PERIOD THIRD. THE SECOND REVIVAL OF ITALIAN LITERATURE, AND ITS PRESENT CONDITION (1675-1885).

1. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE THIRD PERIOD.—At the close of the seventeenth century, a new dawn arose in the history of Italian letters, and the general corruption which had extended to every branch of literature and paralyzed the Italian mind began to be arrested by the appearance of writers of better taste; the affectations of the Marinists and of the so-called Arcadian poets were banished from literature; science was elevated and its dominion extended, the melodrama, comedy, and tragedy recreated, and a new spirit infused into every branch of composition. Amidst the clash of arms and the vicissitudes of long and bloody wars, Italy began to awake from her lethargy to the aspiration for greater and better things, and her intellectual condition soon underwent important changes and improvements. In the eighteenth century, in Naples, Vico transformed history into a new science. Filangeri contended with Montesquieu for the palm of legislative philosophy; and new light was thrown on criminal science by Mario Pagano. In Rome, letters and science flourished under the patronage of Benedict XIV., Clement XIV., and Pius VI., under whose auspices Quirico Visconti undertook his “Pio Clementine Museum” and his “Greek and Roman Iconography,” the two greatest archaeological works of all ages. Padua was immortalized by the works of Cesarotti, Belzoni, and Stratico; Venice by Goldoni; Verona by Maffei, the critic and the antiquarian, as well as the first reformer of Italian tragedy. Tuscany took the lead of the intellectual movement of the country under Leopold and his successor Ferdinand, when Florence, Pisa, and Siena again became seats of learning and of poetry and the arts. Maria Theresa and Joseph II. fostered the intellectual progress of Lombardy; Spallanzani published his researches on natural philosophy; Volta discovered the pile which bears his name; a new era in poetry was created by Parinl; another in criminal jurisprudence by Beccaria; history was reconstructed by Muratori; mathematics promoted by Lagrange, and astronomy by Oriani; and Alfieri restored Italian letters to their primitive splendor.

But at the close of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth, Italy became the theatre of political and military revolutions, whose influence could not fail to arrest the development of the literature of the country. The galleries, museums, and libraries of Rome, Florence, and other cities suffered from the military occupation, and many of their treasures, manuscripts, and masterpieces of art were carried to Paris by command of Napoleon. The entire peninsula was subject to French influence, which, though beneficial to its material progress, could not fail to be detrimental to national literature. All new works were composed in French, and indifferent or bad translations from the French were widely circulated; the French language was substituted for the Italian, and the national literature seemed about to disappear. But Italian genius was not wholly extinguished; a few writers powerfully opposed this new tendency, and preserved in its purity the language of Dante and Petrarch. Gradually the national spirit revived, and literature was again moulded in accordance with the national character. Notwithstanding the political calamities of which, for some time after the treaty of Vienna in 1815, Italy was continually the victim, the literature of the country awakened and fostered a sentiment of nationality, and Italian independence is at this present moment already achieved.

2. THE MELODRAMA.—The first result of the revival of letters at the close of the seventeenth century was the reform of the theatre. The melodrama, or Italian opera, arose out of the pastoral drama, which it superseded. The astonishing progress of musical science succeeded that of poetry and sculpture, which fell into decline with the decay of literature. Music, rising into excellence and importance at a time when poetry was on the decline, acquired such superiority that verse, instead of being its mistress, became its handmaid. The first occasion of this inversion was in the year 1594, when Rinuccini, a Florentine poet, associated himself with three musicians to compose a mythological drama. This and several other pieces by the same author met with a brilliant reception. Poetry, written only in order to be sung, thus assumed a different character; Rinuiccini abandoned the form of the canzone which had hitherto been used in the lyrical part of the drama, and adopted the Pindaric ode. Many poets followed in the same path; more action was given to the dramatic parts, and greater variety to the music, in which the airs were agreeably blended with the recitative duets; other harmonized pieces were also added, and after the lapse of a century Apostolo Zeno (1669-1750) still further improved the melodrama. But it was the spirit of Metastasio that breathed a soul of fire into this ingenious and happy form created by others.