REALITY AND FICTION IN THE WORKS OF GOLDONI:
FOCUSING ON THE THEME OF WAR
Introduction
Carlo Goldoni is a well-known Venetian playwright of the eighteenth century and is credited as thereformer of Italian theater who transformed the commedia dell’arte into a comedy based in realism. He
is also known as a librettist.
In many of his plays he describes the peaceful lives of ordinary people, but there are notable works
that focus on wars and the military. Goldoni, in fact, had experienced two wars: the War of the PolishSuccession (1733-1735) and the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748); both are wars in which
Italy was involved. Scholars have already identified instances where his war experiences are included in
his works.
As I have mentioned, many of his works, notably his comedies, focus on the daily life of ordinary
people. Goldoni probably injected actual people and events that he saw into his plays, but it is difficult
to separate which individuals and facts are based on real life. On the other hand, it is easier to discuss his
wartime experiences which are depicted in his works using his autobiographical Memories as a reference.
Goldoni writes about his own war experiences in his two Memories: in the prefaces of the comedies of
the Pasquali edition (1761-1780), generally known as The Italian Memories, and in Mémoirs, written in
French and published in 1787. In these Memories, Goldoni himself acknowledges that they are basedon his own war experiences. In my paper, I would like to delve deeper into the reality and fiction contained in his works by analyzing the description of war based on his experiences. In parallel, I would liketo study Goldoni’s thoughts regarding war. In the first part of the paper I will discuss his comedies, followed by a discussion of his musical comedies in the second part.
The descriptions of war in comedies: from The Military Lover to The War
1.1. The Military Lover
The Military Lover opened for the first time in Venice in 1751. It is a work from the reform period, but
still based on the commedia dell’arte style. The plot is a love story surrounding the marriage between
two lovers, Don Alonso, a Spanish soldier, and Rosaura, the daughter of a merchant, Pantalone. Don
Alonso falls in love with Rosaura during his encampment in the house of Pantalone. Don Garzía is Don
Alonso’s superior, a character very similar to the Captain in commedia dell’arte. Many events unfold inthis play: Don Alonso challenges Don Garzía to a duel for insulting Rosaura, and is later arrested forharming his superior; Arlecchino, the idiot servant, envies the exciting lives of soldiers, and becomes asoldier himself; Eventually the regiment leaves for battle, but immediately thereafter peace is declared;Finally, Don Alonso, with the approval of Don Sancho, his uncle and captain, is discharged from themilitary and marries Rosaura.
ACTES DU CONGRÈS DE LA SIEDS 2015 (JSECS)

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I would now like to point out the theatrical conventions that are used in this comedy which makeit apparent that this work is fictional.
First, many of the characters that appear are based on the commedia dell’arte: Pantalone,
Arlecchino, and Brighella all wear masks from the commedia dell’arte. The “Lovers” Don Alonso andRosaura, “The Waitress” Colombina and “The Captain” Don Garzía also appear in the commedia
dell’arte.
Second, the busy plot eventually leading to a happy ending is typical of commedia dell’arte.
Third, all the Spanish soldiers speak Italian or Tuscan properly, while all the masked charactersfrom the commedia dell’arte speak the dialect.
Fourth, as Ortolani noted, the lines in Tuscan are written in a literary language, similar to thoseseen in opera seria or in tragedies.
In short, The Military Lover is written with various conventions of traditional comedy, and quitedistinct to the realistic comedy that Goldoni strived for. On the other hand, this comedy includes
passages that are based on his true experiences of war. For example, the depiction of the Spanish camp
and Spanish soldiers who flirted with the local women, and the lavish and loud feasts of the military—
all these elements can be considered as actual portrayals of the things that Goldoni saw in Rimini.
We can also find the experience of Goldoni in the dialogue of Arlecchino and Colombina which I
quote:
Colombina:	In winter with the snow and in summer with the sun you’ll be on the walls with a
gun on your shoulder: Who goes there? You will sleep on straw, you will work hard
to make exercise, and if you fail, they will give you beatings.
Arlecchino: Beatings?
Colombina: And of all sorts. And then you will go to the war in the danger of losing an arm.
Arlecchino: Eh, I have two arms.
Colombina: Or to lose an eye.
