Giovanni Battista Niccolini

• Born: October 29, 1782
• Birthplace: Bagni di San Giuliano, province of Pisa (now in Italy)
• Died: September 20, 1861
• Place of death: Florence, Italy

Other Literary Forms

In addition to his plays, Giovanni Battista Niccolini wrote poetry, literary and historical essays, and articles that he contributed to the journal Antologia. Particularly influenced by classical Greek drama, Niccolini undertook, in addition to his own adaptations of Euripides and Sophocles, translations of several of Aeschylus’s plays.

Achievements

During his times, Giovanni Battista Niccolini was acclaimed in Italy as a great tragedian, particularly for Arnold of Brescia. His most popular work, Giovanni da Procida, produced in Florence in January of 1830, was received with great enthusiasm but, as a result of its political content, was banned until 1847. The play encapsulates the theme of Niccolini’s lifework: patriotism and liberty in opposition to tyranny—both the neo-Guelfic tendencies of the period and the imperial ones. As Mario Sansone noted, however, Niccolini’s plays, lacking realism and psychological insight, have not withstood the “corrosive work of time.” A work such as Arnold of Brescia was very popular during Niccolini’s day because the title character represented the ideal libertarian—an enemy of papal and imperial tyranny and an advocate of the popular republic, a system also favored by Niccolini. These time-bound concerns are expressed in several of Niccolini’s other plays as well.

Stylistically, Niccolini is a transitional figure, representing the shift from classicism to Romanticism, as can be seen in Matilde (adapted from John Home’s Douglas of 1757), whose plot, set in medieval times, is typically Romantic, and in Nabucco. The historical and nationalistic themes of both plays reverberate with passionate political eloquence.

Niccolini is thus important more as a representative of the ideals and trends of his age than for his individual plays. He used the theater as a social and political weapon to awaken the conscience of the Italian people against foreign invasion and tyranny.

Biography

Giovanni Battista Niccolini was born in Bagni di San Giuliano, in the province of Pisa (some reference works give Lucca as the province, but this is a mistake), on October 29, 1782, to a noble and prosperous Florentine family. Both his father, Ippolito, and his mother, Vincenza da Filicia, were descendants of noble families. Ippolito worked for the grand duke of Tuscany as superintendent of the baths. The young Niccolini attended the Scolopi School in Florence and subsequently enrolled in the School of Jurisprudence of the University of Pisa. He received his doctorate in 1802.

As early as 1799, when Niccolini was still in his teens, he was an ardent republican, an outspoken liberal, and an anticlerical. It is said that he was influenced by his maternal uncle, Alemanno da Filicia. More notable, however, was the influence of the poets Ugo Foscolo and Giovanni Fantoni. In 1803, Foscolo dedicated to Niccolini some odes and sonnets, as well as La chioma di Berenice. Foscolo also seems to have cast Niccolini in the character of Lorenzo Alderani in Le ultime lettere de Jacopo Ortis (1802; Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis, 1970).

In 1804, Niccolini returned to Florence, where his family was experiencing financial difficulties because of his father’s death. From 1804 to 1807, Niccolini worked in the Riformagioni Archive, earning a modest income. In 1807, he succeeded in obtaining a teaching position in history and mythology at the Academy of Fine Arts, where he worked also as librarian and secretary. He was also a member of the Accademia della Crusca (the most important linguistic academy in Italy, founded in Florence toward the end of the sixteenth century, whose purpose was to maintain the purity of the language), which presented him with the Premio della Crusca award for his first dramatic work, Polissena; the play was later staged in the Teatro Nuovo (previously called the Teatro della Pallacorda) in Florence on January 15, 1813. For a short period, Niccolini acted as tutor for the court pages of Elisa Baciocchi Bonaparte and as private librarian to the grand duke of Tuscany. Polissena pleased both public and critics, including critic Jean Sismondi, who generally did not have great sympathy for the classicists.

