other Goose stories
or fairy tales. They were in part improvised, but in part written,
either in prose or verse, in order to make sure of the essential points
of the action. The older custom had been to prepare only a _scenario_,
in which the story was told in brief outline, with the allotment of
parts in the production.[2147] Pantaleone, in the _commedia del arte_,
is sad,--an imbecile, dissolute old man. Gozzi gave him _brio_ and
_bonarieta_, with cordiality and humor. Goldoni, who got into a war with
Gozzi, made Pantaleone a philistine, who used good sense against the
follies of fashion. No women were present at these comedies at Venice at
this time.[2148]

Scherillo[2149] quotes Perucci, that at the end of the seventeenth
century the folk theater was obscene in word and act beyond the ancient
comedies. If that is true, it is only a detail of the degeneracy of
Italy from the middle of the sixteenth century.

+669. Summary and review.+ It is evident that amusement and relaxation
are needs of men. The fondness for exhibitions and theatrical
representations can be traced through history. The suggestion is direct
and forcible. It can be made to play upon harmful tastes as well as upon
good ones. There is nothing to guide it or decide its form and direction
except the mores,--the consenting opinion of the masses as to what is
beneficial or harmful. The leading classes try to mold this opinion. The
history shows that the mores can make anything right, and protect any
violation of the sex taboo or of ordinary propriety. There is no subject
in regard to which the mores need more careful criticism than in regard
to amusements. The standard and the usage degenerate together unless
there is control by an active and well-trained taste and sense. The
popular taste and sense are products of inherited mores. It is this
reflex action of habitual acts and experiences which makes the subject
difficult. All the primary facts and the secondary or remoter
reflections are intertwined as in an organic growth, and all go
together. The facts exert constant education, and every positive effort
to interfere with the course of things by primitive education must be
content to exert slight effects for a long time. Wealth and luxury exert
their evil effects through amusement. Poverty cuts down these products
of wealth and brings societies back to simplicity and virtue. Men
renounce when they cannot get. The periods of economic and social decay
h