Note 550 — Chapter IV

This dedication, with a sort of apology for writing tragedies in Italian, will be found in Roscoe’s Appendix, vol. vi. Roscoe quotes a few words from Rucellai’s dedication of his poem, L’Api, to Trissino, acknowledging the latter as the inventor of blank verse. Voi foste il primo, che questo modo di scrivere, in versi materni, liberi delle rime, poneste in luce. Life of Leo X. ch. 16. See also Ginguéné, vol. vi. and Walker’s Memoir on Italian Tragedy, as well as Tiraboschi. The earliest Italian tragedy, which is also on the subject of Sophonisba, by Galeotto del Carretto, was presented to the Marchioness of Mantua in 1502. But we do not find that it was brought on the stage; nor is it clear that it was printed so early as the present decade. But an edition of the Pamphila, a tragedy on the story of Sigismunda, by Antonio da Pistoja, was printed at Venice in 1508. Walker, p. 11. Ginguéné has been ignorant of this very curious piece, from which Walker had given a few extracts, in rhymed measures of different kinds. Ginguéné indeed had never seen Walker’s book, and his own is the worse for it. Walker was not a man of much vigour of mind, but had some taste, and great knowledge of his subject. This tragedy is mentioned by Quadrio, iv. 58, with the title Il Filostrato e Panfila, due Amanti.