G O L 



C O I. 



Cjuldoiii 



iwenty-four comjdies. At the end of two years Iio was 

 preparin£r to return to Italy, when he was fuddenly iir;ied to 

 become Italian mafter tothe princefTes, aunts to the rcigniiijr 

 monarch. During this engagement he k)ll his fight, which 

 lie never after completely recovered, and at the end of three 

 years he received a very inadequate recompence for his la- 

 bour and tlie time fpent at court, namely, loo louis in a gold 

 box, and tiie grant of a penfion of four thoufand livres per 

 ann. This, with wliat he was enabled to make by his works, 

 was 

 taine 

 Fr( 



them became extremely popular. After the death of Lewis pofe a comic opera for the Teatro delle Dame in that citv 



Goldoni was appointed Italian teacher to the princefs which had lately been very unfortunate. No /iireito was 



prefent pnncefs of Piedmont, and after her ready, and application having been made to the poet Go!- 



doni, at tlii; time in Rome, he furnilhed the mufical drama 



III i>, perhaps, -the only author of comic opera* in 

 Italy, who lias g-iven them a liitJe common fenfc, by a natu- 

 ral pl.jt, and natural charaaers ; and his celebrated comic 

 opera of the " Biiona Figliuola," fet by Piccini,and firft per- 

 tunned in London Dec. 9th, 1766, rendered both ihe poci 

 and compofer, wliofe nameis had fcarcely pvnrtraled into 

 this country before, dear to every lover of the Italian lan- 

 guage and mufic, in the nation. Tiiis admirable produaion 

 befo— •' ' 1 . 1 •-. , 1 r ... « > 



XV 



Clotilde, the 



marriage, he attended the unfortunate pnncefs Ehzabeth in 

 the lame capacity. His laft work was the " Volponi,'' writ- 

 ten after he liad retired from court. It was his misfortune to 

 live to lee his pcnlion taken away by the revolution, and, hkc 

 thoufands in a iimilar fituation, he was obliged to pafs his 

 old age in poverty and diftrefs. He died in the beginning of 

 the year 1 793, at a period when the Briffotines had the fway in 

 the national councils, and when Goldoni would, for a fliort 

 time at Icaft, lia> e received every attention that a grateful 

 country could have afforded. As a comic poet, Goldoni is 

 reckoned among the beft of the age in which he flouriflicd. His 

 works were printed at Leghorn in 1788-91, in 31 vols. 8vo. 

 He has been reckoned the Moliere of Italy, and he is llylcd 

 by Voltaire " The painter of Nature." " Goldoni,'' fays 

 his biographer, " is one of thofe authors whofe writings will be 

 re'ilhed in ti;e moil remote countries, and by the lateft pof- 

 terity. Plis profound knowledge of the human heart, his 

 exteniive defcription of the vices and virtues of men, in all 



ages and nations, will jullify my concluding this imperfect and new cff^as ; but fo difficult, particularly for the"orchcK 

 eulogy witli applying to him the following lines of Horace '" .1 ..1 

 from his firil Epiill 



of "LaBouna Fighuola," from his comedy of " Pamela,"' 

 111 a few days. Several of the original performers were now 

 in London, particularly the firR bulfo, Lovattini, and the 

 fenous man Savoi, widi the iufj caricato Morigi. And 

 tliough females are not allowed to appear on the llage at 

 Rome, yet fignora Guadagni l-ad previouily performedthe 

 part of Cecchina in feveral cities of Italy, with great and 

 well-deferved applaufe before his arrival here. 



After the great fuccefs of the " Buona Figliuola,'' the 

 public was difpofed to hear with partiality any produclionf. 

 by the fame authors ; and v.iien the " Buona Figliuola Mal 

 ritata,'' (or Pamela in high life), was brought out, the crowd 

 at the opera-hoiife was prodigious; but expectation, as 

 iifual, \yas fo um-eafonable as to fpoil the ftalt ; to gratify 

 It was impolhble. Some afcribed their difappointment to 

 the compofer, f(;me to the performers, but none to them- 

 felves. The mulic was excellent, full of invention, firv. 



jEque pauperibus prodeft, locupletibus reque 

 7Eque uegleClum pueris, fenibuiqiie nocebit.". 



