ds, however--among
them the Venetian gentleman, Raffaele Todeschini, and Sebastiano Muletti
of Bergamo--thought it worth while to form complete collections of such
pieces from my pen.

It must not be imagined that Abbe Chiari escaped without blows in this
battle of the books. It so happened that an unknown writer subjected one
of his prologues to a scathing satire in an essay called _Five Doubts_.
The piece was mistakenly attributed to me; and Chiari answered it by six
cowardly, filthy, satirical sonnets, which he circulated in manuscript,
against myself and the Granelleschi. Upon this there arose a whole
jungle of pens in our defence. The five doubts were multiplied by four,
by six; and the Abbe was argued and twitted out of his wits. In these
straits, he condescended to extend the kiss of peace to his old foe
Goldoni, and Goldoni abased himself to the point of accepting the
salute. Drowning their former rivalries and differences, they now
entered into an offensive and defensive alliance against the Academy and
me.

Meanwhile our party grew steadily in numbers. The head-quarters of the
Granelleschi as a belligerent body were at this time established in the
shop of the bookseller Paolo Colombani. Every month we issued here in
parts a series of critical and satirical papers, which drew crowds of
purchasers round Colombani's counter. The papers appeared under the
title of _Atti Granelleschi_, and were prefaced with an introduction in
octave stanzas from my pen. The noise they created all about the town
was quite remarkable, and young men eagerly enrolled themselves under
our standard of the Owl. Chiari and Goldoni, on their side, were not
idle; but the alliance they had struck took off considerably from their
vogue. This depended in no small measure on their former rivalry. The
dropping fire which had been exchanged between their partisans kept
their names and fames before the public. Now that they were fighting
under one flag against us, the interest in their personalities declined.

Without pursuing the details of this literary war, which raged between
the years 1757 and 1761, I will only touch upon those circumstances
which led me to try my fortune on the stage as a dramatic writer. Both
Goldoni and Chiari professed themselves the champions of theatrical
reform; and part of their programme was to cut the throat of the
innocent _Commedia dell'Arte_, which had been so well supported in
Venice by four principal and des