A Manual of Italian Literature

by Francis Henry Cliffe

[CHAPTER XVII.]

PROSE WRITERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

The Prose Writers of the Eighteenth Century need not detain us long, for with the exception of the Comedies of Goldoni, few works have any sort of vitality. Some authors, especially writers of Memoirs, wrote in French, like Casanova and Goldoni himself, whose Autobiography is in that language. Indeed, for some years, the danger seemed to be imminent that French would be as much used as Latin had been in former ages.

Goldoni is a delightful writer, and some of his best comedies still keep the stage. Those who have read Goldsmith's Good-natured Man and She Stoops to Conquer, can form an accurate idea of what Goldoni was. There is the same geniality, the same broad humour, the same light, but effective delineation of character, and the same sparkling and ingenious dialogue. If Goldoni has a fault, it is that his plots are sometimes too thin, and that his comedies occasionally betray the haste in which they were written. A few of his plays are in verse, and some are in the Venetian dialect in which he is always racy and spirited. He was a very fertile writer, and if many of his works are inferior to his best, they all bear testimony to the fertility and originality of his mind, and he deserves to be celebrated as the best writer of comedy that his country has produced.

The performance of Goldoni's Comedies may still be witnessed with pleasure, and his masterpiece, La Locandiera, has recently been seen in London with the celebrated Eleonora Duse as Mirandolina. The character of the heroine and the art with which she keeps her forward lovers at bay, are admirably conceived. Il Burbero Benefico is hardly inferior. It deals with a man who, under a rough surface, hides a tender heart.[1] Le Donne Curiose has many amusing situations, brought about by the prying curiosity of some women. Il Poeta Fanatico, gives a laughable idea of the third-rate literary academies of his day, and the character of the poet who is always at a loss for a rhyme, is amusingly drawn. La Famiglia dell' Antiquario, offers a ludicrous exposure of the gullibility of collectors and amateurs who have neither taste nor knowledge. Le Smanie per la Villeggiatura takes for its theme the passion of Venetian families for spending some months of the year in villas on the mainland. L'Impresario has some delightfully comic scenes between an Operatic Manager and his company. L'Avaro treats the same topic as Molière in one of his comedies, and with hardly less success. Il Ventaglio is ingenious in plot and vivacious in dialogue. I Rusteghi, Le Baruffe Chiozzotte, Sior Todero Brontolon, and several other Comedies, are in the Venetian dialect, in which he is quite it home, and in which he shows a vivacity and originality worthy of all praise. As his works contain nothing immoral or in any way indelicate they have always been in use at educational establishments for theatricals in those classes where Italian is taught. Goldoni is neither a philosophical nor a very profound writer, but he is delightfully vivacious, and there is hardly one of his comedies that the reader would not like to peruse a second time.

The brothers Gasparo and Carlo Gozzi were Venetians, like Goldoni, but they were his rivals, and not his friends. Gasparo was a good literary essayist, and he wrote the Osservatore, a sort of imitation of Addison's Spectator. He also defended Dante against Bettinelli's attacks. Carlo produced some fantastic and imaginative plays, one of which Schiller adapted for the German Stage, under the title of Turandot, Princess of China. He has plenty of imagination, but his poetical talents are hardly powerful enough to give adequate expression to his really brilliant and original ideas.

A very different writer from these vivacious Venetians was the learned Muratori, for many years Librarian to the Duke of Modena. He was a man of immense erudition and indefatigable industry. His works in Latin and Italian fill more than one hundred volumes. His Annali d'Italia constitute his most valuable work. He also wrote a treatise, Della Perfetta Poesia. He died in 1750.

Saverio Bettinelli, a Jesuit, may, perhaps, be taken as the most perfect embodiment of the Italian literary man of the Eighteenth Century. He had the light and easy style, the narrow canons of taste and judgement, and the humane and benevolent spirit that characterised his contemporaries. Although a Priest, he was a correspondent of Voltaire, and the Italian Jesuit joined with the French Philosopher in condemning the extravagant conceptions of those dreadful barbarians, Dante and Shakespeare. In Dante he could discover absolutely no merit, and he wrote long essays to convert his countrymen to his views. As a poet, he is not without fluency and elegance, qualities which are also conspicuous in his prose, which may still be read with pleasure, though hardly with profit. His Tragedies appear very poor by the side of those of Alfieri. He had plenty of learning and some acuteness, and the tone of his mind is eminently judicious, but he could hardly rise to the appreciation of conceptions greater than his own, and the shrine at which he worshipped was that of academic elegance and delicate refinement. He was inspired with genuine patriotism which led him to write not only his chief historical work, Risorgimento d'Italia, but also some of his most spirited poems. His death took place in 1808, at the great age of ninety.

Antonio Magliabecchi was one of the greatest marvels of erudition that ever lived. He was a goldsmith by trade, but his heart was in his books, and through the patronage of Michael Ermini, Librarian to Cardinal Medici, he obtained access to a library extensive enough to quench even his thirst for knowledge. When his friend Ermini died, he became his successor as Librarian. All day long he locked himself up in his house, reading from morning till night, and only after dark did he open his door, and then only to admit men of taste and learning in order to indulge in erudite conversation. His habits were almost those of a hermit. He wore an old coat which served him as an apparel by day and a blanket by night. A straw-bottomed chair acted as table for his frugal meals, and another chair, hardly more comfortable, was his bed in which he sat up at night reading, reading, reading until he fell asleep from sheer fatigue. The marvel is that such industry, coupled with such privations, did not undermine his health, but we hear nothing of injurious results. He was very kind and benevolent in character, always ready to assist the inquiring with his knowledge and the needy with his money. He died in 1714. He was a Florentine by birth, and he left his library to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and also a sum of money, the interest of which was to be used for the purpose of making valuable additions to the volumes already collected. This library is still open to the public in Florence. Magliabecchi both by precept and example, gave an impetus to learning and research, but he did not offer to the world any works of his own, contenting himself with editing the lucubrations of others. Although he never travelled, he was well acquainted, by catalogues and descriptions, with the libraries of other cities. There is an anecdote of an acquaintance asking him how many copies were known to be extant of a book noted for its rarity. "Only three," was Magliabecchi's reply. "One belongs to me; one is in the Vatican, and the third at Constantinople in the library of the Grand Turk; you will find it in the third room, on the bottom shelf to the right as you enter, where it is the seventh volume."

A noble family of Verona, the Maffei, gave two eminent men to the Italy of the Eighteenth Century. The Marquis Alessandro Maffei entered the services of the Elector of Bavaria, and rose to be Field Marshal. He was instrumental in gaining the great victory over the Turks at Belgrade in 1717. He died in Munich in 1730, and left Memoirs which are both well-written and valuable as illustrating the history of his times. His brother, Scipione Maffei, was born on the first of June, 1675. Scipione entered the Army and served under his brother during the War of the Spanish Succession. His first work was a book against the practice of duelling. When he returned to his native city, he published a literary journal in conjunction with Apostolo Zeno and Vallisnieri. He wrote a comedy, La Ceremonia, and a tragedy, Merope, which became widely celebrated throughout Europe as the prototype of Voltaire's tragedy on the same subject. Voltaire dedicated his Merope to Maffei, but he was in reality jealous of the reputation the Italian work had acquired, and under a thin disguise he published letters laying bare its foibles and defects. The task was not very difficult, for Maffei's Merope, beyond the fact of emanating from the pen of an elegant scholar, has little to recommend it. The characters are not very vividly drawn, and the blank verse is rather languid and unimpressive. His best and most enduring work is the Verona Illustrata, a magnificent contribution to the history of his native town. He died in 1755.