Gozzi

Gozzi, COUNT CARLO, Italian dramatist, was born at Venice in March 1722. The publication of several slight but witty and satirical pieces made him known in his native city, and the part he took in combating the theatrical innovations of Chiari and Goldoni made him famous. For the purpose of counteracting the attempts of these two writers to free the Italian stage from the puerilities of the Commedia dell'Arte by the introduction of translations of newer French dramatic works, Gozzi wrote a satirical poem, Tartana degl' Infussi per l' Anno Bisestile (1757), and a comedy, Fiaba dell' Amore delle tre Melarancie (1761). In this last work he struck a vein which for a time proved to be extremely popular, and he wrote several similar 'dramatic fairy-tales,' as he called them, the best being L' Augellino Bel Verde. But the best known, from Schiller's translation of it, is Turandot, which Gozzi himself borrowed from a Persian source (Nizami). His latest dramas were modelled upon those of Calderon, but they enjoyed only a moderate success. Gozzi died 4th April 1806. In 1772-74 he edited a complete collection of his own works in 10 vols.; but a fuller edition came out at Venice in 14 vols. in 1802. See his Memoirs (1797; Eng. trans. by J. A. Symonds, 2 vols. 1889).—His brother, COUNT GASPARO GOZZI, was born at Venice, 20th December 1713. His first attempts in literature, the translation of dramas from the French for production in the theatre of Sant' Angelo at Venice, were not successful. But his next ventures, the editing of two journals, Gazzetta Veneta (from 1760) and Osservatore Veneto (from 1761), to which he contributed very copiously, established his fame as one of the most elegant writers of literary Italian. The second of these works was an attempt to imitate the English Spectator. For some time Gozzi was press censor in Venice. He died at Padua, 26th December 1786. Besides the works named he also wrote Il Mondo Morale (1760), a collection of essays; Lettere Famigliari (1755); and Giudizio degli Antichi Poeti sopra la Moderna Censura di Dante (1758), a defence of the king of Italian poets against the strictures of Bettinelli. Collected editions of his works were published at Venice (12 vols. 1794-98, and 22 vols. 1812).