Il est des gens de qui l'esprit guindé
Sous un front jamais déridé
Ne souffre, n'approuve, et n'estime
Que le pompeux, et le sublime;
Pour moi j'ose poser en fait
Qu'en de certains momens l'esprit le plus parfait
Peut aimer sans rougir jusqu'aux marionettes;
Et qu'il est des tems et des lieux,
Où le grave, et le sérieux,
Ne valent pas d'agréables sornettes.
Peau d'Ane.
People there are who never smile;
Their foreheads still unsmooth'd the while,
Some lambent flame of mirth will play,
That wins the easy heart away;
Such only choose in prose or rhyme
A bristling pomp,--they call sublime!
I blush not to like Harlequin,
Would he but talk,--and all his kin.
Yes, there are times, and there are places,
When flams and old wives' tales are worth the Graces.
Cervantes, in the person of his hero, has confessed the delight he
received from amusements which disturb the gravity of some, who are apt,
however, to be more entertained by them than they choose to acknowledge.
Don Quixote thus dismisses a troop of merry strollers--"_Andad con Dios,
buena gente, y hazad vuestra fiesta, porque desde muchacho fui
aficionado a la_ Carátula, _y en mi mocedad se ne ivan los ojos tras la_
Farándula." In a literal version the passage may run thus:--"Go, good
people, God be with you, and keep your merry making! for from childhood
I was in love with the _Carátula_, and in my youth my eyes would lose
themselves amidst the _Farándula_." According to Pineda, _La Carátula_
is an actor masked, and _La Farándula_ is a kind of farce.[30]
Even the studious Bayle, wrapping himself in his cloak, and hurrying to
the market-place to Punchinello, would laugh when the fellow had humour
in him, as was usually the case; and I believe the pleasure some still
find in pantomimes, to the annoyance of their gravity, is a very natural
one, and only wants a little more understanding in the actors and the
spectators.[31]
The truth is, that here our Harlequin and all his lifeless family are
condemned to perpetual silence. They came to us from the genial hilarity
of the Italian theatre, and were all the grotesque children of wit, and
whim, and satire. Why is this burlesque race here privileged to cost so
much, to do so little, and to repeat that little so often? Our own
pantomime may, indeed, boast of two inventions of its own growth: we
have turned Harlequin into a magician, and this produces the surprise of
sudden changes of scenery, whose splendour and curious correctness have
rarely been equalled: while in the metamorphosis of the scene, a certain
sort of wit to the eye, "mechanic wit," as it has been termed, has
originated; as when a surgeon's shop is turned into a laundry, with the
inscription "Mangling done here;" or counsellors at the bar changed into
fish-women.
Every one of this grotesque family were the creatures of national
genius, chosen by the people for themselves. Italy, both ancient and
modern, exhibits a gesticulating people of comedians, and the same comic
genius characterised the nation through all its revolutions, as well as
the individual through all his fortunes. The lower classes still betray
their aptitude in that vivid humour, where the action is suited to the
word--silent gestures sometimes expressing whole sentences. They can
tell a story, and even raise the passions, without opening their lips.
No nation in modern Europe possesses so keen a relish for the
_burlesque_, insomuch as to show a class of unrivalled poems, which are
distinguished by the very title; and perhaps there never was an Italian
in a foreign country, however deep in trouble, but would drop all
remembrance of his sorrows, should one of his countrymen present himself
with the paraphernalia of Punch at the corner of a street. I was
acquainted with an Italian, a philosopher and a man of fortune, residing
in this country, who found so lively a pleasure in performing
Punchinello's little comedy, that, for this purpose, with considerable
expense and curiosity, he had his wooden company, in all their costume,
sent over from his native place. The shrill squeak of the tin whistle
had the same comic effect on him as the notes of the _Ranz des Vaches_
have in awakening the tenderness of domestic emotions in the wandering
Swiss--the national genius is dramatic. Lady Wortley Montagu, when she
resided at a villa near Brescia, was applied to by the villagers for
leave to erect a theatre in her saloon: they had been accustomed to turn
the stables into a playhouse every carnival. She complied, and, as she
tells us, was "surprised at the beauty of their scenes, though painted
by a country painter. The performance was yet more surprising, the
actors being all peasants; but the Italians have so natural a genius for
comedy, they acted as well as if they had been brought up to nothing
else, particularly the _Arlequino_, who far surpassed any of our
English, though only the tailor of our village, and I am assured never
saw a play in any other place." Italy is the mother, and the nurse, of
the whole Harlequin race.
