Background
Francesco Scipione was born on June 1, 1675 in Verona, Italy. Maffei was of the illustrious family that originated in Bologna.
Francesco Scipione was born on June 1, 1675 in Verona, Italy. Maffei was of the illustrious family that originated in Bologna.
Francesco Scipione studied for five years in Parma, at the Jesuit College, and afterwards from 1698 at Rome. And in 1703-1704 he took part as a volunteer in the war of succession, fighting on the Bavarian side at Donauwerth.
Francesco Scipione's earliest writings were Arcadian in style.
The plot, based on the love of Merope for her son, is adapted from the Hippolytus of Euripedes.
The play has power without sentimentality.
Merope reconciled the influence of French drama with the classical tradition and established the type of Italian classical tragedy, of which it was the best example before Alfieri.
It was translated into English by Ayre in 1740, and it was the basis of plays of the same name by Voltaire, Alfieri, and Matthew Arnold.
A comedy, Le cerimonie (1728), was less successful. Maffei was one of the founders of the Giornale dei letterati, 1710; in 1719 he published Rime e prose; in 1737-1740, Osservazioni letterarie; in 1723-1725 he edited a collection of tragedies, Teatro italiano; and in 1753 he published, in defense of the drama, Dei teatri antichi e moderni.
Accademia degli Arcadi