POETRY. 
The theatre of Italy has, however, three able fupport- 
ers of its fame in Metaftafio, Alfieri, and Goldoni. The 
two firft authors, like the French, fpoilt themfelves by a 
flavilh adherence to the Grecian models. Perhaps Metaf¬ 
tafio may feem by fome to deferve exemption from this 
cenfure, feeing that he cared little about the unity of 
place. But it mud be obferved, that, except in this par¬ 
ticular, in which, by the way, he was compelled by the 
nature of the opera, he adopted very implicitly the faults, 
but without the fublime powers, of the Greek ftage. 
Alfieri is no poet; he is a fine oratorical declaimer in 
verfe. The ftrength of his reafoning, his honeft indigna¬ 
tion, and moral ftrictnefs, render him an ornament to the 
literature of his country, whofe effeminacy he ridiculed, 
and whofe flavery he denounced. It is to be regretted, 
that, in his ambition to inculcate the doftrines of philo- 
fophy, he forgot the art of enlivening them with the feel¬ 
ings. His dialogue is, however, energetic and paffion- 
ate; and he had the Shakefperian art of comprefling his 
thoughts into that terfe language which the drama re¬ 
quires. His plays feldom exceed 1400 lines, are ('up- 
ported by only three or four characters, and rendered yet 
more grave by loliloquies; while a monotony of circum- 
ftance and character, and a ftudied harfhnefs refulting 
from the mind of the author, make them very tedious. 
Goldoni was the firft comic writer who banifhed van- 
dalifm from the theatres of Italy. In general, this 
author allows but little room to fenfibility; fentiment is 
by no means his province; his heroes are reprcfented 
with all their faults, and frequently with vices exceeding 
the theatrical allowance; his principal characters are 
freely helckup to ridicule; felfifhnefs in their generofity, 
felf-intereft in their friendfhip, envy in their admiration, 
and the profaic, contracted, and vulgar, fide of human 
nature, are the mafter-fprings of his characters. His fer¬ 
tility in defign, however, and the natural turn of his dia¬ 
logue, wull molt probably preferve for him the place 
among his countrymen which his name at prelent enjoys. 
Metaftafio requires mufic to render his compofitions 
pleafing. In perufal, his pieces never furprife or excite to 
exfacy. He is uniformly and tolerably good. His or¬ 
naments are few, and his language is not metaphyfical. 
He indulges only in fimiles of full form, which are rather 
appended than interwoven, and ingenioufly and regularly 
drawn, never boldly fnatched. Brought up at a court, 
Metaftafio unfortunately learnt the art of flattery; and 
the fenfelefs portraits his adulation has (ketched, tend to 
give a merely ephemeral fame to much of his labour. 
There is faid to be fome beauty and heroifm in his cha¬ 
racters, but it certainly requires a very critical eye to dif- 
cover them ; and, at all events, the beauties and the he¬ 
roic exploits which* occur iu his various productions are 
precilely alike. Metaftafio has truly no difcrimination, 
nor any variety. The tame fimilarity of the courtiers 
among whom he lived, aft'eCted all his heroes. The only 
exception to this occurs in his Semiramide, where is an 
aflemblage of kings to conteft the hand of Tamira ; and 
among them comes Ircano, the Scythian fovereign. All 
the other princes reign over comparatively polifhed na¬ 
tions; but Ircano rules a rude and Ample people, who 
honoured their king only as he excelled in the virtues 
which themfelves were formed to admire. This diftin- 
guiftiing character Metaftafio has very happily portrayed. 
Ircano’s vices acquire the merit of virtues, by that open 
avowal of them, which proves that they are an error in 
judgment, not a depravation of heart, in the poflfefl'or: and 
his virtues are of that energetic kind, that command ad¬ 
miration, without conciliating love : his manners are 
drawn not unlike the blunt haughtinefs of Shakefpeare’s 
Faulconbridge, but without his humour. Such inlfances 
however, of individuality of character are very rare in¬ 
deed in Metaftafio. His perfonages are ufually of fuch a 
defcription as might be fuppofed perfonifications, or ab- 
ftraCt general ideas, of the virtues and vices they repre- 
fent, rather than mortal examples of their exiftence. 
Vql. XX. No. 1409. 
