lian seems to belong to A. da Pistoia's _Pamfila_ (1499),
of which the subject was taken from Boccaccio, introduced by the ghost
of Seneca, and marred in the taking. Carretto's _Sofonisba_, which
hardly rises above the art of a chronicle history, though provided with
a chorus, followed in 1502. But the play usually associated with the
beginning of Italian tragedy--that with which "th' Italian scene first
learned to glow"--was another _Sofonisba_, acted before Leo X. in 1515,
and written in blank hendecasyllables instead of the _ottava_ and _terza
rima_ of the earlier tragedians (retaining, however, the lyric measures
of the chorus), by G. G. Trissino, who was employed as nuncio by that
pope. Other tragedies of the former half of the 16th century, largely
inspired by Trissino's example, were the _Rosmunda_ of Rucellai, a
nephew of Lorenzo the Magnificent (1516); Martelli's _Tullia_,
Alamanni's _Antigone_ (1532); the _Canace_ of Sperone Speroni, the
envious _Mopsus_ of Tasso, who, like Guarini, took Sperone's elaborate
style for his model; the _Orazia_, the earliest dramatic treatment of
this famous subject by the notorious Aretino (1549); and the nine
tragedies of G. B. Giraldi (Cinthio) of Ferrara, among which
_L'Orbecche_ (1541) is accounted the best and the bloodiest. Cinthio,
the author of those _Hecatommithi_ to which Shakespeare was indebted for
so many of his subjects, was (supposing him to have invented these) the
first Italian who was the author of the fables of his own dramas; he
introduced some novelties into dramatic construction, separating the
prologue and probably also the epilogue from the action, and has by some
been regarded as the inventor of the pastoral drama. But his style was
arid. In the latter half of the 16th century may be mentioned the
_Didone_ and the _Marianna_ of L. Dolce, the translator of Euripides and
Seneca (1565); A. Leonico's _Il Soldato_ (1550); the _Adriana_ (acted
before 1561 or 1586) of L. Groto, which treats the story of _Romeo and
Juliet_; Tasso's _Torrismondo_ (1587); the _Tancredi_ of Asinari (1588);
and the _Merope_ of Torelli (1593), the last who employed the stationary
chorus (_coro fisso_) on the Italian stage. Leonico's _Soldato_ is
noticeable as supposed to have given rise to the _tragedia cittadina_,
or domestic tragedy, of which there are few examples in the Italian
drama, and De Velo's _Tamar_ (1586) as written in prose. Subjects of
modern historical interest were in th