PROSE WRITERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
The Prose Writers of the Eighteenth Century need not detain us long,
for with the exception of the Comedies of Goldoni, few works have any
sort of vitality. Some authors, especially writers of Memoirs, wrote in
French, like Casanova and Goldoni himself, whose Autobiography is in
that language. Indeed, for some years, the danger seemed to be imminent
that French would be as much used as Latin had been in former ages.
GOLDONI is a delightful writer, and some of his best comedies still
keep the stage. Those who have read Goldsmith's _Good-natured Man_ and
_She Stoops to Conquer,_ can form an accurate idea of what Goldoni was.
There is the same geniality, the same broad humour, the same light,
but effective delineation of character, and the same sparkling and
ingenious dialogue. If Goldoni has a fault, it is that his plots are
sometimes too thin, and that his comedies occasionally betray the
haste in which they were written. A few of his plays are in verse,
and some are in the Venetian dialect in which he is always racy and
spirited. He was a very fertile writer, and if many of his works are
inferior to his best, they all bear testimony to the fertility and
originality of his mind, and he deserves to be celebrated as the best
writer of comedy that his country has produced.
The performance of Goldoni's Comedies may still be witnessed with
pleasure, and his masterpiece, _La Locandiera,_ has recently been
seen in London with the celebrated Eleonora Duse as Mirandolina. The
character of the heroine and the art with which she keeps her forward
lovers at bay, are admirably conceived. _Il Burbero Benefico_ is
hardly inferior. It deals with a man who, under a rough surface, hides
a tender heart.[1] _Le Donne Curiose_ has many amusing situations,
brought about by the prying curiosity of some women. _Il Poeta
Fanatico,_ gives a laughable idea of the third-rate literary academies
of his day, and the character of the poet who is always at a loss for
a rhyme, is amusingly drawn. _La Famiglia dell' Antiquario,_ offers a
ludicrous exposure of the gullibility of collectors and amateurs who
have neither taste nor knowledge. _Le Smanie per la Villeggiatura_
takes for its theme the passion of Venetian families for spending some
months of the year in villas on the mainland. _L'Impresario_ has some
delightfully comic scenes between an Operatic Manager and his company.
_L'Avaro_ treats the same topic as Molière in one of his comedies,
and with hardly less success. _Il Ventaglio_ is ingenious in plot and
vivacious in dialogue. _I Rusteghi, Le Baruffe Chiozzotte, Sior Todero
Brontolon,_ and several other Comedies, are in the Venetian dialect,
in which he is quite it home, and in which he shows a vivacity and
originality worthy of all praise. As his works contain nothing immoral
or in any way indelicate they have always been in use at educational
establishments for theatricals in those classes where Italian is
taught. Goldoni is neither a philosophical nor a very profound writer,
but he is delightfully vivacious, and there is hardly one of his
comedies that the reader would not like to peruse a second time.
The brothers GASPARO and CARLO GOZZI were Venetians, like Goldoni,
but they were his rivals, and not his friends. Gasparo was a good
literary essayist, and he wrote the _Osservatore,_ a sort of imitation
of Addison's _Spectator._ He also defended Dante against Bettinelli's
attacks. Carlo produced some fantastic and imaginative plays, one
of which Schiller adapted for the German Stage, under the title of
_Turandot, Princess of China._ He has plenty of imagination, but his
poetical talents are hardly powerful enough to give adequate expression
to his really brilliant and original ideas.
A very different writer from these vivacious Venetians was the learned
MURATORI, for many years Librarian to the Duke of Modena. He was a man
of immense erudition and indefatigable industry. His works in Latin
and Italian fill more than one hundred volumes. His _Annali d'Italia_
constitute his most valuable work. He also wrote a treatise, _Della
Perfetta Poesia._ He died in 1750.
