rtainment is something we can appreciate, for this
character has survived all the experiments made on the "Orfeo" legend
and it dominates even the epoch-making work of Gluck.

Symonds, who had a broader view of art than Sismondi, had no difficulty
in perceiving that the true genius of this new drama was lyric. He says:
"To do the 'Orfeo' justice we ought to have heard it with its own
accompaniment of music." He enlarges upon the failure of the author to
seize the opportunity to make much of the really tragic moment in the
play, namely that expressing the frenzied grief of Orfeo over the loss
of Euridice. Yet, he notes, "when we return from these criticisms to
the real merit of the piece, we find in it a charm of musical language,
a subtlety of musical movement, which are irresistibly fascinating.
Thought and feeling seem alike refined to a limpidity that suits the
flow of melody in song. The very words evaporate and lose themselves
in floods of sound." Surely, here is the description of an ideal opera
book.

Two editions of the play are known and both are published in a volume
edited by Carducci.[15] The first version is that originally printed in
1494 and reprinted frequently up to 1776. In the latter year the second
version was brought out by Padre Ireneo Affo at Venice. This was in all
probability a revision of the poem by Poliziano. In this version the
division into five acts is noted and there are additional poetic
passages of great beauty. It may be worth a note in passing that in 1558
a version of the "Orfeo" in octave stanzas was published for the use of
the common people and that as late as 1860 it continued to be printed
from time to time for the use of the Tuscan contadini.

[Footnote 15: "Le Stanze, l'Orfeo e le Rime di Messer Angelo
Abrogini Poliziano," per Giosue Carducci. Firenze, 1863.]

The main movement of Poliziano's poem is intrusted to the traditional
octave stanza, but we find passages of terza rima. There are also choral
passages which suggest the existence of the frottola, the carnival song
and the ballata. The play is introduced by Mercury acting as prologue.
This was in accordance with time honored custom which called for an
"announcer of the festival." The first scene is between Mopsus, an old
shepherd, and Aristaeus, a young one. Aristaeus, after the manner of
shepherds, has seen a nymph, and has become desperately enamored. Mopsus
shakes his head and bids the young man beware. Ari