The article focuses on Merope by Scipione Maffei, which represents a key text for studying the emergence of the modern public sphere and the construction of public opinion in Italy. Through an investigation into the tragedy’s political dimension and figures of sovereignty, I show how the Veronese playwright creates an audience capable of exerting critical judgment about what is represented on stage. I argue that by representing two antithetical models of governance, one negative, embodied by the tyrant Polyphontes, and the other positive, that is Merope herself, Maffei called into being an adjudicating spectator capable of political analysis. Ultimately, the essay analyzes how Maffei’s idea of the centrality of the public was communicated to theatre-goers through the figure of Aegistus, whose gradual achievement of a new identity, from shepherd to king, allegorizes the people/public’s social redemption. The analysis of the play’s political allegories shows how Maffei paved the way for the formation of public opinion and for the evolution of the public itself.
