It is hard for the lover of Shakespearean tragedy to be just to the merits of Alfieri.  There is a uniformity, or even a monotony, in these nineteen plays, whose characters are more or less alike, whose method of procedure is the same, whose sentiments are analogous, and in which an activity devoid of incident hurries the reader to an inevitable conclusion, foreseen from the first act.

And yet the student cannot fail to detect great tragic power, sombre and often unnatural, but never producing that sense of the ridiculous which sometimes mars the effect of Victor Hugo’s dramas.  The plots are never obscure, the language is never trivial, and the play ends with a climax which leaves a profound impression.

The very nature of Alfieri’s tragedies makes it difficult to represent him without giving a complete play.  The following extracts, however, illustrate admirably the horror and power of his climaxes.

L. Oscar Kuhnes

AGAMEMNON

[During the absence of Agamemnon at the siege of Troy, Aegisthus, son of Thyestes and the relentless enemy of the House of Atreus, wins the love of Clytemnestra, and with devilish ingenuity persuades her that the only way to save her life and his is to slay her husband.]

     ACT IV—­SCENE I

     AEGISTHUS—­CLYTEMNESTRA

Aegisthus—­To be a banished man, ... to fly, ... to die:  ...  These are the only means that I have left.  Thou, far from me, deprived of every hope Of seeing me again, wilt from thy heart Have quickly chased my image:  great Atrides Will wake a far superior passion there; Thou, in his presence, many happy days Wilt thou enjoy—­These auspices may Heaven Confirm—­I cannot now evince to thee A surer proof of love than by my flight; ...  A dreadful, hard, irrevocable proof.

     Clytemnestra—­If there be need of death, we both will die!—­
     But is there nothing left to try ere this?

     Aegis.—­Another plan, perchance, e’en now remains; ...  But
     little worthy ...

     Cly.—­And it is—­

     Aegis.—­Too cruel.

     Cly.—­But certain?

     Aegis.  Certain, ah, too much so!

     Cly.—­How Canst thou hide it from me?

     Aegis.—­How canst thou Of me demand it?

          Cly.—­What then may it be? ... 
     I know not ...  Speak:  I am too far advanced;
     I cannot now retract:  perchance already
     I am suspected by Atrides; maybe
     He has the right already to despise me: 
     Hence do I feel constrained, e’en now, to hate him;
     I cannot longer in his presence live;
     I neither will, nor dare.—­Do thou, Aegisthus,
     Teach me a means, whatever it may be,
     A means by which I may withdraw myself
     From him forever.