deceive Pantaloon.
At this moment:
TARTAGLIA comes on, speaking to himself of the great
wealth of Pantaloon.
LEANDRO asks for the hand of his daughter.
TARTAGLIA replies that she is affianced to the son of
Pantaloon.
LEANDRO is astonished; he makes a scene, etc., etc.
“From this textually rendered sheet” (says Gozzi) “comes the
comedy _I Contratti Rotti_, and from more than four hundred
other formulæ as concise as this come all our Commedia dell’
Arte. Such plays as these are not at the mercy of the sudden
illness of an actor, or the fact that another has been recently
recruited; a simple arrangement, broadly made, concerning
the basis of the scenic action, suffices for a successful
performance. At the moment of taking up the curtain it often
happens that the description of the rôles is changed according
to circumstances, the relative importance or the ability of
the actors. Nevertheless the comedy marches happily and gaily
to its conclusion. Not a year passes but that some scenes
are added or subtracted from the argument, and a simple
announcement made to the company is all that is needed for the
change to be ably executed. It will be seen that these clever
actors work upon the very basis of their subjects, establishing
always their scenes upon different foundations, and filling in
the dialogue with so much variety that they are always new and
perdurable. I have frequently heard these improvisors reproach
themselves with having badly established (_mal piantato_)
some scene or other, and proceed to re-establish it at once
by excellent arguments in such a way as to prepare their
companions for a fresh attempt.
“It is very true that in this style of comedy some serious
actors, and more particularly some actresses, have a very
arsenal of premeditated material committed to memory, material
which serves for intercessions, for reproaches, for threats,
for the expression of despair and for sentiments of jealousy;
but it is none the less surprising to see that, face to face
with the public and improvising with other improvisors, they
are able to hold this material in readiness, and to select
from the mass with which their brains are stored, that which
is suitable to the occasion, expressing it with energy, and
earning the applause of the spectators.
“Such is the system of our improvised comedy, a glorious art
which our nation alone can claim for its own, and one that, in
the course of three centuries, has by no means exhausted its
wit.
“It would take too long to enumerate the four hundred and more
subjects which are continually being renewed in the dialogues.
The clever actors who succeed the clever actors who die suffice
to give an eternal aspect of novelty to these subjects. We
see Roderigo Lombardi, an excellent Doctor, replaced by
Agostino Fiorilli, a clever Tartaglia, renewing each subject
merely by the differences that lie between their respective
talents. A single new original personage suffices to revive the
originality of the entire company.”
Gozzi informs us, however, that the authors of his day, and notably
Goldoni, wrote their dialogue after the first performance, and published
the scenarii which had been successful in the hands of improvising
comedians. For the rest, the majority of Italian comic authors have
proceeded thus. Nearly all the comedies of the seventeenth century are
extracted from old improvised scenarii of which Gozzi gives us a very
curious although very incomplete list. He cites among others: “The
famous Domenico Biancolelli, who has caused to be performed in dialogue
a very large number of improvised Italian scenarii. His comedies are
printed, but they have remained unfruitful, whilst the very same
subjects, treated by improvisation, are still greatly appreciated in
the theatre.” He further tells us that comedies written and recited
by comedians who memorise them, which had never succeeded in bringing
together sixty spectators, would attract a crowd from the moment that the
improvisors took possession of the subject to embroider it in their own
manner.
Many plays written up after the first performance, and published in
the _sostenuta_ form, have served none but reading purposes. The
comedians _dell’ arte_ took no notice of them, preferring their old
dry and succinct résumés, which left their wit very much more free and
untrammelled.
But whatever Gozzi may say, he has followed, like Goldoni, the extremely
felicitous mixed style, half-memorised, half-improvised. It remains,
however, that this mixed style could only be treated successfully by an
original spirit, and one sufficiently in sympathy with his actors to
leave them a free hand. It was a style that ended with himself. All that
remained of it after him was the custom in Italy to cause certain comic
masks to appear in the course of all sorts of performances.
Carlo Goldoni began, like Gozzi, and before Gozzi, by writing scenarii
for the Commedia dell’ Arte. Numerous traces of this must remain in
Italy, but Goldoni himself refused to edit these skeletons, of which he
was unjustly ashamed, until he had written them anew with full dialogue,
and thereby changed and converted them into complete plays. We have seen
Gozzi reproach him with having ruined, by means of this cold work, many
felicitous subjects in which the improvisors shone, subjects which, for
the rest, were of no use to the comedians of his day in their new form,
or else (according to Gozzi) were of use only for performance at banquets.
