Alfieri seemed to be attracted toward the most horrible phases of human life, and the most terrible events of history and tradition.  The passions he describes are those of unnatural love, of jealousy between father and son, of fratricidal hatred, or those in which a sense of duty and love for liberty triumphs over the ties of filial and parental love.  In treating the story of the second Brutus, it was not enough for his purpose to have Caesar murdered by his friend; but, availing himself of an unproven tradition, he makes Brutus the son of Caesar, and thus a parricide.

[Illustration:  V. ALFIERI]

It is interesting to notice his vocabulary; to see how constantly he uses such words as “atrocious,” “horror,” “terrible,” “incest,” “rivers,” “streams,” “lakes,” and “seas” of blood.  The exclamation, “Oh, rage” occurs on almost every page.  Death, murder, suicide, is the outcome of every tragedy.

The actors are few,—­in many plays only four,—­and each represents a certain passion.  They never change, but remain true to their characters from beginning to end.  The villains are monsters of cruelty and vice, and the innocent and virtuous are invariably their victims, and succumb at last.

Alfieri’s purpose in producing these plays was not to amuse an idle public, but to promulgate throughout his native land—­then under Spanish domination—­the great and lofty principle of liberty which inspired his whole life.  A deep, uncompromising hatred of kings is seen in every drama, where invariably a tyrant figures as the villain.  There is a constant declamation against tyranny and slavery.  Liberty is portrayed as something dearer than life itself.  The struggle for freedom forms the subjects of five of his plays,—­’Virginia,’ ‘The Conspiracy of the Pazzi,’ ‘Timoleon,’ the ‘First Brutus,’ and the ‘Second Brutus.’  One of these is dedicated to George Washington—­’Liberator dell’ America.’  The warmth of feeling with which, in the ‘Conspiracy of the Pazzi,’ the degradation and slavery of Florence under the Medici is depicted, betrays clearly Alfieri’s sense of the political state of Italy in his own day.  And the poet undoubtedly has gained the gratitude of his countrymen for his voicing of that love for liberty which has always existed in their hearts.

Just as Alfieri sought to condense the action of his plays, so he strove for brevity and condensation in language.  His method of composing was peculiar.  He first sketched his play in prose, then worked it over in poetry, often spending years in the process of rewriting and polishing.  In his indomitable energy, his persistence in labor, and his determination to acquire a fitting style, he reminds us of Balzac.  His brevity of language—­which shows itself most strikingly in the omission of articles, and in the number of broken exclamations—­gives his pages a certain sententiousness, almost like proverbs.  He purposely renounced all attempts at the graces and flowers of poetry.