Page:The Oxford book of Italian verse.djvu/31

INTRODUCTION the Classicists were really political rather than literary. The Classicists were accused of Paganism, and the Romantics of Feudalism; the Romantics were traitors to their country and enemies of the Pope; the Classicists were secretly in alliance with Austria, and so forth. All the issues of this wordy strife become hopelessly confused, and it is extremely probable that none of the combatants had a very clear idea of the principle which he was honouring with his support. In reality, the Romantics were retrogressive when they turned to Mediaeval Europe for inspiration whilst modern Europe was convulsed with amazing dramas, and progressive in their hatred of convention and longing for novelty, in their desire

Au fond de l'inconnu découvrir le nouveau;

the Classicists were retrogressive in their idea of imposing hard and fast rules on art, progressive in their attempt to enrich and to dignify a language which had been enervated by a century and a half in the air of Arcadia. Eventually the furious combatants were united in a common enthusiasm for the heroic realities of Italy's redemption; the pedants became patriots, and the feudal tyrants beloved of romance were no longer mere lay figures in armour, but incarnate Austria, most thinly disguised. The Cori from Manzoni's dramas, with their immense dignity of expression and untrammelled lyrical freedom, are excellent examples of the happy reconciliation between the two schools.

After reading Alfieri, the poems of Manzoni have the effect of the still small voice that follows the cry of a frenzied prophet. Manzoni's patriotism is sincere, but so calm that it almost seems cautious, and fiery confidence in 31