The pantomimic characters and the extemporal comedy of Italy may have
had some influence even on our own dramatic poets: this source has
indeed escaped all notice; yet I incline to think it explains a
difficult point in Massinger, which has baffled even the keen spirit of
Mr. Gifford.
A passage in Massinger bears a striking resemblance with one in
Molière's "Malade Imaginaire." It is in "The Emperor of the East," vol.
iii. 317. The Quack or "Empiric's" humorous notion is so closely that of
Molière's, that Mr. Gifford, agreeing with Mr. Gilchrist, "finds it
difficult to believe the coincidence accidental;" but the greater
difficulty is, to conceive that "Massinger ever fell into Molière's
hands." At that period, in the infancy of our literature, our native
authors and our own language were as insulated as their country. It is
more than probable that Massinger and Molière had drawn from the same
source--the Italian Comedy. Massinger's "Empiric," as well as the
acknowledged copy of Molière's "Médecin," came from the "Dottore" of the
Italian Comedy. The humour of these old Italian pantomimes was often as
traditionally preserved as proverbs. Massinger was a student of Italian
authors; and some of the lucky hits of their theatre, which then
consisted of nothing else but these burlesque comedies, might have
circuitously reached the English bard; and six-and-thirty years
afterwards, the same traditional jests might have been gleaned by the
Gallic one from the "Dottore," who was still repeating what he knew was
sure of pleasing. Our theatres of the Elizabethan period seem to have
had here the extemporal comedy after the manner of the Italians; we
surely possess one of these _Scenarios_, in the remarkable "Platts,"
which were accidentally discovered at Dulwich College, bearing every
feature of an Italian _Scenario_. Steevens calls them "_a mysterious
fragment_ of ancient stage direction," and adds, that "the paper
describes a species of dramatic entertainment of which no memorial is
preserved in any annals of the English stage."[53] The commentators on
Shakspeare appear not to have known the nature of these Scenarios. The
"Platt," as it is called, is fairly written in a large hand, containing
directions appointed to be stuck up near the prompter's station; and it
has even an oblong hole in its centre to admit of being suspended on a
wooden peg. Particular scenes are barely ordered, and the names, or
rather nicknames, of several of the players, appear in the most familiar
manner, as they were known to their companions in the rude green-room of
that day: such as "Pigg, White and Black Dick and Sam, Little Will
Barne, Jack Gregory, and the Red-faced fellow."[54] Some of these
"Platts" are on solemn subjects, like the tragic pantomime; and in some
appear "Pantaloon, and his man Peascod, with _spectacles_." Steevens
observes, that he met with no earlier example of the appearance of
Pantaloon, as a specific character on our stage; and that this direction
concerning "the spectacles" cannot fail to remind the reader of a
celebrated passage in _As You Like It_:
----The lean and _slipper'd Pantaloon_,
With _spectacles_ on nose----.
Perhaps, he adds, Shakspeare alludes to this personage, as habited in
his own time. The old age of Pantaloon is marked by his _leanness_, and
his _spectacles_ and his _slippers_. He always runs after Harlequin, but
cannot catch him; as he runs in _slippers_ and without _spectacles_, is
liable to pass him by without seeing him. Can we doubt that this
Pantaloon had come from the Italian theatre, after what we have already
said? Does not this confirm the conjecture, that there existed an
intercourse between the Italian theatre and our own? Farther, Tarleton
the comedian, and others, celebrated for their "extemporal wit," was the
writer or inventor of one of these "Platts." Stowe records of one of our
actors that "he had a quick, delicate, refined, _extemporal_ wit." And
of another, that "he had a wondrous, plentiful, pleasant, _extemporal_
wit." These actors, then, who were in the habit of exercising their
impromptus, resembled those who performed in the unwritten comedies of
the Italians. Gabriel Harvey, the Aristarchus of the day, compliments
Tarleton for having brought forward a _new species of dramatic
exhibition_. If this compliment paid to Tarleton merely alludes to his
dexterity at _extemporaneous wit_ in the character of the _clown_, as my
friend Mr. Douce thinks, this would be sufficient to show that he was
attempting to introduce on our stage the extemporal comedy of the
Italians, which Gabriel Harvey distinguishes as "a new species." As for
these "Platts," which I shall now venture to call "Scenarios," they
surprise by their bareness, conveying no notion of the piece itself,
though quite sufficient for the actors. They consist of mere exits and
entrances of the actors, and often the real names of the actors are
familiarly mixed with those of the _dramatis personæ_. Steevens has
justly observed, however, on these skeletons, that although "the drift
of these dramatic pieces cannot be collected from the mere outlines
before us, yet we must not charge them with absurdity. Even the scenes
of Shakspeare would have worn as unpromising an aspect, had their
skeletons only been discovered." The printed _scenarios_ of the Italian
theatre were not more intelligible; exhibiting only the _hints_ for
scenes.