Starting in 1814, Niccolini became prolific in theatrical works: He wrote Ino e Temisto in 1814, a minor, less successful drama; Matilde in 1815, a Romantic drama adapted from John Home’s Douglas, whose Scottish events are transplanted to medieval Sicily; and Nabucco in 1815, which was published in London in 1819 with the help of Gino Capponi, who believed that government censors would suppress it in Italy. Nabucco portrays, under the guise of a Babylonian milieu, the last years of Napoleon’s deeds and events. Matilde and Nabucco, admired mostly for their style and eloquence rather than their dramatic power, represent the beginning of Niccolini’s new way and his acceptance of Romanticism. Subsequent dramas, such as Antonio Foscarini, Giovanni da Procida, Lodovico Sforza, Beatrice Cenci, Rosmonda d’Inghilterra, Arnold of Brescia, and Filippo Strozzi, his major production, are imbued with patriotism, in accordance with his views as a political agitator. His tragedies were admired more for their poetic form and their political allusions than for their dramatic power. His models became William Shakespeare, George Gordon, Lord Byron, and Friedrich Schiller, and he took more liberties in his works, breaking away from the classical mold. When Arnold of Brescia, which had been printed in Marseilles, was smuggled into Italy in 1843, it provoked admiration on the part of the patriots and ire on the part of the provincial governments. Niccolini himself said, “I may not have written a good tragedy, but I did take a courageous action.” Arnold of Brescia represented the neo-Ghibelline ideals of the time, in total opposition to the neo-Guelfic party, whose manifesto was Vincenzo Gioberti’s Primato morale e civile degli Italiani (1843). Arnold of Brescia, therefore, became the “antidote” to Gioberti’s work.

Niccolini had been leading a rather private life in his Florence home or in a villa at Popolesco (between Pistoia and Prato) inherited from his uncle Alemanno. After Arnold of Brescia, he slowed down and isolated himself even more. In 1848, when Pope Pius IX created great hopes with his short-lived liberalism, Niccolini was elected to the Tuscan Senate, but he never took part in any session. In 1860, he greeted as a liberator Victor Emmanuel II, with the verses of Giovanni da Procida. The same king recognized Niccolini as a prophet of the Risorgimento. Niccolini had remained a liberal and republican but had come to realize that only the House of Savoy could unify Italy.

On February 3, 1860, the citizens of Florence dedicated the Teatro del Cocomero to Niccolini with a bust and the recital of part of Arnold of Brescia. Niccolini died in Florence on September 20, 1861, and was buried in the Church of Santa Croce. His dream of a united and free Italy would become reality only nine years later in that same Rome that is the setting for his famous tragedy.

Analysis

Giovanni Battista Niccolini began his career as a dramatist under the influence of Greek tragedy and using its subjects and themes. Niccolini admired Aeschylus, whose Hepta epi Thēbas (467 b.c.e.; Seven Against Thebes, 1777), Agamemnōn (458 b.c.e.; Agamemnon, 1777), and Choēphoroi (458 b.c.e.; Libation Bearers, 1777) he translated into Italian; Sophocles, whose Oidipous Tyrannos (c. 429 b.c.e.; Oedipus Tyrannus, 1715) he adapted as Edipo nel bosco delle Eumenidi; and finally Euripides, whose Mēdeia (431 b.c.e.; Medea, 1781) he also adapted for the Italian stage. The influence of Seneca can also be seen in Niccolini’s works.

Although Niccolini will not be remembered as a great dramatist, his contribution to the Italian theater holds dual significance: First, he was, during his lifetime, the dramatic voice for the unification of Italy; perhaps more important to the modern student of drama history, he stood at the crossroads of the classical and Romantic traditions, and both benefited from and advanced the latter by using its techniques to further his cause.

Polissena

Polissena, Niccolini’s first tragedy, deals with the main character’s torn soul and mind. She was given to Pyrrhus, Achilles’ son, as war booty. She loves him, but with remorse, because he killed her father. The Greeks, who have defeated Troy, are led to believe that the gods will not allow them to leave Troy unless Achilles’ ghost is placated by the sacrifice of one of Priam’s daughters at the hand of someone dear to them. Polissena, caught between filial piety and love for her man, throws herself on Pyrrhus’s sword. This tragedy, though eloquent and elegant in its verses, lacks dramatic power and the force of psychological anguish. It is far superior, however, to the subsequent Edipo nel bosco delle Eumenidi and Ino e Temisto, whose only distinction lies in their refined style and eloquence, a trademark of Niccolini.

