Supposes and Jocasta

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The justice of the term The Italian Renascence, as applied to European literature is nowhere better ex emplified than in the history of the drama. It was at Padua that Albertino Mussato, at the beginning Of the fourteenth century, took the first step towards the te vival of this form of art by the composition of an origi nal Latin tragedy, the Eterz'nis. It was on Italian stages that the dramas of the ancients were first repro duced after the long lapse of the Middle Ages. Italian writers first made the important Step of composing dramas in the vernacular on subjects taken in some cases fiom the life of their own day. Italian critics first laid down the rules of dramatic art which under the name of the Three Unities provoked so much dis cussion at a later day.