Hence it is that no scholars in Europe but the most learned Italians,
smit by the national genius, could have devoted their vigils to narrate
the revolutions of pantomime, to compile the annals of Harlequin, to
unrol the genealogy of Punch, and to discover even the most secret
anecdotes of the obscurer branches of that grotesque family, amidst
their changeful fortunes, during a period of two thousand years! Nor is
this all; princes have ranked them among the Rosciuses; and Harlequins
and Scaramouches have been ennobled. Even Harlequins themselves have
written elaborate treatises on the almost insurmountable difficulties of
their art. I despair to convey the sympathy they have inspired me with
to my reader; but every _Tramontane_ genius must be informed, that of
what he has never seen he must rest content to be told.
Of the ancient Italian troop we have retained three or four of the
characters, while their origin has nearly escaped our recollection; but
of the burlesque comedy, the extempore dialogue, the humorous fable, and
its peculiar species of comic acting, all has vanished.
Many of the popular pastimes of the Romans unquestionably survived their
dominion, for the people will amuse themselves, though their masters may
be conquered; and tradition has never proved more faithful than in
preserving popular sports. Many of the games of our children were played
by Roman boys; the mountebanks, with the dancers and tumblers on their
moveable stages, still in our fairs, are Roman; the disorders of the
_Bacchanalia_, Italy appears to imitate in her carnivals. Among these
Roman diversions certain comic characters have been transmitted to us,
along with some of their characteristics, and their dresses. The
speaking pantomimes and extemporal comedies which have delighted the
Italians for many centuries, are from this ancient source.[32]
Of the _Mimi_ and the _Pantomimi_ of the Romans the following notices
enter into our present researches:
The _Mimi_ were an impudent race of buffoons, who exulted in mimicry,
and, like our domestic fools, were admitted into convivial parties to
entertain the guests; from them we derive the term _mimetic_ art. Their
powers enabled them to perform a more extraordinary office, for they
appear to have been introduced into funerals, to mimic the person, and
even the language of the deceased. Suetonius describes an _Archimimus_
accompanying the funeral of Vespasian. This Arch-mime performed his part
admirably, not only representing the person, but imitating, according to
custom, _ut est mos_, the manners and language of the living emperor. He
contrived a happy stroke at the prevailing foible of Vespasian, when he
inquired the cost of all this funeral pomp--"Ten millions of sesterces!"
On this he observed, that if they would give him but a hundred thousand
they might throw his body into the Tiber.
The _Pantomimi_ were quite of a different class. They were tragic
actors, usually mute; they combined with the arts of gesture music and
dances of the most impressive character. Their silent language often
drew tears by the pathetic emotions which they excited: "Their very nod
speaks, their hands talk, and their fingers have a voice," says one of
their admirers. Seneca, the father, grave as was his profession,
confessed his taste for pantomimes had become a passion;[33] and by the
decree of the Senate, that "the Roman knights should not attend the
pantomimic players in the streets," it is evident that the performers
were greatly honoured. Lucian has composed a curious treatise on
pantomimes. We may have some notion of their deep conception of
character, and their invention, by an anecdote recorded by Macrobius of
two rival pantomimes. When Hylas, dancing a hymn, which closed with the
words "The great Agamemnon," to express that idea he took it in its
literal meaning, and stood erect, as if measuring his size--Pylades, his
rival, exclaimed, "You make him tall, but not great!" The audience
obliged Pylades to dance the same hymn; when he came to the words he
collected himself in a posture of deep meditation. This silent
pantomimic language we ourselves have witnessed carried to singular
perfection; when the actor Palmer, after building a theatre, was
prohibited the use of his voice by the magistrates. It was then he
powerfully affected the audience by the eloquence of his action in the
tragic pantomime of Don Juan![34]
These pantomimi seem to have been held in great honour; many were
children of the Graces and the Virtues! The tragic and the comic masks
were among the ornaments of the sepulchral monuments of an archmime and
a pantomime. Montfaucon conjectures that they formed a select
fraternity.[35] They had such an influence over the Roman people, that
when two of them quarrelled, Augustus interfered to renew their
friendship. Pylades was one of them; and he observed to the emperor,
that nothing could be more useful to him than that the people should be
perpetually occupied with the _squabbles_ between him and Bathyllus! The
advice was accepted, and the emperor was silenced.
