owt 
1805.] 
not deficient in the talent neceffary for 
delineating the moft powerful of them all. 
He probably regarded it as a hackneyed 
agent; for in the only one of his plays in 
which he has thought proper to make it 
aétsthe principal part, and which is en- 
titled Myrrba, it appears in fuch a ftrange 
character, that all the art of the writer 
is not capable of divefiing it of an air at 
once ludicrous and difgufting. He ap-. 
pears to me to have fuccceded much better 
in delineating conjugal love, in the tra- 
gedy of Saul; the mild tints waich he 
there employs, produce a happy contralt 
with the-alternately brilliant and gloomy 
colours. which prevail in that truly origi- 
nal compofiticn, the principal objec: of 
which was, if Tam not miftaken, to re- 
prefent one of the moft ancient difpures 
that occurred between the priefthood and 
the fovereignty. Conjugal love will, in 
my opinion, appear with all the tender- 
nefs and affeétion of which it is fulcepti- 
ble, in Alcefie, whenever it fhall be fub- 
mitted to the public. The Deach of Abel, 
a melo-tragedy, which is expeéted with 
equal impatience, will probably afford paf- 
{ages equally proper for developing what- 
ever the fubje&t contains of the~pathetic 
and the affecting. If the celebrity of 
his tragedies has fo greatly contributed to 
the glory of Vittorio Alfieri, his firlt fuc- 
cefs was, undoubtedly, in part, owing to 
the reputation he had previoufly acquired 
by his other produétions ; but their moral 
and political influence, which this two- 
fold celebrity tended to create, did not 
fail to-extend the fame of the author and 
of his works. Confidering the latter, in 
this new point of view, it will probably 
appear that they have enjoyed an extra- 
ordinary privilege. For while tragedies 
in general, both ancient and modern, in- 
ftead of exercifing an influence on the 
public mind, have themfelves been fub- 
jeCted to the empire of manners, religi- 
on, and prevailing inftitutions; Alfieri, 
on the contrary, by endeavouring to fhake 
off all fubjeétion to that empire, by re- 
producing ancient events only to exhibit 
new views and new ideas; has excited, in 
ardent minds and exalted underitandings, 
a kind of fermentation, the traces of 
which will long be perceived. Not but 
that, prior to this period, certain ideas 
had lone been in circulation, and certain 
opinions, gradually extending on every 
fide, had produced in the minds of men 
that efferyefcence which precedes ‘and an- 
nounces a convulfion, But by clothing 
thele [peculative dogmas in more impofing 
forms, by exhibiting them in more bril- 
Memoirs of Madame Viet. 
24.5 
liant colours, the Italian Sophocles has 
not a little contributed to propegate and 
diffure them. Though an enemy of evi, 
hecommiutied it without intending or fore. 
feeing it; though an enthufiaft for a chi- 
merical good, he was unable to attain the 
obje&t which he {« ¢xetimes propofed in 
his fublime effufions. It is aftonifhing, 
that an underftanding fo jut and fo pre. 
found can he combined with expectations 
fo exaggerated ; that fuch knowledge of 
mankind can be united with certain poli 
tical opinions, refuted by hiftory and re- 
cent experience. ‘The ideas of Alferi 
were rather directed to what ought to be, 
than what is. The melancholy events of 
which he was an eye-witnels did not 
change his principles, as it has been re- 
ported ; they only excited his indignation 
-againft thofe who had abufed them; they 
cifcouraged him with regard to the pofli- 
bility of their application. He ceatinued 
to entertain the fame opinion with refpect 
to things, but he hoped lefs from men. 
di political circumftances have powerfully 
contributed to the enthufiafm excited by 
his works, itis, neverthelefs, certain, that 
the eminent beauties which they contain, 
and which will daily acquire new luftre 
the more they are ftudied, will enfure his _ 
fame, and will procure him, at the tribu- 
nal of impartial polkerity, that indulgence 
which they might, on other accounts, be 
inclined to withhold. 3 
a oa j 
MEMOIRS of the LIFE of MADAME 
: VIOT. 
ARY Anne Henrietta Payan de 
PEtang, married, for the third time, 
to M. Viot, the prefent Commiflary of 
exterior relations at Barcelona, devoted 
her whole life to the cultivation of litera- 
ture, for her pleafure, or rather her confo- 
lation. 
from \the bofom of her family and native 
land, and tormented inceflantly with. the 
neceflity of loving, without ever being able - 
completely to fatisty that paffion, the ap- 
plied herfelfto the flady of literature and 
the arts, as the means of filling the void 
in her heart, and of confirming her virtu- 
ous refolutions. } 
The fubject of this memoir was born at 
Drefden, in the year 1746, of parents 
whofe circumftances were not the mof eafy. 
When only four years old, the was fent 
to France, and at the age of twelve mar-- 
ried M. de Ribere d’Antemont, a native 
of the Venaiffin, who left her a widow at 
fxteen. Her moral as well as. phyfical 
faculties were developed at an uncommon. 
ly early age, From her tendereft infancy 
fhe 
\ 
Being removed while very young 
