Comparisons between Manzoni and Scott

Manzoni and Scott are two important poets of the romantic age because of their origins. The
first was Italian and he was influenced for his masterpiece I Promessi Sposi by the work of
the Scottish poet named Ivanhoe . There were many differences and similarities between
the two poets and so between the two works. At first in both Scott and Manzoni is evident the
patriotic and regional strain because their novels are placed within historical contexts that
stress the cultural and political conflicts between, respectively, Scotland and England and
Lombardy and Spain. Then they used different linguistic means where Scott, in the novels
dealing with Scottish history, made ample use of dialect and local sayings; Manzoni, on the
other hand, carefully removed dialect or regional inflections because he wanted his novel to set
a linguistic standard for a new Italian literature and nation. To Scott, the Scottish language was
a means of keeping alive his countrys sense of independence from England. Another similarity
between Scott and Manzoni is that both two poets speak about humble people and not about
the great protagonist of historical events. While Scotts stories are characterized by the
prevalence of exotic and adventure elements, in Manzonis novel, on the contrary, we find
moral passages that reveal a marked tendency to reflect on the events for the readers benefit
thought the justice. Together, Scott and Manzoni exemplify the two main trends of the
historical novel in Europe during the Romantic period.