FAYETTE LA. [LAFAYETTE.] FEDEItI'CI CAMILLO, an Italian dramatic writer of note, whose real name, Giovanni Battista Viassolo, is, like that of Poquelin (Moliere), quite lost in that which he assumed on joining a company of actors and beginning to write for the stage, and which he took from the title of his first dramatic effort, ' Camillo a Federico.' Ha was born at Garessio in Piedmont, 9th April 1749. Intended by his family for either the church or the bar, ha was educated accordingly at Turin, but a passionate taste for the theatre, which had captivated his imagination while he was yet In his boyhood, prevailed over all other considerations. After being for some years in different companiea in the double capacity of a performer upon the stage and a writer for it, he had, in 1777, the good fortune to find an excellent wife in the widow of Vicenzo Bazzigotti, who had realised some fortune by the theatre as a manager. The union was a happy ona on both .idea, for his wife was not only an amiable, but an intelligent and well-educated woman, possessing considerable literary taste. Federici now quitted the boards, and settled at Padua, where he employed himself in com posing a succession of new pieces for the theatrea of both that city and Venice. The juncture was a favourable one, for Goldoni's popularity was upon the wane, Gozzi had ceased to write for the stage, and Chiari was altogether forgotten. Without treading in the footateps of Goldoni, Federici showed himself a worthy successor to him, inferior in comic force, but equally fertile in invention, and more varied in his aubjecte, many of his pieces being of a serious and sentimental kind— then just brought into fashion in Germany—accordingly anawering better to the title of domestic drama than comedy. Federici'a fame was not confined to the applause of the public whose favour he had more immediately in view, for his piecea were brought out with equal aucceas in almost every theatre throughout Italy. But this full tide
of prosperity waa suddenly checked by a calamity that human pru dence could neither foresee nor avert. He was attacked, in 1791, by a malady of the chest, that rendered him incapable of all exertion, either bodily or mental; nor did he ever afterwards recover from it further than to be able to dictate either to hia wife or one of his sons, who served him as amanuenses. To add to his distress, soon after his disorder first seized him, he learnt that Pellandi, the manager of one of the companies for which he had written, had surreptitiously aold twenty-nine of his pieces to a publisher at Turin—au injury which the increased celebrity it brought to his name could hardly soften.
Federici died 23rd December 1802. Amiable and unassuming, be had invariably resisted every proposal to his becoming a member of any literary or learned society ; but he could not prevent one public mark of honour being paid him, namely, a medal being struck, with the head of Alfieri on one aide, and his own on the other—as the effigiea of the two dramatic writers whom Piedmont had reason to be proud of having given birth to. The high reputation he obtained has been confirmed by the testimony of foreign critics. One quality that recommends his productions is the healthy tone of morality that generally pervades them; neither is it the least of hia merits, that ha enlarged the resources of the Italian stage, by bringing subjects upon it that were calculated to amend and improve as well as amuse. Besidea hia serioua pieces, ha produced a few tragedies, which would, however, hardly have associated him in the manner above mentioned with Alfieri. The most complete collection of his works is that pub lished under the title of ' Opera Teatrali di Camillo Federici,' Padova e Venezia, 1802.16, in fourteen volumes.