GOLDONI, Charles, the most celebrated comic writer of Italy in the eighteenth century, and in his own country styled the Italian Molière, was born at Venice in the year 1707, in which city his father acted in the capacity of [7:10:606]physician. His attachment to the drama became conspicuous even in childhood, and this his father countenanced and cherished, by erecting a theatre in his own house, where young Goldoni and some of his companions were the actors. It is said that he even drew the outline of a comedy of his own invention when he was not more than eight years of age; a most extraordinary, though not very credible, indication of future eminence. He was taught rhetoric at Perugia, in the college of the Jesuits, and prosecuted his philosophical studies at Rimini. The stage, however, had too many attractions for him, to admit of his paying much attention to Aristotle or Quintilian, and he eloped from Rimini with a company of comedians, when they removed to Chiozza. His father attempted in vain to induce him to study either physic or the law; yet his ardent imagination was so forcibly struck with a particular ceremony of the church, that he conceived the intention of turning capuchin: but the dissipation of Venice soon extinguished this fancy. After the demise of his father he was prevailed upon by his surviving parent to engage in the profession of the law for immediate support; but some unknown causes induced him to leave the bar, after which he proceeded to Milan, and was there appointed secretary to the Venetian resident

At Milan he brought out his first performance, under the title of II Gondoliere Veneziano, which had all the success that could be expected from such a composition. He afterwards removed to Verona, where he joined himself to a company of players, and also entered into the state of wedlock. He composed a number of pieces for the company to which he attached himself, and amongst these his tragedy of Belisarius, which was performed for the first time at Venice on the 24th of November 1734, with the greatest success. Whilst as Venice he formed the laudable resolution of reforming the Italian stage, which at that time was disgraced by contemptible farce and low buffoonery. With this view, having made himself acquainted with the true nature of comedy, ne kept within the limits of nature and decorum; and such was the fertility of his genius, such his indefatigable industry, that he produced no fewer than sixteen comedies and forty-two other theatrical pieces in the course of about twelve months. Nor is it a less remarkable circumstance that some of these hasty performances are considered as his masterpieces. His works, in ten volumes 8vo, were first printed in 1753, and in 1761 his new pieces amounted to fifty-nine. And here ends the literary life of Goldoni in Italy; for about this time he accepted an engagement of two years in Paris, where he found a numerous company of excellent performers in the Italian theatre. His first attempt was unsuccessful, because he had to contend with the pantomimic drollery which was most agreeable to the depraved taste of the times. When about to leave Paris on the expiration of his engagement, he was introduced to the court, and appointed teacher of the Italian languages to the princesses. He had lodgings assigned him in Versailles, but his allowance was not sufficient to enable him to dispense with writing for the stage. Meanwhile, being anxious to show the French nation that he merited a high place among their dramatic writers, he neglected no means calculated to render him master of the French language; and, at the age of sixty-two, he ventured to write a comedy in French, which was brought out under the title of Le Bourru Bienfaisant, and received great applause in the court theatre. His next production was L’ Avare Fastueux, also a comedy·, and this was succeeded by Volponi, which he wrote after he had retired from court. The last work which he undertook was the Mémoires pour servir à l’ Histoire de sa Vie et à celle de son Théâtre, which, after having been about three years occupied with the composition, appeared in 1787., when he entered into the eightieth year of his age. These Memoirs, written with unaffected simplicity and ∣ sincerity, display the real character both of the author and the man, and supply the most ample Information respecting the history of his life. Deprived of his pension soon after the commencement of the revolution, Goldoni was reduced to absolute indigence, and passed the evening of his life in extreme distress. At length he fell sick; and it was only in his last moments, on the 7th of January 1793, that the Convention, apprised of his situation, decreed, on the report of Chenier, that his pension should in fiiture be paid out of the national treasury, and that the arrears due to him should be immediately discharged. But it was too late. Goldoni died on the day after this decree was passed. But, on the recommendation of Chenier, a pension of 1200 francs was granted to his widow, aged seventy-six, and the arrears due to her husband were also paid to her. If the rapidity with which Goldoni composed prevented him from attaining the first rank as a comic writer, it will easily be conceded that he stands foremost in the second. His fertility is prodigious, and if his works betray marks of haste or of carelessness, they at least show ready invention, and, considering the diversity of his subjects, extraordinary resources as a comic writer. The greatest fault with which he is reproached is having contributed to corrupt the language of his country, which he seems to have been unable to write with purity, elegance, and propriety; and, in fact, we find ease, originality, and, if we may so express it, purity of style only in his comedies written in the Venetian dialect, which was his vernacular idiom. His merits are, having contributed to reform the Italian stage, supplanted farce and low buffoonery, naturalised genuine comedy in his native country, and replaced the extravagances which had so long corrupted the public taste, by pieces in which a regular plot and natural characters supply the place of nonsensical ribaldry and ridiculous exaggeration. His comic opera entitled Buona Figliuola, with music by Piccini, was the first production which introduced both the poet and the composer to the knowledge of our countrymen. The only complete edition of Goldoni’s works is that printed at Leghorn, 1788, 1791, in thirty-one vols. 8vo.