Carlo
Goldoni

Carlo Goldoni, (b. Feb. 25, 1707, Venice—d. Feb. 6,
1793, Paris), prolific dramatist who renovated the
well-established Italian commedia dell’arte dramatic form by
replacing its masked stock figures with more realistic
characters, its loosely structured and often repetitive
action with tightly constructed plots, and its predictable
farce with a new spirit of gaiety and spontaneity. For these
innovations Goldoni is considered the founder of Italian
realistic comedy.
The precocious son of a
physician, Goldoni read comedies from his father’s library
when young and ran away from school at Rimini in 1721 with a
company of strolling players. Back in school at the papal
college in Pavia, Goldoni read comedies by Plautus, Terence,
and Aristophanes. Later he studied French in order to read
Molière.
For writing a satire on the
ladies of the town, Goldoni was expelled from the Ghislieri
College in Pavia, and he reluctantly began law studies at
the University of Pavia. Although he practiced law in Venice
(1731–33) and Pisa (1744–48) and held diplomatic
appointments, his real interest was the dramatic works he
wrote for the Teatro San Samuele in Venice.
In 1748 Goldoni agreed to
write for the Teatro Sant’Angelo company of the Venetian
actor-manager Girolamo Medebac. Although Goldoni’s early
plays veer between the old style and the new, he dispensed
with masked characters altogether in such plays as La Pamela
(performed 1750; Eng. trans., Pamela, a Comedy, 1756), a
serious drama based on Samuel Richardson’s novel.
During the 1750–51 season
Goldoni promised defecting patrons 16 new comedies and
produced some of his best, notably I pettegolezzi delle
donne (“Women’s Gossip”), a play in Venetian dialect; Il
bugiardo (The Liar, 1922), written in commedia dell’arte
style; and Il vero amico (“The True Friend”), an Italian
comedy of manners.
From 1753 to 1762 Goldoni
wrote for the Teatro San Luca (now Teatro Goldoni). There he
increasingly left commedia dell’arte behind him. Important
plays from this period are the Italian comedy of manners La
locandiera (performed 1753; Eng. trans., Mine Hostess, 1928)
and two fine plays in Venetian dialect, I rusteghi
(performed 1760; “The Tyrants”) and Le baruffe chiozzote
(performed 1762; “Quarrels at Chioggia”).
Already engaged in rivalry
with the playwright Pietro Chiari, whom he satirized in I
malcontenti (performed 1755; “The Malcontent”), Goldoni was
assailed by Carlo Gozzi, an adherent of the commedia
dell’arte, who denounced Goldoni in a satirical poem (1757),
then ridiculed both Goldoni and Chiari in a commedia
dell’arte classic, L’amore delle tre melarance (performed
1761; “The Love of the Three Oranges”).
In 1762 Goldoni left Venice
for Paris to direct the Comédie-Italienne. Subsequently, he
rewrote all of his French plays for Venetian audiences; his
French L’Éventail (performed 1763) became in Italian one of
his finest plays, Il ventaglio (performed 1764; The Fan,
1907).
Goldoni retired in 1764 to
teach Italian to the princesses at Versailles. In 1783 he
began his celebrated Mémoires in French (1787; Eng. trans.,
1814, 1926). After the French Revolution his pension was
cancelled, and he died in dire poverty.