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Pedrolino
Pedrolino is a ''primo zanni'', or comic servant, of the ''Commedia dell'Arte''; the name is a hypocorism of ''Pedro'' (Peter), via the suffix ''-lino''. The character made its first appearance in the last quarter of the 16th century, apparently as the invention of the actor with whom the role was to be long identified, Giovanni Pellesini. Contemporary illustrations suggest that his white blouse and trousers constituted "a variant of the typical ''zanni'' suit", and his Bergamasque dialect marked him as a member of the "low" rustic class. But if his costume and social station were without distinction, his dramatic role was certainly not: as a multifaceted "first" ''zanni'', his character was—and still is—rich in comic incongruities. Many Commedia historians make a connection between the Italian Pedrolino and the later Pierrot of the French Comédie-Italienne, and, although a link between the two is possible, it remains unproven and seems unlikely, based on the scan ...
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Pedrolino And The Doctor In 1621 Woodcut
Pedrolino is a ''primo zanni'', or comic servant, of the ''Commedia dell'Arte''; the name is a hypocorism of ''Pedro'' (Peter), via the suffix ''-lino''. The character made its first appearance in the last quarter of the 16th century, apparently as the invention of the actor with whom the role was to be long identified, Giovanni Pellesini. Contemporary illustrations suggest that his white blouse and trousers constituted "a variant of the typical ''zanni'' suit", and his Bergamasque dialect marked him as a member of the "low" rustic class. But if his costume and social station were without distinction, his dramatic role was certainly not: as a multifaceted "first" ''zanni'', his character was—and still is—rich in comic incongruities. Many Commedia historians make a connection between the Italian Pedrolino and the later Pierrot of the French Comédie-Italienne, and, although a link between the two is possible, it remains unproven and seems unlikely, based on the scant ...
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Pierrot
Pierrot ( , , ) is a stock character of pantomime and '' commedia dell'arte'', whose origins are in the late seventeenth-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne. The name is a diminutive of ''Pierre'' (Peter), via the suffix '' -ot.'' His character in contemporary popular culture — in poetry, fiction, and the visual arts, as well as works for the stage, screen, and concert hall — is that of the sad clown, often pining for love of Columbine, who usually breaks his heart and leaves him for Harlequin. Performing unmasked, with a whitened face, he wears a loose white blouse with large buttons and wide white pantaloons. Sometimes he appears with a frilled collaret and a hat, usually with a close-fitting crown and wide round brim and, more rarely, with a conical shape like a dunce's cap. Pierrot's character developed from being a buffoon to an avatar of the disenfranchised. Many cultural movements found him amenable to their res ...
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Commedia Dell'Arte
(; ; ) was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is also known as , , and . Characterized by masked "types", was responsible for the rise of actresses such as Isabella Andreini and improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios. A , such as ''The Tooth Puller'', is both scripted and improvised. Characters' entrances and exits are scripted. A special characteristic of is the , a joke or "something foolish or witty", usually well known to the performers and to some extent a scripted routine. Another characteristic of is pantomime, which is mostly used by the character Arlecchino, now better known as Harlequin. The characters of the usually represent fixed social types and stock characters, such as foolish old men, devious servants, or military officers full of false bravado. The characters are exaggerated "r ...
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Burratino
Burattino, also Burrattino or Burratino, is a minor '' commedia dell'arte'' character of the zanni (or second zanni) class. Name In Italian burattino means " puppet", although it is not clear whether the ''commedia dell'arte'' character was called Burattino because he moved like a puppet or puppets acquired the name because of Burattino. Though only mildly popular on the stage, he found his real fame in the marionette theater. According to Pierre-Louis Duchartre, the puppet named Burattino became so popular in Italy, that "by the end of the sixteenth century, all marionettes operated by strings and a wire were called ''burattini'', instead of'' bagatelli'' or ''fantoccini'', as they had been known up to that time." Today, the Italian word ''burattino'' can also refer to a hand puppet. Duchartre also reproduces two illustrations from 1594 with Burattino, in which he wears a costume similar to Zani's but with a characteristic flat round hat. Tommaso Garzoni (1549–1589) associ ...
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Arlecchino
Harlequin (; it, Arlecchino ; lmo, Arlechin, Bergamasque pronunciation ) is the best-known of the ''zanni'' or comic servant characters from the Italian ''commedia dell'arte'', associated with the city of Bergamo. The role is traditionally believed to have been introduced by Zan Ganassa in the late 16th century, was definitively popularized by the Italian actor Tristano Martinelli in Paris in 1584–1585, and became a stock character after Martinelli's death in 1630. The Harlequin is characterized by his checkered costume. His role is that of a light-hearted, nimble, and astute servant, often acting to thwart the plans of his master, and pursuing his own love interest, Columbina, with wit and resourcefulness, often competing with the sterner and melancholic Pierrot. He later develops into a prototype of the romantic hero. Harlequin inherits his physical agility and his trickster qualities, as well as his name, from a mischievous "devil" character in medieval passion pl ...
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Zanni
Zanni (), Zani or Zane is a character type of commedia dell'arte best known as an astute servant and a trickster. The Zanni comes from the countryside and is known to be a "dispossessed immigrant worker".Rudlin, John. ''Commedia dell'arte: An Actors Handbook''. London: Routledge, 1994. 67. Print."Immigrant" in Italy at the time of the city-states did not mean someone from outside of Italy but rather someone from outside the city, an itinerant worker. Through time, the Zanni grew to be a popular figure who was first seen in ''commedia'' as early as the 14th century. The English word ''zany'' derives from this person. The longer the nose on the characters mask the more foolish the character. Origin of the name The name ''Zanni'' (as well as ''Zuan'') is a variant of the name ''Gianni'' and was common in the Lombard-Venetian countryside which provided most of the servants to the wealthy nobles and merchants of Venice. In Italian it is specifically a name of someone whose identity i ...
