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COUNT CARLO GOZZI (1722-1806)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 305 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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COUNT CARLO See also:GOZZI (1722-1806)  , See also:Italian dramatist, was descended from an old Venetian See also:family, and was See also:born at See also:Venice in See also:March 1722 . Compelled by the embarrassed See also:condition of his See also:father's affairs to procure the means of self-support, he, at the See also:age of sixteen, joined the See also:army in See also:Dalmatia; but three years afterwards he returned to Venice, where he soon made a reputation for himself as the wittiest member of the Granelleschi society, to which the publication of several satirical pieces had gained him See also:admission . This society, nominally devoted to conviviality and wit, had also serious See also:literary aims, and was especially .zealous to preserve the Tuscan literature pure and untainted by See also:foreign influences . The displacement of the old Italian See also:comedy by the dramas of Pietro Chiari (1700-1788) and See also:Goldoni, founded on See also:French See also:models, threatened defeat to all their efforts; and in 1757 See also:Gozzi came to the See also:rescue by See also:publishing a satirical poem, Tartana degli influssi per l' wino bisestile, and in 1761 by his comedy, Fiaba dell' amore Belle tre melarancie, a See also:parody of the manner of the two See also:obnoxious poets, founded on a See also:fairy See also:tale . For its See also:representation he obtained the services of the See also:Sacchi See also:company of players, who, on See also:account of the popularity of the comedies of Chiari and Goldoni—which afforded no See also:scope for the display of their See also:peculiar talents—had been See also:left without employment; and as their satirical See also:powers were thus sharpened by See also:personal enmity, the See also:play met with extraordinary success . Struck by the effect produced on the See also:audience by the introduction of the supernatural or mythical See also:element, which he had merely used as a convenient See also:medium for his satirical purposes, Gozzi now produced a See also:series of dramatic pieces based on fairy tales, which for a See also:period obtained See also:great popularity, but after the breaking up of the Sacchi company were completely disregarded . They have, however, obtained high praise from See also:Goethe, See also:Schlegel, Madame de See also:Stael and See also:Sismondi; and one of them, Re Turandote, was translated by See also:Schiller . In his later years Gozzi set himself to the See also:production of tragedies in which the comic element was largely introduced; but as this innovation proved unacceptable to the critics he had recourse to the See also:Spanish See also:drama, from which he obtained models for various pieces, which, however, met with only equivocal success . He died on the 4th of See also:April 18o6 . His collected See also:works were published under his own superintendence, at Venice, in 1792, in Jo volumes; and his dramatic works, translated into See also:German by Werthes, were published at See also:Bern in 1795 . See Gozzi's See also:work, Memorie inutili See also:delta vita di Carlo Gozzi (3 vols., Venice, 1797), translated into French by See also:Paul de See also:Musset (1848), and into See also:English by J . A .

See also:

Symonds (1889); F . See also:Horn, Ober Gozzis dramatische Poesie (Venice, 18o3); Gherardini, Vita di Gasp . Gozzi (1821); " See also:Charles Gozzi," by Paul de Musset, in the Revue See also:des deux monde: for 15th See also:November 1844; Magrini, Carlo Gozzi e la fiabe: saggi storici, biografici, e critici (See also:Cremona, 1876), and the same author's See also:book on Gozzi's See also:life and times (See also:Benevento, 1883) .

End of Article: COUNT CARLO GOZZI (1722-1806)
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