Commedia del’ arte was the dominant form of professional theatre in 18th-century Venice. The stock characters (Arlecchino, Colombina, Pierrot) were wildly popular, even though the audience knew, almost from the beginning, how they would react and what they would say. The actors made their own costumes and masks, while their movement on the stage was of paramount importance. In the years of Casanova, Carlo Goldoni revolutionised the theatre with original dialogues and stage directions.He wrote his scripts in a matter of days, producing a record of 16 plays in one season. He received much praise but almost no pay or royalties.