THE RISORGIMENTO Since 1821 the literature of Italy has been mainly con cerned with political events. The names of romanticists and classicists survived, but the representatives of either school were actuated by patriotism. Pellico's Mie Prigioni and Niccolini's Arnaldo have been mentioned ; Leopardi and Manzoni themselves had given expression to patriotic sentiments in their poems. Both of them had produced works too masterly to allow of successful imitations. Despite this Manzoni's novel created so deep an im pression that several writers of little merit followed in his tracks. The novels of Varese, Rosini, Sacchi and many others are scarcely deserving of record; but there were also written works that can not so lightly be dismissed. T. Grossi (179o-1853), Manzoni's friend, composed a historical novel, Marco Visconti, lacking in vigour of characterization and conventional in its description of the middle ages, which enjoyed, however, a large measure of popu larity. Massimo Tapparelli d'Azeglio (1798-1866), a painter and a statesman as well as an author, had a political object in view in writing his Ettore Fieramosca on a heroic episode of the Renais sance, and his Niccolo de' Lapi on the private life of a Florentine family of the middle classes during the siege of 1530. Though it is overcrowded with incidents, the first of these two novels is full of zest. Later D'Azeglio became a political man and was several times prime minister; during a period of leisure he composed an excellent book of memoirs, I miei ricordi. D'Azeglio was a Pied montese and a monarchist. Yet another author of historical novels, F. D. Guerrazzi (5804-73), was born at Leghorn and was a repub lican and a follower of Mazzini. With him writing was a means of fighting against oppression ; he led the Tuscan revolution of 1848 and in the intervals of political activity he brought out sev eral novels of which the Assedio di Firenze is the most notable. His style is frankly rhetorical and his historical accuracy is open to criticism, nevertheless there was such vigour and conviction in his writing as strongly to impress his readers. Garibaldi knew Foscolo's Sepo/cri by heart and his followers called each other by the names of Guerrazzi's characters. It is among Garibaldians that one finds the last historical novelists. G. C. Abba, the his torian of the Thousand, wrote Sulle rive della Bormida on an episode of the French domination in Piedmont ; and the Friulian Ippolito Nievo, who also was one of the Thousand, wrote besides several volumes of poems and tales, Le memorie di un ottuage nario, a cyclic novel that just falls short of being a masterpiece through lack of revision, Nievo having been drowned in 1861 in his 29th year.
The pressure of political events caused many works to be writ ten, most of which were of course of ephemeral value, though not a few are of notable importance. G. Mazzini wrote profusely on art, literature and music ; at first he championed romanticism, later he opposed it as laying too great a stress on the individual, but at all periods his style was as vigorous as his convictions were sincere; among his political works may be mentioned Fede ed avvenire (1835), Doveri degli uomini (1844) and Ai giovani d' Italia (1860). Balbo, the historian, should also be recorded here as the author of the essay Le speranze d'Italia, but more important was V. Gioberti (1801-52), a Piedmontese priest who left his country and the clergy owing to his love of liberty, a philosopher and a man of wide vision. In 1843 he published his Primato morale e civile degli Italiani in which he urged the moral and his torical right of the Italians to independence, and the creation of an Italian confederation under the presidency of the pope. This book formed the basis of the political creed of the Italians, other than the followers of Mazzini, who took part in the events of 1848-49. The failure of the revolution caused him to revise his opinions and to advocate the institution of a monarchy under the house of Savoy in his Rinnovamento civile d'Italia (1851).
In view of the object of their works it is not inappropriate to mention some poets among the political writers. The lyrics of Poerio, Mercantini and Mameli, who died at the age of 21 fighting at Rome in 1849, are little better than impromptu poems, but particularly those of Mameli are so sincere and vigorous as to have survived the generation for which they were composed. G. Giusti's (1809-49) poems have greater literary merit. His satires, not unlike Beranger's, were greedily read, but he seldom gave the full measure of his capabilities as in the lyric Sant' Ambrogio. Dall' Ongaro, Aleardi and G. Prati were sentimental romanticists and patriots, but there was little beyond melody and sentimen tality in their poems. They and the mediocre imitators of Man zoni brought romanticism into disrepute and prepared the way for Carducci's reaction. In other departments of literature there was no outstanding figure. P. Cossa was a successful playwright who composed tragedies on Roman subjects; P. Ferrari of Modena (1822-89) transformed the romantic comedy of Gherardi del Testa into modern drama either illustrating a historical period or stating a social problem.
