Chapter 39

THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES: ITALY

Poets: Metastasio, Goldoni, Alfieri, Monti, Leopardi. Prose Writers: Silvio Pellico, Fogazzaro, etc.

LITERARY AWAKENING.--After a long decadence, Italy, less overwhelmed politically than previously, reawoke about 1750. Once more poets came forward: Metastasio, author of tragedies and operas; Goldoni, a very witty and gay comic poet; Alfieri who revived Italian tragedy, which had been languishing and silent since Maffei, and who, like Voltaire in France, and with greater success, established a philosophical and political tribune; Foscolo, sufficiently feeble in tragedy but very touching and eloquent in _The Tombs_, inspired by Young's _Night Thoughts_ and _The Letters of Jacob Ortis_, an interesting novelist and eloquently impassioned patriot; Monti, versatile and master of all recantations according to his own interests, but a very pure writer and not without brilliance in his highly diversified poems.

EMINENT PROSE WRITERS.--Italy could show eminent prose writers, such as those jurisprudent philanthropists Filangieri and Beccaria; critics and literary historians like Tiraboschi.

NINETEENTH CENTURY.--In the nineteenth century may first be found among poets that great poet, the unhappy Leopardi, the bard of suffering, of sorrow, and of despair; Carducci, a brilliant orator, imbued with vigorous passions; Manzoni, lyricist, dramatist, vibrating with patriotic enthusiasm, affecting in his novel _The Betrothal_, which became popular in every country in Europe. In prose, Silvio Pellico equally moved Europe to tears by his book _My Prisons_, wherein he narrated the experiences of his nine years of captivity at the hands of Austria, and found his agreeable tragedy of _Francesca da Rimini_ welcomed with flattering appreciation. Philosophy was specially represented by Gioberti, author of _The Treatise on the Supernatural_, and journalism by Giordani, eloquent, at times with grace and ease, and at others with harshness and violence.

THE MODERNS.--As these words were written came the news of the death of the illustrious novelist Fogazzaro. Gabriel d'Annunzio, poet and ultra-romantic novelist, and Mathilde Serao, an original novelist, pursue their illustrious careers.