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 this part of his undertaking. The work itself contains thirty chapters, all of which are very short. ALFIERI, chiefly celebrated as the author who raised the Italian tragic drama from its previous state of degradation, was born on the 17th January 1749, at the town of Asti in Piedmont. He lost his father in early infancy; but he continued to reside with his mother, who married a second time, till his tenth year, when he was placed at the academy of Turin. After he had passed a twelvemonth at the academy, he went on a short visit to a relation who dwelt at Coni, and during his stay there, he made his first poetical attempt in a sonnet chiefly borrowed from lines in Ariosto and Metastasio, the only poets he had at that time read. When thirteen years of age he was induced to commence the study of civil and canonical law; but the attempt only served to disgust him with every species of application, and to increase his relish for the perusal of French romances.

By the death of his uncle, who had hitherto taken some charge of his education and conduct, he was left, at the age of fourteen, to enjoy without controul his vast paternal inheritance, augmented by the recent accession of his uncle’s fortune. He now began to attend the riding-school, where he acquired that rage for horses, and equestrian exercise, which continued to be one of his strongest passions till the close of his existence.

After some time spent in alternate fits of extravagant dissipation, and ill-directed study, he was seized with a desire of travelling; and having obtained permission from the king, he departed, in 1766, under the care of an English preceptor. Restless and unquiet, he posted with the utmost rapidity through the towns of Italy; and his improvement was such as was to be expected from his mode of travelling and his previous habits. Dissatisfied with himself, he felt as little relish for spectacles or entertainments as for literature; and was as little amused by the gaiety of a carnival at Naples, as he was impressed by the remains of antiquity at Rome, or the exhibitions of modern art at Florence and Bologna. This indifference and insensibility did not, however, arise from defect of talent or the natural powers of taste, but from the want of some serious passion, or some ennobling or praiseworthy pursuit. Hoping to find in foreign countries some relief from the tedium and ennui with which he was oppressed, and being anxious to become acquainted with the French Theatre, he proceeded to Paris; but his feelings were only those of disgust or indifference for the dramas which he saw represented in that capital. He seems, indeed, to have been completely dissatisfied with every thing he witnessed in France, and contracted a dislike to its people, which his intercourse in future years rather contributed to augment than diminish. In Holland he became deeply enamoured of a married lady, who returned his attachment, but who was soon obliged to accompany her husband to Switzerland. Alfieri, whose feelings were of the most impetuous description, was in despair at this separation, and returned to his own country in the utmost anguish and despondency of mind. While under this depression of spirits, he was induced to seek alleviation from works of literature; and the perusal of Plutarch’s Lives, which he read with profound emotion, inspired him with an enthusiastic passion for freedom and independence. Under the influence of this rage for liberty he recommenced his travels; and his only gratification, in the absence of freedom among the Continental States, appears to have been derived from contemplating the wild and sterile regions of the north of Sweden; where gloomy forests, lakes, and precipices, conspired to excite those sublime and melancholy ideas which were congenial to his disposition. Human manners and human institutions he seems invariably to have surveyed with an eye of passion or prejudice, instead of viewing them with the calmness of a philosopher, who meditates how they may be rectified, or what lessons may be drawn from them. In every country his soul felt as if confined by the bonds of society; he everywhere panted for something more free in governments, more elevated in sentiment, mere devoted in love, and more perfect in friendship. In search of this ideal world, he posted through various countries, more with the rapidity of a courier, than of one who travels for amusement or instruction. During a journey to London, he engaged in an intrigue with a married lady of high rank; and having been detected, the publicity of a rencounter with the injured husband, and of a divorce, which followed, united to the knowledge he now acquired of the infamous character of the woman, to whom he was ardently attached, rendered it expedient and desirable for him to quit England. He then visited Spain and Portugal, where he became acquainted with the Abbé Caluso, who remained through life the most attached and estimable friend he ever possessed. In 1772, Alfieri returned to Turin, where he again became enamoured of a lady, whom he loved with his usual ardour, and who seems to have been as undeserving of a sincere attachment as those he had hitherto adored. In the course of a long attendance on his mistress, during a malady with which she was afflicted, he one day wrote a dialogue, or scene of a drama, which he left at this lady's house. About a year after, on a difference taking place between them, this piece was returned to him. Having then retouched and extended it to five acts, it was performed at Turin in 1775, under the title of Cleopatra, whose amours had always been a favourite subject with Italian dramatists.

From this moment, Alfieri was seized with an immeasurable thirst of theatrical fame, and the remainder of his life was devoted to its attainment. His two first tragedies, Filippo and Polinice, were originally written in French prose; and when he came to versify them in Italian, he found that, from his Lombard origin, and long intercourse with foreigners, he expressed himself with feebleness and inaccuracy. Accordingly, with the view of improving his Italian style, he went to Tuscany, and, during an alternate residence at Florence and Sienna, he completed his Filippo and Polinice, and conceived the plan of various other dramas. While thus employed, he became acquainted with the Countess Albany, who then resided with her husband at Florence. For her he formed an attachment, which, if less violent