Page:A History of Italian Literature - Garnett (1898).djvu/237

Rh analysed in No. 380 of the Edinburgh Review, is a good example of his tragic force, and many others might be given. The pathetic grace of the opening of his Gerardo and Elena, analysed in the same essay, is no less excellent in its more romantic and delicate way. He was a prolific writer, producing no fewer than eighty-nine novelettes, more esteemed by foreigners than by his own countrymen, who were offended by his Lombardisms. Settembrini, however, not in general favourable to the productions of the Cinque Cento, pronounces him the first Italian novelist after Boccaccio.

No imputation of rusticity can be attached to the diction of, surnamed Il Lasca (1503–83), for here the style is the main recommendation of the work. Grazzini, an apothecary by profession, was one of the chief promoters of the movement for prescribing a standard of pure Tuscan, and as one of the founders of the celebrated Academy degli Umidi, each of whose members was bound to assume the name of some fish, he called himself Il Lasca (the Roach), by which name he is best known. Such toys occupied the thoughts of Italians in an age of decay when great deeds had become impossible. Grazzini's stories are mostly taken from Florentine private life, and as such have their value, apart from the idiomatic Tuscan, which is best apprehended by the writer's countrymen. They are not of enthralling interest, and when tragical are sometimes revolting, but the exposition is easy and artistic.

of Ferrara (1504–73) is better known by name to English readers than most of his fellow-novelists, since from him Shakespeare derived the plots of Othello and Measure