rowed from Racine, in such a way as he thought best adapted to the opera. The language of the passions is throughout imbued with that solemn harmony, with which music so well accords, without, however, arriving at the vigour and brevity belonging to tragedy. The historical pieces which he produced, though by no means of a more effeminate or romantic character than those of Metastasio, are certainly a more extravagant burlesque of history. We feel that Metastasio could not have represented human nature otherwise than he does; whilst Zeno, who as constantly dwells upon the passion of love, is deficient in all that harmony, delicacy, and ardour, which, in the former, transport us out of ourselves.* Zeno, likewise, composed several comic operas, which appeared about the year 1597, coeval with those of a more serious kind. They were modelled upon the extemporaneous comedies already well known. In them the Harlequins, Columbines, and other masks of the Italian theatre, appear as the principal personages of the piece. But Zeno did not exhibit much talent in the comic opera, and this very amusing sort of national spectacle, to which Italy is indebted for much of her excellent music, has never hitherto been illustrated by any superior genius. Apostolo Zeno was invited to Vienna by the Emperor * We subjoin a few examples from one of his dramas, entitled I due Dittatori, founded upon the quarrel between the great Fabius Cunctator and M. Minutius, lieutenant of the horse, during the second Punic war. The passion of two captive princesses is, in Zeno's hands, the hidden source of all these grand events. Arisba, a Carthaginian captive, avails herself of her charms to sow dissension in the Roman camp, and congratulates herself, as follows, upon her success. Act III. Scene 8. Colpi al segno lo stral: gittati ho i semi Del civil odio. Vedrò in breve armarsi Qual gloria per Arisbe E se dirlo a me lece, Forse Annibale ancor tanto non fece. A l' uomo il sapere, L'ardire, il potere Natura donò. Se Charles VI., where he was invested with the two very opposite employments, of imperial historiographer, and of poet laureat to the court opera. He lived to a very advanced age, dying in the middle of the last century, in 1750, at the age of eighty-one years, and having the mortification of beholding his reputation eclipsed in his old age by Metastasio. The seventeenth century was remarkable, likewise, for its abundance of dramatic authors. Innumerable tragedies, comedies, and pastorals, were every where recited before the different courts, and in the theatres, of Europe. Not any of these, however, were comparable to those of a former age; nor are they, indeed, to be placed in competition with those of the eighteenth century. The tragedies are singularly deficient in their delineation of characters and of manners ; the style partakes of the inflated taste of the age, and the action flags; while the authors seem to have hesitated between the pedantic imitation of the ancients, and the mistaken route pursued by the moderns. Their productions are, perhaps, now worthy of mention, only as objects of literary research and curiosity; nor could they be represented or endured on any theatre, much less supply other writers with models or ideas in their future efforts. The poet's sole object was Se d'armi si forti Valer ben si sà. Being jealous of the son of Fabius, Minutius condemns him to death; while Fabius, out of regard to military discipline, is unwilling to oppose the sentence, but thus addresses his son as he is borne to punishment. Act IV. Scene 7. So qual sono, e qual tu sei. Tu i pietosi affetti miei, La virtù che teco porti. His son takes leave of the object of his affections, in the following air. Act IV. Scene 8. Concedimi ch' io baci Cara, la bianca mano, Favor di tua pietade a l' amor mio. Mi basta il tuo dolor; Ersilia addio. In the verse of Zeno we certainly find the origin of that of Metastasio, but nothing of his spirit, sentiment and grace. to surprise the spectator by the brilliancy of the scenery, or by a bustling movement of the stage, while probability was wholly sacrificed to the general desire of witnessing the appearance of monsters, combats, and processions of chariots and horses. The comedies were, in the same manner, unconnected, insipid, low, and appreciated only by the populace. The pastorals became more affected, unnatural, and dull; insomuch that the opera seemed the only species of theatrical representation at all esteemed, or which, indeed, deserved to be so. It is with difficulty we can conceive how the very general corruption, which had introduced itself into every branch of literature, and palsied the powers of the human mind, was arrested in its progress. We should have expected that the false taste of the age would have inevitably produced a total neglect and cessation of mental cultivation; that in the pursuit of trifling and despicable objects, all nobler pursuits would have been abandoned; and that Italy would have again fallen under the leaden sceptre of corrupted taste, as she had before done for a whole age, succeeding that of Adrian. And it is highly probable, that if Italy had had to depend on her own resources, her national literature would have ceased to exist; for if we consult such of her authors as are in nothing indebted to the genius of other nations, we shall acknowledge them to be worthy disciples of the school of Marini and