What a tragedy!
Albertino Mussato’s ‘Ecerinis’ used recent history to revive ancient tragic drama
It was through a reign of terror that Ezzelino da Romano, the most notorious tyrant of mediaeval Italy, consolidated his power in the area between Verona, Padua and Vicenza in the 13th century.
Ezzelino III da Romano's rise to power was rooted in his strategic alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and his adept exploitation of the factional conflicts in northern Italy. Emerging from the powerful da Romano family, Ezzelino quickly became a key military leader and political force, using both diplomatic cunning and brutal force to seize control of Verona, Padua, and Vicenza in the 1230s. His loyalty to Frederick II earned him imperial backing, which bolstered his authority and allowed him to suppress opposition within the fiercely independent Italian city-states. He died in 1259.
Ezzelino’s reputation for cruelty became the stuff of legend. Dante placed Ezzelino in Inferno, among the violent in the Seventh Circle of Hell, submerged in the river of boiling blood. His massacres and brutal methods of rule left a deep scar on the cities he controlled, and his name became synonymous with tyranny. Writers and chroniclers of the time painted him as a demonic figure. If there was ever a 13th-century Italian Hitler, that role belonged to Ezzelino.
In 1315, Albertino Mussato, an accomplished Italian poet, historian, and statesman, published "Ecerinis," a pioneering tragedy that marked the revival of classical drama in the post-antique world. Drawing inspiration from Seneca and Roman tragedies, Mussato's play focuses on Ezzelino and his reign of terror. Its title, ‘Ecerinis’, is based on the Latinised version of Ezzelino’s name, Ecerinus. Written in Latin, the play stands as one of the earliest humanist tragedies, blending classical form with contemporary historical concerns, and reflecting Mussato's belief in the educative power of literature as a tool for civic instruction.
From the fall of the Roman Empire and up until Mussato’s Ecerinis in 1315, the dramatic landscape of medieval Europe had largely been dominated by religious and moral performances. Classical drama, once thriving in Greco-Roman antiquity, had all but disappeared, replaced by forms of theater that served religious and didactic purposes. The most prominent of these were liturgical dramas, which were performed within or near churches, often in Latin, and depicted stories from the Bible.
The period saw little in terms of the classical structures of tragedy or comedy, as the emphasis was on instructing the faithful and reinforcing Christian values rather than exploring secular or humanist themes. Mussato’s ‘Ecerinis’ was different. It broke away, though not completely, from the tradition of the liturgical play. The innovation lay in bringing back the key features of the classical tragedy, which had lain dormant: the role of hybris in bringing down individuals and structures of power, the importance of the chorus in storytelling, and the power of fate and inevitability. Ezzelino’s ambition and cruelty, his hybris, are portrayed as inevitably leading to his destruction, while the chorus carries the story forward as a narrator and cautionary agent.
Mussato adopted the five-act structure commonly used in Roman tragedy, and sought to evoke pity and fear in the audience, leading to catharsis, the emotional purging that was central to the experience of ancient tragedy.
It was a hit out of the blue, which nobody expected. In the same year ‘Ecerinis’ was published, Mussato was crowned as poet laureate in Padua, an honor that harkened back to the classical tradition of honoring poets and scholars. The honour notwithstanding, it took the West more than a century later to fully wake up to the power of tragedy and to its existential import.