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Augusto Novelli (17 January 1867, Florence - 7 November 1927, Carmignano), also known as Novellino, was an Italian Florentine satirical journalist, writer, and dramatist. A prolific playwright who completed more than fifty dramatic pieces (many in the Tuscan (Florentine) dialect), Novelli is critically regarded as one of the founding fathers of the modern Florentine vernacular (dialect) theater. ==Biography== Well known for his lifelong association with the city of Florence, Augusto Novelli was born there on 17 January 1867. Largely self-educated, Novelli succeeded in becoming an erudite intellectual despite a minimal formal education that ended after three years of primary schooling.〔Bencistà, Alessandro (2008). ("La commedia in vernacolo fiorentino dall'abate Zannoni a Giovanni Nannini". ) Retrieved 24 July 2010. 〕 Enthused by the creative world of the Italian theater from an early age, Novelli managed to complete the farce ''Una sfida ai bagni'' (''A Challenge to the Baths'') as a teenager and wrote early plays such as ''La capanna del veterano'' (''The Veteran's Cabin'') and ''La Società dei senza testa'' (''Society of the Headless'') in the 1880s.〔 Having founded the satirical magazine ''Il vero Monello'' (''The True Rogue'') and become its chief editor in 1888, he soon cast his attention on the cause of Florentine drama, which began to appear in Novelli's journal in the Florentine vernacular form in 1892.〔Haller, Hermann W. (1999). ''The Other Italy: The Literary Canon in Dialect''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 196. ISBN 978-0-8020-4424-2.〕〔Carlson, Matvin (1981). ''The Italian Stage from Goldoni to D'Annunzio''. Jefferson, N.C. and London: MacFarland & Company, Inc. p. 174. ISBN 978-0-89950-000-3.〕 As a politically active member of the intelligentsia from the beginning of his career, Novelli was hounded by the establishment as a young man, and in the 1890s was given a fifteen-month prison term as punishment for his adherence to the socialist movement during a period of fierce political conservatism.〔MacClintock, Lander (1951). ''The Age of Pirandello''. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 113.〕〔("La Libreria Chiari riscopre le commedie vernacolari di Augusto Novelli" ) (15 February 2000). ''Nove da Firenze''. Retrieved 11 July 2010. 〕 (Despite this political martyrdom, Novelli would later be expelled by the Italian Socialist Party's radical elements for being too reformist, or impermissibly moderate.〔("Il vernacolo di Augusto Novelli" ) (2003). ''Insieme a Carmignano''. Associazione Turistica Pro Loco di Carmignano. Retrieved 24 July 2010. 〕) Novelli's ''Il morticino'' (''The Dead Child''), a play written during his prison term, premiered in 1893 while the dramatist was still carrying on his work from behind bars.〔("Teatro della Rosa e L’Associazione Musicale Schola Cantorum di Rosignano presentano L'Acqua Cheta..." ) Centre Culturel International Marco Polo. Retrieved 11 July 2010. 〕 The subsequent year witnessed the debut of Novelli's ''Purgatorio, Inferno, Paradiso'' (''Purgatory, Inferno, Paradise''). In Britain, the Victorian era Freethinker Samuel Porter Putnam observed that "Novelli. . . was cheered when acquitted on the charges of irreverence and blasphemy."〔Putnam, Samuel P. (1894). ''(400 Years of Freethought. )'' New York: The Truth Seeker Company. (p. 643. )〕 The play critically regarded as Novelli's most notable theatrical work, ''L'acqua cheta'' (''Still Water''), first opened at Florence's Teatro Alfieri on 28 January 1908. Though since hailed as a classic masterpiece of Florentine comedyeven described as the beginning of the modern Florentine vernacular theater〔the work opened to mixed critical reviews that were largely negative, at first receiving a positive review from only one critic, Mario Ferrigni.〔 It nonetheless enjoyed an overwhelming popular success among theater-goers.〔 The play was later turned into an operetta after receiving a musical score from composer Giuseppe Pietri: the Novelli-Pietro operetta premiered on 27 November 1920 in Rome. The numerous other productions born out of Novelli's fruitful association with the Alfieri included the premieres of ''Acqua passata'' (''Water Under the Bridge'') in 1908; ''Casa mia'' (''My House''), ''L'ascensione'' (''The Ascension''), and ''L'Ave Maria'' (''Ave Maria'') in 1909; ''Gallina vecchia'' (''The Old Hen'') in 1911; ''La Cupola'' (''The Cupola'') in 1913; and ''Canapone'' in 1914. Aside from his two decades with ''Il vero Monello'', Novelli's contributions to periodicals included material for ''Firenze a zig-zag'' in 1912 and ''La Kultureide'' in 1916;〔 Novelli's other efforts outside of drama included the 1902 ''Lotte sociali'' (''Social Struggles''), an original translation of Victor Hugo's notes regarding his participation in attempts to effect social and political change in France, and ''Firenze presa sul serio'' (''Florence Taken Seriously''), a novel first published for the Florentine readership in 1902. (Novelli's novel ultimately reappeared in a 1908 edition illustrated by Gustavo Rosso and prefaced by author and politician Otello Masini.) Among Novelli's collaborators in the theatrical world was influential actor-manager Andrea Niccoli (1862–1917), historically memorable as an instrumental promoter of Novelli's ''L'acqua cheta'' and other plays.〔Noccioli, Guido, and Giovanni Pontiero (Ed.) (1982). ''Duse on Tour: Guido Noccioli's Diaries, 1906-1907''. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. p. 163. ISBN 978-0-87023-369-2.〕 Novelli died on 7 November 1927, aged sixty years and almost ten months at the timesome five years after dictator Benito Mussolini's fascist takeover of the country. He spent his final years in seclusion from public life in Tuscany's community of Carmignano (about 20 km west of Florence), where a commemorative bust installed in the municipal chamber now honors him.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Augusto Novelli」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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