of Achillini. Nor is modern Italy, at this day, without abundance of sonnets which have not the least pretension to our notice, as destitute of thought or feeling as they are full of extravagance and false taste. To those writers who are acquainted only with their native language, all poetry appears to consist of images; extravagance is in their eyes beauty; while sonorous words, and superfluous epithets are substituted in the place of thought and meaning. But the example of the great poets of the age of Louis XIV. soon extended beyond the national barriers, into other countries; and the reputation of their works travelled beyond the Alps, towards the commencement of the eighteenth century. These masterpieces of literature were soon put in competition with the tasteless productions of the Seicentisti; and the result was favourable to the triumph of good taste. They were found to be more deeply imbued with the qualities of thought and feeling, than native Italian verse; and, notwithstanding the jealousy of inquisitions, both political and religious, they brought along with them a spirit of inquiry, of which Italy stood so much in need. Europe was beginning to awaken out of her lethargy; nobler views were held out; and mankind began to aspire after greater and better things, connected with their improvement and happiness. Even Italy, in defiance of the efforts of princes and of prelates, exhibited some share of the growing energies which marked the opening of the eighteenth century. The first, and not the least happy result of the influence of the well known French writers, and of a few of the English just beginning to be read in Italy, was the reform which they introduced into the theatrical and poetical character, so totally destitute of propriety and The poems of Frugoni, the dramas of Metastasio, and even the comedies of Goldoni, have all, more or less, a moral tendency; and if we, for a moment, contemplate the general degradation of the people, and the revolting license of their poets before these writers appeared, we must allow them to be entitled to no small degree of praise. Poetry once more restored to decency and to good feeling, was better enabled to plume her wings for more noble and lofty flights. The first effort of the most attractive of the sister arts, ought naturally to be to return to a purer and more moral atmo sphere, if there be any truth in the assertion, that high thoughts have their origin in the heart. taste. CHAPTER XVII. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.-FRUGONI-METASTASIO. THE close of the seventeenth century is rendered remarkable by the birth of Metastasio and of Frugoni, two men destined to revive the declining fame of Italian literature, in the succeeding age. Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni, one of the most distinguished of the modern lyric poets, was born at Genoa, on the twenty-first of November, 1692, of a noble family, whose name became extinct after his death. He was educated by the Jesuits, and compelled by his parents to assume the religious habit at thirteen years of age. After many years of tedious suffering and anxiety, the Pope released him from his more strict and irksome vows, although Frugoni still remained a priest; cut off, by his profession, from more active life, and from all those domestic ties which the warmth of his heart and the activity of his mind would have naturally led him to embrace. Italy was then divided between the partizans of the affected and finical taste introduced by Marini, and those who, in opposition to this false standard, recommended only a servile imitation of the writers of the sixteenth century, or that of the classics, their earliest models. Frugoni rejected the opinions of both these parties; his genius suggested to him a bolder and far more original career. He devoted himself to the study of those poets who flourished in the ages scarcely emerged from barbarism. Without making use of them as models, he discovered in them examples of true greatness. He felt within himself the enthusiasm of soul capable of celebrating the fame of heroes, as it deserves to be celebrated, rather by the heart and the imagination, than by the memory; and he scorned the inferior talent, which reproduces only what has already been done. Frugoni has treated in his poems, on a great variety of subjects. All passions, both human and divine, seem to have furnished him with materials for sonnets, canzoni, and lyrical effusions, in every kind of metre. But it is in the versi sciolti, or blank verse, that he more especially surpasses his predecessors, in the simplicity of his expressions, in the eloquent emotion that inspires him, and in the boldness of his poetry. But, perhaps, he may be justly reproached with having too frequently mingled science and polite literature together; his acquaintance with the more abtruse sciences being so very intimate and profound, that he not unfrequently borrowed his images wholly from these sources, and treated, in verse, subjects generally considered to be very unfit for poetry. No one, however, could have accomplished such a task with a greater degree of elegance, and with more brilliant and striking effect. It is not, indeed, uncommon, in Italy, thus to mingle science with poetry; where people of very slight attainments, hasten to display their knowledge on every fresh acquisition, as a man exhibits his newly acquired |