a part of his people 

 in arms, while the rest cultivated the ground. He 

 soon after divided the kingdom into counties, or 

 shires, whereby he secured the public tranquillity. 

 He made London the capital city of his dominions, 

 and held there, twice a year, a general assembly of 

 the estates. From time to time, new swarms of 

 Danes sought entrance into the land, but the fleets 

 of A. drove them from the coast. He collected 

 the laws of his predecessors, and endeavoured to 

 improve the condition of his subjects by an impartial 

 administration of justice. He translated the Psalms, 

 the fables of jEsop, and other writings, into Anglo- 

 Saxon, and founded a school at Oxford. His 

 familiar acquaintance with the most learned men of 

 his time unproved his own mind, and enabled him to 

 do much for the good of his people. He laid the 

 foundation of the English navy by causing ships, or 

 rather galleys, of sixty oars to be built, which were 

 as strong as any ships at that time in use. He also 

 made discoveries in the north, and in the Baltic sea, 

 the results of which he has made known in his 

 translation of Orosius. After reigning twenty -eight 

 years and a half, and acquiring and meriting the 

 love, gratitude, and veneration of his subjects, this 

 illustrious prince died, A. D. 900. His history, con- 

 sidering the times in which he lived, presents one of 

 the most perfect examples on record of the able and 

 patriotic monarch united with the virtuous man. 



ALFRED, an Englishman of the thirteenth century, 

 surnamed " the Pnilosopher." He is author of five 

 books on the Consolations of Boethius, and others, 

 upon portions of the Physics of Aristotle. He died 

 in 1170. He is to be distinguished from another 

 Alfred, an English bishop, of the tentli century, who 

 wrote a History of the Abbey of Malmsbury. 



AUGJE, in botany; one of the seven families of 

 plants, into which Linnaeus distributed the whole 

 vegetable kingdom. They are defined to be plants, 

 of which the roots, leaf, and stem are all one. Un- 

 der this description are comprehended all the sea- 

 weeds, and some other aquatic plants. A. are also 

 one of the Linnaean orders of the class cryptogamiit. 



ALGARHI, Alexander, a sculptor, who derived his 

 origin from a family of high standing in Bologna. He 

 was educated in the academy of Lodovico Caracci, 

 and went, when twenty years old, to Mantua. The 

 attempt to imitate, in sculpture, the famous pictures 

 ot Giulio Raraano, in the palace del T, was sufficient 