The quarrel between these two authors and their adherents was a very
lively one. Both had a deal of merit; Goldoni’s was the greater
wisdom, observation and reality, Gozzi’s the better invention, wit
and originality. Both began in the same way by leaving an open field
to improvisation. Little by little each felt the need to write up the
rôles, and to substitute his own personality for those of the comedians.
Both followed for some time the mixed style—that is to say, writing up
the serious rôles, and leaving the rôles of the masks to improvisation.
In the end both brought about the disappearance of the latter, Gozzi
in spite of himself, and with infinite regret for his beloved Sacchi
company; Goldoni, on the other hand, with the deliberate resolve to
suppress masks and dialects, or to relegate them to a place of secondary
importance. Thus he no longer permits them to improvise, but himself
writes their dialogues for them. It was upon this ground that Gozzi was
able victoriously to attack him. That which is written for improvisors is
of necessity pale, cold and heavy, and it would be far better not to see
Truffaldino or Tartaglia at all than to see them gagged by the logic of
the author.
The sentence of death which Goldoni attempted to pronounce against the
Commedia dell’ Arte is fully set forth in his piece entitled _Il Teatro
Comico_, which he himself has placed at the head of his collection
(edition of Turin, 1756), declaring it to be a sort of preface to his
work. There is very little that is amusing in this comedy; it is rather
to be considered a critical piece; but it is of interest to students of
the history of this style.
A theatrical director is rehearsing some new actors in a fresh piece, and
dissertating at length upon the subject:
ORAZIO (_the manager of the company_). You see that it is
very necessary to procure actors who are united by a literary
convention; without that they will usually fall into the trite
or the unnatural.
EUGENIO (_the second lover in the company_). Then it becomes
necessary entirely to suppress the improvised comedy?
ORAZIO. Entirely, no! It is as well that Italians should
continue masters of an art which other nations had not the
courage to create. The French are in the habit of saying that
Italian comedians are very daring to risk making impromptu
speeches to the public; but that which may be called temerity
on the part of ignorant comedians is a fine quality with
comedians of ability, and, to the honour of Italy and the
glory of our art be it said, there are still many excellent
personages who bear triumphantly and meritoriously the
admirable prerogative of speaking impromptu with as much
elegance as the poet may achieve in writing.
EUGENIO. But usually the masks are at a loss when they utter
what is premeditated.
ORAZIO. When what is premeditated is brilliant, graceful, well
suited to the character of the personage which is to utter it,
all good masks will learn it gladly.
EUGENIO. Would it not be possible to suppress masks in
character comedies?
ORAZIO. Woe to us were we to attempt such an innovation! It
is not yet time to risk it. In all things we must not offend
universal taste. In other times the public attended comedy
only to laugh, and they desired to see no other actors on the
stage but the masks. Did the serious characters render the
dialogue a little too long, at once they grew weary; to-day
they have learned to listen to serious rôles, to enjoy words,
to be interested by events, to favour the moral, to laugh at
the sallies and altercations derived from the serious itself.
But the masks are still beheld with pleasure, and it is not
necessary to withdraw them altogether. Rather let us seek
to limit their conventions and to bridle their ridiculous
characters.
EUGENIO. But this is a very difficult way of composing.
ORAZIO. It is a way that has lately been rediscovered, and to
which we devote ourselves. Very soon we shall see the most
fertile wits rising to improve it, as is desired with all his
heart by him who invented it.
Notwithstanding this naïvely perfidious attitude, Goldoni did not dare
until very late entirely to suppress the masks; but he had so completely
transformed them that they might well look upon him as their assassin.
Success abandoned him in a measure as he denaturalised the national
taste in the speeches of these personages, who, thanks to him, came to
utter dialogues in the French fashion—that is to say, like lackeys and
soubrettes imitating their masters. He acknowledged himself beaten,
became a Frenchman, and produced in France _Le Bourru Bienfaisant_; that,
after all, was his real genre.
