Four Comedies

There are two types of comedy: Goldoni's, and everyone else's. For this brilliant 18th century playwright, writing chiefly in the Venetian dialect of Italian, penned some of the most delightful comedy in any language to the present day. The plays in this volume (through an excellent translation) show us a master at work: a playwright who, in laughing at 18th century Venice, was helping us laugh at the world. But this is no mean-spirited laughter; it is the laughter of sympathy, of someone who has done the same and worse, and slaps us comfortingly on the back. Life is a comedy, Goldoni reminds us, and only by taking stock and laughing at ourselves can we hope to maintain our wits! Seldom has comedy seemed more beautiful or profound

There are two types of comedy: Goldoni's, and everyone else's. For this brilliant 18th century playwright, writing chiefly in the Venetian dialect of Italian, penned some of the most delightful comedy in any language to the present day. The plays in this volume (through an excellent translation) show us a master at work: a playwright who, in laughing at 18th century Venice, was helping us laugh at the world. But this is no mean-spirited laughter; it is the laughter of sympathy, of someone who has done the same and worse, and slaps us comfortingly on the back. Life is a comedy, Goldoni reminds us, and only by taking stock and laughing at ourselves can we hope to maintain our wits! Seldom has comedy seemed more beautiful or prfound