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Show 220 THE CODE OF TERPSICHORE. and often sublime. In the works of this great poet, and in those of Alfieri, nothing is said uselessly, or without a meaning. Their characters neither act nor speak but when the subject requires them. Their productions are not at all overcharged with false or superfluous ornament; and indeed they well understood where to stop, by observing that limit beyond which it is absurd to pass ; this is a point of perfection, at which it is not in the power of every genius to arrive. Mediocrity ever misses this mark, and even men of talent cannot always impose needful restraint upon their flights. A n d here, unfortunately, it must be confessed how very much out of place are those fine tirades in French pieces, together with the poetic and philosophic airs even of Metastasio, bearing no relation to the principal subject, and serving only to interrupt the progress of the action. Euripides is regarded, and with reason, as the most tragic of ancient poets. He is true to nature in the pictures he draws, and he possesses more variety than is to be found in his rivals. H e is both pathetic and moral, and well deserves the name of the theatrical philosopher. Modern Italy, to w h o m Europe owes the revival of letters, has greatly contributed also to the rise and progress of the drama. Albertino Mussato was the first w h o wrote a regular tragedy; and Sicco Polentone signalized himself by giving to the modern the first comedy. L'Ezzelino and La Catinia, the first of our essays in the dramatic art, were written in Latin, which at that epoch was the language of authors. Orpheus, a tragedy of the celebrated Poliziano, and the comedy of the Calandra by Bibiena, succeeded the above productions, and being written in Italian, they became models to all w h o wrote for the theatre. Poliziano did for Italy what Jodelle, with far less talent, did for France; and every French writer of that period both imitated and translated Italian authors. |
