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 zanni in the commedia dell’arte. Zanni range from astute servants, confidantes, and laquais to unscrupulous tricksters: 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.)

I am quoting Google’s The characters: the vecchi. One may also visit Micke Kingvall’s Posts. Micke’s posts deal with the commedia dell’arte, which includes “vulgar comedy,” the term used in Comments on “Monsieur de Pourceaugnac”.

Wikipedia now uses videos. I like it.

Sources and Resources

The characters: the vecchi (Google)
Micke Kingvall’s Posts

Love to everyone 💕

Monsieur de Pourceaugnac par Adolphe Lalauze (theatre-documentation.com)

© Micheline Walker
3 February 2020
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