[1] Under date August 31, 1885, with the assumed signature of E. H. Westbourne. See Academy, No. 696, Sept. 5, 1885.

[2] See Romanin, Storia Documentata di Venezia, vol. viii. ch. 7.

[3] Gratarol was not formally divorced from his wife. This appears from several passages of his Narrazione Apologetica. It may, however, be here observed that scandalous irregularities with regard to matrimony formed one of the main signs of Venetian decadence. Between 1782 and 1796 the Council of Ten received no fewer than 264 petitions for divorce, and the Patriarch is said to have had 900 applications at one time before him, requiring his decision in matters relating to a dissolution of the marriage tie. See Magrini, op. cit., p. 23; and Macchi, Storia del Concilio dei Dieci, vol. ii. p. 355. It seems that the most shameless reasons were collusively alleged by the parties in these cases for breaking a tie which the Church regarded as indissoluble. In 1782 the Ten passed a law requiring a divorced woman to enter a convent.

[4] A short while before, he had been appointed Resident at Turin, and had received the usual equipment for that service. Circumstances independent of his own will in the matter prevented him from assuming the office. His political ill-wishers were able to point to the unused grant which he had pocketed.

[5] Caterina was the daughter of the ancient and noble, but impoverished house of Dolfin. She contracted her first marriage with a member of the Tiepolo family, obtained a divorce from him, and married her lover, Andrea Tron.

[6] It may be read in Gratarol's Narrazione Apologetica, vol. ii. p. 78, &c.

[7] These magistrates acted for the Fisco or Treasury of the Republic.

[8] It has been suggested that Gratarol so heavily mortgaged his lands before leaving Venice that they were not worth more than this sum, after allowing for rent charges on them and fidei commissa. See the observations of a self-styled impartial writer printed at the end of the Narrazione Apologetica, ed. 1797. I must, however, observe that this writer is by no means impartial. The essay in question is a piece of skilful special pleading in defence of Mme. Tron, her husband, the oligarchs of Venice, and the officers who executed the bando against Gratarol.

[9] Gratarol pays high tribute to Gozzi's genius. But he sticks to the conviction that the Droghe d'Amore was meant to turn him into ridicule, and that its author could, if he had chosen, have withdrawn it from the stage.

[10] He tells us that he began the Memoirs on April 30, 1780. Memorie, vol. i. p. 3. The passage occurs in Gozzi's manifesto, of which more anon. I may add that the manifesto is not included in all copies of the Memoirs.

[11] An anonymous answer, entitled Riflessioni d'un Imparziale, appeared at Lugano. This was ascribed to Carlo Gozzi's pen; but he repudiated the pamphlet, and it does not bear the mark of his style. It may be found at the end of vol. ii. of Gratarol's Narr. Apol., ed. 1797, Venice, Silvestro Gatti.

[12] Memorie, vol i. pp. 3-15.

[13] This is evident from the appearance of the Ragionamento del Cittadino Carlo Gozzi a' Cittadini amici della Memoria di P. A. Gratarol at the beginning of the Memorie, vol. ii.

[14] Memorie Ultime, p. 39; Gozzi's Memorie, vol. ii. p. x.

[15] The family of Widiman or Widman was of patrician rank in Venice.

[16] Vol. i. p. 4.

[17] Vol. ii. p. xvi.

[18] De Musset, in order to support his view of Gozzi as the precursor of Romanticism and of Hoffmann, strains to the utmost the chapter on Contrattempi in the Memoirs. He furthermore professes to have extracted a very bizarre account of the reasons why Gozzi abandoned his Fiabe—in plain words, because the elves and spirits he brought upon the stage were resolved to be revenged on him—from a letter addressed to Gasparo by Carlo Gozzi (Mémoires de Charles Gozzi, pp. 184-188). De Musset adds no reference to the source of this alleged letter, which is mentioned by neither Magrini nor Masi. Indeed, Signor Ernesto Masi informs me that he knows nothing about it. I too have failed to discover it. In his Memoirs, and in the prefaces to several plays, Gozzi gives a very different account of the reasons why he stopped producing Fiabe. I am loth to draw the conclusion that the letter in question was a deliberate forgery of Paul de Musset's. Further researches may bring it still to light, but at present it has to be regarded with the greatest possible suspicion.

