Volume I Part 2 (1/2)

V

At this point it is necessary to inquire into the relation between the modern Italian _Commedia dell' Arte_ and the old Italian core and dubious results, about the origins of the Latin dra the dust from ponderous tomes of erudition The Romans, like the modern Italians, had their _Commedia Erudita_ and _Commedia dell' Arte_ Of the two species, in classical tienous and popular, the _Commedia Erudita_ derived and literary The latter, whether it affected Greek manners, as in the so-called _Fabula palliata_, or Roata_, remained in the hands of scholarly authors and serious actors (_histriones_) The forin in popular habits, and only at a coular artistic treatment It was represented by masked buffoons, _Sanniones_, _Planipedes_, _Stupidi_, and so forth We hear of _Osci ludi_ and _Fescennini versus_, the fore, the latter to Etruria and village sports[28] The _Satura_, which seems to have been an offshoot from the _Fescennina_, corresponded pretty closely tocall farce, and eventually developed into the _exodia_ or _hors d'uvre_ of the later Roenous elerew a literary form of comedy which obtained the nainated in the Oscan city of Atella, close to Acerra, Pulcinella's birthplace In all these native forms of drama, dialects were spoken and masks were used; and this is a main point of connection between them and the modern Italian _Commedia dell' Arte_

Another feature in common is the rank realism and open obscenity whichthe ancient Roman masks four types are known to us by naarrulous clown or blockhead; _Pappus_, acharlatan We also hear of the _Stupidus_ and _Morio, Manducus_, a notable glutton, and the _Sanniones_, so called possibly frorin

Further familiarity with theit is to conjecture a direct transmission of these Roman masks fro reseest Sanniones; although it is probably derived fro a contraction of Giovanni Pappus looks uncommonly like Pantalone, and Dossenus like the Dottore The _Stupidus_ has an air of our clown or Mezzettino or Il Villano Manducusjaws Yet nothing could be more uncritical than to assume that the Italian masks of the sixteenth century AD boasted an uninterrupted descent from the Roman masks of the fifth century BC That assu aspect of the phenomenon The fact seems to be that ancient and modern Italy possessed the same mimetic faculty and used it in the saed in their Fescennine jibes, stained theh bonfires, like their atherers of hbours with obscene jests, and pranked themselves in travesty, like the earliest Oscans or the first colonists froed the same kind of native draht the coe in cities, so at the close of the sixteenth century the _Commedia dell'

Arte_ worked up the rudihted Europe for two hundred years

Many details derived from the _Commedia Erudita_ rendered the resemblance between the modern improvised drama and the vernacular co The conventional characters of Plautus and Terence, the _senex_, the _servus_, the _loriosus_, and the _parasitus_ reappeared In truth, this peculiar and highly complex hybrid combined strains of manifold varieties Upon the wild and native briar, which in former times produced the _Osci ludi_, _Fescennini versus_, and _Satura_, and which went on living its own natural life beneath the drurafted the cultivated rose of the _Commedia Erudita_ This, in its turn, contained eleata_ The result was a species eminently characteristic of sixteenth-century Italy, and similar to the Atellan farces of the Romans

VI

The _Commedia dell' Arte_ yields, upon analysis, three chief cohella, Pantalone and Il Dottore, cana These were the contribution of Northern Italy Pulcinella, Tartaglia, Coviello, and the Captain careat importance, contributed by the South The lovers, _primo aue turned, and the _Servetta_, came from Tuscany, or rather from the tradition of written coue If priority in tiht for any of these factors, we must look to Lombardy The four masks which were indispensable to this dramatic species, and which survived all its vicissitudes, had an undoubted Loin The Neapolitan ue formed little more than a conventional framework for the humours of the fixed characters Scarcity of documents makes it impossible to speak with absolute authority on any of these points; yet we have good reason to credit the tradition which connects the origin of the _Co, composed by Anton-Francesco Grazzini, called Il Lasca, at Florence soht upon the subject[32] It is entitled ”Canto di Zanni e Magnifichi” The Magnifico corresponded to Pantalone; and I need not repeat that the Zanni were best known as Arlecchino and Brighella Lasca ers to Tuscany, and that they perforani parte,_ _E'l recitar commedie e la nostra arte_”

He also sho the buffoon parts in these plays were interwoven with the intrigue of the regular drama:

”E Zanni tutti siamo, Recitatori eccellenti e perfetti; Gli altri strioni eletti, Auardia son restati”

Further and mountebank performances, and drops the information that women in Florence were not allowed to attend the theatres where Zanni played:

”Couisa Che quando recitar le sentirete, Morrete delle risa, Tanto son belle, giocose, e facete; E dopo ancor vedrete Una danza ballar sopra la scena, Di varj e nuovi giuochi tutta piena”

It is therefore obvious that, at the middle of the sixteenth century, the _Commedia dell' Arte_ had already taken shape and earned popularity