SAVERIO BETTINELLI, a Jesuit, may, perhaps, be taken as the most
perfect embodiment of the Italian literary man of the Eighteenth
Century. He had the light and easy style, the narrow canons of taste
and judgement, and the humane and benevolent spirit that characterised
his contemporaries. Although a Priest, he was a correspondent of
Voltaire, and the Italian Jesuit joined with the French Philosopher in
condemning the extravagant conceptions of those dreadful barbarians,
Dante and Shakespeare. In Dante he could discover absolutely no merit,
and he wrote long essays to convert his countrymen to his views. As
a poet, he is not without fluency and elegance, qualities which are
also conspicuous in his prose, which may still be read with pleasure,
though hardly with profit. His Tragedies appear very poor by the side
of those of Alfieri. He had plenty of learning and some acuteness, and
the tone of his mind is eminently judicious, but he could hardly rise
to the appreciation of conceptions greater than his own, and the shrine
at which he worshipped was that of academic elegance and delicate
refinement. He was inspired with genuine patriotism which led him to
write not only his chief historical work, _Risorgimento d'Italia,_ but
also some of his most spirited poems. His death took place in 1808, at
the great age of ninety.
ANTONIO MAGLIABECCHI was one of the greatest marvels of erudition
that ever lived. He was a goldsmith by trade, but his heart was in
his books, and through the patronage of Michael Ermini, Librarian to
Cardinal Medici, he obtained access to a library extensive enough to
quench even his thirst for knowledge. When his friend Ermini died, he
became his successor as Librarian. All day long he locked himself up
in his house, reading from morning till night, and only after dark did
he open his door, and then only to admit men of taste and learning in
order to indulge in erudite conversation. His habits were almost those
of a hermit. He wore an old coat which served him as an apparel by day
and a blanket by night. A straw-bottomed chair acted as table for his
frugal meals, and another chair, hardly more comfortable, was his bed
in which he sat up at night reading, reading, reading until he fell
asleep from sheer fatigue. The marvel is that such industry, coupled
with such privations, did not undermine his health, but we hear nothing
of injurious results. He was very kind and benevolent in character,
always ready to assist the inquiring with his knowledge and the needy
with his money. He died in 1714. He was a Florentine by birth, and
he left his library to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and also a sum of
money, the interest of which was to be used for the purpose of making
valuable additions to the volumes already collected. This library is
still open to the public in Florence. Magliabecchi both by precept and
example, gave an impetus to learning and research, but he did not offer
to the world any works of his own, contenting himself with editing
the lucubrations of others. Although he never travelled, he was well
acquainted, by catalogues and descriptions, with the libraries of other
cities. There is an anecdote of an acquaintance asking him how many
copies were known to be extant of a book noted for its rarity. "Only
three," was Magliabecchi's reply. "One belongs to me; one is in the
Vatican, and the third at Constantinople in the library of the Grand
Turk; you will find it in the third room, on the bottom shelf to the
right as you enter, where it is the seventh volume."
A noble family of Verona, the Maffei, gave two eminent men to the
Italy of the Eighteenth Century. The Marquis ALESSANDRO MAFFEI entered
the services of the Elector of Bavaria, and rose to be Field Marshal.
He was instrumental in gaining the great victory over the Turks at
Belgrade in 1717. He died in Munich in 1730, and left _Memoirs_ which
are both well-written and valuable as illustrating the history of
his times. His brother, SCIPIONE MAFFEI, was born on the first of
June, 1675. Scipione entered the Army and served under his brother
during the War of the Spanish Succession. His first work was a book
against the practice of duelling. When he returned to his native city,
he published a literary journal in conjunction with Apostolo Zeno
and Vallisnieri. He wrote a comedy, _La Ceremonia,_ and a tragedy,
_Merope,_ which became widely celebrated throughout Europe as the
prototype of Voltaire's tragedy on the same subject. Voltaire dedicated
his _Merope_ to Maffei, but he was in reality jealous of the reputation
the Italian work had acquired, and under a thin disguise he published
letters laying bare its foibles and defects. The task was not very
difficult, for Maffei's _Merope,_ beyond the fact of emanating from the
pen of an elegant scholar, has little to recommend it. The characters
are not very vividly drawn, and the blank verse is rather languid
and unimpressive. His best and most enduring work is the _Verona
Illustrata,_ a magnificent contribution to the history of his native
town. He died in 1755.