The parti-coloured hero, with every part of his dress, has been drawn
out of the great wardrobe of antiquity: he was a Roman Mime. HARLEQUIN
is described with his shaven head, _rasis capitibus_; his sooty face,
_fuligine faciem obducti_; his flat, unshod feet, _planipedes_; and his
patched coat of many colours, _Mimi centunculo_.[36] Even
_Pullicinella_, whom we familiarly call PUNCH, may receive, like other
personages of not greater importance, all his dignity from antiquity;
one of his Roman ancestors having appeared to an antiquary's visionary
eye in a bronze statue; more than one erudite dissertation authenticates
the family likeness; the nose long, prominent, and hooked; the staring
goggle eyes; the hump at his back and at his breast; in a word, all the
character which so strongly marks the Punch-race, as distinctly as whole
dynasties have been featured by the Austrian lip and the Bourbon
nose.[37]
The genealogy of the whole family is confirmed by the general term,
which includes them all; for our _Zany_, in Italian _Zanni_, comes
direct from _Sannio_, a buffoon: and a passage in Cicero, _De Oratore_,
paints Harlequin and his brother gesticulators after the life; the
perpetual trembling motion of their limbs, their ludicrous and flexible
gestures, and all the mimicry of their faces:--_Quid enim potest tam
ridiculum, quam_ SANNIO _esse? Qui ore, vultu, imitandis motibus, voce,
denique corpore ridetur ipso_. Lib. ii. sect. 51. "For what has more of
the ludicrous than SANNIO? who, with his mouth, his face, imitating
every motion, with his voice, and, indeed, with all his body, provokes
laughter."[38]
These are the two ancient heroes of pantomime. The other characters are
the laughing children of mere modern humour. Each of these chimerical
personages, like so many county members, come from different provinces
in the gesticulating land of pantomime; in little principalities the
rival inhabitants present a contrast in manners and characters which
opens a wider field for ridicule and satire than in a kingdom where an
uniformity of government will produce an uniformity of manners. An
inventor appeared in Ruzzante, an author and actor who flourished about
1530. Till his time they had servilely copied the duped fathers, the
wild sons, and the tricking valets, of Plautus and Terence; and,
perhaps, not being writers of sufficient skill, but of some invention,
were satisfied to sketch the plots of dramas, but boldly trusted to
extempore acting and dialogue. Ruzzante peopled the Italian stage with a
fresh enlivening crowd of pantomimic characters; the insipid dotards of
the ancient comedy were transformed into the Venetian Pantaloon and the
Bolognese Doctor; while the hare-brained fellow, the arch knave, and the
booby, were furnished from Milan, Bergamo, and Calabria. He gave his
newly-created beings new language and a new dress. From Plautus he
appears to have taken the hint of introducing all the Italian dialects
into one comedy, by making each character use his own; and even the
modern Greek, which, it seems, afforded many an unexpected play on
words, for the Italian.[39] This new kind of pleasure, like the language
of Babel, charmed the national ear; every province would have its
dialect introduced on the scene, which often served the purpose both of
recreation and a little innocent malice. Their _masks_ and _dresses_
were furnished by the grotesque masqueraders of the carnival, which,
doubtless, often contributed many scenes and humours to the quick and
fanciful genius of Ruzzante. I possess a little book of Scaramouches,
&c. by Callot. Their masks and their costume must have been copied from
these carnival scenes. We see their strongly-featured masks; their
attitudes, pliant as those of a posture-master; the drollery of their
figures; while the grotesque creatures seem to leap, and dance, and
gesticulate, and move about so fantastically under his sharp graver,
that they form as individualised a race as our fairies and witches;
mortals, yet like nothing mortal![40]
