Volume II Part 5 (2/2)

As a preface to these two little works, I composed an epistle in blank verse, in which I dedicated them to a certain well-known poverty-stricken citizen of Venice, called Pietro Carati The ed s, rey, or white silk (the surest signs of beggary),fronity as cittadino

In this epistle I repeated that I was not out of teht no favours fros, and that ainst bad authors, and to uphold the rules and purity of literature These two little pamphlets became the property of the public before I had time and opportunity to print them The stir they made while yet in manuscript occasioned a series of events which I will now relate[24]

The noble gentleman, Giuseppe Farsetti, as a member of our Academy, came to me one day, and told me that another patrician, Count Ludovico Widiman, and he would take it very kindly if I consented to withdraw my little works from publication I was somewhat surprised, because I knew that the Cavaliere Farsetti was a lover of good literature Count Widiman, on the other hand, had declared himself a partisan of Goldoni

Nevertheless, I readily assented to their request, and promised to bury my two pamphlets in oblivion I added, at the same time, that I felt sure that Goldoni, when he are of this act of generosity onto his nu

I was not mistaken when I made this prophecy It soon becaainst us lovers of pure writing in all the _Raccolte_ which appeared from time to time in Venice He also introduced affected and unpleasant types of character upon the stage under Florentine names, and otherwise jeered at us in the coarse little poe in his popularity and the influence of those fine gentlee himself on iven to the two Cavalieri, and to publish the satirical pieces I have described above, was out of the question So I preparedafter Goldoni's own kind, but ht the quarrel out with short and cutting pieces, which should throw ridicule upon in a critical controversy in due fored daily between Polisseno Fegejo (such was Goldoni's high-sounding title in the Arcadi of Rome) and my humble self, the Solitario in our modest Acade diatribes in verse, I brought out a little burlesque poem, which I called _Sudori d'I, and created a revolution auine expectations At this distance of time I find it impossible to render a precise account of the innumerable compositions which I produced in this controversy They were read at the time with avidity, because of their novelty and audacity I never cared to keep a register of s in prose and verse If I were asked where these trifles could be found, I should reply: ”Certainly not intheentleaht it worth while to form complete collections of such pieces froined that Abbe Chiari escaped without blows in this battle of the books It so happened that an unknoriter subjected one of his prologues to a scathing satire in an essay called _Five Doubts_

The piece was mistakenly attributed to me; and Chiari answered it by six cowardly, filthy, satirical sonnets, which he circulated in ainst myself and the Granelleschi Upon this there arose a whole jungle of pens in our defence The five doubts were ued and twitted out of his wits In these straits, he condescended to extend the kiss of peace to his old foe Goldoni, and Goldoni abased hi their former rivalries and differences, they now entered into an offensive and defensive alliance against the Acaderew steadily in nuerent body were at this time established in the shop of the bookseller Paolo Colombani Every month we issued here in parts a series of critical and satirical papers, which dreds of purchasers round Colombani's counter The papers appeared under the title of _Atti Granelleschi_, and were prefaced with an introduction in octave stanzas from my pen The noise they created all about the toas quite reerly enrolled themselves under our standard of the Owl Chiari and Goldoni, on their side, were not idle; but the alliance they had struck took off considerably froue This depended in no s fire which had been exchanged between their partisans kept their na under one flag against us, the interest in their personalities declined

Without pursuing the details of this literary hich raged between the years 1757 and 1761, I will only touch upon those circue as a dramatic writer Both Goldoni and Chiari professed themselves the charamme was to cut the throat of the innocent _Commedia dell'Arte_, which had been so well supported in Venice by four principal and deservedly popular masks: Sacchi, Fiorelli, Zannoni, and Derbes It seeance of these self-styled Menanders better than by taking our old friends Truffaldino, Tartaglia, Brighella, Pantalone, and Sly, I opened fire with a dithyra the exteay farces favourably with the dull and heavy pieces of the reformers[25]