Matilde and Nabucco

In 1815, Niccolini wrote Matilde, based on John Home’s Douglas, and succeeded in transposing the events surrounding a Scottish woman to the setting of feudal Sicily. This play is important, not so much for its artistic content, but because it represents Niccolini’s abandonment of classical and mythological themes and the acceptance of a new, Romantic subject matter. Niccolini had come to believe (as evidenced in a letter he wrote to Cesare Lucchesini in 1824) that mythology was no longer viable in an antipoetic era. During the same year, 1815, he wrote Nabucco, which, although set in Babylon and Assyria, is a thinly disguised political allegory for events that were taking place in Paris. Nabucco (Napoleon) refuses to grant freedom or peace to his subjects, and as his enemies overcome him, he throws himself into the Euphrates, uttering the words, “May the waves submerge my lifeless body and every king await me tremblingly.” (This is the same Nabucco who, earlier, says, “I on earth and God in Heaven!”) Both Matilde and Nabucco, despite their weakness of plot and characterization, therefore can be seen as inaugurating a new, more Romantic, and more political trend in Niccolini’s theater, the basis of which is a patriotic and civil commitment to freedom and rebellion against tyranny.

Giovanni da Procida

Giovanni da Procida was written in 1817 but staged only in 1830, after several modifications. Again, the theme is political liberty. The plot revolves around Giovanni’s daughter Imelda, who, during the time of the Sicilian Vespers, secretly marries one Tancredi. Tancredi, reared in Italy, has not told her that he is really French by birth, revealing this fact only after the marriage. Giovanni enters, announcing his wish that Imelda marry his friend and fellow patriot Gualtiero, with whom he is plotting to expel the French occupiers. The plot is complicated by the revelation that Tancredi is the son of Eriberto, an enemy of Giovanni and one of the most ferocious of the oppressors.

As the revolt is about to explode, Giovanni finds himself caught in a dilemma, for Imelda is also carrying a child. Moreover, the audience learns, Tancredi and Imelda are actually brother and sister: Giovanni’s wife was raped by Eriberto and, after giving birth to Tancredi, died of sorrow. In the meantime, the people revolt, and there is much bloodshed. Tancredi dies of heartbreak and shame on learning of the incestuous relationship. Giovanni incites the people to rebellion. Although private and family passions are better and more vividly presented in this tragedy, the main thrust is a political cry for freedom and rebellion. The Italian patriots did not hesitate to substitute the word Austrian for French in this cry: “Let the French cross the Alps and he’ll be our brother again.”

Antonio Foscarini

Antonio Foscarini, which was written in 1823 and staged in 1827, became a battleground for classicists and Romantics as well as for supporters and enemies of the Venetian government. Alvise Foscarini, the doge of Venice, has a son, Antonio, who has returned from an ambassadorial mission to Switzerland. Venice is in a state of tension. The council of state, fearing a plot, passes a law establishing death as the punishment for anyone who attempts to enter at night a foreign embassy and speak to the ambassador. Antonio loves one Teresa Navagero, who has been forced to marry the state inquisitor, Contarini. Antonio has been accused of advocating political reform and is therefore suspected of sedition.

In the third act, as the two lovers meet secretly and talk of their tragic love, Contarini’s men arrive. Antonio has no choice but to attempt to hide in the palace of the Spanish ambassador. He is caught, arrested, and interrogated, but the inquisitors are unable to obtain any statement from him: To save Teresa, he obstinately refuses to reveal anything about her. The two inquisitors, Contarini and Loredano, know quite well that he is innocent. Teresa, meanwhile, seeing her lover lost, confesses her love for Antonio to the doge, but it is too late: Antonio has already been put to death. She kills herself with a stiletto. This passionate Romantic drama maintains in its forms and language the classical tradition, but its success in Italy was attributable primarily to its political overtones and ideas. The plot is smoother and less cumbersome than that of Giovanni da Procida. One senses that here Niccolini’s move away from classicism is largely because of his politics as opposed to the ideology of Romanticism. Paradoxically, it was the tenets of Romanticism that allowed Niccolini the freedom to use the stage as a political weapon.

