Adelchi: characters

The Adelchi was written between 1820 and 1822 and was published with a dedication to Manzoni’s wife Henriette by the Milanese publisher Ferrario, along with the Discourse on the Longobards. The historical notes (Notizie storiche) and the essay on the Longobards testify to Manzoni’s interest in representing the conflict between the barbarian oppressors and the oppressed Latin people. This interest, a result of influence by the French liberal historians, is revealed in the Coro of Act III, where the poem encourages the Latins (un volgo disperso che nome non ha) not to be fooled that in ousting the Longobards, the Franks would restore their freedom and independence, which could only be conquered through struggle. The chorus contains an implicit version of the risorgimento sentiment that comes across clearly in his ode Marzo 1821. Indeed, in an early draft of the tragedy, Adelchi himself was a patriotic figure who wished to unite the Latins and Longobards into a single sovereign nation. As in the Carmagnola, the tragedy contains a bleak portrayal of political power: the harsh law of the ragion di stato (“reason of state”) that induces Carlo to repudiate Ermengarda, the woman who loves him; Desiderio’s blind craving for power; Svarto’s vile treason coupled with his envy of the powerful. But at the heart of the work, and beyond the confines of its historical setting, lies the tragic conflict of two pure and suffering souls inspired by the values of the Gospels and a world abandoned by God after the “fall” of original sin and subjected to a fierce law: the law enounced in elegiac tones by the dying Adelchi (loco a gentile, / ad innocente opra non v’è: non resta / che far torto, o patirlo (“there is no way for innocent action; all that remains is to do wrong or suffer wrong”). The tragedy of Adelchi, a Hamlet-like figure, different from Alfieri’s tragic heroes and the Romantic heroes, consists of his inability to do good by his actions. He is a victim of the world’s evil, and the solution to his inner conflict can take place only after death, in the divine consolation of the afterlife. The same destiny befalls Ermengarda, made to suffer by God, but also endowed with a “providential misfortune” that sets her – a descendent of oppressors - “among the oppressed”, preserving her innocence from the blame of human actions. Ermengarda’s passion is lyrically expressed in the famous Chorus of Act IV.