leave of his hostess, went back to the
inn, ordered a fire, and reduced "Amalasunta" to ashes. This performance
completed, not without natural regret, he ordered a good supper, which
he consumed with relish, after which he went to bed and slept tranquilly
all night. On the morrow, dining with the Venetian Ambassador, he
recounted to him his adventures. The Ambassador, compassionating his
destitute condition, and finding pleasure in his company, found a post
for him in his household as a sort of chamberlain. This position, by no
means arduous, left Goldoni plenty of time for himself. He now made the
acquaintance of a quack doctor, a certain Buonafede, who went by the
name of the Anonimo, and was a very prince of charlatans. This man,
among other devices to attract customers, carried about with him a
company of actors, who, after assisting him in distributing the objects
which he sold and collecting the money for them, gave a representation
in his small theatre erected in the public square. It so happened that
the company of comedians which had been engaged for that Easter season
at Milan, unexpectedly failed to keep their engagement, so that the
Milanese were left without players. The Anonimo proposed his company,
Goldoni through the Venetian Minister helped him to attain his end, and
wrote for the first performance an intermezzo, "The Venetian Gondolier,"
which was set to music by the composer attached to the company, and had,
as Goldoni himself says, all the success so slight an effort deserved.
This little play was the first of his works performed and afterwards
published.

At this time in Italy, the so-called _Commedie dell' arte_ or _a
soggetto_ held the boards; extremely artificial, stilted forms of
dramatic composition, which, it is true, testified to the quick and
ready wit of the Italians, but also to a puerile taste, far removed from
artistic finish. These plays were all performed by actors in masks,
after the manner of the classical drama, and in the greater number of
cases the players were supplied merely with the plot and the situations
of the play, the dialogue having to be supplied by the invention of the
actors themselves; the outline was often of the roughest nature, much
after the manner of modern drawing-room charades, but there were certain
stock characters, such as an old man who is the butt of the tricks and
deceptions of the others, an extravagant son, scampish servants, and
corrupt or saucy chamb