How English Language is Merged Country and Role of Italian Language and Poetry

Pages:103-105
C. Narsimha (Department of English, CMJ University, Shillong)

The revolution, so frequently attempted in Italian comedy by men whose genius was unequal to the task, was reserved for Goldoni (1707- 1772) to accomplish. His life, written by himself, presents a picture of Italian manners in their gayest colors. He was a native of Venice, and from his early youth was constantly surrounded by theatrical people. At eight years of age he composed a comedy, and at fourteen he ran away from school with a company of strolling players. He afterwards prepared for the medical, then for the legal profession, and finally, at the age of twenty- seven, he was installed poet to a company of players. He now attempted to introduce the reforms that he had long meditated; he attained a purer style, and became a censor of the manners and a satirist of the follies of his country. His dialogue is extremely animated, earnest, and full of meaning; with a thorough knowledge of national manners, he possessed the rare faculty of representing them in the most life-like manner on the stage. The language used by the inferior characters of his comedies is the Venetian dialect. In his latter days Goldoni was rivaled by Carlo Gozzi (1722-1806), who parodied his pieces, and, it is thought, was the cause of his retirement, in the decline of life, to Paris. Gozzi introduced a new style of comedy, by reviving the familiar fictions of childhood; he selected and dramatized the most brilliant fairy tales, such as “Blue Beard,” “The King of the Genii,” etc., and gave them to the public with magnificent decorations and surprising machinery. If his comedies display little resemblance to nature, they at least preserve the kind of probability which is looked for in a fairy tale. Many years elapsed after Goldoni and Gozzi disappeared from the arena before there was any successor to rival their compositions. Among those who contributed to the perfection of Italian comedy may be mentioned Albergati (fl. 1774), Gherardo de’ Rossi (1754-1827), and above all, Nota (d. 1847), who is preeminent among the new race of comic authors; although somewhat cold and didactic, he at least fulfils the important office of holding the mirror up to nature. He exhibits a faithful picture of Italian society, and applies the scourge of satire to its most prevalent faults and follies.[1]