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Carlo Goldoni. “The True Friend”

Andreev

Mikhail L.

editor@litfact.ru

2022

Carlo Goldoni Denis Diderot Alexander Pushkin 18th century comedy

2026

“The True Friend” is not the most famous comedy by Carlo Goldoni that are often put on a stage. It has a different importance. It was “The True Friend” from which Denis Diderot borrowed the plot for his play “The Natural Son,” then being accused of plagiarism and beginning to defend himself. This controversy contributed to a more explicit designation of various trends in the dramaturgy of the 18th century. The miser’s monologue in “The True Friend” became a source for the baron’s monologue in Pushkin’s “The Miserly Knight,” and the very figure of the miser in this play by Goldoni gained a prominent place in the literary series formed around this “eternal image” (from Plautus and Molière to Pushkin, Gogol and Balzac). “The True Friend” was previously published in Russian only as a collotype and in free translations.

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