Other Literary Forms
Vittorio Alfieri’s love of liberty and hate of tyranny resulted in several poetic works. In L’America libera (1784; Alfieri’s Ode to America’s Independence, 1976), the poet exalts the Americans who rebelled against English tyranny. He wrote the first four odes in 1781 and added one more in 1783. The first describes the reasons for the American War of Independence, the second enumerates the participants, the third speaks about the Marquis de Lafayette, the fourth praises George Washington, and the fifth is dedicated to the peace of 1783 and ends with a pessimistic note: What is there to rejoice about? asks the author—only force reigns. Alfieri also glorified the fall of the Bastille in the ode Parigi sbastigliata (1789; Paris without the Bastille).
Alfieri expressed the same sentiments about freedom in his political prose, but more coherently and systematically. The treatise Della tirannide (1789; Of Tyranny, 1961), written in 1777, condemns even the most reformed monarchs as wanting only obedient subjects: From the highest nobleman to the poorest peasant, all must follow orders; the king’s subjects are mere victims. Alfieri concludes that it is better not to marry, in order not to create new victims. Del principe e delle lettere (1789; The Prince and Letters, 1972) expounds the same theme with equal passion. It deals with the relationship between a prince and men of letters. A poet protected by a prince can bring glory to tyranny, but a writer, according to Alfieri, should be free to fight tyranny with his pen and cannot accept any kind of protection.
Il misogallo (1799) consists of five prose passages and more than a hundred poems, in which Alfieri exaggerates his anti-French sentiments, for he considered the post-revolutionary French rulers as tyrannical as France’s former kings, only more vulgar.
Rime (1789, 1804, published in two parts) is a poetic diary of Alfieri’s intimate feelings, consisting of compositions in the traditional Arcadian style, bizarre epigrams, and passionate sonnets written for the countess of Albany. The most original poems are those in which Alfieri laments the forced separation from his beloved countess. Alone, he ponders the nullity of life and longs for death, evincing a new sensitivity that is Romantic in quality. Petrarch’s influence resulted in a new spirit and experience that reached the tragic and sublime, making Alfieri not unlike his tragic characters. In some poems, he describes or, rather, defines himself as a person; in others, he points out the contradictions of life—“to hope, to fear, to remember, to lament”—and pays tribute to the great men of the past, even if always overcome by a profound pessimism.
His Vita di Vittorio Alfieri (1804; Memoirs, 1810), written in 1790 and subsequently repeatedly revised and enlarged, is a prototype of the Romantic autobiography, which aims to understand intimately the development and growth of the artist. The book is divided into four significant periods of Alfieri’s life, and each event and emotion is scrutinized with psychological insight. In his effort to portray himself as an artist, Alfieri comes close to the German Romantics of the Sturm und Drang movement.
Achievements
The Italy of Vittorio Alfieri’s time was made up of several independent states and kingdoms. Alfieri was reared in Piedmont, a cultural environment strongly affected by French traditions, and French, rather than Italian, was the language of the nobility. By the second half of the eighteenth century, Piedmont’s territorial expansion had come to a halt, and Charles Emanuel III of Savoy dedicated himself entirely to the administration of internal affairs with an austere sense of morality that was also imposed on all his subjects. Alfieri’s personal, aristocratic, and independent concept of liberty made him...
(This entire section contains 345 words.)
See This Study Guide Now
Start your 48-hour free trial to unlock this study guide. You'll also get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts.
Already a member? Log in here.
rebel against all kinds of control with a typical proto-Romantic spirit. Incapable of accepting the political realities of his day, Alfieri passionately advocated the overthrow of tyranny with the consciousness of a libertarian, but he never proposed a practical alternative. Imbued with the progressive ideals of European Enlightenment, he was a true cosmopolitan in the tradition of the eighteenth century, yet from the day he decided to become a writer, he spent all his time searching for his Italian roots and trying to shed his Piedmontese ways, repressing his cosmopolitanism in the process. The result was that he created a national spirit that was to influence the following generations of the Italian Risorgimento.
Alfieri is classified as pre-Romantic, only because his tragedies are classical in form, strictly adherent to the rules on the unity of time, place, and action—even if their context is Romantic, something that was unknown to his contemporaries. His tragedies, written with the intent of giving Italy dramas comparable to those of other European nations, seemed too austere to his contemporaries, but in the twentieth century, because of their concentration on a few characters, they strike audiences as being modern. Alfieri achieved what he set out to do: He became the greatest Italian tragic writer. His prose, especially in his autobiography, is of a masterly quality, and his influence, as both a poet and a prose writer, on style and content is evident in Ugo Foscolo and Ugo Foscolo, the two great Italian Romantics.
Bibliography
Betti, Franco. Vittorio Alfieri. Boston: Twayne, 1984. A basic biography of Alfieri that covers his life and works. Bibliography and index.
Bondanella, Peter, and Julia Bondanella, eds. Dictionary of Italian Literature. Rev. ed. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1970. Alfieri is represented among four hundred entries of concise biographies covering all genres and academies in Italian literature from the twelfth century to the present.
Costa-Zalessow, Natalia. “Alfieri’s Antigone: A Review of Previous Interpretations and a New Proposal.” Italian Quarterly 23 (1982): 91-99. A study of interpretations of the Antigone story, with particular emphasis on Alfieri’s treatment.
Lees, Barrie. “Birth of Vittorio Alfieri: January 16th, 1749.” History Today 49, no. 1 (January, 1999): 53. This short essay on Alfieri examines his life, in particular his affairs, as well as his motivation for writing drama.
McAnally, Sir Henry. The Life of Vittorio Alfieri Written by Himself. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1953. A good translation of Alfieri’s Vita di Vittorio Alfieri (Memoirs).
Mazzaro, Jerome. “Alfieri’s Saul as Enlightenment Tragedy.” Comparative Drama 33, no. 1 (Spring, 1999): 125-139. In this examination of Saul, Mazzaro points out that Alfieri observes the unities of plot, time, and action made prominent by dramatist Jean Racine.
Megaro, Gaudens. Vittorio Alfieri: Forerunner of Italian Nationalism. 1930. Reprint. New York: Octagon Books, 1975. This study of Alfieri focuses on his political thoughts and actions, while shedding light on his literary output. Bibliography and index.
Miller, Charles. Alfieri: A Biography. Williamsport, Pa.: Bayard Press, 1936. Excellent biographical study.
Tusiani, Joseph. From Marino to Marinetti: An Anthology of Forty Italian Poets. New York: Baroque Press, 1974. Provides a selection of Alfieri’s poetry in English.
Wilkins, Ernest H. A History of Italian Literature. Revised by Thomas G. Bergin. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1974. Contains important discussions of Alfieri.