SOURCE: “Biblical Exegesis in Alfieri's Saul,” in South Atlantic Bulletin, Vol. 38, No. 2, May, 1973, pp. 3-7.

In the following essay, Hilary considers Alfieri's understanding of sin as illustrated in the tragedy Saul.

Vittorio Alfieri selected the subject of his tragedy Saul from the Old Testament account of the Hebrew king and developed a powerful drama justly considered his best by many critics.¹ Saul is ideally suited to Alfieri both from the point of view of technique and of personality. The author's rigid neoclassical concept of the threefold unity of character, scene, and action is nowhere more clearly illustrated than in Saul.² Throughout his autobiography Alfieri states his love of liberty and hatred of tyranny. The personality of Saul is his optimum example, distilling the entire struggle of good against evil, hatred and envy versus love, liberty opposing tyranny, into the single character of the protagonist.

Thus, Alfieri's choice of...