Part i.) sufficiently explains my right to transpose material from one

place to another. Readers of the Introduction will perceive how carelessly and accidentally, to serve occasion, the original and unique edition was put together. It is due in part, I think, to Gozzi's indifference and haste of compilation that so curious a specimen of autobiography fell into almost absolute oblivion.

We have only one edition of the _Memorie_, that of Palese, under the date Venezia, 1797. Therefore nothing need be said upon the topic of bibliography. I may, however, mention that the few copies of this rare book which have fallen under my inspection present some features of difference, indicating the random way in which the sheets were made up for publication.

Among English critics of distinction, one only, so far as I am aware, has mentioned Gozzi's Memoirs. That is Vernon Lee, in her _Studies of the Eighteenth Century in Italy_. But Vernon Lee knew the book only through Paul de Musset's "perversion." Accordingly, what she has to say about the man is less valuable than the vivid, if not always accurate, account she gives of his _Fiabe_.

The volumes I am now presenting to the public claim at least one merit--that of dealing with a hitherto almost untouched document of historical and literary importance.

I flatter myself that readers will be found to appreciate the brilliant, though prolix and desultory, portraiture of life in Venice during the last century which these "useless memoirs" offer to their imagination.

Finally, I wish here to record my mature opinion about Carlo Gozzi's character for veracity and general uprightness. I think that I have been hardly just, and certainly not generous, to Gozzi in the Introduction and the notes appended to my version. Wishing to avoid the _lues biographica_, I assumed a somewhat too purely critical attitude while writing. Careful perusal of the proofs makes me feel that the truth would not have suffered had I entirely suppressed some suspicions and concealed some personal want of sympathy with the man. Allowing for his peculiar and occasionally repellent character--the character of an "original" and a confirmed old bachelor--Gozzi seems to me now to have been as honest and open-hearted as a gentleman should be.

JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS.

AM HOF, DAVOS PLATZ,

_March 25, 1889_.

_BOOKS USED AND REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK._

1. CARLO GOZZI. "Memorie Inutili." 3 vols. Venice. 1797.

2. CARLO GOZZI. "Opere." 10 vols. Venice. Colombani and other publishers. 1772-1791.

3. ERNESTO MASI. "Le Fiabe di Carlo Gozzi." 2 vols. Bologna. Zanichelli. 1885.

4. PIER ANTONIO GRATAROL. "Narrazione Apologetica." 2 vols. Venezia. Gatti. 1797.

5. PAUL DE MUSSET. "Mémoires de Charles Gozzi." Paris. Charpentier. 1848.

6. GIOV. BATT. MAGRINI. "Carlo Gozzi e le Fiabe." Cremona. Feraboli. 1876. The same work, second edition: "I Tempi la Vita e gli Scritti di Carlo Gozzi." Benevento. De Gennaro. 1883.

7. MICHELE SCHERILLO. "La Commedia dell' Arte in Italia." Torino. Loescher. 1884.

8. ADOLFO BARTOLI. "Scenari Inediti della Commedia dell' Arte." Firenze. Sansone. 1880.

9. ALFONSE ROYER. "Carlo Gozzi, Théâtre Fiabesque." Paris. Michel Lévy. 1865.

10. CARLO GOLDONI. "Mémoires." 3 vols. Paris. Veuve Duchesne. 1787.

11. FERDINANDO GALANTI. "Carlo Goldoni e Venezia nel Secolo xviii." Padova. Samin. 1882.

12. P. G. MOLMENTI. "Carlo Goldoni." Venezia. Ongania. 1880.

13. VERNON LEE. "Studies of the Eighteenth Century in Italy." London. Satchell. 1880.

14. MAURICE SAND. "Masques et Bouffons." 2 vols. Paris. A. Lévy 1862.

15. S. ROMANIN. "Storia Documentata di Venezia." Vols. vii.-ix. Venezia. Naratovitch. 1860.

16. GIUSEPPE BOERIO. "Dizionario del Dialetto Veneziano." Venezia. Cocchini. 1856.

17. PHILARÈTE CHASLES. "Études sur l'Espagne, etc." ("D'un Théâtre Espagnol-Vénitien au xviii^{me.} Siècle et de Charles Gozzi"). Paris. Amyot. 1847.

18. N. TOMMASÈO. "Storia Civile nella Letteraria." Roma, Torino, Firenze. E Loescher. 1872.

19. EUGENIO CAMERINI. "I Precursori del Goldoni." Milano. Sonzogno. 1872.

20. "Mémoires de Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, écrites par lui-même. Bruxelles. Rozet. 1876.

THE MEMOIRS

OF

COUNT CARLO GOZZI

INTRODUCTION.