Vittorio Alfieri, count, an Italian tragic poet, born at Asti, Piedmont, Jan. 17, 1749, died in Florence, Oct. 8, 1803. He received a very imperfect education at the college of nobles in Turin, which was terminated by his entrance at the age of 17 into the army. As his regiment was a provincial one, from which only a few days' service at stated annual periods was required, he easily obtained the royal assent to an extended leave of absence for the purpose of travel. With ample wealth, a restless and excitable temperament, and a keen appreciation of the pleasures of life, he passed several years in wandering over the continent, and in 1773 returned to Turin. This period of travel was without any considerable benefit to him, being spent in a great measure in frivolous dissipation, and at the age of 25 he had given no hint of any dramatic talent or literary ability. Chance seems to have led him, while watching at the sick bed of his mistress, to sketch a few scenes in Italian between Antony and Cleopatra. Crude as these necessarily were, the occupation developed his latent powers and gave the first impulse to literary composition.

It awakened in him also the desire to lead a more profitable and reputable life. "Cleopatra" was gradually finished, and, together with a farce called "The Poets," was in 1775 produced with considerable success on the stage. His labors on these pieces having revealed to him his ignorance of the structure and resources of his own language, at the age of 27 he deliberately set about educating himself in Italian. A year or two of study in the society of learned men sufficed to familiarize him with the works of the classic writers of Italy, ancient and modern, and in 1777 he returned with enthusiasm to his dramatic labors. At this time he met the beautiful and accomplished countess of Albany, the ill-treated wife of Charles Edward Stuart, pretender to the English crown. For this lady he conceived an absorbing passion, and the desire to win her approbation stimulated his genius to higher efforts. To be near her he took up his residence in Florence, having first settled the bulk of his fortune upon his sister, while reserving to himself an annuity; and during the next few years he labored with an energy and success which fairly redeemed the lost opportunities of his youth. By the year 1782 he had produced 14 dramas.

In 1785 he followed the countess to France, and upon the death of her husband in 1788 is believed to have been married to her in that country, although the relation was never publicly acknowledged, and there is no positive evidence to sustain it. He continued to reside in France, and was engaged in superintending the publication of an edition of his works in Paris when the French revolution reached its first alarming crisis. Compelled to flee the country, with the loss of almost everything he had possessed there, he returned to Florence, where, in the society of the countess of Albany, he passed the remainder of his life. His latter years were clouded by various troubles, but he still pursued his literary labors. He wrote satires, panegyrics, and sonnets, translated Virgil and Terence, and when nearly 50 years of age began the study of Greek. He died of an attack of gout, tenderly cared for to the last by the countess of Albany, who caused a monument, sculptured by Canova. to be erected over his remains in the church of Santa Croce. His dramatic works comprise 21 tragedies, 6 comedies, and a "tramelogedia," a name invented by himself.

He also produced translations from the Greek dramatists, an epic poem in four books, a treatise on tyranny, and a number of satires and lyrical pieces, including live odes on the American revolution. After his death appeared his Misogallo, a collection of satirical | pieces in prose and verse, inspired by a lively hatred of the French nation; and his autobiography, in which he records with singular frankness the story of his life. - Alfieri's reputation rests almost exclusively upon his tragedies. Their literary rank is permanent. Remarkable for a vigor and intensity of expression worthy of the best days of Italian litera- ture, their classic subjects and stern outline, { however opposed to the romantic school, have a grand and solemn charm. Though simple to meagreness in construction, and admitting of little by-play or scenic effect, they are said to hold an Italian audience spell-bound by the nervousness of the language and the condensed energy and passion with which the higher passages are infused. Saul, Mirra, Oreste, and Filippo are considered the best. To Alfieri belongs the distinction of having founded the Italian school of tragedy.

Avoiding pedantic obedience to Greek or French models, he embodied the earnestness of the one and the modern form of the other in the language of his country. He was a man of strong likes and dislikes and a violent temper, but candid, independent, and generous to a fault. Two marked peculiarities of his character were his detestation of the French and his fondness for horses. He was a liberal in politics, although his faith in democracy is supposed to have been somewhat shaken by the excesses of the French revolutionists; he hated kingcraft, and prized his own nobility chiefly that he was free to abuse it.

Two editions of Alfieri's complete works have been published - 22 vols. 4to, Pisa, 1808, and 22 vols. 8vo, Padua, 1809-'10. The best edition of his tragedies, autobiography, and some of his minor works, is contained in the Milan collection of the Italian classics, entitled Opere scelte (4 vols. 8vo, 1818).