Abstract

Maffei's "Merope" (1713) has been often considered as the tragedy of weak passions, unable to bear comparison with the «tetra e feroce» one by Alfieri. This paper aims to dismiss such a perspective, so to underline the specific features of Maffei's tragical aesthetics. In his "Merope" the dramatic tension is not triggered as much by the excess of "pathos", but rather by the fact that truth and certainties slip away, stratifying informations that bewilder the characters (as much as the audience) in a labyrinth of deceptive hypotheses.