terme à la persécution; Sixte IV, son successeur, confia, à Platina, la garde de la bibliothèque du Vatican, et permit à Pomponio Leto de recommencer ses leçons publiques. Celui-ci réussit même à réunir son Académie dispersée; il se faisait estimer par sa probité, sa simplicité, son austérité de mœurs; il consacra sa vie à étudier les monumens de Rome, et c'est à lui surtout que nous devons la connaissance exacte de ses antiquités. Il mourut en 1498, et sa mort fut regardée comme une calamité publique: ses funérailles furent les plus pompeuses qu'on eût depuis long-temps accordées à aucun savant. La persécution de Paul II était une attaque directe contre les lettres; les événemens qui vinrent ensuite, furent des calamités générales, qui frappèrent tout l'Italie, et qui atteignirent toutes les classes à la fois. Elles commencèrent en 1494, avec l'invasion de l'Italie par Charles VIII. Le pillage des villes, la défaite des ar mées, la misère ou la mort d'un grand nombre d'hommes distingués, malheurs toujours attachés au fléau de la guerre, ne furent point les seules conséquences funestes de cet événement; il mit un terme à l'indépendance de l'Italie. Dès lors, et pendant un demi-siècle les Français, les Espagnols et les Allemands s'en disputèrent les provinces. Après des guerres ruineuses, après des calamités sans nombre, la fortune de Charles-Quint et de son fils l'emporta; le Milanez et le royaume de Naples demeurèrent en toute souveraineté à la maison d'Autriche, et tous les autres Etats, qui semblaient conserver encore quelque indépendance, tremblèrent devant la puissance autrichienne, et n'osèrent rien refuser à ses impérieux était opprimé, 4 ministres. Tout sentiment, tout orgueil national ses impérieux. depuis qu'un souverain n'avait plus, dans ses propres Etats, le droit de donner un asyle au malheureux, né son sujet, qu'un vice-roi étranger persécutait. La face entière de l'Italie était changée; au lieu des princes, amis des arts et des lettres, qui avaient régné long-temps à Milan et à Naples, un Espagnol défiant et cruel n'y prêtait l'oreille qu'à des espions et à des délateurs. Les Gonzague de Mantoue se plongeaient dans les plaisirs et les vices, pour oublier le danger de leur situation. Alfonse II, à Modène et Ferrare, s'efforçait, par une pompe vaine, de recouvrer l'apparence d'une grandeur qu'il avait perdue. Au lieu de la république florentine, cette Athènes du-moyen âge, cette patrie de tous les arts et de toutes les sciences; et au lieu des premiers Médicis, ces restaurateurs éclairés de la philosophie et de la littérature, on vit, dans le seizième siècle, trois tyrans se succéder en Toscane, Le féroce et volupteux Alexandre, Cosme Ier, fondateur de la seconde maison de Médicis, dont la profonde dissimulation et la cruauté égalèrent celles de Philippe II, son contemporain et son modèle; et François I, son fils, qui, par sa férocité soupçonneuse, porta le comble à l'oppression de ses Etats. Rome enfin qui, au commencement du siècle, avait eu, dans Léon X, un grand pontife, ami des lettres, et protecteur généreux des arts et de la poésie, devenue défiante par les progrès de la réformation, ne s'occupa plus qu'à écraser tout l'essor l'essor de l'esprit; et sous les pontificats de Paul IV, de Pie IV et de Pie V (1555-1572), qui s'étaient élevés par le crédit de l'inquisition, la persécution contre les lettres et les académies, recommença d'une manière régulière et systématique, pour ne plus s'arrêter." Tom. II. p. 183. This historical account paves the way to the detail of the causes which contributed to the fall of literature from the end of the sixteenth to nearly the middle of the seventeenth century, from the imprisonment of Tasso to the literary appearance of Metastasio, from the year 1580 to the year 1730, In this de tail M. Sismondi shews himself in his full force, and presents to the reader the most true picture of this unhappy period. In the account of Metastasio our author, after having enumerated his merits and his faults, by way of illustration, analyzes one of his dramas. But finding that in his general reflections he goes rather too far, he endeavours to prove their solidity by choosing the Issipile, which is by no means one of his best dramas, nor is it considered as such by the Italians, notwithstanding our author's assertion to the contrary. We consider this to be rather unfair. The Issipile may, undoubtedly, be regarded as a solitary instance of the absurdity of the Italian stage, but it can never establish the general principle that their whole theatre, or