[19] I have treated the subject of the Italian drama elsewhere: Renaissance in Italy, vol. v. ch. 11.

[20] The full title would be Commedia dell' Arte all' Improviso. It is also called Commedia a soggetto, Commedia non scritta, Commedia improvisa. The written comedy, beside Commedia Erudita, was also called Commedia sostenuta, scritta, or letteraria.

[21] See what I have said at length upon this point in my Shakespeare's Predecessors, p. 259, and Renaissance in Italy, vol. v. p. 188.

[22] To Maurice Sand, in his Masques et Bouffons, vol. ii. p. 77 et seq., is due the merit of having resuscitated the fame of this great local dramatist, yet I think M. Sand exaggerates Beolco's influence in the creation of impromptu comedy.

[23] See Collier's English Dramatic Poetry (ed. 1879), vol. iii. p. 197.

[24] It is impossible to avoid the awkwardness of using the word mask in a double sense,—both to indicate the fixed character assumed by a certain species of actor, and also the vizard which concealed his features.

[25] It may here be mentioned that in English we still retain the names of some of these masks, as Zany, Harlequin, Pantaloon, and Punch. Our Columbine is the Neapolitan form of the Servetta or soubrette. Our Scaramouch is one of the numerous forms of the Captain, which obtained great popularity at Paris. Whether the Clown of our pantomimes has to be classed with the Villano, or rather with one of the Zanni, I am uncertain. His traditional connection with the part of Pantaloon seems to indicate the latter alternative.

[26] In a comedy by Virgilio Verucci (Li Diversi Linguaggi, Venezia, 1609), French, Venetian, Bergamasque, Roman, Sicilian, Bolognese, Neapolitan, Matriccian, Perugian, and Florentine dialects were spoken. See Bartoli, op. cit., p. lxxix.

[27] Conversely, masks were sometimes created out of persons. Thus the plebeian poet of Naples, Francesco Cerlone, moulded the mask of Don Fastidio upon a barber of his acquaintance, Francesco Massaro. Here the man became a type; and after he had made it famous, it was continued by other players, who adapted themselves to his humours. (See Scherillo's Commedia dell' Arte, chap, iii., for the history of Don Fastidio). This mask was very popular for a time in Southern Italy. When Casanova wanted to engage a troop at Otranto for performance at Corfu, he had to choose between the rival companies of Neapolitan Don Fastidio and Sicilian Battipaglia (Mémoires, vol. i. ch. xv.). The Capocomici, as I have previously mentioned, were known by the names of their masks.

[28] Fescenninus is variously derived from the town Fescennia in South Etruria, or from fascinum, the Latin form of phallus.

[29] The common meaning of satura and farsa, both of which have reference to stuffing, is somewhat singular.

[30] I have seen them doing this with reticence and decorum at Montepulciano.

[31] A curious passage in the Life of Don Pietro di Toledo (Arch. Stor., vol. ix. p. 23) shows what a startling impression these Dionysiac revels made upon a Spanish Viceroy in the early seventeenth century. Pontano's Latin poems are full of matter bearing on the vitality of antique rustic habits in the neighbourhood of Naples.

[32] It was included in the first edition of the Canti Carnascialeschi, 1559, and is reprinted in Verzone's edition of Grazzini's Rime Burlesche, Firenze, Sansone, 1882.

[33] "Acting the Bergamasque and the Venetian, we roam the whole world over, and the recitation of comedies is our trade.... We are all of us Zanni, excellent and perfect players; the other choice actors of our troupe, lovers, ladies, hermits, and soldiers, have stayed behind to guard our booth.... We have a stock of new comedies, so fine, so mirthful, and so witty, that when you hear them you will die of laughing. Afterwards you will see a dance upon our stage, all full of new and varied sports.... But since there is a certain custom in this country, ladies, which prevents your coming to our public show, if you will open your house-doors to us, we will let you taste in part the sweetness and the pleasure of our sports."

