SOURCE: “Hatred of Tyranny and Love of Liberty,” in Vittorio Alfieri: Forerunner of Italian Nationalism, Columbia University Press, 1930, pp. 41-62.

In the following excerpt, Megaro discusses the themes of tyranny and liberty in Alfieri's tragedies. Megaro also emphasizes the political and cultural effects of Alfieri's writings on Italian nationalism.

Hatred of Tyranny and Love of Liberty

One who reads the works of Alfieri is struck by the intensity of his hatred of tyranny and of his love of liberty. “My predominant passion”, he once wrote, “is the hatred of tyranny; the only aim of all my thoughts, words and writings is to combat it always in every form, be it mild, frenetic or stupid, in which it manifests or hides itself”.¹ For him, it appears, the dominant struggle in the world has been between two forces—that of tyranny and that of liberty. References to this theme are...