GOLDO'NI, CARLO, was born at Venice in 1707, of is family originally from Modena. His grandfather, in whose house he was born, was a man of pleasure, fond of the company of musicians and comedians, and young Goldoni early showed a predilection for thea trical performances. He was sent by his father to different colleges, but he repeatedly interrupted his studies by running away with some company of strolling players. Having at last taken his degree of Doctor of Law in the University of Padua, he began practising at Venice as an advocate, but soon left it to resume his rambling life, and engaged himself to a company of actors as stage-poet. After some years he left his companions in 1742, and began practising at Pisa as a lawyer with great success; but the appearance of another dramatic) company made him give np his practice, and he engaged himself again as a stage-poet, in which situation he continued for the greater part of his life. From that time ho aspired to the honour of being the reformer of the Italian stage. The Italian comedy had from its birth been deficient in originality ; it was an imitation, first of the old classic drama, and afterwards of the romantic Spanish plays ; and although a few clever writers, such as Machiavelli, Aretino, Bibbiena, Della Porte, and the younger Buonarroti, produced some good specimens both of the classio and the romantic styles, yet, generally speaking, the want of a national drama suited to modern Italian manners was felt, and the stage was given up either to dulness or licentiousness and absurdity. Tho melodrama, or opera, introduced by Rinuccini, tended to favour, under the shelter of musical attraction, all sorts of irregularities of plot and action, and it gradually drove the regular comedy from the stage. But there was another species of play which might be styled national, namely, the commedie dell' arte, or h. soggetto.' These plays were not written ; a mere outline of the plot was sketched out, and the various characters being assigned to the actors, each filled up his own part as ha chose, the dialogue being for the most part delivered extempore on the spur of tho occasion, just like a conversation in private society. It might be called an improvise drama. The principal characters of these playa were fixed, and con sisted chiefly of what the Italians called Maschere; because the actors who performed them wore masks ; they were a sort of .caricature representatives of the native humour and local peculiarities of the people of the various Italian states. Thus, Pantalone was the proto type of a Venetian tradesman, honourable and good-natured even to weakness, with much of the humour peculiar to his country ; the Dottore was a Bolognese professor somewhat pedantic ; Brighella, a sort of Italian Scapini, was an intriguing rogue of a servant; Harlequin, from Bergamo, was a curious compound of simplicity and waggery; Policinella, a Neapolitan clown, a licentious, pilfering, but humorous knave. Each of these spoke his native dialect, while the other dramatis personas spoke the written Italian. These generally consisted of an amoroso, or lover, and his mistress, often a couple of each, besides subordinate female characters of pert, shrewd, intriguing servant-maids, with the generic names of Colombina, Smeraldina, Spilletta, &c. The attraction of these playa consisted in their wit and drollery, the quick repartee, the licentious double meaning, and also in the acting of the performers. A few clever actors here and there gave a peculiar zest to the play, and many of these unwritten performances had really considerable merit, but mediocrity was fatal to them, and in most cases these comedies degenerated into mere scurrility and low vulgarity.
Goldoni determined to revive the use of regular comedy, and with this view he wrote it vast number of plays descriptive of the life and manners of his countrymen. He had a great fund of invention, a facility of writing, and was an attentive observer of men. He excels in painting tho Venetians of his time, jovial, licentious, good-natured, and careless; several of his plays are entirely in the Venetian dialect, and are remarkable for raciness and fluency of diction. His Italian, on tho contrary, is far from pure, and the expressions are at times mean. Goldoni, although himself an honourable man, had mixed during a great part of his life with very equivocal company, and the manners which he paints, though real, are not always the best; indeed some of hie scenes would not be tolerated on the English or even French stage. Being deficient in general information, whenever ha has attempted to sketch foreign manners he has committed blunders. He often wrote in great hurry for bread, as he himself eays, being bound to supply his company with a certain number of new playa annually, and at one time he wrote as many as sixteen in one year, a circumstance which may ecconnt for the great inequality observable in his composition. But with all Ma faults, Goldoni was certainly the restorer, If not the creator, of Italian comedy ; his plays continua to be acted with applause; and the best writers of comedy that Italy has produced since his death, such as Da Rossi, Giraud, Notes, &c., are confessedly disciples of Goldoni. In Goldoni's time the Commcdie dell' Arts found a powerful defender in Carlo Gozzi, a writer of unquestionable though ill-regulated genius, who was Goldoni's great antagonist, and divided with him the applause of the Venetian public. He wrote some clever parodies of Goldoni's plays. This contest, which made great noise at the time, and is by no means devoid of interest for the history of the Italian mind, Is noticed at some length by Ugoni, 'Letteratura Italians,' article 'Carlo Gozzi ; and also by Baretti, in his Account of the Meaner! and Customs of Italy.
Goldoni, after many years of a very laborious life, was still poor, when in 1761 he was invited to Paris by the Italian comedians of that city. He there wrote a great number of plays, some of them in French; most of which met with great success. His ' Bourru Bien faisan t ' remained a standard play on the French stage. Voltaire speaks of Goldoni with great praise, and paid him very flattering compliments at the time. Diderot borrowed the subject of his Natural Son ' from one of Goldonfa plays. Goldoni having become known at the French court, was appointed teacher of Italian to the daughters of Louis XV., and after some years a pension of 3600 livres was given to him. He was living comfortably in his old age at Paris when the revolution deprived him of his pension. The Convention however, on a motion of Chenier in January 1793, restored it to him, but he did not live to enjoy the boon, as he died a few days after. His widow was paid the arrears.
Goldoni published an edition of his plays in 18 vols. 8vo, Venice, 1761 ' • but a complete edition of his works was published after his death in 44 vole. tivo, Venice, 1794-95. Numerous choice selections of his beat plays have bean and still are published In Italy. He also wrote' Memoirs of his Life,' in French, in 3 vole.