[34] The other channels were French plays, modifications of English plays, adaptations of Spanish plays, and musical melodramas.

[35] I do not vouch for this etymology, which Boerio, the compiler of the Venetian Glossary, has adopted. For myself, I should be well contented with the derivation from San Pantaleone, and would willingly make him the patron saint of pantaloons and professed trousers-makers.

[36] It is singular that Shakespeare, who uses Pantalone as the symbol of old age in As You Like It, knew him already in decrepitude.

[37] It was my good fortune, while writing these pages at Davos in the summer of 1888, to become acquainted with two brothers from Bergamo, who were living representatives of the Zanni. They had come to help at the hay-harvest, leaving their own farm in the Bergamasque hills. Brighella's wit and knavery amused me. I marvelled at Arlecchino's simplicity and suppleness.

[38] Carlo Gozzi at Zara in his youth created a new type of the Servetta, adapted to Dalmatian circumstances, under the name of Luce.

[39] Scherillo, in his Commedia dell' Arte, has resuscitated Cerlone's fame, as Maurice Sand made us acquainted with Beolco.

[40] See above, p. 38.

[41] For a short notice of these curious Maccaronic poems, I Cantici di Fidentio Glottogrysio Ludimagistro, see my Renaissance in Italy, vol. v. p. 328. The obscurity of their jargon veiled considerable indecency. It is noticeable that this book, now exceedingly rare, should have become the text-book of the Pedante. But see Bartoli, op. cit., pp. lii., lvii.

[42] Burattino is so kaleidoscopic that at last he becomes the patronymic hero of marionettes in Italy. I Burattini are the acting dolls.

[43] In the Ragionamento Ingenuo and Appendice, Op., 1772, vols i. and iv.

[44] Scenari Inediti, Firenze, Sansoni, 1880.

[45] It has to be mentioned that in plays of a more serious description, the parts of character were frequently written out, and only the parts of the masks left to improvisation. This was the method pursued by Gozzi in his Fiabe.

[46] Andrea Perrucci, Dell' Arte Rappresentativa premeditata ed all' improvviso, Napoli, 1699, quoted by Bartoli, op. cit., p. lxxi.

[47] Histoire Anecdotique du Théâtre Italien, Paris, 1769, quoted by Bartoli, op. cit., p. lxxvi.

[48] Le Théâtre Italien, quoted by Bartoli, op. cit., p. lxx.

[49] These phrases are used by Gozzi in his Memorie Inutili. Compare what he says in his Appendice al Ragionamento Ingenuo, Op., 1772, vol. iv. p. 40.

[50] Quoted by Bartoli, op. cit., p. lxxi.

[51] I am indebted to Maurice Sand, Masques et Bouffons.

[52] Vol. iii. p. 201.

[53] Ragionamento Ingenuo, Op., 1772, vol. i.

[54] Scherillo, in his book on La Commedia dell' Arte, ch. vi., has given the history of San Carlo's efforts to suppress the theatre at Milan.

[55] Nicolò Maria Tiepolo, about 1778, quoted by Molmenti in his Essay on Goldoni, Venezia, Ongania, 1880, p. 68.

[56] Pasquali's edition, 1761; also, Teatro Comico, act i. sc. 2.

[57] Mémoires de Jacques Casanova, Bruxelles, Rozez, vol. i. ch. II.

[58] Mémoires de M. Goldoni, Paris, Veuve Duchesne, 1787, vol. i. ch. 5.

[59] A common inn-sign. This reminds us of the earliest performances of plays in the yards of London hostelries.

[60] Ed. cit., vol i. p. 228.

[61] See his Mémoires, part i. ch. 40.

[62] This is perhaps the proper place to explain the meaning of Martellian verses. They owe their name to Pier Jacopo Martelli (1665-1725), who revived them, and used them for the drama. Metrically speaking, Martellian verses are twelve-syllable lines of the Alexandrine type. These long lines had been commonly employed in Italy during the thirteenth century, before the heroic verse of eleven syllables obtained ascendancy. It is difficult to say why the Alexandrine, which Italy in the thirteenth century shared with France, died out in the former country and became the standard heroic line of the latter. Possibly the reason may be found in the Italian tendency toward double rhymes; the so-called versi piani of Dante being decasyllabic iambics with a redundant syllable rather than hendecasyllabics. Anyhow, the Alexandrine has not flourished south of the Alps. Martelli's revival did not prosper; and Carducci, in his Su' Campi di Marengo (Nuove Poesie, p. 91), is the only recent poet who has attempted them with success.

