GOLDONI, CARLO (1707-1793), Italian dramatist, the real founder of modern Italian comedy, was born at Venice, on Feb. 25, 2707. His father Giulio was a native of Modena. The young Goldoni ran away with a Venetian company of players. He began to study law at Venice, then went to continue the same pur suit at Pavia, but at that time he was studying the Greek and Latin comic poets much more and much better than books about law. For a satire entitled Il Colosso, which attacked the honour of several families of Pavia, he was driven from that town.
The wish to write for the stage was always strong in him, and he tried to do so; he made, however, a mistake in his choice, and began with a tragedy, Amalasunta, which was represented at 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 him self saw clearly that he had not yet found his proper sphere, and that a radical dramatic reform was absolutely necessary for the stage. He wished to create comedy of character in Italy, to follow the example of Moliere, and to delineate the realities of social life in as natural a manner as possible. His first essay of this kind was Momolo Cortesan (Momolo the Courtier), written in the Venetian dialect, and based on his own experience. Other plays followed—some interesting from their subject, others from the characters; the best of that period are—Le Trentadue Dis grazie d' Arlecchino, La Notte critica, La Bancarotta, La Donna di Garbo. While consul of Genoa at Venice, he was cheated by a cap tain of Ragusa, and founded on this incident a play L'Impostore. At 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. The whole social life of Venice is to be found in Goldoni's plays. Once he promised to write 16 comedies in a year, and kept his word; among the 16 are some of his very best, such as II Ca ff e, 11 Bugiardo, La Pamela. When he left the company of Medebac, he passed over to that main tained by the patrician Vendramin, continuing to write with the greatest facility. But Vendramin was tyrannical, and the purists of the day were constantly attacking Goldoni's work (see Gozzr). Goldoni accepted the post of manager of the Italian theatre in Paris in 1761. Before leaving Venice he wrote Um delle ultime sere di Carnevale (One of the Last Nights of Carnival), an alle gorical comedy in which he said good-bye to his country. At the end of the representation of this play, the theatre resounded with applause, and with shouts expressive of good wishes. Goldoni, at this proof of public sympathy, wept like a child.
At Paris, during two years, he wrote comedies for the Italian actors ; then he taught Italian to the royal princesses ; and for the wedding of Louis XVI. and of Marie Antoinette he wrote in French one of his best comedies, Le Bourru bienfaisant, which was a great success. When he retired from Paris to Versailles, the king made him a gift of 6,000 francs, and fixed on him an annual pension of 1,200 francs. It was at Versailles he wrote his Memoirs, which occupied him till he reached his Both year. The deprived him all at once of his modest pension, and reduced him to extreme misery; he dragged on his unfortunate existence till Feb. 6, 1793. The day after, on the proposal of Andre Chenier, the Convention agreed to give the pension back to the poet, and as it was too late, a reduced allowance was granted to his widow.
The best comedies of Goldoni are : La Donna di Garbo, La Bot tega di Ca fie, Pamela nubile, Le Baru ff e chiozzotte, I Rusteghi, Todero Brontolon, Gli Innamorati, Il Ventaglio, Il Bugiardo, La Casa nova, Il Burbero benefico, La Locandiera.
A collected edition of the plays (44 vols., Venice, 1788) was repub lished at Florence in 1827. The standard edition is that arranged by the city of Venice, Opere complete (2o vols., Venice, 1907-17) . The Memoirs (best ed. by Mazzoni, 1907) were translated into English by John Black (Boston, 1877), with preface by W. D. Howells. See A. de Gubernatis, Carlo Goldoni (Florence, 1911) , a course of lectures deliv ered at Rome in 19o1-11 ; H. C. Chatfield-Taylor, Goldoni (1914) •