. Monthly Magazine, vol. v. 

 • His principal works are comedies in ])role, for decla- 

 mation, of which the exaft number is not known ; but 

 they at lead amounted to 120 before he left Italy at the de- 

 fi're of Louis XV. to-write for tlie " Theatre Italien'' at 

 Paris, for which theatre he compofed at leaft 30. 



Tiiis fertile, natural, and pleafing writer, was amliilious 

 at lirll of treating ferious and tragic fubjcfts ; but finding, 

 as he tells us himlelf in his life and prefaces, that Metalla- 

 fio was arrived at as high a point of perfection in his ferious 

 operas as that fpccies ()f drama was capable of, he pointed 

 his tliou'rhts wholly to comedy, which had been long treat- 

 ed in fuch a buffoon and farcical manner, as to Itand in 

 great need of reformation. 



• But though he had determined not to attempt ferious 

 pieces for mullc, yet Galuppi pi-evailed upon him, much 

 againll his inclination, to furnilh him with lliree lerious operas 

 for the theatre at Venice ; thefe were, Orontes, king of 

 Scythia; Gullavus Adolpliiis ; and Statira. I'nit though 

 tiiey had great fuccefs, Goldoni never thought them worthy 

 of pubhcation. He was not more vain of his comic operas. 

 However, he produced at different times and places 40 or 50, 

 wiiich, without his confent or knowledge, were collecieil 

 and publilhed in 6 vols. 121110. ; they are not very ellimable 

 Works, being on the old burletta model, full ot buffoonery, 

 a' id a broad kind of Italian humour, tailed in no other 

 country, though fuffered for the fake of the nuifu-, whicji 

 is often ing -nious, imitative, and fometimcs ^rdc-etul, but 

 more frequently grotefque. 



tra, that the performers forgot it was winter. The princijial 

 part of the M.ireiiefa was given to Zamparini, a very pretty- 

 woman, but an affected finger. Mulic fo difficult to perform 

 \vas not cafy to hear ; and tiiis drama was never fufficientlv 

 repeated for the public to be familiarly acquainted witli it. 

 They were glad, as well as the performers, to return to the 

 " Buona Figliuola ' for their own eafe and relief from a too 

 ferious attention. 



In France, Goldoni wrote feveral very fuccefsful come- 

 dies for declamation in the French Ir.ng'.iage. btit we arc 

 not acquainted with any dramas « hicli he produced for mu- 

 lie in that country. Poor Goldoni was in fuch favour with 

 the. royal family of France before tlic revolution, that br 

 was never allowed to return to his own country ; but died 

 at Paris in the year of /^rfw, 1793, ^'^ "^'"^ ^^'^ "^ ^3- 



GOLDSBOROUGH, in Geography, a poll town of 

 .'\merica, in Hancock county and Itateof Maine, incorpo- 

 rated in 1789, and containing 379 inhabitants ; 47 mdes E. 

 of Peiioblcot. N. lat. 44' 19. 



GOLUSINNY, in Lk.hyology, a fiOi difcovcred on the 

 coaff of Cornwall, in the whole form of tlie body, lips, 

 teeth, and fins, rcfembhng X.\\f ivrajfr, which is faiJ never to 

 e.^ceed a palm in length ;' near the tail is a remarkable black 

 fpot ; the firil rays of the dorfal (in arc tinged with black- 

 See Labhls Cor/,<i^(W. 



GOLDSMITH, Ox.ivr.a, in Biography, was bom in 

 the county of Longford, Ireland, in 1 731, though, accord- 

 ing to other accounts, this event too^c place at ElpJi.n, iii 

 1729. He was the fan of a clergyman, who gave him a 

 literary education, and lent him early to Dubhn college. 

 Being defigned for the profcffion of medicine, he was 

 rcmuvcd to- Edinburgh in 1 751, where he continued till 

 1754, when he left that place to avoid a procels again ft him 

 3I 2 for 