[63] Opere, ed. 1772, tom. viii. p. 27. "The partisans on both sides gathered forces daily. One swears by Original (a name for Goldoni), the other by Plunder (Chiari, because of his plagiarisms). The whole city was turned upside down, and indeed it is no laughing matter. Brothers fought with brothers, wives did worse with their husbands. Everywhere the wrangling was fierce; nought but confusion, nought but discord."

[64] The details of the controversy between Gozzi and Goldoni are given at fuller length than I have attempted in Signor Ernesto Masi's masterly Introduction to his edition of the Fiabe Teatrali.

[65] Opere, vol. viii. Tartana is a large merchant vessel.

[66] The editor of this Venetian Zadkiel was originally Giovanni Pozzobon. After his death it was continued by Giambattista Bada. Pozzobon was nicknamed Schieson. The almanac was adorned with a ridiculous portrait of a doctor in a huge wig. Owing to this fact, Schieson came to signify any one with rumpled hair. See Boerio's Dizionario del Dialetto Veneziano.

[67] Opere, vol. viii. p. 164.

[68] The original exists in MS. at the Marcian Library. Goldoni wrote the poem on the occasion of S. E. Bastian Venier's return from the rectorship of Bergamo. When he reprinted it in the edition of his poetical works (Pasquali, Venezia, 1764), he omitted the passage referring to Gozzi's Tartana. The lines above are given in Magrini's and Masi's essays. I add a translation. "I have seen a certain Tartana in print, full of rancid and insipid verses, verses bad enough to terrify a goblin, verses seasoned by the wise plagiary with acrid salt of evil-speaking, full of false arrogant sentiments. One can, however, condone this licence in one who is out of temper with Fortune, she being not greatly well-affected toward him. He who speaks evil without any reason shown, he who does not prove his assumptions and his arguments, acts like the dog who barks against the moon."

[69] It was written for the marriage of Contarini Venier. "A Lombard who pretends to be a Delia Cruscan, with a smile on his lips and venom in his heart."

[70] "Only too well I know that I am not a good writer, and that I never drank at the best fountains. I write and reason as my style dictates, and sometimes by good chance I also have afforded pleasure. But woe to me if the Florentine sieve should be applied to sifting my productions."

[71] Opere, vol. viii. p. 183. "I am engaged in preparing a commentary which shall prove both the assumption and the argument."

[72] Il Teatro Comico was the first of the famous sixteen comedies of 1749-50. The list of the pieces to be expected was announced in it. See Goldoni's Memoirs, part i. ch. 7.

[73] "Yes, thou art the eagle, I am the ant. Thou soarest to the zenith without exertion; my Muse cannot rise to the poles of the universe."

[74] Only in this respect, however; otherwise, as artist, Gozzi differs widely from Aristophanes.

[75] Opere, vol. iii. p. 9.

[76] The actors in Sacchi's company were: Antonio Sacchi, Truffaldino; Atanagio Zanoni, Brighella; Agostino Fiorelli, Tartaglia; Cesare Darbes, Pantalone; Adriana Sacchi Zanoni, Smeraldina; Antonia Sacchi, Beatrice; together with Ignazio Casanova and Gaetano Casali. How the parts of Leandro, Clarice, Rè di Coppe, Celio, Morgana, Creonta, Ninetta were distributed, we do not know. Antonia Sacchi (the Beatrice of the troupe) probably played Clarice.

[77] In Italian, Rè di Coppe. The Italian suits are Coppe or cups, Danari or coins, Spade or swords (whence our Spades), Bastoni or clubs.

[78] In Italian, Cavaliere di Coppe.

