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not proceed. But the Didone (a) does not appear to have SECT. met with the same success: and we are told, that, at its second representation, an accident happened, which gave the author great pain, and made him regret, that the play had ever seen the light. Of the nature of this accident we are ignorant; but the fact itself is, it may be presumed, unquestionable, as the circumstance is related by Tiberio d'Armano, the actor that performed the part of the god of love, who disguised as Ascanius, recites the prologue. Riccoboni, who has analysed this tragedy, censures the poet, for announcing the appearance of the shade of Sicarus; but he acknowledges, that the character of Æneas is "conservé à merveille;" and bestows warm praise on the language of the piece. "La diction me paroît parfaite; la douceur et la majesté y regnent toujours, il n'y à pas une parole qu'on puisse lui reprocher, soit pour les sentimens, pour la morale, ou pour la politique, tout répond à la dignité tragique sans s'élever aux nuës, et sans descendre trop bas." He proceeds; "enfin je pense que si cette tragedie étoit traduite dans une autre langue, elle ne perdroit rien dans sa traduction, et que les nations les plus accoûtumées à entendre les pensées, et les expressions les plus élevées, goûteroient la diction de cette tragedie." In the catastrophe of his heroine, Dolce follows Virgil; but there is something more awful in her manner of preparing for death,

(a) This tragedy first appeared in Venice, 1547, beautifully printed in casa de' figlioli di Aldo,

SECT. in the Italian drama, than in the noble poem of the Mantuan

Poi, che di grasse tede, e d'altri legni,
Atti à presto avampar d'ardenti fiamme,
Anna compose l'infelice rogo,
(Com' ordinato havea l'afflitta Dido)
Del gran palazzo in piu secreta parte
Et poi, che fur distese le ghirlande,
Et di funebri rami il luogo cinto;
Vi pose sopra di quel fier la spada,

I panni, e'l letto, ove gia tante volte
L'un petto à l'altro fu congiunto, è stretto:
Et l'imagin di lui vi pose anchora,
Stavan d'intorno i consacrati altari

A Proserpina, à Giove, ed à Plutone.
Quivi co i bianchi crin sciolti la maga,
Terribile à guardar, subito apparse:
Laqual tra poco con horribil voce
Chiamò quanti son dei la sù nel cielo.
Et quanti spiriti van per l'aria errando,
I dij d'inferno, l'herebo, et l'immenso
Chaos, Hecate, et seco parimente

De la vergine dea chiamò i tre volti.
Poi si parti la maga, e andò cercando,

Dovunque piacque à lei, veneni et herbe.

Of Lodovico Dolce little is known that can be related with pleasure. Born in poverty, he lived and died in indi

gence;

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gence; and the greater part of his life was embittered by li- SECT. terary warfare. His biographers speak with wonder of the early maturity and universality of his genius; and the mildness with which he treats, in many parts of his works, his malignant adversary Girolamo Ruscelli merits the praise which they bestow upon it. Dolce died in the sixtieth year of his age, and was buried in the church of San Luca, in his native city of Venice, near his friend Aretino, and his adversary Ruscelli. Besides the tragedies already mentioned, our author published a translation of the tragedies of Seneca, (b) whose coldness we may sometimes perceive creeping through his original dramas. To study Seneca is to touch the torpedo. In his paraphrase of the sixth satire of Juvenal, and in the Epithalamio di Catullo nelle nozze di Peleo et di Theti, (c) he has preserved the spirit of his originals. The former is prefaced, with a short letter of delicate and elegant compliment, to Titian the painter. In a little volume, containing those two pieces, now lying before me, I find a Dialogo del modo di tor moglie, (d) which had probably been read by Milton, as the following eulogy on matrimony may be traced in the beautiful apostrophe to wedded-love, in the

(b) The first edition of this translation is that of Venice, 1560. It is dedicated to Girolamo Faleti, Ambassador from the court of Ferrara, to the republic of Venice.

(c) Printed at Venice, in 1538, by Curtio Navo e fratelli.

(d) This dialogue opens with a beautiful description of the vicinity of Bologna, It is addressed to Federico Badoaro, in a prefatory epistle, which concludes in this singular manner: "Con quella affettione, che è secretaria de l'animo vi bascio la vertuosa mano.”

SECT. fourth book of the Paradise Lost: "O matrimonio felice e san-

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to s'io havesse parole uguali à le tue lode mai di commendarti non se ne vedrebbe stanca la voce mia. Per te è per mai sempre la vita gioiosa e lieta: per te gli huomini si fanno sempiterni e gloriosi. Viva dunque, viva il matrimonio: e chi disidera di vivere e morire contento e beato elegga per il vero e unico mezzo il matrimonio." Of the dramatic labours of our author, Il capitano (e) and la Hecuba still remain to be noticed; but, as the former is a free translation from Plautus, and the latter a faithful version of a tragedy, on the same subject, by Euripides, I shall not dwell on those pieces. In the dedication to the Hecuba, (f) Dolce pathetically alludes to the misfortunes of his life. His Giocasta I have not seen;. but I have read, with pleasure, an elegant tribute to his ge-, nius and learning, by Benedetto Guidi, in a sonnet, be-, ginning,

Fra mille dotti, et honorati ingegni.

Several other writers of tragedy flourished at the same time with Dolce; but, as their productions have not given, much celebrity to their names, we shall pass them by in silence, and proceed to notice the Soldato (g) of Angelo Leo-, nico, a native of Genoa, published at Venice, in 1550. This

(e) Ven. 1547. Con la favola d'Adone novamente corretta, et ristampata.

(f) Ven. 1543.

(g) Per. Comin. del Trino. This tragedy is written in blank verse. The continuator of the Drainmaturgia attributes a tragedy entitled Daria, to Leonico; an error into which he was led by Fontanini, Daria is the name of a principal personage in the Soldato,

drama

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drama is supposed to have given rise to the TRAGEDIA SECT. CITTADINA, (b) or domestic tragedy, a species of drama. which has been so often and, so successfully imitated by the English, French, and Germans; but has, as yet, found few imitators amongst the Italians. This, however, should not excite our surprise; for the Italians had learned from the ancients, the masters under whom they studied, that the tragic muse should always appear clad in imperial purple.

Another species of tragedy, (if I may so term it) was invented in this age; I mean the PROSE TRAGEDY, or Drame. According to Baretti, the first Italian tragedy in prose, was the Tamar of Giambattista de Velo, which appeared in Vicenza, 1586. Riccoboni, who never saw this tragedy, erroneously observes, that the Cianippo of Agostino Michelle, which was printed in Bergamo in 1596, was the first and only prose tragedy of this age. (i) It was probably to prepare the public for the reception of this drama, that the author published in Venice, 1592, " Discorso, in cui si mostra, come si possano scriver con molta lode, le comedie, e le tragedie in prosa." We are, perhaps, indebted for this discourse to La Forza del Fato, overo il Matrimonio nella morte, a

(b) The French, literally translating the Italian denomination, call this species of drama "tragédie bourgeoise." The Dutch follow their example. Of this, an instance occurs in Sir C. Van Hoogeveen's tragedy on the death of Calas, a drama, written immediately after the melancholy event upon which it is founded, and dedicated to the widow and children of the unfortunate hero of the piece.

(i) Hist. du theatre Ital. tom, i, p. 109.

prose