SOURCE: Kennard, Joseph Spencer. “Goldoni and Gozzi—Decay and Death of the Commedia dell'Arte.” In Masks and Marionettes, pp. 76-96. New York: Macmillan, 1935.

In the following essay, Kennard maintains that the plays of Carlo Goldoni represent the apex of the commedia dell'arte and were marked by wit and a concern for reform. By contrast, Kennard paints Goldoni's rival, Carlo Gozzi, as a jealous reactionary who loved the pure commedia dell'arte yet despised the common people who performed and watched the popular comedy.

In the Piazzetta dei Mercanti in Venice, halfway between the Rialto and the Merceria, close to the Riva where the daily market was held, not far from the Piazza San Marco and the bookshop where his friends and partisans met and but a few steps farther from the Teatro di San Luca, now Teatro Goldoni, is a statue of Goldoni slightly stooped as if listening to...