[79] I have adopted the old English fourteen-syllable line for the translation of Gozzi's Martellian verses. It seemed to me that the lumbering effect of this metre lent itself to the spirit of his parody. What Martellian verses were has been explained at p. 97.

[80] I cannot pretend to give a literal translation of these gross parodies of Goldoni's forensic verbiage. The most I can do is to stuff the verse with more or less of legal phraseology.

[81] See above, p. 112, for the names of the five actors who sustained these parts in Sacchi's company.

[82] I wrote this in the spring of 1888, before I was aware that Wagner had set the Donna Serpente to music. His early piece, The Fairies, was composed in 1833, and first performed this year in June at Munich.

[83] Act ii. sc. 5. In Masi's edition, vol. ii. p. 458. Readers who care for further diatribes à la Gozzi on these topics, may be referred to the Astrazione which serves as introduction to his translation of Boileau, Op., vol. vii. p. 53.

[84]

[85] Tarocchi is the name for the cards, seventy-eight in number, used in a now well-nigh forgotten game. Fifty-six cards of the whole series consist of the four Italian suits: Coppe, Spade, Bastoni, and Danari. The remaining twenty-two are properly called Tarocchi, and in the game of Taroc take precedence of any cards of the four ordinary suits.

[86]

[87]

[88]

[89] There are five of these old statues, painted, in Moorish costumes. One of them has the name Rioba carved above his head. Everybody in Venice, of course, knew them; and their appearance on the stage must have been mirth-promoting.

[90] Mémoires, part ii. cap. 45.

[91] Letters from Italy, dated October 4, October 6, and October 10, 1786.

[92] See Masi's Essay, p. cxxxii.

[93] Carlo Gozzi, Théâtre Fiabesque, Alphonse Royer. Paris, Michel Lévy, 1865.

[94] London, W. Satchell & Co. 1880.

[95] Through the courtesy of Mr. John P. Anderson of the British Museum I am able to state that, besides a short article in the Encyclopædia Britannica, he can only discover an essay in Lippincott's Magazine (vol. xx. p. 347, &c.), entitled "A Venetian of the Eighteenth Century," which deals with Carlo Gozzi.

[96] The Gozzi family were thus Cittadini Originari of Venice. These Cittadini had to prove legitimate birth in the city; three generations during which the family had exercised no mechanical arts; freedom from any criminal stain, debts to the state, or factious behaviour. Citizenship, as in the case of the Gozzi, was also granted by privilege. The Cittadini formed a class of burgher aristocracy, ranking below the patricians and taking no part in the actual government of the State, since they did not vote in the Consiglio Grande. Their names, pedigrees, and arms were enrolled in a book, of which many copies exist, and which was commonly called the Libro d'Argento, to distinguish it from the Libro d'Oro of the patricians. In a MS. of the seventeenth century, which belonged to Cicogna, now at the Museo Civico, entitled Le Due Corone della Nobiltà Veneziana, Corona Seconda, the Gozzi arms are blazoned thus: "Or, on the topmost branches of an olive-tree vert a dove ppr., and round the stem of the tree a scroll argent inscribed Signum Pacis." The family is described as wealthy; but no pedigree is given: Non vi è albero. Carlo Gozzi, in his Lettera Confutatoria, Memorie, vol. iii. p. 31, asserts that the privilege of citizenship was given to his ancestors by the Doge Cicogna (1585-95). It is neither impossible nor improbable that the Gozzi of Bergamo were derived from the same stock as the Gozze or Gozzi of Ragusa. These latter drew their pedigree from Herzegovina, and were therefore Slavs. We know that the patrician families of Polo and Sagredo came originally from Sebenico.

[97] Their palace is still inhabited by a Conte Gozzi. The arca, or family sepulture, can no longer be traced in the church. It was at the foot of the altar in the Chapel of the Madonna. Here Carlo Gozzi was buried.

[98] In a voluminous MS. written by Cicogna, embodying all he could collect about the Famiglie Cittadine (now at the Museo Civico), we find that Alberto Gozi detto delle Sede was inscribed among the patricians in 1646. I may mention that Cicogna tricks the arms of Gozzi without the dove.