It is none the less true, and Gozzi himself recognised it, that Goldoni
had worked for the Italian theatre, especially at the beginning, in
a felicitous and amusing manner. His Venetian pieces are still quite
charming, notwithstanding the narrower and heavier garb which he gave
them in redressing them for his readers. Compelled to leave the Venetian
dialect to his principal comic personages, he has contrived to produce
some real characters for the comedy of manners. Nevertheless the sum
total of his theatrical work does not sufficiently justify the title
awarded him of the _Italian Molière_. If any Italian genius deserves such
a comparison it is the genius of Ruzzante, who at once actor and author
was, like our great Poquelin, nourished upon Plautus and Terence, upon
whom, like him again, he improved considerably.
FOOTNOTES
[1] The names of Demetrio and Cornelio continued to be adopted in the
theatre for old men’s rôles, particularly in memorised comedies, such
as _La Vedova, comedia facetissima_ by Nicolò Buonaparte, a citizen of
Florence, 1643.
[2] Aldo Manuzio, the famous Venetian printer of the fifteenth century
(_sta zovene bella à muo un papagà in stampa d’Aldo_).
[3] _Les Bigarrures et touches du seigneur des Accords_, _Les
Apophthegmes du sieur Gaulard_ and _Les Escraignes dijonnoises_ (1560),
as well as the _Vaillans faits d’armes de Bolorospe_ (1633), must have
supplied Turlupin with matter to be embroidered and amplified into texts
of the style of the following:—
“... Habillé de vert (de gris), parfumé (comme un jambon) d’odeur (de
sainteté), et enveloppé d’un manteau (de cheminée). Il rencontre une
dame parée d’une belle robe (d’avocat), d’une fine fraise (de veau) et
d’une riche côte (de melon), bordée, d’un filet (de vinaigre).” Then
follows the description of his hero: “Il a un corps (de garde), une tête
(d’épingle), un cou (de tonnerre), des épaules (de mouton), des bras (de
mer), une main (de papier), un pied (de cochon), un dos (d’âne), une
langue (étrangère), une haleine (de savetier). Il était fort bien vêtu,
il avait de belles chemises de toile (d’araignée), un rabat de point
(du jour), une culotte (de bœuf).... Sa maison était bâtie de pierres
(philosophales), soutenue de piliers (de cabaret), et on y entrait par
deux cours (de chimie), d’où on montait vingt-cinq degrés (de chaleur),
et on se trouvait dans une grande chambre (de justice).... Il courait
à la chasse suivi d’une meute de chiens (-dent), de quatre valets (de
pique), montés sur des chevaux (de frise) portant des lacs (d’amour)
et des filets (de canards).... Il visitait souvent ses châteaux (en
Espagne), ses terres et ses champs (de bataille) ... et mourut d’une
chute (d’eau), etc., etc.”
[4] The site of the gallows.
[5] In the _Collier de Perles_, performed in 1672, Harlequin, who plays
the part of a certain Marchese di Sbrofadel, having swallowed a medicine,
imagines himself at the point of death. He summons a notary to make his
will. The Doctor goes out and returns with Tartaglia, who plays the
notary.
TARTAGLIA. Ser ... ser ... servant illustri ... tri ... tri ... trious.
HARLEQUIN. This notary is from Tripoli.
TARTAGLIA (_sits down, draws pen and paper and begins to write_). L’an
... an ... an ... an....
HARLEQUIN. Que l’on mène cet âne à l’écurie!...
TARTAGLIA. _I ... i ... i ... io son ... son ... sono presto._
HARLEQUIN. _Va, bene!_ I leave this house to the Doctor.
THE DOCTOR. But the house is mine!
HARLEQUIN. I know, that is why I am leaving it to you: if it were not
yours I should not leave it to you. I leave my cabinet to my cousin.
TARTAGLIA (_writing_). My ca ... ca ... ca....
HARLEQUIN. Faites vite retirer ce notaire, il va salir tous les meubles.
TARTAGLIA. ... binet! à mon cou ... cou ...
HARLEQUIN. I leave sixty-five acres of broadcloth to dress my family in
mourning.
THE DOCTOR. You are making a mistake. Cloth is not measured by the acre.
HARLEQUIN. It seems to me that a man may measure his own property as best
he pleases.