The first Italian actors wore masks--objections have been raised against
their use. Signorelli shows the inferiority of the moderns in deviating
from the moveable or rather double masks of antiquity, by which the
actor could vary the artificial face at pleasure. The mask has had its
advocates, for some advantages it possesses over the naked face; a mask
aggravates the features, and gives a more determined expression to the
comic character; an important effect among this fantastical group.[41]
The HARLEQUIN in the Italian theatre has passed through all the
vicissitudes of fortune. At first he was a true representative of the
ancient Mime, but afterwards degenerated into a booby and a gourmand,
the perpetual butt for a sharp-witted fellow, his companion, called
Brighella; the knife and the whetstone. Harlequin, under the reforming
hand of Goldoni, became a child of nature, the delight of his country;
and he has commemorated the historical character of the great Harlequin
Sacchi. It may serve the reader to correct his notions of one, from the
absurd pretender with us who has usurped the title. "Sacchi possessed a
lively and brilliant imagination. While other Harlequins merely repeated
themselves, Sacchi, who always adhered to the essence of the play,
contrived to give an air of freshness to the piece by his new sallies
and unexpected repartees. His comic traits and his jests were neither
taken from the language of the lower orders, nor that of the comedians.
He levied contributions on comic authors, on poets, orators, and
philosophers; and in his impromptus they often discovered the thoughts
of Seneca, Cicero, or Montaigne. He possessed the art of appropriating
the remains of these great men to himself, and allying them to the
simplicity of the blockhead; so that the same proposition which was
admired in a serious author, became highly ridiculous in the mouth of
this excellent actor."[42] In France Harlequin was improved into a wit,
and even converted into a moralist; he is the graceful hero of Florian's
charming compositions, which please even in the closet. "This imaginary
being, invented by the Italians, and adopted by the French," says the
ingenious Goldoni, "has the exclusive right of uniting _naïveté_ with
_finesse_, and no one ever surpassed Florian in the delineation of this
amphibious character. He has even contrived to impart sentiment,
passion, and morality to his pieces."[43] Harlequin must be modelled as
a national character, the creature of manners; and thus the history of
such a Harlequin might be that of the age and of the people, whose
genius he ought to represent.
The history of a people is often detected in their popular amusements;
one of these Italian pantomimic characters shows this. They had a
_Capitan_, who probably originated in the _Miles gloriosus_ of Plautus;
a brother, at least, of our Ancient Pistol and Bobadil. The ludicrous
names of this military poltroon were _Spavento_ (Horrid fright),
_Spezza-fer_ (Shiver-spear), and a tremendous recreant was Captain
_Spavento de Val inferno_. When Charles V. entered Italy, a Spanish
Captain was introduced; a dreadful man he was too, if we are to be
frightened by names: _Sanqre e Fuego_! and _Matamoro_! His business was
to deal in Spanish rhodomontades, to kick out the native Italian
_Capitan_, in compliment to the Spaniards, and then to take a quiet
caning from Harlequin, in compliment to themselves. When the Spaniards
lost their influence in Italy, the Spanish Captain was turned into
Scaramouch, who still wore the Spanish dress, and was perpetually in a
panic. The Italians could only avenge themselves on the Spaniards in
pantomime! On the same principle the gown of Pantaloon over his red
waistcoat and breeches, commemorates a circumstance in Venetian history
expressive of the popular feeling; the dress is that of a Venetian
citizen, and his speech the dialect; but when the Venetians lost
Negropont, they changed their upper dress to black, which before had
been red, as a national demonstration of their grief.
