About the work
Carlo Goldoni wrote the comedy in 1761 in Venetian dialect with Chioggian inflections; it premiered in 1762 at the Teatro San Luca in Venice and was one of the last plays he wrote in Italy before moving to Paris.
Plot
In the lagoon town of Chiozza, the boatman Toffolo gives a slice of pumpkin to Lucietta, who is engaged to the fisherman Titta-Nane, sparking the jealousy of Checca, who is fond of him. The quarrel escalates into a full brawl drawing in husbands, brothers and neighbours, until the level-headed Isidoro, deputy to the criminal court clerk, establishes that the accusations amount to nothing more than young people's squabbling and closes the day with a triple wedding.
Cultural significance
Goldoni himself considered the play his most radical attempt to bring ordinary people onto the stage: the action unfolds almost entirely outdoors, and the dialogue mixes Venetian and Chioggian speech. Even Goethe discussed how its essentially untranslatable title might be rendered in German.