Carlo Goldoni, Rare Original Libretto I MORBINOSI, Comedy of 5 Acts in Verse, 1759

THE MORBINOUS

Comedy of 5 Acts in Verse.

Performed for the first time in Venice in the Carnival of 1759.


Carlo Goldoni


5 engravings by the engraver G.Zuliani


AT HUNDRED AND TWENTY

GENTLEMEN

AND GOOD FRIENDS


To you, Most Honored Gentlemen and Cordial Friends, I dedicate this Comedy of mine, since you yourselves gave me the idea, and from your lovely company I drew the main theme. Remember that happy day, when having gathered the number of one hundred and nineteen Companions, you did me the honor of reaching the one hundred and twenty; and gathered in the Giudecca, all at one table, to the sound of trumpets and timpani they had a solemn meal. It is not such an ordinary thing to bring together such a large number of diners on one day. It would be easy to have them, if someone generously invited them, but it seems a little difficult to find a hundred and twenty who pay their share. We need a man at the head, known, loved and respected; familiar with such games; skilled at management, and armed with courteous suffering. We found it, you know, and we were perfectly happy with it. With what harmony, with what tranquility such a beautiful, joyous day was spent! To the glory of our nation, one hundred and twenty people, for at least two thirds of the brightest youth, so exactly observing the most rigorous moderation is something worthy of praise, and the fun itself becomes a merit and a good example. It is true that there were no women. If there had been these beautiful lifters of our spirit, I don't know if the harmony, if the concord would have been maintained between us. I would not have doubted their prudence, but ours.


To form this Comedy I had to introduce Women. Note, however, that I did not introduce them to the table. Bacchus is too good a friend of Venus. I too have lived in this World; I am not yet among the dead, and I know what effect the table can produce between people of various sexes. I am not speaking of intemperance, not of those who, altered by wine, lose their reason, and act like pure animals. I understand a certain tender confidence, a certain freedom that the table inspires, the comfortable proximity to the object, the subtleties that are changed and allowed, the timely attentions, the cheerfully inspired allegorical jokes, the effect of foods, of the sweetness of liquors, of humanity in challenge. There is where the ugly ones seem less ugly, and the beautiful ones more beautiful; where the witty ones shine; where foolish people give up more easily; where the heart is committed, and the occasion is meditated on. Woe betide you if jealousy gets mixed up in it! Woe if the lover begins to suspect his friend! Woe if the Wife eyes the Husband! Woe if the feet, which have no eyes, are deceived! What horror, what confusion in one hundred and twenty people! Thank Heaven, we were like many little angels, and I remember that you wanted to place me at the head of the table. so that I could see everything and collect everything that seemed appropriate for a Comedy. But you conducted yourself with such moderation and demeanor that I had reason to edify myself, and if I wanted to satisfy the excitement you gave me to write a Comedy, I had to invent some Episodes, completely foreign to the truth of our conversation. Be that as it may, the Comedy is done; however, in the title it belongs to you, and I dedicate and consecrate it to you.



Your Humility. Servant and Friend


Carlo Goldoni


["All works", by Carlo Goldoni; edited by Giuseppe Ortolani.]