The characters of the Italian pantomime became so numerous, that every
dramatic subject was easily furnished with the necessary personages of
comedy. That loquacious pedant the _Dottore_ was taken from the lawyers
and the physicians, babbling false Latin in the dialect of learned
Bologna. _Scapin_ was a livery servant who spoke the dialect of Bergamo,
a province proverbially abounding with rank intriguing knaves, who, like
the slaves in Plautus and Terence, were always on the watch to further
any wickedness; while Calabria furnished the booby Giangurgello with his
grotesque nose. Molière, it has been ascertained, discovered in the
Italian theatre at Paris his "Médecin malgré lui," his "Etourdi," his
"L'Avare," and his "Scapin." Milan offered a pimp in the _Brighella_;
Florence an ape of fashion in _Gelsomino_. These and other pantomimic
characters, and some ludicrous ones, as the _Tartaglia_, a spectacled
dotard, a stammerer, and usually in a passion, had been gradually
introduced by the inventive powers of an actor of genius, to call forth
his own peculiar talents.
The Pantomimes, or, as they have been described, the continual
Masquerades, of Ruzzante, with all these diversified personages, talking
and acting, formed, in truth, a burlesque comedy. Some of the finest
geniuses of Italy became the votaries of Harlequin; and the Italian
pantomime may be said to form a school of its own. The invention of
Ruzzante was one capable of perpetual novelty. Many of these actors have
been chronicled either for the invention of some comic character, or for
their true imitation of nature in performing some favourite one. One,
already immortalised by having lost his real name in that of _Captain
Matamoros_, by whose inimitable humours he became the most popular man
in Italy, invented the Neapolitan Pullicinello; while another, by deeper
study, added new graces to another burlesque rival.[44] One Constantini
invented the character of Mezetin, as the Narcissus of pantomime. He
acted without a mask, to charm by the beautiful play of his countenance,
and display the graces of his figure; the floating drapery of his
fanciful dress could be arranged by the changeable humour of the wearer.
Crowds followed him in the streets, and a King of Poland ennobled him.
The Wit and Harlequin Dominic sometimes dined at the table of Louis
XIV.--Tiberio Fiorillo, who invented the character of Scaramouch, had
been the amusing companion of the boyhood of Louis XIV.; and from him
Molière learnt much, as appears by the verses under his portrait:--
Cet illustre comédien
De son art traça la carrière:
Il fut le maître de Molière,
Et la Nature fut le sien.
The last lines of an epitaph on one of these pantomimic actors may be
applied to many of them during their flourishing period:--
Toute sa vie il a fait rire;
Il a fait pleurer à sa mort.
Several of these admirable actors were literary men, who have written on
their art, and shown that it was one. The Harlequin Cecchini composed
the most ancient treatise on this subject, and was ennobled by the
Emperor Matthias; and Nicholas Barbieri, for his excellent acting called
the _Beltrame_, a Milanese simpleton, in his treatise on comedy, tell us
that he was honoured by the conversation of Louis XIII. and rewarded
with fortune.
What was the nature of that perfection to which the Italian pantomime
reached; and that prodigality of genius which excited such enthusiasm,
not only among the populace, but the studious, and the noble, and the
men of genius?
The Italian Pantomime had two peculiar features; a species of buffoonery
technically termed _Lazzi_, and one of a more extraordinary nature, the
_extempore dialogue_ of its comedy.
These _Lazzi_ were certain pleasantries of gesticulation, quite
national, yet so closely allied to our notions of buffoonery, that a
northern critic would not readily detect the separating shade; yet
Riccoboni asserts that they formed a critical, and not a trivial art.
That these arts of gesticulation had something in them peculiar to
Italian humour, we infer from Gherardi, who could not explain the term
but by describing it as "_Un Tour_; JEU ITALIEN!" It was so peculiar to
them, that he could only call it by their own name. It is difficult to
describe that of which the whole magic consists in being seen; and what
is more evanescent than the humour which consists in gestures?
