Author: Carlo Goldoni

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-18

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 9781331651369

Excerpt from Memoirs of Carlo Goldoni: Transl, From the Original French, by John Black If the English essayist was vastly higher in the theory than in the conduct of life, poor Goldoni had his moral ideas, too, and tried to teach in his comedies purity, good faith, and other virtues which were foolishness to most of the world by whose favor he must live. He resembled Goldsmith in the amiability of his satire, the exquisite naturalness of his characterization, the simplicity of his literary motive; but he was do poet, though a genius, and he falls below Goldsmith in this rather than in respect of the morality he taught. Perhaps Dr. Goldsmith would have been but little pleased to be compared with the Venetian dramatist, if the comparison had been made in his lifetime, for if he ever heard of Goldoni at all, it must have been in scornful terms from that Joseph Barretti who dwelt in London and consorted with Doctor Johnson, and had wielded upon his Italian brethren a Frusta Letteraria, or Literary Lash (as he called his ferocious critical papers), that drew blood: Barretti despised Goldoni for a farceur of low degree, not being able to see the truth and power of his comedies, and used ti speak of him as "one Charles Goldoni." Nevertheless, if the Venetian could have brought himself to leave the delights of Paris long enough to pay that visit to London which the Italian operatic company once desired of him, he might have met Goldsmith; and then I am sure that the founder and master of the natural school of English Action would have liked the inventor of realistic Italian comedy. At any rate Goldoni would have liked Goldsmith. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.