Lodovico Sforza

Niccolini’s dramatic production continued with Lodovico Sforza, published in 1833. This tragedy, set in the late fifteenth century, centers on Italy’s political subservience to France caused by the deeds and machinations of Lodovico il Moro. Niccolini believed that it was during this time that Italy’s miserable condition of servitude began.

Arnold of Brescia

Arnold of Brescia is considered Niccolini’s most important work, and the underground nature of its publication—it was first printed in Marseilles, France, and smuggled into Italy in 1843—stirred enthusiasm and admiration among the patriots. There were several editions of this tragedy, but the first official one approved by the authorities was in 1848, by Le Monnier, in Florence.

Many critics admire the play’s contents, philosophy, and poetic power. They do not, however, see it as work for the stage; rather, it is a long poem in hendecasyllables, composed to be heard and read. Stageability did not interest Niccolini as much as ideology: He said that even if he had not written a good tragedy, he was sure that he had performed a courageous deed. The political ferment and revolutions of 1848 throughout Italy sustained this argument.

In Arnold of Brescia, the title character, a friar, becomes the hero and prophet of a free and republican Italy as he is being burned and his ashes scattered in the Tiber. The plot is set in the twelfth century, during the descent of Barbarossa (Frederick I) into Italy to subjugate the rebellious communes. The action takes place in Rome, where the citizens have set up a free commune supported by Arnold of Brescia, who advocates independence from both the pope and the emperor. Arnold expounds his ideology from a piazza near the Campidoglio: The freedom he seeks must encompass all of Italy, so that there will be one people, one country. The cardinals warn the people that Barbarossa’s armies will descend on Italy and subjugate everyone. They have elected pontiff Adrian IV, an Englishman, who attempts conciliation with Arnold, but this is totally useless. The murder of Cardinal Guido, a fierce enemy of the republic, provokes the ire and the anathema of the new pope.

In the meantime, although Arnold and the republic have the support of Swiss soldiers from Zurich, Arnold’s excommunication and the pope’s reaction have forced Arnold to move to the countryside, where his friend Giordano urges him to side with the emperor so as to defeat the pope. Arnold refuses, saying that he does not wish the German tyrant to have the land that the Church usurps from the people of Italy. Arnold also refuses to save himself by joining the Swiss troops who have now been ordered to return to their land. He is unafraid of death and will face his destiny unbending in his firm republican conviction.

As the emperor descends into Italy, Arnold is in hiding, protected by Count Ostasio, whose wife betrays his secret in the hope of saving her husband. Arnold is captured by the imperial troops and put to death. The fire that consumes his body and the ashes that are scattered across the Tiber are meant to extinguish the people’s ardor for liberty and Arnold’s prophetic vision. The pope says: “Nothing remains in Rome of God’s enemy but an infamous memory.” One can understand how these words would inflame the souls of Italian patriots and incite them to rebellion. The wickedness of the pope and the emperor are portrayed vividly, and although the main characters are not well developed as dramatic figures, they are meaningful as symbols. Again, what predominates is the eloquent and lyric expression of ideals.

Bibliography

Bondanella, Peter, and Julia Conaway Bondanella, eds. Dictionary of Italian Literature. Rev. ed. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1996. An entry describes the life and works of Niccolini.

Carlson, Marvin. The Italian Stage from Goldoni to D’Annunzio. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, 1981. A look at the state of Italian drama during Niccolini’s time. Bibliography and index.

Kennard, Joseph Spencer. The Italian Theater from the Close of the Seventeenth Century. New York: Rudge, 1932. An examination of Italian theater, including Niccolini.