The Jesuit TIRABOSCHI produced a voluminous _History of Literature_ and
his work has both judgement and research to give it permanent value.
The humanitarian tendencies of the Eighteenth Century found an eloquent
exponent in the Marquis BECCARIA, a native of Milan. From a youth he
was inclined to the study of Philosophy, and he was much influenced
in his intellectual development by the contemporary French writers,
especially by Montesquieu. The first work with which he appeared
before the public was a pamphlet on the state of the Currency. In
conjunction with some friends, he published a journal called _Il
Caffé_ which advocated the humane and enlightened principles to which
he was devoted. But the great work by which he is remembered is the
treatise _Dei Delitti e delle Pene,_ published in 1764. In this book he
ventured to proclaim the doctrine that the penalty should not exceed
the offence. Barbarous sentences were passed in that age, not only in
Italy, but all over the world, for misdemeanours which do not call for
greater rigour than a few months' imprisonment. Criminals were broken
on the wheel, prisoners were tortured on the rack. All these frightful
abuses were attacked by Beccaria with the eloquence of burning
indignation, and he had the satisfaction of finding an abundant harvest
follow the sowing of the seed. Torture was abolished in France shortly
after the accession of Louis XVI, and even in the worst excesses of
the Reign of Terror nobody dared to suggest its revival. Many judicial
murders were committed, but none of the victims were tortured. It is
frightful to think what atrocities might have been perpetrated if that
odious and irrational practice had still been in force. Beccaria died
in 1793.
GAETANO FILANGIERI resembled Beccaria in his ambition to improve the
laws, and his great work, _La Scienza della Legislazione,_ obtained
an immense reputation for its author. He was the scion of a noble
Neapolitan family, and the Minister Tannucci showed some inclination to
carry out his ideas. But he died when he was only thirty-six in 1788.
Perhaps he was fortunate in not living to see the evil times in store
for his country.
FRANCESCO ALGAROTTI may be described as a sort of diluted Bettinelli,
but he had the merit of introducing Foreign writers to the Italian
public and of spreading the knowledge of Italian in Foreign countries.
Frederick the Great, who took delight in patronising the literature
of every nation except his own, received Algarotti hospitably at
Potsdam and conferred upon him the title of Count. He was a most
fertile writer and he took pleasure, not only in literary criticism,
but also in scientific investigation, and he was the first to make the
discoveries of Newton familiar in the Peninsula. His poems make but a
faint impression upon the modern reader, but they were such as the age
of Frugoni admired. In character he was discreet and amiable, hence his
personal popularity. His health gradually failed him and he died of
consumption at Pisa, in 1764, at the age of 51. Frederick the Great had
a handsome monument erected to his memory.
ANTONIO COCCHI was a fertile writer on scientific and miscellaneous
subjects, but it is the melancholy fate of scientific writers to be
superseded by their successors, however well they may have written. He
was born in 1695, and died in 1758.
GIROLAMO TAGLIAZUCCHI was Professor of Greek at the University of
Turin, and did much to spread the study of good literature.
GIOVENALE SACCHI, a Barnabite Monk, wrote books on music, dancing,
and poetry in a style of great purity and elegance. He was, however,
charged by the more austere spirits of his Order with devoting his
attention to subjects too frivolous and profane, and he had to endure
many persecutions. He died in 1789.
ANTONIO CESARI, a Priest of the Oratory, was born at Verona on the
sixteenth of January, 1760. He was an ardent admirer of the prose
writers of the Fourteenth Century, and it was his constant endeavour
to purify the Italian language from the Frenchified idioms it had
contracted in his day. Unlike Bettinelli, he was a devoted adherent of
Dante, and he wrote a book to point out his beauties, but he dwells
more upon the merits of the poet's style than upon the grandeur of his
conceptions. Cesari was a good translator, and he was particularly
successful in his rendering of the Comedies of Terence. In all his
works we find a deep and fervent spirit of patriotism, a fore-runner of
the wave of independence and devotion to their fatherland that swept
over the Italians of the Century that must now engage our attention.
[Footnote 1: _Burbero Benefico_ was originally written in French and
afterwards translated into Italian.]