mmon sense
and too much honesty of nature not to be very much shocked by the avowed
cynicism which it was the fashion then to parade. He takes pains to aim
against it the full and spicy expression of his disfavor, considering it
as a fatal outgrowth of French infidelity. Therefore he deserves to be
considered a moral writer. The freedom of his language is only the seal
of realism affixed to his writings, such as we find it in Shakespeare.
Nothing could be more unlike and dissimilar in the after-taste which
they leave on the mental palate than these very plays which we are
considering and any French play of our own time. In Gozzi the moralist
lines the writer, and that, perhaps more than anything else, establishes
the different character of his literary influence from that of Goldoni.
He says that he wrote his plays for his own pleasure first, and with a
wish to illustrate for his fellow-citizens a joyous and wholesome moral.

One hundred years ago one of the most famous comedies of Gozzi was given
to the Venetian public. _Le Droghe d'Amore_ ("Love's Potion") caused so
much perturbation in its author, and so much excitement and importance
in the Venetian people, so much manoeuvring and intriguing was set to
work for and against it, and so much more was said and felt and suffered
about it, that for its adventurous _entree_ into the world, if for
nothing else, it deserves a special notice. What was, then, the cause of
all this stirring-up of passions and of prejudices? And how could it
happen that an inoffensive dramatic representation of character should
have proved the spark which suddenly set on fire a perfect powder-house
of human interests? It occurred in this manner: On the night of the
first representation the Venetian public recognized in the character of
Don Adone the well-known and fashionable figure of Pietro Gratarol,
secretary of the august Senate of Venice, and, in spite of such a
charge, one of the most unscrupulous profligates and successful _roues_
of the time. Young as he was, and handsome, he had acquired the marked
reputation of an exquisite in the salons of Venice, where he was a
leader and used the prestige of his influence to introduce foreign
customs. No man was more universally known in every grade of society
than he was, and his _bonnes fortunes_ as a gambler and as a man of
pleasure formed an important subject of the daily conversation of the
men and women who dispensed public favor. He was theref