781 
Fortiguerra, who lived an hundred years ago, parodied 
very fuccefsfully fome of thefe romantic tales. He 
turned Orlando into a maitre d’hotel, made Rinaldo a 
cook, Ricciardetto a barber, and Adolfo an innkeeper; 
this latter being a caricature of theancient Britifti knight. 
In his violent attachment to travelling for no ufe, and 
the fondnefs for fpending his money and blood in other 
people’s quarrels, the Briton is properly depicted by For¬ 
tiguerra. His indifcriminating gallantry, and his vanity, 
belong lefs to the Blander than to his continental neigh¬ 
bours. Fortiguerra makes a very amufing character of 
the Ferrau or Ferrargus, of Englifh romance; a Spanilh 
warrior deftitute of pity or faith. Our author transforms 
him into a fighting prieit, at once warlike and a coward; 
religious and repentant, and the next moment laying in 
frefh (tore of crime for the employment of religion and 
repentance : an hypocrite and a fatyr. It is remarkable 
that this author, like Cervantes, and unlike all other pa- 
rodifts, when he burlefqued the weak points of the ro¬ 
mantic poets, aflimilated their beauties into his owncom- 
pofition. His ftyle, however, though plain, is inelegant, 
and his witticifms often vulgar. 
Spanish Poetry. —The oldeft fpecimens of Spanilh 
poetry are the popular ballads on the fubjeCt of the Cid. 
They were compofed, according to Sanchez, about the 
12th century, and which, in the various forms of rude 
epic and romance, have acquired a great and deferved ce¬ 
lebrity. Next follows the Poema de Alexandra Magno, 
which it feems was tranflated from the Latin of one Are- 
tinus Quichilinus, who wrote in the year 1240. Alexan¬ 
der’s life receives in this fome curious additions, which 
appear to have an eaftern origin. They were, therefore, 
no doubt, taken from the Moors. 
The examples of Alphonfo X. and XI. made poetifing 
a courtly amufement; and in the reign of John II. 
the Spanilh nobility with one accord began to rhyme. 
They confined themfelves chiefly to amatory and quizzi¬ 
cal pieces of a light kind : hence the marquis de Vellena, 
who wrote an Art of Poetry, calls it in this age “ La cien- 
cia gaya, the gay fcience.” The above-mentioned au¬ 
thor, andonejuan deMena, who wrote the “Labyrinth,” 
a poem in 300 ftanzas, were the chief verfifiers of this 
kind; but 136 lyric poets are faid to have flourilhed in 
the fifteenth century. 
The favourite metre of the early Spanilh poets was the 
redondilla, a verfe of four trochees. It is fuppofed to 
have been derived from the Arabs. 
The Spaniards have a very remarkable fpecies of poe¬ 
try called romance, which is a curious intermedium be¬ 
tween blank verfe and rhyme. The lines, confifting of 
eight fylJables, are alternately blank and afonantes. Now 
the afonantes are rhymes which do not require, like ours, 
and like the confonantes, that the terminating vowels and 
confonants Ihould be the fame as in the word with which 
it is intended to rhyme: the vowels only muft be the 
fame, but all the confonants different; as dielio and affirmo, 
debo and prefio, rapido and Mari. As a compenfation to 
the ear for this lets perfect echo, the poet is expected to 
ufe the fame afonantes throughout the whole aft or piece; 
thus, albor otan, pr ofa, j ota, iopa , vift oria, pafm ofa, 
not orius, fanfarrona, &c. are all afonantes to each other. 
The conqueft of Spain by the Moors tended to intro¬ 
duce in this country the eaftern ftyle of poetry, and thus 
opened an unexplored mine of riches and novelties. A 
variety of elegant fpiritual creations became known, the 
offspring of imaginations expofed to other climes, and 
infpired by intenfer feelings. The Romance of Antar, 
the account of Alexander, Ihow that the eaftern tribes 
had acquired, in various forms of mutilation, the tradi¬ 
tions of the Old Teftament. Antar is the very proto¬ 
type of Samfon ; but his love is of a purer caft, and his 
affectionate feelings towards his brothers, who ill-treated 
him, are fine moral illuftrations that are met with in this 
part of fcripture. 
From an early period the Spaniards, a very religious 
9 N people, 
