"Noble bold is an accident of fortune; noble actions characterize the great"
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Goldoni, the playwright who made a career out of puncturing pretension, draws a clean blade here: birth is luck; greatness is behavior. Calling “noble bold” an “accident of fortune” isn’t just a philosophical shrug at aristocracy, it’s a theatrical stage direction. In his world of masks, merchants, and minor swindles, status is costume. You can inherit the velvet, the crest, the right to be addressed with reverence; none of that proves courage, judgment, or decency. Fortune deals the title the way it deals a hand of cards.
The phrase “noble bold” is pointedly slippery. It suggests the kind of swagger that comes with protection: bravery subsidized by privilege, risk made affordable by rank. Goldoni’s jab is that this brand of “boldness” often isn’t moral fiber at all - it’s insulation. That’s why the second clause lands with such prosecutorial force. “Noble actions” are not accidents; they require choice, repetition, and, crucially, consequences. They “characterize the great” because they are observable and legible to others. Greatness becomes a pattern, not a pedigree.
Context matters: 18th-century Italy is still steeped in hereditary hierarchy, but the social weather is shifting. Commerce is rising, audiences are changing, and the Enlightenment is pressing the old order to justify itself. Goldoni’s theater thrives on that friction. This line reads like a moral verdict aimed at the balcony seats: if you want admiration, don’t demand it through lineage. Earn it in public, where actions can’t hide behind a surname.
The phrase “noble bold” is pointedly slippery. It suggests the kind of swagger that comes with protection: bravery subsidized by privilege, risk made affordable by rank. Goldoni’s jab is that this brand of “boldness” often isn’t moral fiber at all - it’s insulation. That’s why the second clause lands with such prosecutorial force. “Noble actions” are not accidents; they require choice, repetition, and, crucially, consequences. They “characterize the great” because they are observable and legible to others. Greatness becomes a pattern, not a pedigree.
Context matters: 18th-century Italy is still steeped in hereditary hierarchy, but the social weather is shifting. Commerce is rising, audiences are changing, and the Enlightenment is pressing the old order to justify itself. Goldoni’s theater thrives on that friction. This line reads like a moral verdict aimed at the balcony seats: if you want admiration, don’t demand it through lineage. Earn it in public, where actions can’t hide behind a surname.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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