Thus, I think, we have sufficient evidence of an intercourse subsisting
between the English and Italian theatres, not hitherto suspected; and I
find an allusion to these Italian pantomimes, by the great town-wit Tom
Nash, in his "Pierce Pennilesse," which shows that he was well
acquainted with their nature. He indeed exults over them, observing that
our plays are "honourable and full of gallant resolution, not
consisting, like theirs, of pantaloon, a zany, and a w---- e, (alluding
to the women actors of the Italian stage;[55]) but of emperors, kings,
and princes." My conviction is still confirmed, when I find that Stephen
Gosson wrote the comedy of "Captain Mario;" it has not been printed, but
"Captain Mario" is one of the Italian characters.[56]
Even at a later period, the influence of these performances reached the
greatest name in the English Parnassus. One of the great actors and
authors of these pieces, who published eighteen of these irregular
productions, was Andreini, whose name must have the honour of being
associated with Milton's, for it was his comedy or opera which threw the
first spark of the Paradise Lost into the soul of the epic poet--a
circumstance which will hardly be questioned by those who have examined
the different schemes and allegorical personages of the first projected
_drama_ of Paradise Lost: nor was Andreini, as well as many others of
this race of Italian dramatists, inferior poets. The Adamo of Andreini
was a personage sufficiently original and poetical to serve as the model
of the Adam of Milton. The youthful English poet, at its representation,
carried it away in his mind. Wit indeed is a great traveller; and thus
also the "Empiric" of Massinger might have reached us from the Bolognese
"Dottore."
The late Mr. Hole, the ingenious writer on the Arabian Nights, observed
to me that _Molière_, it must be presumed, never read _Fletcher's_
plays, yet his "Bourgeois Gentilhomme" and the other's "Noble Gentleman"
bear in some instances a great resemblance. Both may have drawn from the
same Italian source of comedy which I have here indicated.
Many years after this article was written, has appeared "The History of
English Dramatic Poetry," by Mr. Collier. That very laborious
investigator has an article on "Extemporal Plays and Plots," iii. 393.
The nature of these "_plats"_ or "plots" he observes, "our theatrical
antiquaries have not explained." The truth is that they never suspected
their origin in the Italian "scenarios." My conjectures are amply
confirmed by Mr. Collier's notices of the intercourse of our players
with the Italian actors. Whetstone's Heptameron, in 1582, mentions "the
comedians of Ravenna, who are not _tied to any written device_." In
Kyd's Spanish Tragedy the extemporal art is described:---
The Italian tragedians were so sharp of wit,
That in one hour of meditation
They would perform anything in action.
These extemporal players were witnessed much nearer than in Italy--at
the Théâtre des Italiens at Paris--for one of the characters replies--
I have seen the like,
In Paris, among the French tragedians.
Ben Jonson has mentioned the Italian "extemporal plays" in his "Case is
Altered;" and an Italian _commediante_ his company were in London in
1578, who probably let our players into many a secret.