OCR Text |
Show T H E COMPOSITION OF BALLETS. 225 ans, who require that the action of a piece should be subservient to their inspirations. Metastasio is one of the greatest philosophic poets that ever existed. In him the most useful and important truths are adorned by poetry. Being deeply versed in the movements of the human heart, he has painted passions and characters in the most striking colours. Ever under the direction of nature, he is, like her, true, elegant, noble, and sublime ; no dramatic writer has shown greater resources. He had also the advantage of writing in a language which, of all modern tongues, is the most suitable to poetry. M. Schlegel, in one of his unaccountable criticisms, affirms that in Metastasio nothing can be found that strikes the imagination, and that Alfieri is only read in Italy because it has been fashionable to study him. This writer can have but merely turned over the pages of these two great writers, or otherwise he has but a slight acquaintance with the language of the authors upon whom he has made these observations. This in a critic is unpardonable; for a sound opinion cannot be thus formed of the productions of genius. In every country, where taste and nature prevail, the tragedies of Alfieri must always be fashionable, and admissible to the bon ton; and the works of Metastasio will ever be admired in nations where learning flourishes. H o w has it happened that M . Schlegel, with all his information and great talent, should have forgotten to notice the genius of Moliere and Goldoni, and the excellence of the Aminta ? A malady, caused by the study of the romantic, must have deceived him into these omissions. H e requires that Greece, France, and Italy, should yield to England and Spain in dramatic works. This Coryphaeus, in the above style, pretends to quote a scene from the opera of Raoul de Crequi, as a chef-d'neuvre of theatrical effect, and as a model for writers both of tragedy |