Chiari and Goldoni replied tous to produce a coer, and kept asserting that the enorether to enjoy his plays constituted a convincing proof of their essential , he said, to write subtle verbal criticis to compose dramas which shall fill the public theatres with enthusiastic audiences Spurred by this continual appeal to popularity and vogue, I uttered the deliberate opinion that crowded theatres proved nothing with regard to the goodness or the badness of the plays which people ca ether than he could do with all his scenic tricks, by si the old wives' fairy-story of the _Love of the Three Oranges_ upon the boards

Shouts of incredulous and reeted this Quixotic challenge They stung ird up my loins for the perilous adventure When I had coe drama, and had read it to the Granelleschi, I could see, by the laughter it excited, that there was stuff and botto such a piece of child's-play before the public; it would certainly be hissed, they said, and conity of our Academy

I replied that the whole public had to be attacked in front upon the theatre, in order to create a sensation, and to divert attention froive, and not to sell this play, which I hoped would vindicate the honour and revenge the insults of our Academy

Finally, I hu were not always profoundly acquainted with huhbours

Well, I made a present of _L'Amore delle Tre Melarancie_ to Sacchi's coanza was produced in the theatre of San Sa the Carnival of 1761 Its novelty and unexpectedness,--the surprise created by a fairy-tale adapted to the drama, seasoned with trenchant parodies of both Chiari's and Goldoni's plays, and not withal devoid of ory--created such a sudden and noisy revolution of taste that these poets saw in it the sentence of their doo spark of a child's fable on the stage should have outshone the admired and universally applauded illu them to obscurity, while my own dramatised fairy-tales throve and enthralled the public for a period of s the world!

xxxIX

_My plan of cah the militia of actors I had chosen--The four Fiabe: Il Corvo, Il Re Cervo, La Turandotte, I Pitocchi Fortunati_

In the long course of my observations upon human nature and the different sorts ofthe race of actors I was curious to do so, and the ti my two poet adversaries in the theatre, I made choice of the comic troupe of Sacchi, the famous Truffaldino[26]

It was composed for thebetter behaved and more honest than any others

Professionally, they sustained our old national coreatest spirit This type of drama, as I have said above, Goldoni and Chiari, under the ain, had set theostino Fiorelli, Atanagio Zannoni, and Cesare Derbes, all of them excellent players in their several lines, represented the four hella, and Pantalone Each of these men could boast of perfect practice in their art, readiness of wit, grace, fertility of ideas, variety of sallies, bye-play, drollery, naturalness, and some philosophy The soubrette of the company, Andriana Sacchi-Zannoni, possessed the same qualities Its other members, at the time when I took up their cause, were old ood parts but unattractive physique, lifeless sticks, and inexperienced children Some time earlier, the troupe had been extrehts in question, after having lived in partnershi+p with them, had turned round and taken the bread out of their mouths Sacchi, in these circual, where they prospered, until a far more formidable enemy than a brace of poets assailed them The terrible earthquake of Lisbon put a stop to all a lost their occupation, returned to Venice after an absence of some four years, and encamped in the theatre of San Samuele

Upon their arrival, they met with a temporary success Many amateurs of the old drama, ere bored to death with Martellian verses and such plays as the _Filosofi Inglesi_, _Pamelas_, _Pastorelle Fedeli_, _Plautuses_, _Molieres_, _Terences_, and _Torquato Tassos_, then in vogue, hailed the the first year the four masks and the soubrette, with some other actors of merit in the extempore style, took the wind out of Goldoni's and Chiari's sails Little by little, however, the novelties poured forth by these two fertile writers, who kept on treating the clever fellows as contemptible mountebanks and insipid buffoons, prevailed, and reduced thelect

It seehter if I iment I also hoped to score a victory for the insulted Granelleschi by drawing crowds to Sacchi's theatre with ories based on nursery-tales The fable of _L'A My adversaries were driven oers, by its parodies and hidden s, which the newspapers industriously explained, describing s which I had never put there They atte at the saetting that it had been appreciated and enjoyed by people of good birth and culture, they called it a ar Its popularity they attributed to the co-operation of the four talented ht to extirpate, and to the effect of the transfor the real spirit and intention of this comic sketch in a new style