The theory of comedy in sixteenth-century Italy was entirely classical, and the practice of the time agrees with its theory. There are indeed to be heard occasional notes of dissatisfaction and revolt, especially in the prologues of popular plays. Il Lasca, in the prologue to the _Strega_, defiantly protests against the inviolable authority of Aristotle and Horace, and in the prologue to his _Gelosia_ reserves the right to copy the manner of his own time, and not those of Plautus and Terence. Cecchi, Aretino, Gelli, and other comic writers give expression to similar sentiments.[209] But on the whole these protests availed nothing. The authors of comedy, and more especially the literary critics, were guided by classical practice and classical theory. Dramatic forms like the improvised _commedia dell' arte_ had marked influence on the practice of European comedy in general, especially in France, but left no traces of their influence on the literary criticism of the Italian Renaissance. FOOT-NOTES: [109] _Poet._ vi. 2. [110] Daniello, p. 34. [111] _Cf._ Horace, _Ars Poet._ 182 _sq._ [112] Giraldi Cintio, ii. 6. [113] _Ibid._ ii. 30. [114] Cited by Butcher, p. 220. [115] _Poet._ iv. 7. [116] Maggi, p. 64. [117] Maggi, p. 154. [118] Butcher, p. 220 _sq._ [119] Butcher, p. 219, n. 1.--Mueller, ii. 394, attempts to harmonize the definition of Theophrastus with that of Aristotle. [120] Egger, _Hist. de la Critique_, p. 344, n. 2. [121] Cloetta, i. 29. _Cf._ Antiphanes, cited by Egger, p. 72. [122] Cloetta, p. 30. [123] _Etymol._ viii. 7, 6. [124] _Etymol._ xviii. 45 and 46. [125] Cloetta, p. 28, and p. 31 _sq._ [126] _Epist._ xi. 10. _Cf._ Gelli's Lectures on the Divine Comedy, ed. Negroni, 1887, i. 37 _sq._ [127] _Poet._ ix. 5-9. [128] Giraldi Cintio, ii. 14. [129] Giraldi Cintio, ii. 20. [130] _Poet._ xi. 6. [131] _Ars Poet._ 182-188. [132] Giraldi Cintio, ii. 119. [133] Scaliger, _Poet._ i. 6. [134] Scaliger, i. 11; iii. 96. [135] _Ibid._ vi. 6. [136] _Ibid._ iii. 96. [137] _Ibid._ i. 13. [138] _De Poeta_, p. 43 _sq._ [139] _Ibid._ p. 173. _Cf._ Milton's phrase, "vain and amatorious poem." [140] Dacier, 1692, p. xvii. [141] _Poet._ vi. 19. [142] _Poet._ xiv. 1. [143] Castelvetro, _Poetica_, p. 30. [144] Castelvetro, _Poetica_, pp. 22, 23. [145] _Ibid._ p. 57. [146] Castelvetro, _Poetica_, pp. 35, 36. [147] Twining, ii. 3. [148] Butcher, ch. vi. [149] Giraldi Cintio, ii. 12. [150] _Ibid._ i. 66 _sq._ [151] Trissino, ii. 93 _sq._ [152] Robortelli, p. 52 _sq._ [153] Vettori, p. 56 _sq._, and Castelvetro, _Poetica_, p. 117 _sq._ [154] Maggi, p. 97 _sq._ [155] _Cf._ Shelley, _Defence of Poetry_, p. 35, "Tragedy delights by affording a shadow of that pleasure which exists in pain," etc. [156] _Lezzioni_, p. 660. [157] Scaliger, _Poet._ vii. i. 3; iii. 96. [158] _Arte Poetica_, p. 287. [159] _Arte Poetica_, p. 77. [160] Butcher, pp. 229, 230. [161] _Opere_, v. 178. [162] Butcher, p. 280 _sq._