"_Lazzi_," says Riccoboni, "is a term corrupted from the old Tuscan
_Lacci_, which signifies a knot, or something which connects. These
pleasantries called _Lazzi_ are certain actions by which the performer
breaks into the scene, to paint to the eye his emotions of panic or
jocularity; but as such gestures are foreign to the business going on,
the nicety of the art consists in not interrupting the scene, and
connecting the _Lazzi_ with it; thus to _tie_ the whole together."
_Lazzi_, then, seems a kind of mimicry and gesture, corresponding with
the passing scene; and we may translate the term by one in our
green-room dialect, _side-play_. Riccoboni has ventured to describe some
_Lazzi_. When Harlequin and Scapin represent two famished servants of a
poor young mistress, among the arts by which they express the state of
starvation, Harlequin having murmured, Scapin exhorts him to groan, a
music which brings out their young mistress, Scapin explains Harlequin's
impatience, and begins a proposal to her which might extricate them all
from their misery. While Scapin is talking, Harlequin performs his
_Lazzi_--imagining he holds a hatful of cherries, he seems eating them,
and gaily flinging the stones at Scapin; or with a rueful countenance he
is trying to catch a fly, and with his hand, in comical despair, would
chop off the wings before he swallows the chameleon game. These, with
similar _Lazzi_, harmonise with the remonstrance of Scapin, and
re-animate it; and thus these "_Lazzi_, although they seem to interrupt
the progress of the action, yet in cutting it they slide back into it,
and connect or tie the whole." These _Lazzi_ are in great danger of
degenerating into puerile mimicry or gross buffoonery, unless fancifully
conceived and vividly gesticulated. But the Italians seem to possess the
arts of gesture before that of speech; and this national characteristic
is also Roman. Such, indeed, was the powerful expression of their
mimetic art, that when the select troop under Riccoboni, on their first
introduction into France only spoke in Italian, the audience, who did
not understand the _words_, were made completely masters of the _action_
by their pure and energetic imitations of nature. The Italian theatre
has, indeed, recorded some miracles of this sort. A celebrated
Scaramouch, without uttering a syllable, kept the audience for a
considerable time in a state of suspense by a scene of successive
terrors; and exhibited a living picture of a panic-stricken man.
Gherardi in his "Théâtre Italien," conveys some idea of the scene.
Scaramouch, a character usually represented in a fright, is waiting for
his master Harlequin in his apartment; having put everything in order,
according to his confused notions, he takes the guitar, seats himself in
an arm-chair, and plays. Pasquariel comes gently behind him, and taps
time on his shoulders--this throws Scaramouch into a panic. "It was then
that incomparable model of our most eminent actors," says Gherardi,
"displayed the miracles of his art; that art which paints the passions
in the face, throws them into every gesture, and through a whole scene
of frights upon frights, conveys the most powerful expression of
ludicrous terror. This man moved all hearts by the simplicity of nature,
more than skilful orators can with all the charms of persuasive
rhetoric." On this memorable scene a great prince observed that
"_Scaramuccia non parla, e dica gran cosa_:" "He speaks not, but he says
many great things."
In gesticulation and humour our Rich[45] appears to have been a complete
Mime: his genius was entirely confined to Pantomime; and he had the
glory of introducing Harlequin on the English stage, which he played
under the feigned name of _Lun_. He could describe to the audience by
his signs and gestures as intelligibly as others could express by words.
There is a large caricature print of the triumph which Rich had obtained
over the severe Muses of Tragedy and Comedy, which lasted too long not
to excite jealousy and opposition from the _corps dramatique_.
Garrick, who once introduced a speaking Harlequin, has celebrated the
silent but powerful language of Rich:--
When LUN appear'd, with matchless art and whim,
He gave the power of speech to every limb;
Tho' mask'd and mute, conveyed his quick intent,
And told in frolic gestures what he meant:
But now the motley coat and sword of wood
Require a tongue to make them understood!
The Italian EXTEMPORAL COMEDY is a literary curiosity which claims our
attention.