Page:The Oxford book of Italian verse.djvu/30

INTRODUCTION expresses an important aspect of the time in which it was written; it is the first note in that cry of disillusion which eventually reaches its full extent in the despairing voice of Leopardi. But whereas in Leopardi the agony is that of a mature mind which suffers the more because it is too clear-sighted to be duped by transient joys, in Ortis the despair is born of the sudden shattering of all the cloud-castles of youth; an extreme of exaltation changes instantly to an extreme of pessimism. Napoleon, the god from whom the great miracle of national liberty was expected, has sold Venice to the Austrians; freedom, friendship, love, and life are empty dreams; suicide is the only solution of a hideous tangle of misery. This depressing attitude of mind is not continued in Foscolo's poetry. The famous Sepolcri represents a reaction—one may almost say a religious reaction—against his earlier manner and against the wild fever of revolt that inspired Alfieri; he finds consolation and encouragement in contemplating the splendid legacy bequeathed by the heroic and famous dead, and the hectic voice of Ortis mellows into noble music.

Foscolo regarded himself as the enemy of the Romantic movement in poetry. In his admiration of all that was fine in antiquity and his desire to write in grave and noble forms he is certainly classical. Probably he hated the ephemeral side of the romantic idea that arose in Germany—all that sombre medley of wicked barons and dwarfs and Gothic castles which captivated the French poets so completely and even penetrated to Italy. But romanticism, in its more violent aspects, found only a small degree of favour; and the furious conflicts between its adherents and 30