The performance of Goldoni's Comedies may still be witnessed with pleasure, and his masterpiece, _La Locandiera,_ has recently been seen in London with the celebrated Eleonora Duse as Mirandolina. The character of the heroine and the art with which she keeps her forward lovers at bay, are admirably conceived. _Il Burbero Benefico_ is hardly inferior. It deals with a man who, under a rough surface, hides a tender heart.[1] _Le Donne Curiose_ has many amusing situations, brought about by the prying curiosity of some women. _Il Poeta Fanatico,_ gives a laughable idea of the third-rate literary academies of his day, and the character of the poet who is always at a loss for a rhyme, is amusingly drawn. _La Famiglia dell' Antiquario,_ offers a ludicrous exposure of the gullibility of collectors and amateurs who have neither taste nor knowledge. _Le Smanie per la Villeggiatura_ takes for its theme the passion of Venetian families for spending some months of the year in villas on the mainland. _L'Impresario_ has some delightfully comic scenes between an Operatic Manager and his company. _L'Avaro_ treats the same topic as Molière in one of his comedies, and with hardly less success. _Il Ventaglio_ is ingenious in plot and vivacious in dialogue. _I Rusteghi, Le Baruffe Chiozzotte, Sior Todero Brontolon,_ and several other Comedies, are in the Venetian dialect, in which he is quite it home, and in which he shows a vivacity and originality worthy of all praise. As his works contain nothing immoral or in any way indelicate they have always been in use at educational establishments for theatricals in those classes where Italian is taught. Goldoni is neither a philosophical nor a very profound writer, but he is delightfully vivacious, and there is hardly one of his comedies that the reader would not like to peruse a second time. The brothers GASPARO and CARLO GOZZI were Venetians, like Goldoni, but they were his rivals, and not his friends. Gasparo was a good literary essayist, and he wrote the _Osservatore,_ a sort of imitation of Addison's _Spectator._ He also defended Dante against Bettinelli's attacks. Carlo produced some fantastic and imaginative plays, one of which Schiller adapted for the German Stage, under the title of _Turandot, Princess of China._ He has plenty of imagination, but his poetical talents are hardly powerful enough to give adequate expression to his really brilliant and original ideas. A very different writer from these vivacious Venetians was the learned MURATORI, for many years Librarian to the Duke of Modena. He was a man of immense erudition and indefatigable industry. His works in Latin and Italian fill more than one hundred volumes. His _Annali d'Italia_ constitute his most valuable work. He also wrote a treatise, _Della Perfetta Poesia._ He died in 1750.