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PELLICO, SILVIO (1788-1854)

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 71 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PELLICO, SILVIO (1788-1854) , See also:Italian dramatist, was See also:born at See also:Saluzzo in See also:Piedmont on the 24th of See also:June 1788, the earlier portion of his See also:life being passed at See also:Pinerolo and See also:Turin under the tuition of a See also:priest named Manavella. At the See also:age of ten he composed a tragedy under the See also:inspiration of Caesarotti's See also:translation of the Ossianic poems. On the See also:marriage of his twin See also:sister Rosina with a maternal See also:cousin at See also:Lyons he went to reside in that See also:city, devoting himself during four years to the study of See also:French literature. He returned in 1810 to See also:Milan, where he became See also:professor of French in the Collegio degli Orfani Militari. His tragedy Francesca da See also:Rimini, was brought out with success by Carlotta Marchionni at Milan in 1818. Its publication was followed by that of the tradegy Eufemio da See also:Messina, but the See also:representation of the latter was forbidden. Pellico had in the meantime continued his See also:work as See also:tutor, first to the unfortunate son of See also:Count Briche, and then to the two sons of Count Porro Lambertenghi. He threw himself heartily into an See also:attempt to weaken the hold of the See also:Austrian despotism by indirect educational means. Of the powerful See also:literary executive which gathered about See also:Counts Porro and See also:Confalonieri, Pellico was the able secretary—the management of the Conciliatore, which appeared in 1818 as the See also:organ of the association, resting largely upon him. But the See also:paper, under the censorship of the Austrian officials, ran for a See also:year only, and the society itself was broken up by the See also:government. In See also:October 1820 Pellico was arrested on the See also:charge of carbonarism and conveyed to the See also:Santa Margherita See also:prison. After his removal to the Piombi at See also:Venice in See also:February 1821, he composed several Cantiche and the tragedies Ester d'Engaddi and Iginia d'See also:Asti.

The See also:

sentence of See also:death pronounced on him in February 1822 was finally commuted to fifteen years carcere duro, and in the following See also:April he was placed in the Spielberg at See also:Brunn. His See also:chief work during this See also:part of his imprisonment was the tragedy Leoniero da Dertona, for the preservation of which he was compelled to rely on his memory. After his See also:release in 183o he commenced the publication of his prison compositions, of which the Ester was played at Turin in 1831, but immediately suppressed. In 1832 appeared his Gismonda da Mendrizio, Erodiade and the Leoniero, under the See also:title of Tre nuovi tragedie, and in the same year the work which gave him his See also:European fame, Le Mie prigioni, an See also:account of his sufferings in prison. The last gained him the friendship of the Marchesa di Barolo, the reformer of the Turin prisons, and in 1834 he accepted from her a yearly See also:pension of 1200 francs. His tragedy Tommaso See also:Moro had been published in 1833, his most important subsequent publication being the Opere inedite in 1837. On the decease of his parents in 1838 he was received into the Casa Barolo, where he remained till his death, assisting the marchesa in her charities, and See also:writing chiefly upon religious themes. Of these See also:works the best known is the Dei Doveri degli uomini, a See also:series of trite See also:maxims which do See also:honour to his piety rather than to his See also:critical See also:judgment. A fragmentary See also:biography of the marchesa by Pellico was published in Italian and See also:English after her death. He died on the 31st of See also:January 1854, and was buried in the Campo Santo at Turin. His writings are defective in virility and breadth of thought, and his tragedies display neither the insight into See also:character nor the constructive See also:power of a See also:great dramatist. It is in the See also:simple narrative and naive egotism of Le Mie prigioni that he has established his strongest claim to remembrance, winning fame by his misfortunes rather than by his See also:genius.

See See also:

Piero Maroncelli, Addizioni alle mie prigioni (See also:Paris, 1834) ; the See also:biographies by Latour; Gabriele See also:Rosselli; Didier, Revue See also:des deux mondes (See also:September 1842) ; De Lomenie, Galerie des contemp. illustr. iv. (1842); Chiala (Turin, 1852); See also:Nollet-See also:Fabert (1854); Giorgio Bria*10 (1854); See also:Bourdon (1868); Rivieri (1899-1901).

End of Article: PELLICO, SILVIO (1788-1854)

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