SOURCE: “Vittorio Alfieri,” in Alfieri and Goldoni: Their Lives and Adventures, Addey and Co., 1857, pp. 76-121.

In the following excerpt, Copping considers the reasons behind Alfieri's extraordinary efforts to publish in Italian rather than in French, his first language. The critic also discusses the influence of Alfieri's travels and relationships on his writing.

Studies

Alfieri had entered upon dramatic composition as a diversion, as a means of leading his mind from thoughts which enslaved and tormented him. That object gained, it would not have been surprising had he given no further attention to his literary performances, or merely regarded them as productions that had answered the purpose for which they were written, and from which no other result was to be obtained. But he no sooner saw them produced upon the stage than he felt an interest in them that was new to him. They were not unfavourably...