8. Feb. Domenica. 1829.
[4458,1]
Alla p. 4359.
Niebuhr (loc. cit. p. 4431. fin.) sezione
intitolata The Beginning of the Republic and the
Treaty with Carthage,
not. 1078. p. 456 - 7. Q137659935This play (the Brutus of L. Attius) Q137659935was
a praetextata, the noblest among the three
kinds of the Roman national drama; all which assuredly, and not
merely the Atellana, might be represented by well-born Romans
without risking their franchise.
4459 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 (p. 431.) to a
dialogue between the King (Tarquinio superbo) Q137659935and
his dream-interpreters in the Brutus (dialogo citato da Cic.
de Divinat. I. 22.), Q137659935the scene of which must have lain before Ardea: the establishment of
the new government (del governo repubblicano a Roma), Q137659935which
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.), Q137659935occurs at Rome: so that
the unity of place is just as little observed. The Destruction of Miletus by Phrynichus and
the Persians of Æschylus 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; if a Sophocles were
to rise up.
(8. Feb. Domenica. 1829.).
