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The Man of the World

(L'uomo di mondo).

Carlo Goldoni, 1739

Venetian-dialect comedy, a revision of a partially written-out scenario, Momolo the Courtier (1738).

Momolo generously and freely spends his father's hard-earned money on good living and Smeraldina, a young laundress secretly in love with a man of her own class. Her lazy and roguish brother Truffaldino encourages her to fleece the wealthy Venetian. When Momolo agrees to pay for Smeraldina's ballet lessons, Truffaldino inflates the bills by buying fine clothes to enable him to keep up with his sister's new status.

A determined bachelor, Momolo is diligently pursued by Eleonora and is finally manoeuvered into marrying her, as a result of her open declarations of love and of his discovery that the true affections of his laundress are elsewhere engaged.

The character of Momolo reappears in The Prodigal