Arlecchino: I have two eyes.
Colombina: Or to lose the head.
Arlecchino: Oh my head is only one.
(The Military Lover, I, 14).
The words of Colombina, while seemingly comical, cleverly convey the harsh reality of war, andmay be based on the actual observation of dead soldiers on the battlefield by Goldoni in 1734 in Parma.
In summary, The Military Lover is a fictional comedy written with traditional theatricalconventions, but also containing realistic scenes based on the war experiences of the author.
1.2. The War
The comedy The War opened for the first time in Venice in 1760. Donna Florida is the daughter of thecommander of the besieged fortress, and becomes a prisoner of the enemy. She is also the lover of Don
Faustino, the enemy. This comedy is centered around their love and marriage, however also describes the
lives of invading soldiers and the people surrounding them.

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Let us first examine the theatrical conventions mentioned previously. We note that in The War,unlike The Military Lover, no masks appear and the characters are not typical of the commedia dell’arte.
However we also note the plot centering on the lovers who get married is typical of the commedia
dell’arte, and the love between enemies is not realistic. As for the language, all the characters speak
Tuscan. In the eighteenth century, Italy was not unified and generally people spoke the local dialect,
therefore this can be considered fiction. The language itself, although literary expressions remain, is more
plain and fluid than that of The Military Lover. The scene of the siege of a fortress, can be considered areflection of what Goldoni saw in Milan, or in Pizzighettone in 1733.
The plot does not have a major event like the duel as in The Military Lover, and is mainly
concentrated on the psychological description of the characters. So as Fido emphasized, the mainstrength of this comedy is in the characters, and therefore is more convincing. If we look at each of thesoldiers, every soldier has a distinct personality, so we see more diversity than in The Military Lover.
The character that is in stark contrast from the commedia dell’arte is Donna Florida, the daughter ofthe commander of the fortress. She is not a lover who languishes over love like Rosaura in The Military
Lover, but a woman of great intelligence. There are also other characters who do not fit into thecommedia dell’arte. For example, Don Polidoro, commissioner of the army, who unabashedly admireswar, can be defined as a merchant of war. There is also Orsolina, a young woman merchant, who dreams
of becoming rich by profiting from the conflict. Through the characters of Don Polidoro and Orsolina,
we see the experiences of Goldoni. During the war, Goldoni encountered many people who profited
from it. Even Goldoni himself was able to accumulate a fortune by writing plays for soldiers. There is ascene where deserters steal a basket from a peasant: this incident is also from Goldoni’s experience when
he was robbed of everything by deserters. The soldiers and various other characters are described in avery realistic way.
The War ends in peace, with the marriage of lovers and Donna Florida praising peace. In fact
Goldoni himself, in the preface of this comedy, writes: “The ending is very happy, because it is crowned
by peace: an ending that I long for with these wars in Europe(...)” Goldoni’s viewpoints about the war
and the military have already been discussed. Saulini, studied his poems, and believes they reaffirm
Goldoni’s opposition to war. Del Negro, states that while Goldoni was intrigued by the playful
characters, ultimately concludes that Goldoni is hardly among the authors of the “theater against” thewar. From the epilogue of this comedy and Goldoni’s words, we can see that Goldoni does not criticize
the existence of soldiers, however he did not condone war: later I will examine the proof.
War was an inevitable event for most people, and Goldoni describes the reactions of people facing
war very realistically. The War is differs from The Military Lover in its depiction of reality: although it
contains less elements of traditional theatrical conventions, the comedy remains fictional, but a new kindof fiction with more realistic elements.
2. “War” in musical comedies: The Lucky Quarters and The Land of Cockaigne
2.1. The Lucky Quarters
According to Ortolani, The Lucky Quarters was an intermezzo that was written and performed in

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1744 during Goldoni’s stay in Rimini, and is the basis for The Military Lover. The plot revolves aroundRoccaforte, an officer, who camps in the house of a widow Bellinda. They fall in love and Bellinda
follows him disguised as a man to battle which they eventually win. Bellinda, demonstrates her wealthand is able to convince Roccaforte to marry her. Peace is proclaimed and they marry at last.
Let us examine the theatrical conventions. The characters singing their lines, the presence of two
characters, and Bellinda’s disguises, are all conventions of the intermezzo. Tuscan is used as the language,and in verse.