rather that all the dramas of Metastasio are of the same ludicrous cast. If M. Sismondi, instead of hinting at the Clemenza di Tito, and analyzing minutely the Issipile, had done quite the reverse, and had analyzed Titus, and hinted at the Issipile, he would have been more correct; at any rate more impartial. There is no doubt that in the Clemenza di Tito, Metastasio has followed the Cinna of Corneille, as in the Gioas Re di Giuda he has the Atalie of Racine. But though Atalie be one of the first rate productions of the French theatre, we have not the least hesitation in asserting that Gioas is very superior. As to Cinna, we all know the criticism which the French them. selves have passed on it, and how much even Voltaire has exposed its faults, notwithstanding all the veneration he felt towards Corneille, which caused him to protect even his niece. Indeed such are the faults of this tragedy that Voltaire, in reading la Clemenza di Tito, passed afterwards on Metastasio the cele brated judgment which compares him to Corneille and Racine together, in their best touches. And yet la Clemenza di Tito is by no means the very best drama of Metastasio. Attilio Regolo, in our opinion, is to be preferred. But after all, we agree with our author that the faults of Metastasio do not so much belong to the poet as to the genre, which is in itself faulty and absurd. We are sorry at not being able to go on with M. Sismondi. Our limits will not allow us to analyse the remaining parts of his four four volumes. But we feel the satisfaction of having it in our power to say that upon the general plan, we have nothing to urge against his statement. However, before we part with him altogether we must lay before our readers a few reflections on the Improvisatori, on whom M. Sismondi is extremely concise. It is true, that according to the plan of the work which now lies before us, we did not expect to find a detailed account of the origin and progress of this extraordinary talent now so peculiar to the Italians, but formerly so prevalent amongst the poets of the whole of Europe; but since M. Sismondi could not avoid mentioning some of the best Improvisatori, we lament that he has not given us a inore correct idea of a talent, of which we hear so much, and know so little. Our author speaks of these extraordinary poets, of their inspiration, of their enthusiasm, as of common characteristic traits of the Italians, but he forgets that this talent even now is not, and still less has it formerly been an exclusive privilege of the inhabitants of that country, "Che appennin parte, il mar circonda, e l'Alpe.” To this day many poets are found in the East who sing extemporary verses, and Sir W. Jones, in treating of the inhabitants of this first nursery of population and learning mentions their extreme facility and general propensity to speak in verses. Their language is poetical, animated, metaphorical, harmonious; it is the effect of the beauty and fertility of their climate and of their situation. Surrounded by beautiful objects, enjoying a more perfect tranquility, consecrating as if it were their leisure to a passion the most fit to inspire a poetical taste, they sing as they feel, and their songs are the most animated pictures of their sensations adorned by all the beauty of the nature which surrounds them, and in the effusions of their more tender sensations they burst forth with metaphors and images in the most eloquent and poetical strain. From Asia this talent passed into Egypt where it has consecrated the very name of the primitive Alme's, and by the means of the Saracens it was imported into Spain. With the art of rhyming the Troubadours received this fashion from their masters, and in endeavouring to imitate the extemporary effusions of their muse, they spread this wonderful faculty through the whole of Europe. In the hands of the northern bards the lyre took the cast of their nature and their laws, and in celebrating the valour of their chiefs and the feuds of their clans, their songs, during the short time they cultivated this talent, were harsh, savage, savage, and warlike, while the poets of the south, being animated by the sight of a smiling nature and inspired by sentiments more soft, continue to this day in their primitive effusions of brilliancy. As far as respects the Italians we must divide the whole pe riod of the history of the Improvisare into three different epochs. The first ends with the pontificate of Leo X., and presents very little to instruct or amuse the reader. The language which