The Captain uses bravado and excessive shows of manliness to hide his true cowardly nature. Engraving by Abraham Bosse. (wiki2.org)
The Old Men: the Vecchi
The video inserted in Comments on “Monsieur de Pourceaugnac”, was about zanniin the commedia dell’arte. Zanni range from astute servants, confidantes, and laquais to unscrupuloustricksters: Sbrigani. But the video inserted below is about old men, called vecchi (a vecchio). They stand in the way of the innamorati‘s marriage. The innamorati are the commedia dell’arte‘s young lovers.
Among vecchi, we have the pedant or doctor (Il Dottore), the captain (Il Capitano), the miserly Pantalone, the miles gloriosus, (the braggart soldier and fanfaron, and the vecchio (the senex iratus [the angry old man]) Roman dramatist Plautus wrote Miles Gloriosus. Miles Gloriosus finds its origins in a lost Greek play entitled Alazṓn. The alazṓn is the name now given characters opposing the marriage of comedy’s young lovers. Characters supporting the young lovers or the eirôn. The word irony is derived from eirôn (see eirôn, wiki2.org).
In general the vecchi are portrayed as selfish, and quite prone to committing any and all of the seven deadly sins (lust, sloth, greed, pride, wrath, gluttony, envy.)
This mixed-media depiction of Harlequin, by Russian artist Kasyan Yaroslavovitch Golejzovsky, was sold at an auction, in Düsseldorf, Germany, on 9 November 2017. I congratulate its owners. I love this work of art for many reasons. For instance, movement is beautifully expressed. Would that I had the money to bid and buy at auctions. However, I visit, if only to see beautiful objects.
Harlequin is a zanno (zanni), a comic servant, who was introduced into the Commedia dell’arte by 17th – century actor – manager Zan Ganassa (c. 1540 – c. 1584): Zan (=zanni) Ganassa. Commedia dell’ arte actors were professionals. They were provided with an outline of the comedy (called a canevas in French), where they played a role, always the same role, which they improvised. The Italians travelled to other countries. Ganassa was in Spain from 1574 to 1584. Paris had its Comédie-Italienne, and Harlequin was in 18th – century London.
In the commedia erudita, however, actors used a script written by a playwright. Ben Johnson, Shakespeare, Molière and dramatists preceding them often drew their material from Plautus (254 BCE [Sarsinia, Umbria, Italy] – BCE 154)[1]and Terence (195 BCE [Carthage, current Tunisia] – 159 BCE [Greece or at sea]).[2] Roman dramatists Plautus and Terence wrote in Latin, but the vernacular, early forms of Italian, was also used by actors. However, Plautus and Terence, found their inspiration in Greek New Comedy (320 BCE to the mid 3rd century BCE), from which they also borrowed. Molière‘s Miser (1668) is rooted in Plautus’ Aulularia.
Harlequin is perhaps the best-known of the commedia dell’arte’s zanni and one of its most celebrated characters. Harlequin always wears a costume. It is part of the mask, but behind the mask there is a man, or a woman. Until the creation of Pierrot, drawn from both pantomimes and the commedia dell’arte, the stock characters of the commediadell’arte seemed what they appeared.
However, Pierrot, created in late 17th – century France, by the Parisian Comédie-Italienne, is a sad clown, a mask wearing a mask. He entertains an audience, but he loves Columbina who loves Harlequin. This is love’s triangle, an impossible love that may feed on jealousy. As the 17thcentury drew to a close in France, Madame de la Fayette[3] published La Princesse de Clèves, in which her heroine will not marry Monsieur de Nemours for fear he will stop loving her once his love is reciprocated. Jean Racine‘s Phèdrefails to save Hippolyte, whom she has falsely accused of trying to seduce her, when she learns Hippolyte claims to love Aricie. La Princesse de Clèveswas published in 1678, the year after Phèdre was first performed.
The Duel after the Masquerade by Jean-Léon Gérôme (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In this respect, he is perhaps the most enigmatic character of the commedia dell’arte, and the most human. Jealous love finds its best expression in a novel by Madame de La Fayette,La Princesse de Clèves(1678). But Molière’s Arnolphe, the blocking-character in The School for Wives, L’École des femmes, is jealous. The Gelosi (jealous) were also a commedia dell’ arte troupe, but jealous love is not associated with the Gelosi. In Britannica, we read that:
“The name was derived from the troupe’s motto, Virtù, fama ed honor ne fèr gelosi. (“We are jealous of attaining virtue, fame and honour”).[4]
Commedia dell’arte troupe, probably depicting Isabella Andreini and the Compagnia dei Gelosi, oil … CFL—Giraudon/Art Resource, New York (Photo credit: Britannica)
Pantalone 1550 by Maurice Sand[i] (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Pantalone: a Blocking Character or Alazôn
the alazôn
an improvised comedy
the zanni
the sketch (canevas)
Featured above is Maurice Sand‘s depiction of Pantalone. Maurice Sand was the son of French writer George Sand (1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), and of the baron Dudevant.