Goldoni’s experiences are reflected in the descriptions of the camp of Roccaforte, as well as
the character of Roccaforte who discovers the wealthy Bellinda and is convinced into marrying her.
Roccaforte represents the reality of the military where many people were forced to become soldiers for
economic reasons.
This intermezzo was performed for soldiers, and as a work that was meant to lift their spirits byeliminating the tragic elements of war. From this fact we can see Goldoni’s sympathy and compassion forsoldiers.
2.2. The Land of Cockaigne
Now let us consider The Land of Cockaigne, dramma giocoso set to music by Galuppi and presented forthe first time in Venice in 1750. This is as an interesting example of a musical comedy in which war isused as a theatrical device.
The Land of Cockaigne is similar to The Lucky Quarters, however differs in that it is a larger
production and contains more characters. The actual war experiences of Goldoni are not reflected
because it has a fantastical plot as follows: Pandolino and Pollastrina, betrothed, flee by boat to getmarried but are shipwrecked, and eventually arrive on a beach. They are greeted by a group of people
who bring food and explain that they are in a realm where one can eat and drink freely and do nothing,provided they abide by the law of the land: the groom shall not be jealous if his wife becomes intimate
with other men. At the beginning Pandolino is intensely jealous, but he eventually becomes accustomed
to the law. Thus the bride and groom spend days “in peace". But the drama ends with an invading army
capturing the inhabitants of the land: the men are sent to war, and the women to the hospital.
What interests us in this work is the structure of the drama: at the end of the play, “war” appears
in the land of Cockaigne and the peace is shattered, and we return from the world of fantasy to the realworld. This play actually contains two layers of fiction: one is the fantasy land of Cockaigne, and theother the real world that surrounds it. The “war” acts to cut through the first layer of fiction, the land of
Cockaigne, which was the “real” world on the stage until the army arrives. But this world is transformed
into a fantasy world as war brings into view a new real world. The Land of Cockaigne is truly original inthis way.
Goldoni’s opinions of war can be gleaned from the lines of Oronte, captain of the army that
invades the land of Cockaigne:
Those who do not have a good job,should become a soldier;even if you are killed,

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at least people will glorify your value.
It is beautiful to be able to say:
“I will die with the sword in my hand;
I will die for my sovereign;
I will die to honor myself ".
(The Land of Cockaigne, III, 1)
In this drama, people who lived “in peace” albeit imperfect, are sent to the battlefield. The war andthe military are not praised, and are described as something people must accept. In Oronte’s words, we
can hear the wrath of Goldoni against war: he witnessed countless anonymous soldiers die in the battle
due to conflicts caused by the monarchy.
In the title, The Land of Cockaigne, we see the word “Cockaigne". This is the word Goldoni used
to describe the armistice in his Memories. We can conclude that the content of this drama expresses
Goldoni’s opinion of war.
Conclusion
In this paper, I have attempted to clarify the relationship between reality and fiction in the works
of Goldoni, first in his comedies and second in his musical comedies, by analyzing the description of thewar based on his experiences. I have also examined Goldoni’s view about war.
Goldoni experienced two wars during his life. Based on these experiences, early in the period of
his reform of Italian theater, he wrote the comedy The Military Lover, using the traditional theatricalconventions. Nine years later, in the comedy The War, these conventions are minimized, and instead
Goldoni takes a more realistic approach, and focuses on the characters by providing more psychologicalinsight, thereby managing to create a new type of fiction with more realistic elements.
Compared to his comedies, his musical comedies are clearly works of fiction. The reality of soldiers
is described in The Lucky Quarters of 1744, but in The Land of Cockaigne of 1750, Goldoni created a
new structure of fiction: a “real” world which is turned into a “fantasy” world with the arrival of the realworld through the invasion of “war". This transformation would have been difficult to pull off in realistic
comedies.
Through his works, we can find different representations of war, and we are able to appreciate that
Goldoni has narrated many adventures using the instruments of “reality” and “fiction". And when we
regard the skill of using these instruments, as well as consider the great variety of his narratives, he seems
to be without parallel in Venetian theater of the eighteenth century.
Osaki Sayano
Tokyo University of the Arts