ALFIE RI, Vrrronto, Cor.zr, a modern Italian dramatic poet, was b. at Asti, iu Piedmont, on the 17th Jan., 1749. He received a very defective education in his father's house, and was then sent to the academy of Turin, which he quitted, as ignorant and uninformed as he had entered it, to join a provincial regiment. After a hurried tour through the greater part of Europe, he returned to Turin in 1772. He then left the military service, and renouncing idleness and unworthy amours, devoted himself to lit erary occupation. The applause which his first attempts received, encouraged him in his determination to win fame as a dramatic author. But as he clearly saw the deficien cies of his education, he began at a mature age to learn Latin, and also to study the Tus can dialect, for which purpose he went to Tuscany. On his journey thither, A. made the acquaintance of the countess of Albany (q.v.), to whom he became deeply attached. To render himself worthy of her esteem, he strove with unremitting earnestness after poetic excellence ; and in order to be perfectly free and independent of all other cares, he transferred his whole property to his sister, in exchange for an annuity. A. now lived alternately in Florence and in Rome. Afterwards, when his friend the countess was released from other ties by the death of her husband, they lived together in the closest intimacy in Alsace or in Paris, where A. was incessantly occupied in writing, revising, and publishing his works. There appears to have been a marriage, although it was never made public. On the first outburst of the French revolution, A. went to England, but soon returned to Paris. In 1792 he was again forced to flee from France, and he then settled with his inseparable companion in Florence. Here he d., on the 8th Oct., 1803. The ashes of A. and those of his friend repose in the church of Santa Croce, in Florence, under a beautiful monument by Canova, between the tombs of Michael Angelo and Macchiavelli. As a dramatic author, A. has attempted three different departments of his art. He published 21 tragedies, 6 comedies, and 1 " tramelogedia," a name invented by himself. His dramatic works show a want of fresh imaginative
vigor, and betray the laborious perseverance with which he did violence both to himself and to art. A. was inspired more by politics than by poetry. He wished to breathe a spirit of freedom into the dormant minds of his countrymen, and considered the theater as a school in which the people might learn to be "free, strong, and noble." In order to preserve the purity of his muse, A. had resolved to read no other poet. He wished to produce an effect by the very simplest means, and, renouncing the aid of ornament. to please by manly strength and earnestness alone. His works are on this account cold and stiff, his plots simple even to poverty, his verse hard and unpleasing, and his lan guage destitute of that magic splendor of coloring which stirs the inmost soul. Not withstanding this, A. did good service to Italian tragedy. He corrected the effeminate taste which had before prevailed, as well as the pedantry of an affected imitation of Attie models. Succeeding writers endeavored to imitate his strength and simplicity. A. was more unsuccessful in his comedies than in his tragedies. They manifest the same serious political tendency ; the invention is poor, the development of the plot uninteresting, and the characters are only general sketches, without individuality. The most successful of his dramatic works is Abel, a mixture of tragedy and opera, invented by himself, which he designated by the singular name of " tramelogedia." Besides the dramatic works of A., we possess an epic poem, in four cantos, written by him, also many lyrical poems, 16 satires, and poetical translations of Terence, Virgil, and portions of YEschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes. After his death, appeared his .1Thogallo, a memorial of his hatred to the French. The countess of Albany had a collected edition of his works published (35 vols. 4to, Pisa, 1805-1815) containing his autobiography ; Ceutofanti published Tragedie e Vita d' Alfieri (Florence, 1842).