49 J4emars, 
any other thatra vague and indefinite opi- 
nion on the new produkt tions of the only art 
which is fill yn its infancy in that ancient 
and illufrious éradle of all the arts. Unity 
of aftion, fimplicity of means, rapidity in 
the progrels, wel'-!upported mtereft, fuch, 
in my opinion, are the diftinguithing cha- 
ratteriftics of Alfieri’s tragedies 3 but they 
are likewile admired for the art, the fkill, 
and probabrhty of the plot; for the ani- 
mation, good-fenfe, and energy of the di- 
alogue; for characters well drawn, and 
ftrvongty marked ; for fituations truly tra- 
gical, and all thete details which an- 
mnounce a profound knowledge of the hu- 
man heart. The e glory of being the 
creator of the Ftalian flage cannot be de- 
nied him. 
His Sen “detects are, that 
his fey! le is too general ly ftrained ; that 
the ordinary tone -of his di alogurs is too 
fententiou$, and. is rendered teo mo- 
notonous, by the frequent recurrence of 
the fame ideas and the fame maxims. 
—This defe& occurs more frequently 
than would be fuppot ed, in fententious 
and epigrammatic witnefs, in 
ether departments, Seneca and la Roche- 
foucault. Et mult, however, be admit- 
ed, that there is abundant variety in the 
plans, as wellasinthechoice of his fub- 
jects ; butit is notthelefs tr ue, that Alfieri, 
setting limi its to the natural fecundity of 
his imagination, took delight in voiunta- 
; riiy confining his th 1oushts within a certain 
cirele ; with the view that.afimail number 
of ideas with which his mind was deeply 
mmprefied, fhould furnifh the elemeasts of 
@ very great number of combinations, 
Tt was probably for this reafon, and that 
he might not be tempted to imitate any 
other writer, thic he confined the 1 range of 
his reading and converiation in the fame 
proportion. Perhaps this exclufive me- 
thed, which he ‘adopted in every thing, 
and which tends to infulate the foul, by 
confining it to the dolirary employment of 
its own powers, was productive, in fome 
refpests, of difadvantages that counter- 
balanced the energy and or iginality which 
it certainly imparted: for if it contri- 
buted, in iome meafure, to ftamp his pro- 
Writers 5 
duétions with @ more original character, 
it muit, at the fime time, have deprived 
him of the inexhauitible refources of a 
free andjudicious imitation. He, proba- 
bly, did not perceive, that it is) by in- 
fing, and almoft without knowing it, - 
that a.writer is truly original, and by no 
means from choice and reflection; that 
circumftances have a creat influence over 
this quality, and that, at the’ period in 
which we live, the attempts at originality 
Fé. of Count Vittoria Asferi. 
[April 1, 
are not always crowned with the defired 
fuccels. - 
I muf confefs, that Alfieri’s ftyle ap-- 
pears, in general, to be too barren of 
images; that it is fometimes deficient in 
dignity, often in harmony, and ftill of- 
tener in eafe. In aword, Idonot find in 
the Italian poet that truly poetic talent, 
produced by a happy unifon of the heart 
and the imagination, which is required 
in the Mattes art, by a language natu- 
rally poetic—a language, whofe every 
accent the Mufes themfelves have taken 
the pains to modulate. I know that the 
tragic aufterity of Vittorio Alfieri was 
produced by a/filutary apprehenfion, and 
that he dreaded the dangerous rocks of 
lyrical poetry and of the melo-drama; but 
I likewile know, that an underftanding fo 
juit, fo enlightened as his, had lefs to 
fear from an indulgence of thisikind, than 
from the contrary excefs. 
Melpomene’s dagger fhovld isceflantly 
ghiten in the eyes of the {pectators, that 
ihe fhould appear only with difhevelled 
hair, in the fimple coftume of ancient 
times, he {earcely ever permits her to dif- 
play thofe rich habits and ornaments with - 
ee ich fhe fometimes appears on other 
teatres, without lofing any of her magic 
palude or dignity. It may be faid, that. 
he endeavoured to ftrip the ftage of thofe 
local colours which belong to manners 
and to hitory, and which, when judici- 
oufly employed, tend to meceahs the effect, 
to keep up the attention, and to render the 
emotions more lively, by affording the - 
It is 
foul 
{pectator a few moments of repofe. 
extraordinary, that. a man whofe 
poffeffed an uncommon fhare of ardorand . 
fenfibility, and had experienced all the - 
’ violence » of the paflions, fhould fcarcely 
have condefcended to introduce love into 
his tragedies ; or when he does, that he 
fhould ‘only employ it with a kind of re- 
ferve and feverity, which neceflarily ex- 
cludes the moft impaflioned movements, 
and the moft tender {cenes;.as we re- 
mark, for example, in Philip, in Anti- 
gone, andin Agamemnon. It muft, ne- 
verthelefs, be admitted (and it is no ordi- 
nary merit), that, in thefe pieces, love, 
though in{piring a fecondary and fubordi- 
nate intereit, is not always introduced as _ 
‘an acceffary, or by way of epifode, but is 
intimately conneéted with the aétion, and 
identified with the plot, which, fo far 
from being weakened, receives from it 
additional ftrength. Some traits, dif- 
perfed in various parts of his works, 
prove, that the man who kzew fo well 
how to exprefs the other paifions, was 
not 
~ 
Perfuaded that © 
