Commedia dell'Arte

Commedia dell'Arte, name usually given to the popular Italian improvised comedy first recorded in 1545, which flourished from the 16th to the early 18th centuries. Other names for it are commedia a soggetto, because it was acted in accordance with a scenario or pre-arranged synopsis; all'improvviso, because the actors made up their speeches as they went along; dei zanni, from the comic servants who provided most of the humour; dei maschere, because most of the actors wore masks; and all'italiana, because it came from Italy. Dell'arte, the only phrase to survive in general use, means roughly ‘of the profession’, the actors being trained professionals. To distinguish it from this popular theatre, the written Italian drama of this time was known as the commedia erudita.

The chief companies of the commedia dell'arte in the 16th century were the Gelosi, with the Andreini family as their mainstay; the Desiosi, sometimes including Tristano Martinelli; the Confidenti; and the Uniti, under Drusiano Martinelli. The next generation carried on the tradition in the competing groups of the second Confidenti; the Accesi; and the Fedeli, under the younger Andreini known as Lelio.

Of the early patrons of the commedia dell'arte the Court of the Gonzaga at Mantua was the most important, followed in the latter part of the 16th century by the Courts of Modena and Parma. The companies soon took to the road, and in the 1570s Ganassa was already leading a company in Spain, followed there a decade later by the Martinelli brothers. One of these, Drusiano, is the first Italian comedian known to have appeared in England (in 1577–8), and a troupe performed at the English Court in 1602. The proximity of London to Paris, where a permanent Italian company was already settled when Molière arrived in 1658, meant that visits could easily be made. When the Comédie-Italienne, as the troupe was called after 1680, was banished from Paris in 1697, some of the players may have come to England, but seem to have had no direct influence on the English theatre.

In a commedia dell'arte company each member had his or her own character or ‘mask’ and played nothing else, though the player of a youthful part might later graduate to an elderly one. The chief masks were adapted to suit successive generations of players, but the basic characteristics of each remained unaltered. The young lovers, whose desire for marriage and its constant thwarting by their elders supplied in general the plot of the play, did not wear masks. In league against them were the old men, fathers or guardians, of whom the most important was the Venetian Pantalone (later the English Pantaloon), while the favourite mask for the second old man was the Bolognese lawyer, the Dottore, usually known as Graziano. An independent role, though he could be a rival for the hand of the young girl, was the braggart Capitano, a satire on alien soldiers and mercenaries currently occupying the country. Round these revolved the numerous servants who helped or hindered the lovers—the zanni. It was they who gave the commedia dell'arte its characteristic flavour and under various names have infiltrated the literature and theatre of the whole of Western Europe. They took over the functions of the slaves of classical comedy, discharging them with the physical skill of acrobats and the impudence of their immediate prototypes, the facchini or odd-job men who lounged about the piazza. Greed, shrewdness, and a love of mischief for its own sake were their outstanding characteristics, added to fertility of invention, an eye to the main chance, and a deep-rooted instinct for survival. Some of the lesser masks displayed a bovine stupidity which provided an amusing contrast to the quick wit of their companions, and all found infinite possibilities for surprise and twists of fortune in the burla, or practical joke, and the smaller piece of business known as a lazzo which formed the best part of their stock-in-trade. Not all the zanni survived, but among those that handed on their masks and are still remembered—often by other names—are Arlecchino (Harlequin), Pedrolino (Pierrot), and Pulcinella (Punch); the only female servant to have survived is Colombina (Columbine), originally an attendant on the leading lady. The French theatre adopted the masks of Mezzetino (Mezzetin), Pasquino (Pasquin), Scapino (Scapin), and Scaramuccia (Scaramouche), the last having originally something of the braggart soldier; and from a compound of other masks now forgotten, France created its own inimitable Crispin.

The average company consisted of 12 to 15 members under an acknowledged leader, though other outstanding performers carried considerable weight, particularly in choice of scenario and methods of staging, the latter varying according to the status of the company and the nature of the place where they were to play. The smaller travelling troupes carried portable equipment which included basic props, costumes, and canvas scenery, and a platform stage for erection in such playing areas—open spaces and public squares—as opportunity offered. When set up the stage would be at about head-height to standing spectators, the players performing before a painted canvas backcloth on which was usually depicted the traditional comic scene of a piazza or street with houses. For more prosperous companies, who could expect to rent a hall or theatre—as the Andreini did in Paris—a similar background could be provided by portable wings. Some companies at the highest level might be accommodated in their patron's private theatre when not on the road, and have at their disposal the most sophisticated scenic equipment. Although the essence of the Italian style was improvisation, a skeleton plot, with indications of possible tricks and cues for music and dance, helped to ensure that the basic story developed in a way which would lead to the desired denouement. Successful extemporizing depended on the players' innate theatrical sense, their ability to supply and readily pick up cues, and a constant awareness of audience response. Although actors always played the same part, the details of it could vary enormously; preparation for it, even after years of experience, entailed study, including the accumulation of relevant material from any accessible sources, particularly the zibaldoni or commonplace books which contained speeches suitable for all occasions; the acrobatic and other spectacular comic scenes demanded constant testing and rehearsing. A number of collections of such skeleton plots survive, of which Flaminio Scala's Teatro (1611) is perhaps the most unusual. Other scenarios exist in manuscript in many Italian libraries, in Paris, and in Leningrad. In the larger collections farce, with some comedy, forms the largest part; much is drawn at second or third hand from classical and neo-classical plays; and in the 17th century the taste for Spanish drama (see comedia) opened the way for a larger proportion of melodramatic and sentimental plots. Pastorals with a strong infusion of buffoonery were also evidently popular.

By the 18th century the vitality of the commedia dell'arte was beginning to flag. France had absorbed much of it into her own drama, the German-speaking countries had drawn on it for their own clowns, among them Hanswurst, and general decadence had set in. In an attempt to revive the splendour of the old days Goldoni substituted a written text for improvisation. His contemporary and rival Gozzi preferred to use the old masks and methods and with him the commedia dell'arte made a good end. Improvisation soon became a lost art and actors were no longer expected to be acrobats, dancers, and singers. Something of the tradition lingered on in puppet-shows, in mask names, and in the English harlequinade. Commedia dell'arte skills, even though no longer practised, remain a vital force in the modern theatre, which with Collective Creation is turning to a new form of improvisation.