these poets employed was either the Provençal or the Latin, and this latter became the mistress of the field as soon as the Provençal was by degrees laid aside. This second epoch reached the time of Cardinal Ottoboni, who was afterwards pope, under the name of Alexander VIII., and during this period history records the names of many celebrated poets, who excelled in the art of singing extemporary verses, amongst them we find Bernardo Accolti, who, per antonomasiam, received the appellation of Unico Aretino, Aurelio Brandolini, surnamed the Lippo, and Andrea Marrone, who was perhaps the greatest of them all. By the abolition of the Provençal language, the Latin alone was considered the language for extempore poetry; and though we have every possible rea> son to believe that some of the poets had begun to employ the Italian language also, yet it is certain that no other metre was allowed besides the ottava rima. The third epoch is the most remarkable of all. It was then that all the Improvisatori having laid aside any other language confined themselves to Italian only and it was then that new rules and new laws were enacted to curb the fiery imagination of the poets, and the use of other metre was allowed besides the stanza of eight: it was then that the Italians, acquiring a greater refinement and a better taste, were no longer satisfied with beauty alone, they wished to encrease the difficulty, and granted their applause according to the different degrees of elegance and facility with which this difficulty was conquered. Such is the history of the Improvisare amongst the Italians. To return to M. Sismondi, we have nothing to urge against the praises which he bestows on the merit of the Bandettini, Fantastici, and Mazzei. With pleasure we join in the chorus, for though we have not had the fortune of admiring the poetical effusion of their genius, yet their names have been too justly and too loudly celebrated not to reach even our ultima Thule. But we fear that our author being struck by the merit and perhaps personal accomplishments of the fair poetesses, has overlooked altogether, or has mentioned in a mass other poets, who, by the consent of their ages have long since been regarded as first rate men. Metastasio, Rolli, Vannini, and in our own time Quattromani, Trogades, and the famous Gasparrino Mollo, brother to the Duke of Lusciano, are amongst those who have been completely overlooked. While the celebrated Maria Maddalena Morelli, better known under her Arcadian name of Corilla Olimpica, has been hardly mentioned. Indeed we should not be able to find expressions, and even if we could, our readers would not be able to understand the enthusiasm which this extraordinary woman produced in her country by the learned and brilliant fluency of her improvisare. Like Petrarca, she saw on her head the laurel crown which had been intended for the brow of Tasso, but which had been bestowed on this prince of modern lyric. The reader, perhaps, though he may not be able to form an idea of her merit as an extemporary poet, may at least form a small idea of the extension and variety of her knowledge by casting his eyes over the different subjects, which, previous to her coronation at the capitol, had been proposed to her. An account of the different subjects on various branches of literature and science proposed to Corilla in three several meetings held previous to her coronation by thirty Arcadian poets selected for the purpose, on all of which she sang. - I. Pastoral Poetry. Subject, Whether the Country is to be preferred to the City. II. Natural Philosophy.-Subject, The Properties of Light, and the Description of the Mamer in which Images are formed in the Eye. III. Eloquence. Subject, The Decline of Eloquence after the Death of Cicero. IV. Moral Philosophy.-Subject, There is no Virtue without Religion. V. Music. Subject, The property of harmony, which makes the same Tone productive of either Pleasure or Displeasure. VI. Revelation.-Subject, Which was the first revealed Religion, and how was it revealed? VII. Ecclesiastical History.-Subject, A Poetical Description of the Passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea. VIII. Mythology.-Subject, Why is Love represented as blind, and at the same Time armed with a Bow and Arrows to wound his Victims? IX. Jurisprudence.-Subject, Laws. The beneficent Effect of X. Fine Arts. Subject, Which of the Fine Arts is most useful and pleasing? XI. Epic Poetry.-Subject, The Character of a Hero as a Specimen of the higher Species of Epic. XII. Me. |