« Se di me medesimo una commedia compor dovessi... » Goldoni, personnage de théâtre

Carlo Goldoni writes himself into many of his own plays. But beyond these theatrical self-portraits, after his death he also becomes the character Goldoni in several biographical plays, in both French and Italian. This article considers whether the Goldoni who appears posthumously on stage represents the real historical person, or is simply a symbolic representation of a dramatist; perhaps even no more than a rewriting of a semi-fictional character already created by Goldoni in his Mémoires.