Ugo Foscolo was an Italian poet and patriot. He was born in 1778 at Zante and died in 1827. Educated at the University of Padua, before the age of twenty he produced his tragedy Il Tieste (Thyestes), which was received with applause. His next work of importance was a romance somewhat in the style of Goethe's Werther, called Ultime Lettere di Jacopo Ortis (Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis). He then procured a commission in the army (First Italian Legion), After some military experiences under Massena at Genoa and elsewhere, in 1805 he retired and wrote I Sepolcri, one of the finest of his poems. He was subsequently appointed to a professorship at Pavia, of which Napoleon, displeased at his freedom of speech, soon deprived him. In 1812 he produced his tragedy of Ajax, and soon after that of Ricciarda. On the fall of Napoleon, Ugo Foscolo, who was obnoxious to the Austrians, retired to Switzerland; but finally, in 1815, he went to London, where he met with a most favourable reception, and where he died. Besides the works already mentioned, his critical writings, Essays on Petrarch and Discourses on the texts of Dante and of Machiavelli's Il Principe, are well known. Research Ugo Foscolo
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