SOURCE: “Alfieri and Tragedy,” in A Teacher of Dante and Other Studies in Italian Literature, Moffat, Yard & Company, 1908, pp. 299-341.

In the following excerpt, Dole examines Alfieri's early life and literary education as portrayed in Alfieri's autobiography.

Ranieri de'Casalbigi, in a long letter criticising Alfieri's first four printed tragedies, begins with the statement that the Italians had been hitherto shamefully poor in tragedy, vergognasamente poveri nella tragedia, and after making some very reasonable criticisms on the unnaturalness of the complications, the absurdity or puerility of the conceptions, the languidness of the verse, the inharmoniousness of the poetry of the Tragic Muse of Italy, he proceeds to suggest the reasons why there was such a dearth of masterpieces.

This letter was written more than a century ago, and from his standpoint is quite satisfactory: but we now know far more thoroughly and understand better the social and political conditions...