SOURCE: “The Birth of a Theater,” in Vittorio Alfieri, Twayne Publishers, 1984, pp. 1-20.

In the following excerpt, Betti examines Alfieri's early writings for evidence of his methods for writing tragedy, his political stance on tyranny, and his cultural context.

The Author

Vittorio Alfieri was born on the eve of the second half of the eighteenth century, on January 17, 1749. A year earlier an important historical event had taken place in Europe: the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, which brought to an end the Austrian wars of succession—a power struggle which had engaged all major European states.

The political structure determined by that event enjoyed a certain stability and lasted for about four decades, until the crisis of 1789 and the French Revolution¹. That span of time encompassed most of Alfieri's life (he died in 1803) and saw the major body of his work—his tragic theater—come into existence.

Alfieri is commonly...