Pensieri di varia filosofia e di bella letteratura/4459

Pagina 4459

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[p. 391 modifica] The praetextata merely bore an analogy to a tragedy: it exhibited the deeds of Roman Kings and generals (Diomedes, III, p. 487, Putsch); and hence it is self-evident, that at least it wanted the unity of time of the Greek tragedy; that it was a history, like Shakspeare’s. I have referred above (pag. 431) to a dialogue between the King (Tarquinio superbo) and his dream-interpreters in the Brutus (dialogo citato da Cicerone, de Divinat., I, 22), the scene of which must have lain before Ardea: the establishment of the new government (del governo repubblicano a Roma), which must have been the occasion of the speech, qui recte consulat, consul siet (nel Brutus: parlata citata da Varrone De L. L., IV, 14, p. 24), occurs at Rome: so that the unity of place is just as little observed. The Destruction of Miletus by Phrynichus and the Persians of Aeschylus were plays that drew forth all the manly feelings of bleeding or exulting hearts, and not tragedies: for the latter the Greeks, before the Alexandrian age, took their plots solely out of mythical story. It was essential that their contents should be known beforehand: the stories of Hamlet and Macbeth were unknown to the spectators: at present parts of them might be moulded into tragedies like the Greek; [p. 392 modifica]if a Sophocles were to rise up (8 febbraio, domenica, 1829).


*    Albino, antico autore, apud Macrobium II, 16, Stultum sese brutumque faciebat (Bruto l’antico). Si faceva, cioè si fingeva. Vecchissimo italianismo del latino. Vedi Forcellini ec. (8 febbraio, domenica, 1829).


*    Storie o storielle trasportate da una nazione a un’altra. Vedi la pag. precedente, lin. 10-17 (8 febbraio, domenica, 1829).