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CARLO GOLDONI (1707-1793)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 213 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CARLO See also:

GOLDONI (1707-1793)  , See also:Italian dramatist, the real founder of See also:modern Italian See also:comedy, was See also:born at See also:Venice, on the 25th of See also:February 1707, in a See also:fine See also:house near St See also:Thomas's See also:church . His See also:father Giulio was a native of See also:Modena . The first playthings of the future writer were puppets which he made See also:dance; the first books he read were plays,—among others, the comedies of the Florentine Cicognini . Later he received a still stronger impression from the Mandragora of See also:Machiavelli, At eight years old he had tried to See also:sketch a See also:play . His father, meanwhile, had taken his degree in See also:medicine at See also:Rome and fixed himself at See also:Perugia, where he made his son join him; but, having soon quarrelled with his colleagues in medicine, he departed for See also:Chioggia, leaving his son to the care of a philosopher, See also:Professor Caldini of See also:Rimini . The See also:young See also:Goldoni soon See also:grew tired of his See also:life at Rimini, and ran away with a Venetian See also:company of players . He began to study See also:law at Venice, then went to continue the same pursuit at See also:Pavia, but at that See also:time he was studying the See also:Greek and Latin comic poets much more and much better than books about law . " I have read over again," he writes in his own See also:Memoirs, "the Greek and Latin poets, and I have told to myself that I should like to imitate them in their See also:style, their plots, their precision; but I would not be satisfied unless I succeeded in giving more See also:interest to my See also:works, happier issues to my plots, better See also:drawn characters and more genuine comedy." For a See also:satire entitled Il Colosso, which attacked the See also:honour of several families of Pavia, he was driven from that See also:town, and went first to study with the jurisconsult See also:Morelli at See also:Udine, then to take his degree in law at Modena . After having worked some time as clerk in the chanceries of Chioggia and See also:Feltre, his father being dead, he went to Venice, to exercise there his profession as a lawyer . But the wish to write for the See also:stage was always strong in him, and he tried to do so; he made, however, a See also:mistake in his choice, and began with a tragedy, Amalasunta, which was represented at See also:Milan and proved a failure . In 1734 he wrote another tragedy, Belisario, which, though not much better, chanced nevertheless to please the public . This first success encouraged him to write other tragedies, some of which were well received; but the author himself saw clearly that he had not yet found his proper See also:sphere, and that a See also:radical dramatic reform was absolutely necessary for the stage .

He wished to create a characteristic comedy in See also:

Italy, to follow the example of See also:Moliere, and to delineate the realities of social life in as natural a manner as possible . His first See also:essay of this See also:kind was Momolo Cortesan (Momolo the Courtier), written in the Venetian See also:dialect, and based on his own experience . Other plays followed—some interesting from their subject, others from the characters; the best of that See also:period are—Le Trentadue Disgrazie d' Arlecchino, La Notte critica, La Bancarotta, La Donna di Garbo . Having, while See also:consul of See also:Genoa at Venice, been cheated by a See also:captain of See also:Ragusa, he founded on this his play L'Impostore . At See also:Leghorn he made the acquaintance of the comedian Medebac, and followed him to Venice, with his company,for which he began to write his best plays . Once he premised to write sixteen comedies in a See also:year, and kept his word; among the sixteen are some of his very best, such as Il Cafe, Il Bugiardo, La Pamela . When he See also:left the company of Medebac, he passed over to that maintained by the patrician Vendramin, continuing to write with the greatest facility . In 1761 he was called to See also:Paris, and before leaving Venice he wrote Una delle ultime sere di Carnevale (One of the Last Nights of See also:Carnival), an allegorical comedy in which he said See also:good-bye to his See also:country . At the end of the See also:representation of this play, the See also:theatre resounded with See also:applause, and with shouts expressive of good wishes . Goldoni, at this See also:proof of public sympathy, wept as a See also:child . At Paris, during two years, he wrote comedies for the Italian actors; then he taught Italian to the royal princesses; and for the See also:wedding of See also:Louis XVI. and of See also:Marie Antoinette he wrote in See also:French one of his best comedies, Le Bourru bienfaisant, which was a See also:great success . When he retired from Paris to See also:Versailles, the See also:king made him a See also:gift of 6000 francs, and fixed on him an See also:annual See also:pension of 1200 francs .

It was at Versailles he wrote his Memoirs, which occupied him till he reached his eightieth year . The Revolution deprived him all at once of his modest pension, and reduced him to extreme misery; he dragged on his unfortunat& existence till 1793, and died on the 6th of February . The See also:

day after, on the proposal of See also:Andre See also:Chenier, the See also:Convention agreed to give the pension back to the poet; and as he had already died, a reduced See also:allowance was granted to his widow . The best comedies of Goldoni are: La Donna di Garbo, La Bottega di Caffe, Pamela nubile, Le Baruffe chiozzotte, I Rusteghi, Todero Bronlolon, Gli Innamorati, Il Ventaglio, Il Bugiardo, La Casa nova, Il Burbero benefico, La Locandiera . A collected edition (Venice, 1788) was republished at See also:Florence in 1827 . See P . G . Molmenti, Carlo Goldoni (Venice, 1875) ; Rabany, Carlo Goldoni (Paris, 1896) . The Memoirs were translated into See also:English by See also:John See also:Black (See also:Boston, 1877), with See also:preface by W . D . See also:Howells .

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