Goldoni sketched the Venetian manners of the decadence of the
Republic with a French pencil, and was an Italian Scribe in style.
The Spanish stage is richer in such Comedies as that which furnished the
idea of the Menteur to Corneille. But you must force yourself to believe
that this liar is not forcing his vein when he piles lie upon lie. There
is no preceding touch to win the mind to credulity. Spanish Comedy is
generally in sharp outline, as of skeletons; in quick movement, as of
marionnettes. The Comedy might be performed by a troop of the corps de
ballet; and in the recollection of the reading it resolves to an animated
shuffle of feet. It is, in fact, something other than the true idea of
Comedy. Where the sexes are separated, men and women grow, as the
Portuguese call it, affaimados of one another, famine-stricken; and all
the tragic elements are on the stage. Don Juan is a comic character that
sends souls flying: nor does the humour of the breaking of a dozen
women's hearts conciliate the Comic Muse with the drawing of blood.
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