Uncovered in Dresden an unpublished manuscript by Carlo Goldoni

Discovered at the SächsischeLandesbibliothek in Dresden an eighteenth-century manuscript: it is an unpublished version of Carlo Goldoni’s comedy Il cavaliere e la dama; it is to be considered an unpublished version because the manuscript is in a different redaction from the printed one and thus probably reflects the form closest to the original text.

The discovery was made by Riccardo Drusi, professor of Italian Literature at the Department of Humanistic Studies in Venice; Drusi pointed out that “if in fact, in the printed editions, the author takes care to state that, compared to the original brought to the stage in 1749, he proceeded to replace the dialectal masks with as many characters speaking in the language, the Dresden redaction instead sees Pantalone, Arlecchino, Brighella acting, each in the idiom that is most typical to him. In short, already because of these variants, the manuscript appears as a very important piece to reconstruct those more remote phases of Goldoni’s writing that the author himself effectively concealed in the name of his theatrical ’reform’.”

The rediscovered manuscript is unsigned and dated 1752 and features Pantalone, Arlecchino and Brighella as characters, each with his own typical idiom; later editions, however, feature alternate characters speaking a more drably literary language. In the Dresden manuscript there is no shortage of situations told in broad strokes and not punctuated in dialogue. This is an important document for learning about the pre-reformation Goldoni, and one that Drusi intends to continue studying for a critical edition. Goldoni’s reform of the play consisted in particular of writing the dialogues in full and abolishing the masks.

The discovery in Dresden testifies to the relations with the theater of the Saxon principality and the passion of the Saxon royals for the Venetian theater scene. Theater companies of the time would leave on tours to European capitals, including Dresden, and take the manuscript with them.

Uncovered in Dresden an unpublished manuscript by Carlo Goldoni

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