The History of the Harlequinade

THE HISTORY OF THE HAR LE Q U I N AD E BY MAURIC E SAND AV LONDON : MARTI N S ECKE R NUMBER FIVE JOHN STREET ADELPHI C ONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION HARLEQUIN POLICHINELLE THE CAPTAIN COLUMBINE PIERROT LELIO RUZZANTE L IST OF IL L USTRAT IONS HARLEQUIN F ACI NG PAGE HAR LEQUIN POLICHINELLE THE CAPTAIN LELIO RUZZANTE THE HISTORY OF THE H A R LE Q U I N A D E INTRODUCTION THE mi comic actor first me , or rather the first , was he who leapt upon a bench or table to delight the assembly by his Im singing , his dancing or his relation of an amusing story . rovisa ion p t prompted all such early attempts . Some of these primitive comedians assemble in Icaria under di Susarion the rection of , who gives a form and a sequence to bufiooneries il hs their , and they set out to tra their boot and chariots through the cities of Greece (800 h un They represent a slave wit shaven head, a dr kard un rubic d of face, brutalised by libations , an obese glutton , e who tumbles incessantly . Soon comic poets , such as Magn s , a Tim ocreon e Ach eus and , conceive for them p rformances cordaces m mingled with comic dances (termed ) and panto imes . a h 61 Thespis , born in Icari , sets up a t eatre , assigns r es to his e mimes , dresses them grotesquely, parad s them in chariots , wi h their faces smeared t dregs or soot, and sets about m wi presenting little dramas and comedies ingled th music . u He detaches from the chor s an individual , assigns to him r 1e E sch l a 6 and thus creates the corypheus. y us the 393 Athenian ( adds a second one . Thenceforward no comic or tragic performances are given without music . 9 THE HISTORY OF THE HARLEQUINADE In Athens and in Sparta Charlatans set up their trestles in s r public places, and by mean of thei displays attract a crowd , to whom they then proceed to sell their unguents (400 hi u Here we behold among others a t eving rog e , or a foreign doctor who Speaks a ridiculous dialect . Whilst Aristophanes is performing his comedies in the great theatre , the streets of Athens are encumbered by - diviners , sorcerers , fortune tellers , jugglers , equilibrists , rope dancers and prestidigitators , amongst whom are cited Eur clid es Theodorus and y . ui In the theatre we behold eq librist performances , such l - - inflate d as the leap on that ear iest of spring boards , the air goatskin . From these performances were derived the rope schcm obates acrobates dancers, called by the Greeks and , and L ' unambulz . later , by the atins, f fin d etholo ues Among the Greek actors we several classes , the g , as famous in Magna Gr cia and in Alexandria , who display biolo ues the lowest and most corrupt of manners ; the g , who portray and parody the personages of their day ; the cinedolo ues sim odes l siodes r Susim g , also called and y , f om of L Magnesia and ysis , the authors of their pieces , who perform hilarodes hi and utter Obscenities ; the , dressed in w te , shod with sandals and wearing golden crowns on their heads , who act and sing to the accompaniment of string instruments ; ha llo hores ul s and the p p , a name f ly ju tified by a part of their costume , as is to be seen in all the monuments that have i ia r . S c on hallic su vived At y , where the p choirs and the scenes e isodes called p are more ancient than in Athens , the actors al h preserve this name of ph lop ores. L hallo hore ater this Sicyonian p p , his countenance blackened 10 INTRODUCTION with soot or concealed under a papyrus mask , is transformed into a pla ni in Rome and becomes in the sixteenth century Ber am ese the g Harlequin . All these actors performing on the orchestra very close to the spectators found it unnecessary to increase their height by s the aid of the bu kin with elevated heels . They played without masks , their countenances merely smeared in various colours din hi accor g to the types w ch they represented . Women , too , the performed on orchestra , singing , miming and moving in did hi the pieces that duty as interludes , much after the fas on c of our modern a tresses . These female mim! passed from the Doric countries into as Sicily and Magna Gr cia , and finally found their way to Rome . E us The tr cans were , in the art of the theatre as in many other things, the preceptors