TARTAGLIA. Pou ... pou ... pou ... pour habiller ma famille en feuille.
HARLEQUIN. Je laisse à _Lallemand_, mon valet de chambre....
TARTAGLIA. Un lavement à mon valet de chambre.
HARLEQUIN. Lallemand! et non lavement.
TARTAGLIA (_writing always under the dictation of HARLEQUIN_). _Si si ...
si ... si ... signor_, il y a bien lavement ... ent ... ent ... ent.
HARLEQUIN. Je laisse toutes mes vielles nippes à la fripière, ma voisine.
TARTAGLIA (_repeating_). Tou ... tou ... toutes mes vieilles tri ... tri
... tripes, à la tri ... tri ... tripière, ma voisine.
HARLEQUIN. _Ohimé!_ ce notaire-là n’en peut plus; il faudrait lui donner
une médecine pour lui faire évacuer les paroles...! Je laisse vingt écus
à mon cuisinier, à condition qu’il dépendra de mon frère cadet.
TARTAGLIA. Qu’il pend ... pendra mon frère cadet.
HARLEQUIN. Enfin, je laisse au notaire ci-présent, une langue de pore
pour mettre à la place de la sienne.
TARTAGLIA. Po ... po ... po ... porc toi-même!
Harlequin gives him a kick which sends him flying, together with his
pens, paper, portfolio and ink-horns. Tartaglia gets up, his face covered
with ink, and goes off in such a rage that he is unable to articulate
intelligible sounds.
[6] On this score Gozzi is absolutely mistaken, so far at least as
Ruzzante is concerned, whom evidently he had never read. Ruzzante’s
pieces, as we have said, are never licentious, and virtuous women
attended their performance. “_Ad audiendas eas hominum tam mulierum
concursus_,” says B. Scardeon. This is further proved by the prologues
which Beolco himself recited, and in which he frequently addressed
himself to the good and beautiful ladies of the audience, sometimes
rebuking them upon the exaggerated fashions of their toilettes, sometimes
speaking to them of faithful love and of conjugal love in the most naïve,
and at the same time the most idealistic manner. In the _Gelosia_, of
Lasca (1581), there is a prologue addressed entirely to ladies, as is
also the case with _Il Granchio_, of Salviati (1566) and several other
comedies of the sixteenth century.
INDEX
A
Achæus, i. 9
Acrobates, i. 10
Actresses, in ancient Rome, i. 14;
in fourth and fifth centuries, 22;
in sixteenth century, 29;
morals of, 180;
admitted to the Italian stage, ii. 77;
admitted to the French stage, 79;
dancing essential to, 80;
in Beolco’s plays, 80;
in the Renaissance, 133
Adami, Patricia, plays soubrette parts, i. 44;
in Paris, 162;
marries Agostino Lolli, 163
_Adamo, L’_, described, i. 254
Adelphi Theatre, Legrand plays at, i. 230
Æschylus, i. 9; ii. 53
Aigremont, Mlle d’, cantatrice, ii. 73
Alborghetti, pantaloon, i. 49
Alvarotto, Marco, Beolco’s letter to, i. 303;
plays Menego, ii. 101
_Amante Romanesque, L’_, scene from, ii. 152
_Amants Magnifiques, Les_, Louis XIV. plays in, ii. 83
Amelia, Martino d’, i. 25; ii. 256
_Amour des Trois Oranges, L’_, produced, i. 100
_Anconitana, La_, quotations from, i. 236; ii. 132
Andreini, Francesco, in Scala’s company, i. 37;
his career, 149;
as author, 150;
his preface to Scala’s collection, 240
Andreini, Giovanni-Battista, heads the Uniti Company, i. 89;
his birth, 149;
plays Lelio, 150;
biographical note of, 254;
his _L’Adamo_, 254;
his _Teatro Celeste_, 255;
other works by, 256