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Zanni Class Characters
Zanni (), Zani or Zane is a character type of commedia dell'arte best known as an astute servant and a trickster. The Zanni comes from the countryside and is known to be a "dispossessed immigrant worker".Rudlin, John. ''Commedia dell'arte: An Actors Handbook''. London: Routledge, 1994. 67. Print."Immigrant" in Italy at the time of the city-states did not mean someone from outside of Italy but rather someone from outside the city, an itinerant worker. Through time, the Zanni grew to be a popular figure who was first seen in ''commedia'' as early as the 14th century. The English word ''zany'' derives from this person. The longer the nose on the characters mask the more foolish the character. Origin of the name The name ''Zanni'' (as well as ''Zuan'') is a variant of the name ''Gianni'' and was common in the Lombard-Venetian countryside which provided most of the servants to the wealthy nobles and merchants of Venice. In Italian it is specifically a name of someone whose identity ...
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Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world literature. His extant works include comedies, farces, tragicomedies, comédie-ballets, and more. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed at the Comédie-Française more often than those of any other playwright today. His influence is such that the French language is often referred to as the "language of Molière". Born into a prosperous family and having studied at the Collège de Clermont (now Lycée Louis-le-Grand), Molière was well suited to begin a life in the theatre. Thirteen years as an itinerant actor helped him polish his comedic abilities while he began writing, combining Commedia dell'arte elements with the more refined French comedy. Through the patronage of aristocrats includi ...
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Dom Juan
''Dom Juan ou le Festin de pierre'' ("Don Juan or The Feast of the Stone tatue) is a five-act 1665 comedy by Molière based upon the Spanish legend of Don Juan Tenorio. The aristocrat Dom Juan is a rake who seduces, marries, and abandons Elvira, discarded as just another romantic conquest. Later, he invites to dinner the statue of a man whom he recently had murdered; the statue accepts and reciprocates Dom Juan's invitation. In the course of their second evening, the stone statue of the murdered man charms, deceives, and leads Dom Juan to Hell. Molière's comedy derives from the Spanish play '' The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest'' (1630), by Tirso de Molina, but each playwright presents a different interpretation of the libertine protagonist. Molière's Dom Juan is a French man who admits to being an atheist and a free-thinker; whereas, de Molina's Don Juan is a Spanish man who admits to being Catholic, and believes that repentance for and forgiveness of sin are po ...
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Jean-François Regnard
Jean-François Regnard (7 February 1655 – 4 September 1709), "the most distinguished, after Molière, of the comic poets of the seventeenth century", was a dramatist, born in Paris, who is equally famous now for the travel diary he kept of a voyage in 1681. Regnard inherited a fortune from his father, a successful merchant who had given him an excellent classical education; he then increased it, he affirms, by gambling. He took to traveling, and on a return voyage from Italy in 1678 was at the age of twenty-two captured by an Algerian pirate, sold as a slave in Algiers and taken to Constantinople, where the French consul paid ransom for his release. He went on traveling, undaunted. His ''Voyage de Flandre et de Hollande, commencé le 26 avril 1681.'' reporting his trip through the Low Countries, Denmark and Sweden, where he dallied at the courts of Christian V and Charles XI and then north to Lapland, returning through Poland, Hungary and Germany to France, is mined by socia ...
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Nicoll, Allardyce
John Ramsay Allardyce Nicoll (28 June 1894 – 17 April 1976) was a British literary scholar and teacher. Allardyce Nicoll was born in Partick, Glasgow, and educated at Stirling High School and the University of Glasgow, where he was the G. A. Clark scholar in English. He became a lecturer at King's College London in 1920 and took the chair of English at East London College (later Queen Mary's College) in 1923. In 1933 he went to Yale University as professor of the history of drama and dramatic criticism and chair of the drama department. He established a strong graduate programme in theatre history. Around 1943–45 he performed war work at the British embassy in Washington. From 1945 to 1961 he headed the English Department at the University of Birmingham; from 1951 to 1961 he was also founding director of the Shakespeare Institute at Birmingham. He served as president of the Society for Theatre Research from 1958 to 1976. Research His major work was his six-volume ''Histor ...
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Eustache Le Noble
Eustache Le Noble ( Troyes, 1643 – Paris, 31 January 1711) was a 17th-century French playwright and writer. An attorney General at the Parlement of Metz, Le Noble led a dissipated life and after he had been condemned for having manufactured false acts, he was jailed at the Conciergerie where he fell in love with Gabrielle Perreau, la Belle Épicière, who was also imprisoned. Having found a way to get away with her, in order to make a living, he published satirical dialogues about the time topics, in which Bayle found "infinite wit and reading." The prose is clear, incisive, and frequently cut with verses which are not without merit. Le Noble's complete works were published in Paris, 1718, 20 vol. in-12. ''Le Gage touché'', ''Ildegerte, reyne de Norvège'', ''Zulima'' and ''La Fausse Comtesse d’Isamberg'' have been reprinted by in 1980. Sources * Gustave Vapereau Louis Gustave Vapereau (4 April 1819 – 18 April 1906) was a French writer and lexicographer famous prima ...
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