bcii 



RISE AND PROGRESS 



the theatrical improvisator i, to whose reign he 

 put ail end. Gozzi,* on the contrary, who, 

 meaning to use dramatised fairy tales as the 

 medium of satire on Goldoni, was so excited by 

 the success of the chosen vehicle, that he applied 

 himself seriously to adorn it, wrote more in the 

 German than the Italian vein, according to the 

 just remark of Sismondi. On the merits of 

 ALFiEBijf the same critic shall pronounce : " He 

 has combined the constructive skill, unity, pure- 

 ness of design, and verisimilitude, proper to the 

 French theatre, with the sublimity of situations 

 and of characters, and the importance of events, 

 of the Greek theatre, and with the depth of 

 thought and sentiment of the English theatre." 

 Has he not, likewise, almost burlesqued the 

 antique, by an exaggerated imitation of its pecu- 

 liarities ? And, as far as a rage for imitation is 

 concerned, he is not singular among his contem- 

 poraries. Some follow the English school ; some 

 follow the older writers of Italy itself. " The 

 word imitate," says a lively author, " seems to 

 have been invented for this country." Hence 

 even the abilities of Sir John Hobhouse $ have 

 not brought into general vogue the respectable 

 names of Cesarotti, Parini, Pindemonte, Monti, 

 Foscolo. Lord Byron, it will be observed, left 

 that task to his illustrator. 



In SPAIN, under the government of the Bour- 

 bons, and partly through the patronage of Philip 

 V., there was a certain revival of literature. 

 But unfortunately parties divided ; and the 

 educated Spaniards were so much attracted by 

 French glitter, as to turn with disgust from their 

 own literary worthies. The code of this party 

 may be best learned from the poetics of DE 

 LU/AN ; || one of the many who have read Aris- 

 totle by the help of Parisian spectacles. Mean- 

 while the people remained steadfast to what they 

 supposed to be the national standard, and long 

 applauded, on the stage, the copiers, or rather 

 caricaturists of C alder on. And, after the middle 

 of the eighteenth century was past, a few re- 

 markable men came back to the true Spanish 

 taste, as far as the change of Spanish manners 

 had left it unaltered. DE L'!SLA *[[ wrote a 

 comic romance, on the plan of Cervantes, to 

 ridicule the monkish preachers. LA HUERTA ** 

 tried to emulate the old drama of Spain, with 

 due deference to more recent principles, wher- 

 ever he thought them reasonable. YRiARTE,ff 

 the first good fabulist of his country, exhibits the 



mingled graces of the ancient Castilian redon- 

 dillas and of La Fontaine. VALDES,* a lyric 

 poet, whom Boutterwekf deems worthy of the 

 best times of Spanish literature, has imbibed no 

 small portion of the English spirit. Should that 

 tendency become general cimong intellectual 

 Spaniards, it would offer the fairest chance of 

 the complete retrieval of their literary greatness. 

 At the death of Louis XIV. the powers of the 

 FRENCH tongue had been unfolded to their full 

 extent ; immense progress had been made by 

 Frenchmen in most branches of learning ; light 

 had begun to radiate from the capital throughout 

 the provinces ; and academies and periodical 

 journals were diffusing education and a passion 

 for reading over the whole land. An universal 

 command of language, displayed most strikingly 

 in the abundance of memoirs which have been 

 composed by persons of all conditions, with 

 nearly equal facility and elegance, thus became 

 characteristic of the natives of France, and con- 

 tributed to the establishment of their literary 

 despotism. Yet, even while that despotism pre- 

 vailed abroad, France was subject to changes at 

 home. Between 1715 and the present day she 

 has known three eras in her literature : an era of 

 imitation of models exclusively French ; an era 

 of aspirations after nature ; and a revolutionary 

 era. During the first, the usual course of imita- 

 tors was pursued a futile effort to outdo their 

 masters in vigour or in refinement. Hence the 

 exaggerated manner of the tragic CREBILLON,^ 

 and the antithetic point of FONTENELLE. Nature, 

 true wit, and the charms of style reappeared, 

 when LE SAGE II gave his delightful fictions to 

 the world : and, somewhat later, the highest 

 enchantments of French prose were once more 

 showered from the pens of VOLTAIRE,^ BUFFON, 

 and ROUSSEAU. The taste of Voltaire was just 

 and manly ; his wit ever sparkling ; his fecundity 

 prodigious. History and romance ; criticism 

 and metaphysics ; tragedy and comedy ; epic 

 poetry and lyric poetry ; nothing came amiss to 

 this versatile genius : and, though his poetry is 

 much below his prose, he did not study in vain 

 those great poets of England whom, with his 

 usual dishonesty, he affected to cry down. The 

 author of Zaire and of Alzire cannot be said to 

 have read Shakspeare to no purpose. Buflbn 

 loved nature too well, he had drawn from her 

 too deep draughts of beauty and sublimity, not 

 to vie with her in the profuse magnificence and 



* A. D. 1760. \ A. D. 17491803. 



t Illustrations of Childe Harold, &c. \ A. D. 17001746. 



1! A. D. 1737. T A. D. 1758. 



**A. D. 1778. t+ A. D. 1782. 



* A. D. 1788. t Geschichte der Poesie und Beredsamkeit. 



J A. D. 1674 17C2. A. D. 1657175". 



|| A. D. 16771747. t Voltaire A. D. 1095-1778: 



Buffon '.7071780 : Rousseau 17121778. 



