The observation of the human heart is an inexhaustible source of literature; but nations more disposed to poetry than to reflection, more easily surrender themselves to the intoxication of joy than to philosophic irony.  That pleasantry which is founded upon the knowledge of mankind has something sad at bottom.  It is only the gaiety of the imagination which is truly inoffensive.  It is not that the Italians do not study deeply the men whom they have to do with; for none discover more subtly their secret thoughts; but they employ this talent as a guide of conduct, and have no idea of converting it to any literary purpose.  Perhaps even they have no wish to generalise their discoveries, and publish their perceptions.  There is a prudent dissimulation in their character, which teaches them not to expose in comedies that which affords rules for private intercourse; not to reveal by the fictions of the mind what may be useful in circumstances of real life.

Macchiavelli however, far from concealing anything, has exposed all the secrets of a criminal polity; and through him we may learn of what a terrible knowledge of the human heart the Italians are capable.  But profound observation is not the province of comedy:  the leisure of society, properly speaking, can alone furnish matter for the comic scene.  Goldoni, who lived at Venice, where there is more society than in any other Italian city, has introduced more refinement of observation into his pieces than is generally to be found in other authors.  Nevertheless his comedies are monotonous, and we meet with the same situations in them, because they contain so little variety of character.  His numerous pieces seem formed upon the general model of dramatic works, and not copied from real life.  The true character of Italian gaiety is not satire, but imagination; not delineation of manners, but poetical exaggeration.  It is Ariosto, and not Moliere, who can amuse Italy.

Gozzi, the rival of Goldoni, has more originality in his compositions; they bear less resemblance to regular comedy.  His determination was liberally to indulge the Italian genius; to represent fairy tales, and mingle buffoonery and harlequinade with the marvels of poetry; to imitate nothing in nature, but to give free scope to the gay illusions of fancy, to the chimeras of fairy magic, and to transport the mind by every means beyond the boundaries of human action.  He was crowned with prodigious success in his time, and perhaps there never existed an author more congenial to an Italian imagination; but to know with certainty what degree of perfection Tragedy and Comedy can reach in Italy, it should possess a theatrical establishment.  The multitude of little cities who all wish to have a theatre, lose, by dispersing them, its dramatic resources:  that division in states, in general so favourable to liberty and happiness, is hurtful to Italy.  She must needs concentrate her light and power to resist the prejudices which are devouring her.  The authority of governments often represses individual energy.  In Italy this authority would be a benefit if it struggled against the ignorance of separate states and of men isolated among them; if it combated by emulation that indolence so natural to the climate; and if, in a word, it gave life to the whole of this nation which now is satisfied with a dream.