to history for inspiration, to the classics as models ; and he believed his literary gifts to invest him with a political mission. As poet seer endowed with a forceful personality, much learning and un compromising sincerity he exercised a kind of literary dictator ship. His poems dating from 1861 to 1900 and published under various titles are collected in his Poesie. He was also a polished writer of prose and a scholarly historian of literature ; a construc tive critic he was not, and philosophical criticism such as that of De Sanctis was distasteful to him. F. de Sanctis (1818-83), who was exiled by the Bourbons of Naples, considered literature the expression of social and moral conditions, and on the basis of a sound philosophical training on the works of Vico and Hegel he inaugurated aesthetic criticism. His Saggi critici and particularly his masterly Storia della letteratura italiana were not fully or generally appreciated in his days, but have since received recog nition and formed the starting point of the philosophical revival of the later 19th century.
In creative literature his generation turned for inspiration to foreign realism. The forceful style and rugged personality of A. Oriani (d. 1909), a novelist, essayist and historian (La lotta tica in Italia), passed almost unnoticed and has only received due attention in recent years. Minor if popular novelists were S. Farina and G. Rovetta; G. Verga's success was not immediate but proved lasting (184o-1922). He was a realist, and his two best novels (I Malavoglia; Mastro don Gesualdo) describe with great power the dismal conditions prevailing in Sicily during the first part of the century. A friend and a follower of his was L. Capuana, and the much younger F. de Roberto (d. 1927), who wrote a masterly novel (I Vicere), must be considered as belong ing to the same group. In order to secure a realistic reproduction of life all these writers kept to local subjects, as if feeling the appeal of regional life, and the same may be said of the Neapoli tan Matilde Serao and the Sardinian Grazia Deledda. To some extent it could be said of A. Fogazzaro of Vicenza (1842-1911) although his characters move in a wider circle. He was a deeply religious man and was much influenced by Manzoni and the German romanticists. Among his novels Daniele Cortis and par ticularly Piccolo mondo antico are the finest, while Il Santo is better known outside Italy owing to the criticism which it called forth from the ecclesiastical authorities. Together with these "regionalist" novelists may be mentioned dialectal playwrights of whom there were many and of great merit. The Venetian Gia cinto Gallina and the Neapolitan S. di Giacomo (b. 186o) wrote plays of great emotional power. Di Giacomo is also an inspired poet and with him may be mentioned C. Pascarella, some of whose poems in Roman dialect are extraordinarily incisive.
While Carducci was still active G. Pascoli (1855-1912) ac quired a great reputation and succeeded him in the chair at Bologna. His art was impressionistic and fragmentary, and his language occasionally childish and laborious; despite this there are passages of great beauty in some of his poems, particularly in Myricae, so that he shared popular favour with G. d'Annunzio (1864-1938). D'Annunzio was so unusual a writer as to be diffi cult to classify ; as a novelist and tragedian he echoed in turn Verga, Dostoievsky, Tolstoi and Nietzsche. He attained a large measure of success, but such success as he achieved was due to the glittering wealth of his elaborate style rather than to any intrinsic merit. His genius is essentially lyrical, and it is in some sections of his long poem Libro delle Laudi that he shows himself at his best. Beside men of such stature, lesser men, however de serving of notice, almost pale into insignificance—poets as honest and highminded as G. Giacosa of Turin, novelists as thoughtful as E. de Marchi and E. A. Butti, poets as gifted as A. Graf, G. Marradi and M. Rapisardi.
The political reorganization following upon the establishment of the kingdom offered opportunities to scholars, and, during the second part of the 19th century, under the inspiration of such teachers as A. d'Ancona, A. Bartoli, C. de Leva, P. Villari and other professors, a great amount of scholarly research was carried out and expounded in learned monographs. Facts were ascertained and obscure points were cleared up in political and literary history. The historical method prevailed. It was due to B. Croce (b. 1864), a follower of De Sanctis, that aesthetic criticism won recog nition. By his Estetica and his many critical essays Croce changed the whole outlook of the younger generation on literary matters. Though his evaluation of individual authors is occasionally at fault, his influence has been most beneficial. Such praise he must share with another philosopher, G. Gentile, whose works on liter ary criticism are models of penetration. He is an active teacher and has among the young men of the day a larger and more en thusiastic following than Croce. (H. 0. ; C. F.)