SOURCE: “Alfieri's Saul as Enlightenment Tragedy,” in Comparative Drama, Vol. 33, No. 1, Spring, 1999, pp. 125-39.

In the following essay, Mazzaro examines the tragedy Saul as an example of the Enlightenment's influence on Alfieri's poetics and politics.

Vittorio Alfieri's Saul was written in 1782, six years after the American colonies declared their independence from England and while the Italian playwright was involved with the Countess of Albany, wife of the aging Young Pretender to the British crown, Charles Edward Stuart. Alfieri had already written Of Tyranny (1777), assisted the Countess in her escape from her raving husband, and had as well composed the first four odes of All'America libera (1781). This last had been dedicated to George Washington and affirmed the Italian writer's support for the principles of political freedom that underscored the American Revolution. Like other intellectuals of his day, Alfieri opposed oppression and superstition, advocating right reason and political freedom; given...