Andreini, Isabella, i. 38;
her marriage, 149;
plays Isabella, 162;
in France, 239;
her distinguished career, ii. 135
_Anfiparnasso, L’_, ii. 57
Angeleri, Giuseppe, plays Brighella, ii. 167
Apothecary, the, described, ii. 273
Apuleius quoted, i. 60
Argens, Marquis d’, on morals of actresses, i. 180
Argieri plays Pulcinella, i. 113
Aristophanes, i. 10
Arlecchino. _See_ Harlequin
Arlequine, i. 173
_Arlequin Esprit Follet_, i. 95
_Arlequino Proteo_, i. 164
_Arlequin Poli par l’Amour_ quoted, ii. 151
_Artémire Délivrée_ quoted, i. 97
Arzigogolo, scene of, ii. 97
_Asinaria_ contrasted with Beolco’s _La Vaccaria_, ii. 128
Atella, theatre at, i. 11
Atellanæ, comedies so called, i. 11;
licentious, 12;
the source of the Commedia dell’ Arte, 32, 107
Augustus I. of Poland and Angelo Constantini, ii. 192 _et seq._
_Aulularia_ quoted, ii. 18
Aulus Gellius on ancient masks, i. 16
Aurelia, i. 41;
described, ii. 139;
played by B. Bianchi, 140
Aurelio. _See_ B. Ranieri
_Avocat Pour et Contre, L’_, scene from, ii. 221
B
Babron, Mlle, cantatrice, ii. 73
Bacelli, La, cantatrice, ii. 70
Bagnacavallo, Lidia di, i. 35;
and A. Valerini, ii. 134
Baletti, Elena-Virginia, plays Flaminia, i. 149;
in _The Wiles of Isabella_, 242;
marries L. Riccoboni, 265;
her career, ii. 165
Baletti, Giuseppe, goes to France, i. 268;
married to La Dumalgé, ii. 86
Baletti, Luigi, plays Lelio, i. 50;
at the Théâtre-Italien, 272;
accidentally shot, 273
BALLERINA, THE, chapter on, ii. 75;
Gertrude Boon, Violente and Mlle Hamoche, 83;
La Camargo, 84;
La Dumalgé, 86
Ballets, scenario of _La Verità_, ii. 81;
Louis XIV. in, 82
Balli, Celesi, plays Pulcinella, i. 129
_Banqueroutier, Le_, scene from, i. 166
Barbançois plays Pulcinella, i. 113, 153
Barbera, La, success of, ii. 56
Barbieri, Niccolo, quoted, i. 152;
on Zeccha, 192;
on boys playing feminine rôles, ii. 78;
on Isabella Andreini, 136;
plays, 173;
his _Supplica_, 173 _et seq._
Baron, the, of Sicilian origin, i. 28;
a variant of Pantaloon, ii. 50
Bartolazzi, Margarita, i. 41;
in _La Finta Pazza_, ii. 157
Bastolet, Mlle, cantatrice, ii. 72
Bathyllus, mime of the first century, i. 19
Beaumarchais and Mlle Mesnard, ii. 70
Begot, Anne, wife of Tabarin, i. 162
Belloni plays Pierrot, i. 212
Beltrame, of Milanese origin, i. 29;
costume of, ii. 172;
played by Barbieri, 173
Benozzi, Giovanna-Rosa, plays Silvia, i. 49;
married to G. Baletti, 268;
presents her son to the public, 272;
her career, ii. 150;
in _Arlequin Poli_, etc., 151;
in _L’Amante Romanesque_, 152;
in _The Portrait_, 154;
her marriage, 155
Beolco, Angelo (Ruzzante), opens a career to Italian dialects, i. 26;
his _La Rhodiana_ quoted, 99;
Il Sitonno created by, 134;
names of his soubrettes, 161;
_La Vaccaria_ quoted, 235;
_L’Anconitana_ quoted, 236;
creates the modern theatre, 254;
dialogue of, 276;
chapter on, 279;
compared with his predecessors, 280;
his epitaph, 281;
his stage companions, 282;
his use of dialects, 283;
his realism, 286;
his letters, 287;
his times, 288;
dialogues quoted, 289 _et seq._;
his letter to Alvarotto, 303;
his methods, 308;
his works, 309;
characters introduced by, 311;
dialogue quoted, ii. 14;
women in his plays, 80;
dialogue of, 102;
_La Fiorina_ quoted, 121;
_La Piovana_ quoted, 163;
never licentious, 285 _f.n._