of the Romans . Having long been in communication with the Greeks they possessed stone R theatres such as that at Tusculum , long before the omans had 442 so much as wooden booths . In the year the youth of di i L v Rome stu ed Oscan literature , accord ng to Titus i y , much his as in own time it devoted itself to the study of Greek letters . ' - Between Naples and Capua , Atella (to day Aversa) was one of the first ancient cities to possess a theatre , and above all a particular style of comedy thus she gave the name of Atellanae di h to the first comedies performed in Rome , come es w ich derived largely fr om the satirical and bufioon pieces of the Greeks . w s These comedies , interlarded ith dancing, inging and scenario pantomime , in which the actors improvised upon a , ul or agreed subject , were f l of pleasantries and quips , and 11 THE HISTORY OF THE HARLEQUINAD E ui S atm'w u they very q ckly eclipsed the , the indigeno s and national comedies of Rome . The Roman youth appropriated this style of piece and the Atellanae right to perform it . The actors of the alone enjoyed exemptions and liberties without limit . Later these pieces Atellanae became licentious and obscene , and the name of was given to all those which were written in a ribald style . They ' were also called exodzce from the custom of playing them after other pieces or at the end of the spectacle . They were per on formed the orchestra under the proscenium, hence the name ' ’ ’ com cedzae lam edzw i of p p , because the actors d spensed with i wi s buskins . They d spensed also th those enormou masks termed persome . ' tabernamw The comedies , the subjects for which were drawn f f rom the lower orders and from tavern li e , were sometimes ’ played in the same manner as the planipedcw ; this was also to atce hi the the case with the g , in w ch actors appeared arrayed The other styles of comedy were designated variously as — a follows mixed comedies , p rtly developed in Speech , partly The Eunuch Mot iaa in mimetic action , such as of Terence ; or di hi The Am hitr on come es , in w ch all was action , such as p y Palliataa d hi of Plautus ; come ies , in w ch the subject, the the Praatextatw d characters and costumes were Greek ; come ies , in which the subject and the characters were drawn from the nobility ; Latina; or comic-lachrymose comedies invented by Rhinthonus f S tatamfaz di hi h , a bu foon of Tarentum ; come es , w c contained a great deal of dialogue and little pantomime , such Asinariw of Hec as the Plautus and the ym of Terence . In the performance of some pieces theatrical declamation 12 INTRODUCTION d a was share between two ctors , one of whom spoke whilst the du his other gesticulated . The Abbé Bos in critical reflections upon poetry and paintin g offers the following explanation h s u on L of t is , ba ed p the writings of Titus ivy L s ivius Andronicu , a celebrated poet who lived in Rome some five hundred and fourteen years after its foundation and r h m some sixty yea s after the opening there of theatres , i self his performed in one of pieces . It was then the custom for h dramatic poets to show t emselves upon the stage, there to take The part in their own works . people, who took the liberty still taken to - day in France and Italy to demand the repetition of a w hi bis pass ges ith w ch they were pleased , by dint of crying caused the poor Andronicus to recite so long that he grew hoarse . Out of all condition to continue to declaim , he induced his audience to consent that a slave placed in front of the r h l instrumental performer should recite the ph ases , and , w i st t ur the slave reci ed , Andronicus went through the same gest es hi h w ch he had made when reciting imself . It was observed then that his action was very much more animated because he all employed his energies in gesticulation , whilst another was us di entr ted with the labour of enunciation hence , accor ng to L d Titus ivy , was born the custom of ividing the declamation between two actors , and of reciting , as it were , to the rhythm r di of the gestu es of the come an . c . C Of all the Roman spe tacles , says M harles Magnin , none was more appreciated than pantomime it became even peculiar to this people to whom the masterpieces of the Greek ’3 s ui tragedie were foreign .

Load more