The germs of a new order of things destined to result in a revival of Italian literature begin to unfold as soon as the middle of the eighteenth century is passed. From 1750 to 1789, the data of the French Revolution, Alfieri's tragedies and Parini's verse reflect the contrast between tradi tional classicism and the course of new ideas; heNeen 1759 and 1815, the date of the Restora • tion in France, Monti and Foscolo, both remark able for the classic plasticity of their works, represent the idea of national independence and unity: from 1815 to 1850 extends a time of con trast between the romanticism of Manzoni and his followers and the classicism of Leopardi and his school. all united, however. in the struggle against the foreigner. During this whole period from the middle of the century on. the influence of the French philosophical spirit was potent in Daly. which then began also for the first time to pattern itself upon literary models front the North. especially from England and Germany.
The revival becomes obvious at once in dra matic production. The commedia dr11* arte is driven from the theatre by the comedies of Carlo Goldoni (1707-93), the great reformer of the Italian stage, who wrote clever plays in Tus can, in Venetian, and even in French. Ability to picture scenes from real life, keenness of observation. skill in the handling of dialogue. and fertility of invention are characteristics of this first great figure of the new era. Opponents of the reform of Goldoni were Pietro Chiara (1701) 85) and Carlo Gozzi k 1720-1s06. author of dra matic Fiabe); but Goldoni had many followers. The influence of French comedy. especially of Moliere. is clear in the pieces of Goldoni. as is that of French tragedy in the dramas of Vittorio Alfieri (1749-1803), his great compeer. Though he accepted the French tragic form. Alfieri gave it a peculiarly Italian significance, in fusing it with a spirit of liberty and national consciousness which inspired the young men of the next generation in their struggle against Austrian oppression. The principles animating the tragedies (Filippo, Virginia, Orestr, Saul, irirra) are also present in the other writings of Alfieri. as, for example, in the Satire, the trea tise Della tirannidc, the poem Etruria liberata. the Nisogallo directed against the French. his Rime, and his autobiography. Intensity of pa triotic sentiment prevails also in the lyrics ( ()di) of Giuseppe Parini (1729-99), works high I:• satisfactory in form and expression. Parini's most famous production is the Giorno, a de scriptive poem in blank verse in which he sat irizes the idle life of the aristocratic youth. In the Pocsie camprstri c merit time of Aurelio Pertola (1753-9R) one may see the influence both of the German Gessner and of the Latin bucolic poets, while the patriotic vein runs through the. Anima/1 rarianti of Giambattista Casti ( 1721 IS•03). Mel•hiorre Cesarotti (1730-IROR) cow pused much in prose and in verse. but he is now remembered chiefly for his translation of the so called Ussian and his version of the Iliad. The best prose writers of this first modern period were Gas pare Gozzi ( 1713-R6) . who modeled his Os.serra tore on the S'peeta tor. and in his Difesa di Dante gave renewed life to the study of the poet; Giuseppe 13aretti (1719-89), the author of Letter, famdi art, that are charming in their dese•iptive style, and of the satirical Frusta letteraria, in which lie lashed contemporary writers; and (GiroLimo Tirabosehi 117:31-94 ) , whose Ntorin /if Ila let teratura italinna extends down to the end of the seventeenth century. A man in whom eclectic
tendencies were dominant was Vincenzo Monti (1754-1828), who, rejuvenating traditional forms of Italian poetry. could breathe into them the modern spirit of liberty that the French Revolu tion had lately evoked, and add to them elements borrowed from the best that foreign literature could offer, lle began with imitations of the Arcadian manner of Frugoni. but applied himself before long to more serious purposes, and reviv ing the form of the Dantesque poem in his Bass rilliana, which describes the horrible excesses of revolution, he next constituted himself the spokesman of democracy in his tragedy. raio Grace°, and in a number of other no less impor tant works. His translation of the Iliad is a performance of some merit. A no less typical personage of the time between the French Revo lution and the fall of Napoleon was 1.7go Foseolo (177S-1827 ) whose compositions echo the Italian aversion to the Imperial sway of Napoleon. An imitator of Alfieri in his tragedy Ticsic. Foseolo copied Goethe's Wcrther in his Cltime lettere di Jacopo Ort is. it is masterpiece is the poem I which, recalling the glories of past heroes, stimulated the Italians of his time to action imitative thereof ; his tragedy .1 jarr is in a classic strain. while another tragedy. llieciarda, deals will] mediaeval tradition. In his Poesic campestri, 1ppolito Pindemonte (I753-1823) rests under obligations to English poets as well as to the Greeks and Latins: his Sepo/cri is an answer to Foseolo's work. Pindemonte trans lated the into blank verse. From the prose writers of the Napoleonic period we may single out Carlo Botta (17C,6-1837). an advocate of political freedom in his historical works CS/or/ft della yuerra d'indipenden:.-a dent; slat:, rniti and Storia d'Italia dal 17S9 gl 1814); Giovanni Giraud ( 1776-1834 ) , whose comedies French models; Luigi Lanzi ( 1732-1810 ) . who wrote the Sloth' pittorice d'Italin ; and Leopoldo Cieognara (1767-1834), the author of the Storia della scoltnra. A purist in speech and an ardent admirer of the older masters of the fourteenth century, of whose works he prepared editions. was Antonio Cesari (1760-18281, whose etTorts were. paralleled by those of Illiehele Colombo (1747-1338). With the end of the Napoleonic regime, the feeling for niedbrval independence began to grow stronger and stronger, and finally it culminated in the struggle with the Austrians in 1548. The senti ment of the leaders of national thought at this time found expression in many works of value, categorized. as the ease may he, as belonging to the Classic or the Romantic School. In all alike the idea of political unity ruled supreme. While the Romantic School was under the influ ence of German and English literature with its centre in Lombardy (for its organ. the (`onrilia tore. was published at Milan). the Classic School clung to the tradition of Alfieri and Foscolo, giving preference to the forms of an tiquity as the most perfect expression of the human ideal, and receiving its greatest develop ment in Romagna. 'the leader of the former school was Manzoni. the leader of the latter was Leopard i.