The conised as hailing froamo and Venice Before another fifty years had passed away, this species absorbed the attention of Italy, adopted elements from every district, and settled down into a definite form of comedy, which lasted until the period of Goldoni's refore It culminated about the ree of excellence during the first half of the eighteenth But when Goldoni attacked it, and Gozzi rose in its defence, the type was already on the wane Depending, as any kind of improvised drama must necessarily do, upon the personal talents of successive actors, the _Coenius was diverted into other channels[34] Originality of humour then yielded to conventional buffoonery The masks became more and more stereotyped, more and more insipid Were it not for Gozzi's _Fiabe_, we should hardly be able to form a conception of the part they actually played for two centuries in Europe

VII

Let us watch the carnival procession of thethe stage of a theatre, while we sit idle in our stalls First coood-hearted, shrewd, and canny, yet preserving a certain child-like si acquaintance with the world has not contanosi Sonifico, soular derivation for his na to do with the Saint called Pantaleone, he ought really to be known as Piantaleone, or Plant-the-lion In fact, he is one of those patriotic _cittadini_ who, partly out of zeal for S Mark and partly with a view to cos with the Venetian lion waving to the breeze on every rock and barren headland of Levantine waters[35] Pantalone wears a black mantle, woollen cap, short trousers, socks and slippers of bright red A black domino conceals half of his face He is sometihter, who engrosses all his tihbours, combined with homely mother-wit, is the fundaenerates, dotes, yields to senile vices At last he beco slippered Pantaloon of our Christmas pantona gown; a hideous black ed with red patches, like skin-disease or wine-stains, on the cheeks He is Graziano, Baloardo Graziano, or Prudentio, and has a kind of bastard brother called the Dottor Balanzon Loree froust University, Graziano_Bononia docet_ is always on his lips or in his thoughts; yet he cannot open his on, quibbles, quiddities, preposterous syllogisments of distorted Latin, le with y, and physical chimaeras about the spheres and ele caricature of learning, and the low stupid cunning of his nature contrasts with the vain pomp he makes of erudition To sustain this enius of a comedian He had to keep a voluminous repertory of pedantic lumber always ready, to blunder it and pun in paradoxes, seasoning the whole with broad Bolognese dialect and plebeian phrases

Pantalone and the Doctor were only half- in common with the stationary characters of written comedy, and took a decided part in the action of the play As the _Commedia dell' Arte_ coalesced with the _Commedia Erudita_, they approached more and more nearly to the type of the _senes_ in Latin coeneration has seen thelia_

Next co ly contrasted in their characters, yet holding certain points in common[37] First comes Arlecchino, the eldest and most typical of Italian masks, and the one who has preserved its outlines to the present day His party-coloured, tight-fitting suit reproduces the rags and patches of a rustic servant

On his head is a little round cap, with a tuft made out of a hare's or rabbit's scut He is always on the enuously nave and silly The glittering ubiquitous Harlequin of our pantomimes transforms him into a mute ballet-dancer; but when the type was created, Arlecchino spoke and amused the audience as much by his absurdities and uncouth jokes as by his perpetual mobility

Time would fail to tell of the infinite modifications which this type assumed under the hands of successive able actors Truffaldino, the delight of Venice, Zaccagnino, Trivellino, Mestolino, Bagattino, Guazzetto, Stoppino, Burattino, and the idiotic Mezzettino, were all descended frooes his a frouish, clever, cowardly, pi spendthrift, who helps his hbour's wife or daughter Brighella wears a loose white shi+rt trireen, and hite trousers On his head is a conical hat, plumed with red feathers, which yields place in course of time to the white cap of our clowns His mask is brown, cut off above the upper lip, over which a pair of short ave birth to a great variety of assiolino, Frontino, Sganarello, Mascarillo, Figaro, Finocchio, Fantino, Gradellino, Traccagnino are hisHe enters French coanarelle, and Frontin He creates a character of opera with Figaro

Unlike Arlecchino, who becorows more vocal and distinct as time advances, until, in the plays of Moliere and Beauuishable from a _servus_ of Latin comedy modernised Indeed, just as Pantalone and Il Dottore approxihella shade off into the _servi_; and all their countless progeny are variations on the theuish varlets

The four roups of subordinates, have passed before us; but a multitude whom no man can number and no words can describe press on froiven to the _Servetta_ Her naion Colombina, the sweetheart of Arlecchino and Pulcinella, Rosetta, Florentine Pasquella, Argentina, Diamantina, Venetian Smeraldina, Saporita, Carmosina; under all her titles, and with every shade of character ascribed to her by the free handling of successive actresses, she rehtly, witty, shi+fty pendant to the Zanni[38] Not a true mask, however; for the Servetta wears her own face and forion she prefers to hail fro series of transfor who flits behind the footlights of our theatres on winter evenings And, like Brighella, written comedy blended her with the fixed characters of drama under the naaro_ is a familiar example of Colombina in her latest dramatic development

[Illustration: COLOMBINA (1683)