Note 150 — Chapter XI

Compare what Giraldi says in the dedication of his Orbecche to Duke Ercole II.: "Ancora che Aristotele ci dia il modo di comporle." In the same passage he dwells on the difficulties of producing tragedies in the absence of dramatic instinct, with an ingenuousness that moves our pity: "Quando altri si dà a scrivere in quella maniera de' Poemi, che sono stati per tanti secoli tralasciati, che appena di loro vi resta una lieve ombra." It never occurred to him that great poetry comes neither by observation nor by imitation of predecessors. The same dedication contains the monstrous critical assertion that the Latin poets, i.e. Seneca, improved upon Greek tragedy—assai più grave la fecero.