CAVALLOTTI, FELICE. - Writer, politician, orator, b. in Milan on 6 Nov. 1842, d. in Rome on 6 March 1898. He took part in the second Garibaldian expedition in Sicily, and fought at Milazzo, on the Volturno, and at Vezza. A romantic temperament - Carducci called him "the last of the romantics" - he aspired to be, with his tribunician and Victor Hugo-like air, a soldier, politician, journalist, playwright, poet, and scholar.
See, on this subject, his historical dramas: I pezzenti, Alcibiade, i Messenii. Often spiteful in his unbelief, he translated from the German Strauss's Vita di Gesù (1865). As a deputy he was an opponent of the parliamentary right, then also became an opponent of the left, assailing throughout his life with polemics and writings the person and the politics of Francesco Crispi. The polemics were often followed by duels: he fought thirty-three of them; in the last, with the deputy Ferruccio Macola, he met his death. His lyric poetry links back to the Milanese scapigliatura (the Marcia di Leonida, for the fallen of Mentana, was very popular); his theater does not depart, in its themes, settings, and conflicts, from the "tearful drama" of the nineteenth century; great success was had by the Cantico dei Cantici, in one act, performed in 1881, in which the text of Holy Scripture serves as the
"go-between" for the love of Antonio, on the eve of his priesthood, and his cousin Pia. "The action holds together only through the author's desire to spite the priests" (B. Croce). The complete edition of his works is in 10 vols. (Milan 1895-96).
Bibliography2 works
Giovanni Fallani