An Alazôn, or blocking character
Pantalone is one of the stock characters of the commedia dell’arte, an “improvised” form of theatrical performance originating in 16th-century Italy, or what is now Italy. He is an alazôn, one of the characters who oppose the marriage of the innamorati, the young lovers.
With the assistance of very astute and entertaining servants, called zanni, the innamorati fool Pantalone. The plot is therefore consistent with that of comedies. The young lovers overcome obstacles to their marriage. So Pantalone and his fellow blocking characters share the same function, or role, but the role may be played by another actor or mask.
In other words, Pantalone, or Pantaloon, wears a mask and is a mask. The commedia dell’arte is akin to the masquerades of carnivals,[ii] except that it is not associated with a season. Pantalone’s role, his mask, his function, is the same from performance to performance, but there are other blocking characters whose personality is different.
Costume: Money
Pantalone is dressed as Pantalone and his costume is part of his mask. It is always the same and he looks like a hunchback. However, he is not Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831). He is a hunchback because of the bag of money he conceals. Pantalone is lustful, jealous, deceitful, selfish, lazy, full of himself (“Il Magnifico”), but, above all, greedy.
Pantalone is the metaphorical representation of money in the commedia world. (See Pantalone, Wikipedia.)
Yet he is Pantalone “di bisognosi” (besoin, the needy).
Other than his hunch, Pantalone wears a red cap, red tights, yellow Turkish[ii]slippers, a short vest and a long coat.
Position
Pantalone has his own way of walking: hips forward, and he sometimes requires assistance from other actors as he tends to fumble. He is old, a genuine senex or vecche, a consummate “trickster,” often cruel, but always a loser. The innamorati end up marrying. He does not have a wife, but he and Il Dottore may be the guardian of a young woman.
As noted above, Pantalone’s function as blocking character, or alazôn, can be filled by another alazôn. The most prominent are Il Dottoreand Il Capitano. The dottore is a pedant sometimes called Gratiano. He is not necessarily a physician. He may be a professor or a lawyer, but, whoever he is, he makes grammatical errors or otherwise disgraces himself. As for Il Capitano, he is a braggart soldier borrowed from Plautus‘ Miles gloriosus.
Although it is improvised, i.e. there is no complete written text, commedia dell’arte borrows from the commedia erudita of ancient Rome: Plautus (c. 254 – 184 BCE) and Terence 195/185–159 BCE). For instance, Il Capitano, a braggart soldier, is Plautus‘ Miles gloriosus. He is a fanfaron and may have other names, but he is always boasting, listing feats that no one could accomplish in three lifetimes. However, contrary to the commedia erudita, the actors of the commedia dell’arte are professionals.
As a fanfaron, Il Capitano is all too human and has found his way into many comedies. Interestingly, he can be linked with the mythic Don Juan. He is Tirso de Molina‘s ElBurlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra (The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest) (c. 1616 – 1630), Molière’s Dom Juan (1660) and Mozart’s Don Giovanni (1787). Molière’s Dom Juan is a “grand seigneur méchant homme” (a great lord, but a man of evil) who will in the end be hit by a ghost. Dom Juan, however, is less a seducer than he is an accountant. He keeps a catalogue of the women he has seduced: his conquests. Il Capitano is different from Pantalone, but his function is to put obstacles in the way of the young couple.
Molière borrowed his Miser (L’Avare; 1668) fromPlautus‘ Aulularia. Although Molière’s theatre includes farces and farcical elements, Molière’s miser, Harpagon, is not a farcical figure.L’Avare is one of Molière’s “grandes comédies.” Molière, however, was extremely fond of the commedia dell’arte.
The plot of Molière’s plays is the archetypal the-young-man-fools-the-old-man, or “le blondin berne le barbon.” In other words, the innamorati are always victorious. We have accounts of the commedia dell’arte, but as noted above, no complete text. Molière, on the other hand, wrote his plays, or most of his plays, which does not preclude a degree of improvisation on the part of members of his troupe, or company. I would love to have seen him play Monsieur Jourdain.
I will continue discussing the commedia dell’arte, but in short simple posts.
[i] Jean-François-Maurice-Arnauld, Baron Dudevant, better known as Maurice Sand.
[ii] The Carnival season begins with Epiphany and ends on Mardi-Gras (Shrove Tuesday). It resembles the Roman Saturnalia.
[iii] You may recall that Byzantium was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1453. Greek scholars fled carrying their books. Their presence in Italy, or Italian city-states, led to the Renaissance.
[vi] The second date refers to the year the play was written, or the book, first published.
