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Voltaire related that Milton during his tour in Italy had seen performed L'Adamo, a sacred drama by the Florentine Giovanni Battista Andreini, and that he "took from that ridiculous trifle" the hint of the "noblest product of human imagination." Though Voltaire relates this as a matter of fact, it is doubtful if it be more than an on dit which he had picked up in London society.
Nor was this connection broken until far on into the reign of Charles II. What Milton owed to Italy is clear not only from his Italian sonnets, but also from the frequent mention of Dante and Petrarch in his prose works, from his allusions to Boiardo and Ariosto in the 'Paradise Lost, and from the hints which he probably derived from Pulci, Tasso and Andreini.
The utmost that can be conceded is to concur in Hayley's opinion that, either in representation or in perusal, the Adamo of Andreini had made an impression on the mind of Milton; had, as Voltaire says, revealed to him the hidden majesty of the subject.
An Italian company invited to France by the Queen, under the management of Isabella Andrëini, also appeared before the Court, but no record is left of the nature of their performance. From this temporary oblivion of all political anxiety Henry was, however, suddenly aroused by a rumour which reached the Court of a revolt in the town of Metz, which proved to be only too well founded.
One of the great actors and authors of these pieces, who published eighteen of these irregular productions, was Andreini, whose name must have the honour of being associated with Milton's, for it was his comedy or opera which threw the first spark of the "Paradise Lost" into the soul of the epic poet a circumstance which will hardly be questioned by those who have examined the different schemes and allegorical personages of the first projected drama of "Paradise Lost": nor was Andreini, as well as many others of this race of Italian dramatists, inferior poets.
Andreini was but one of the common throng of dramatic writers, and it has been fiercely contended by some, that it is impossible that the idea of so sublime a poem should have been taken from so ordinary a composition as his Adam. His piece was represented at Milan as early as 1613, and so has at least a claim of priority,
Mock Heroic Poetry, the Drama, and Satire; Tassoni, Bracciolini, Andreini, and others. 15. History and Epistolary Writings; Davila, Bentivoglio, Sarpi, Redi. Historical Development of the Third Period. 2. The Melodrama; Rinuccini, Zeno, Metastasio. 3. Comedy; Goldoni, C. Gozzi, and others. 4. Tragedy; Maffei, Alfieri, Monti, Manzoni, Nicolini, and others. 5.
But out of the long catalogue of his predecessors there appear only three, who can claim to have conceived the same theme with anything like the same breadth, or on the same scale as Milton has done. These are the so-called Caedmon, Andreini, and Vondel.
If Andreini was known to Edward Phillips, the inference is that he was known to Milton. Lastly, though external evidence is here wanting, it cannot be doubted that Milton was acquainted with the Lucifer of the Dutch poet, Joost van den Vondel, which appeared in 1654. This poem is a regular five-act drama in the Dutch language, a language which Milton was able to read.
Andreini is incessantly offending against taste, and is infected with the vice of the Marinists, the pursuit of concetti, or far-fetched analogies between things unlike. His infernal personages are grotesque and disgusting, rather than terrible; his scenes in heaven childish at once familiar and fantastic, in the style of the Mysteries of the age before the drama.
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