MASCHERONIANA. The ana) of Vincenzo Monti (1754-1826) is an un finished epic "vision') in five cantos of terra rima. It represents the third of four periods into which Monti's intellectual and artistic life may be divided. The first is the period of the Arcadian lyrics and the tragedies; the second that of the (Bassvilliana) (1793), a diatribe against the French Terror; the third, that of the Napoleonic poems, the and (1797), the 'Mascheroniana' (1801) d the 'Bard of the Black Forest' (1806) ; the fourth (1815-19) that of the "Austrian" poems, the 'Mystic May,' the 'Return of Astrea', the 'Invitation to Pallas,' the classic translations and the critical works.
Monti's permanent and most interesting distinction is that, as a man thoroughly per meated with the culture and mental traits of the Old Regime, he lived through the Revolu tionary period without understanding any as pect of it. In the course of his life he assumed with equal sincerity the position of each dominant party. He assailed the Revolution and then accepted it. He hailed Napoleon the liberator, and then Napoleon the despot. Ital ians like to find in all these gyrations a thread of consistency: the concept of resurrected Italy. Unfortunately, however, Monti also and sang the Austrian restoration.
This mental confusion, not to say moral perversity, has its counterpart in Monti's poetry. He is fundamentally an Arcadian, who vaguely perceives the emotions and the character of a new age, without visualizing them clearly as an artist and without finding for them an ap propriate formal expression. In a sense this makes his poems extremely interesting; for wholly in the Arcadian manner, they are ad mirably calculated to show the limitations of that manner. The 'Mascheroniana,' which owes its popularity in Italy to its nationalistic spirit, aims to project the miserable Italy of the revolution upon the great Italy of the past and a greater Italy of the future, of which to be sure Napoleon is to be the artisan. Here is a
trite theme but one of potentiality. Monti, however, being Monti, transports it into the Arcadian world, a world by itself, apart from, perhaps superior to, any real world. It becomes "literature" through "plot" and "form." As regards plot, Monti invents a vision of the Dante series: to commemorate a friend, he nar rates the passing of the soul of Lorenzo Mascheroni, an eminent mathematician, from earth to heaven, bringing him, en route, in touch with the souls of Parini, Beccaria and others. These great Italians discourse on con temporary and past Italian conditions. Critics who like "literature" find, in the elaborate descriptions here, distinguished merits of vivacity and coloring. Then, as we pass to °form," we get a wealth of allusion, classic and Italian; but especially great ingeniousness of metaphor, and a truly remarkable success in epigram and sententiousness. Here, indeed, we find those traits which give Monti kinship with the greatest writers and which by themselves give the a place in literary history. But that is all. Monti cannot solve the neo-classic paradox: he cannot bring his virtual poetic theme (nationalism or patriotism) into contact with his "plot" and his "form. The 'theme remains undeveloped, and the plot and the form without poetic life. When Monti, for instance, wishes to denounce Robespierre, he pictures God shuddering on his throne and the angels gracefully hiding very beautiful heads under very beautiful wings. All this has nothing to do with Robespierre. The vice of neo-classicism is that it works an three parallel lines, one for the !plot," another for the °form" (figure, allusion, episode, metaphor) ; and another for the animating poetic emotion. And the lines never meet. The 'Mascheroni ana) is a classic poem; and it died, as a poem, with the school it represents, retaining an his torical interest, for its characteristic defects, and as one of the records of Monti's intel lectual reversals.