Bergerac, Cyrano de, boastfulness of, i. 145;
quoted, 146
Berneri, Giuseppe, poem by, on Meo Patacca, i. 129;
Marco Pepe, 132
Bertinazzi, Carlo, plays Harlequin, i. 49;
succeeds Thomassin, 88;
his début, 90;
his talents, 91;
his death, 93;
Collé’s criticism of, 94;
Grimm’s criticism of, 95
Bertoldino, _The Life of_, i. 183 _et seq._;
on the stage, 191
Bertoldo, _The Life of_, i. 183 _et seq._;
on the stage, 191
Bianchi, Brigida (Aurelia), i. 43, 44, 153;
goes to France, 257;
writes _L’Inganno Fortunato_, ii. 140
Bianchi, Giuseppe, plays Spezzafer, i. 153; ii. 140
Bianchi, Orsola, ii. 140
Biancolelli, Catarina, plays Columbine, i. 44, 67, 163;
her début, 164;
quotations from her rôles, 165 _et seq._;
in Paris, 173
Biancolelli, Françoise-Marie-Apolline, plays Isabelle, i. 67;
at the Comédie Italienne, ii. 141;
her marriage with M. de Turgis, 147;
pensioned, 150
Biancolelli, Giuseppe-Domenico (Domenico), Gherardi on, i. 77;
defect in his voice, 84;
melancholy character of, 91;
father of Catarina, 163;
Fournier on, 204;
married to Orsola Corteze, ii. 141
Biancolelli, Pierre-François, plays under name of Dominique, i. 68;
plays Trivelino, 98
Biancolelli, Teresa, plays Columbine, i. 49, 163
Biancolelli, Teresa (the younger), i. 163
Bibbiena, Cardinal of, his _La Calandra_, i. 280
Bigottini plays Harlequin, i. 95
Biologues, i. 90
Birrichino, rôle described, i. 134 _et seq._
Biscegliese, Il, of Neapolitan origin, i. 28;
described by Musset, ii. 38;
ejaculations of, 39;
costume of, 40;
in _Le Jettaturi_, 40
Bissoni, Giovanni, plays Scapino, i. 49;
career of, ii. 182
Bobèche, ii. 118
Boon, Gertrude, ballerina, ii. 83
Borromeo, Cardinal Charles, i. 238;
scenarii bearing his autograph, ii. 137
Bos, Abbé du, quoted, i. 13
Bosse, Abraham, plays Matamoros, i. 152
Boxwell, the English clown, i. 232
Brazier quoted, i. 196
Brighella, origin of, i. 27;
Bergamese, 28, 45;
contrasted with Harlequin, 64;
in Venice, ii. 17;
described, 161;
descended from Epidicus, 163;
costume of, 166;
played by Angeleri and Zanoni, 167;
witticisms of, 167
Brocantin, variant of Pantaloon, ii. 26
_Broken Contracts, The_, scenario of, ii. 287
Brosses, Président de, on improvisation, i. 32;
on Meo Patacca, 131;
on _La Serva Padrona_, ii. 54;
on Italian opera, 55;
on a performance at Verona, 61, 85
Bucco, i. 107;
character of, 108
Buffoon, etymology of, i. 19
Burattino, gives his name to marionettes, i. 21;
in Scala’s scenarii, 29;
and Pedrolino, 202;
in _The Wiles of Isabella_, 242 _et seq._;
character described, ii. 252;
and Pantaloon, 253
Burchiella, Lucio, plays the Doctor, ii. 31, 37
C
Cabotino, ii. 238
Cacasenno, _Life of_, i. 184 _et seq._;
on the stage, 191
_Calandra, La_, performed at Lyons, i. 33;
written, 286;
quoted, ii. 256
Calcese, Andrea, plays Pulcinella, i. 112
Callot, his _Les Petits Danseurs_, i. 27, 63;
engravings of Captains, 148;
of Scaramouche, ii. 207;
his engravings, 231, 235
Camargo, La, Ballerina, ii. 84
Camerani plays Scapino, ii. 183
Camille. _See_ Antonia Veronese
CANTATRICE, THE, i. 28;
Elizabeth Danneret, 45;
chapter on, ii. 52;
some early singers, 56;
rôle of, 59;
Mlle Chantilly, 62;
Deamicis, 66;
La Piccinelli, 67;
Mlle Collet, 69;
La Colomba, 69;
Bacelli, Zanarini, Mesnard and Ruette, 70;
others, 72 and 73