SOURCE: “Alfieri,” in The Italian Poets Since Dante, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1904, pp. 182-216.

In the following excerpt, Everett provides a survey of Alfieri's life and literary influences in order to discuss characteristics of the playwright's work, focusing specifically on his tragedies.

The degeneration of Italian poetry at the time of our Independence was so great that its restoration was sure to be a revolution—a harsh and violent process by which a Cromwell or Napoleon should strike a rude but necessary blow at the luscious languors which did duty for form, sense, and feeling. And certainly the master's hand, when he did come, was no gentle one.

Vittorio Alfieri was born at Asti in Piedmont in 1749, on the 17th of January, forty-three years after Franklin; and, like Franklin, he has told us the story of his own life and literary work with a fearless candor which stands in...