Italian writer of stage comedies, 1707-1793.
Fishburn and Hughes: "An Italian playwright born in Venice, where he spent most of his life. Goldoni revolutionised Italian theatre, which until then had depended largely upon the conventions of the commedia dell'arte (improvised performances of stock comic situations by masked characters). He brought realism to the stage with his satirical social comedies whose distinguishing feature was their fast and witty dialogue, showing the influence of Molière. Those written in the Venetian dialect are considered his best. Goldoni was a prolific writer, the author of some 250 plays of which 150 are comedies. In 1765 he was engaged to teach Italian to the daughters of Louis XV, but his pension was withdrawn during the French Revolution and he died in poverty. His memoirs are considered an important document of eighteenth-century life." (81)