Dottore, II

The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre | 1996 | 700+ words | Copyright

Dottore, II, second elderly character of the commedia dell'arte, forming a pair with Pantalone. He was usually depicted as a Bolognese lawyer named Graziano, given to long expositions and pedantic utterances which in the coarser playing of the character lapsed into spropositi (exaggerations) and nonsensical tongue-twisters, the original use of local dialect giving way to the habit of ‘saying everything the wrong way round’. He was distinct from the stage pedant, who belonged to the commedia erudita, but they had many characteristics in common and were later often confounded by foreigners. Unlike Pantalone, whom he resembled in his greed, gullibility, and amorous pretensions, he did not pass into the English harlequinade, but he was adopted on to the French stage through the plays of Molière.

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PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Dottore, II." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Dottore, II." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-DottoreII.html

PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Dottore, II." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-DottoreII.html

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