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FLORE Repository istituzionale dell'Università degli Studi di Firenze La pagina e la scena. L’attore inglese nella trattatistica del '700 Questa è la Versione finale referata (Post print/Accepted manuscript) della seguente pubblicazione: Original Citation: La pagina e la scena. L’attore inglese nella trattatistica del '700 / M.BARBIERI. - STAMPA. - (2006), pp. 1-352. Availability: This version is available at: 2158/319887 since: Publisher: Le Lettere Terms of use: Open Access La pubblicazione è resa disponibile sotto le norme e i termini della licenza di deposito, secondo quanto stabilito dalla Policy per l'accesso aperto dell'Università degli Studi di Firenze (https://www.sba.unifi.it/upload/policy-oa-2016-1.pdf) Publisher copyright claim: (Article begins on next page) 06 October 2021 STORIA DELLO SPETTACOLO Collana diretta da Siro Ferrone FONTI 7 Maria Chiara Barbieri La pagina e la scena L’attore inglese nella trattatistica del ’700 Prefazione di Cesare Molinari Casa Editrice Le Lettere In copertina: Jean-Louis Faesch, David Garrick nella parte di Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing di William Shakespeare, 1770 ca. Acquerello conservato a Londra, Theatre Museum, Enthoven Collection. L’opera è frutto delle ricerche svolte presso il Dipartimento di Storia delle Arti e dello Spet- tacolo dell’Università degli Studi di Firenze e beneficia di un contributo del MURST – Pro- getto di ricerca di interesse nazionale diretto da Siro Ferrone. Il mio più sentito ringraziamento va a coloro che a vario titolo, in misura e maniera diverse, mi hanno aiutata e sostenuta. In particolare, desidero ringraziare il Prof. Cesare Molinari per avermi incoraggiata e per aver seguito le varie fasi del lavoro, e il Prof. Siro Ferrone per aver accolto questo libro nella collana da lui diretta. Ringrazio inoltre la Prof.ssa Maria Ines Ali- verti dell’Università degli Studi di Pisa e il Prof. Claudio Vicentini dell’Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale” per aver messo a mia disposizione le riproduzioni di alcuni documenti originali. Avvertenze Le citazioni da Shakespeare seguono l’edizione a cura di Stanley Wells e Gary Taylor (Oxford University Press 1988), salvo diversa segnalazione. Copyright © 2006 by Casa Editrice Le Lettere - Firenze ISBN 88 7166 960 6 www.lelettere.it INDICE GENERALE Prefazione di Cesare Molinari ........................................................................ p. 7 Introduzione ................................................................................................... » 13 ANTOLOGIA CHARLES GILDON. Profilo biografico e nota al testo .................................... » 97 La vita di Mr. Thomas Betterton (The Life of Mr. Thomas Betterton) ...... » 101 AARON HILL. Profilo biografico e nota ai testi ............................................. » 129 Prefazione a The Fatal Vision ........................................................................ » 137 Un saggio sull’arte della recitazione (An Essay on the Art of Acting) ....... » 139 Lettere agli attori ............................................................................................. » 146 DAVID GARRICK. Profilo biografico e nota ai testi ........................................ » 155 Un saggio sulla recitazione (An Essay on Acting) ........................................ » 162 Lettera sulla professione dell’attore ................................................................. » 173 Lettera su Mlle Clairon ................................................................................... » 175 SAMUEL FOOTE. Profilo biografico e nota al testo ........................................ » 177 Un trattato sulle passioni (A Treatise on the Passions) ................................ » 181 ARTHUR MURPHY. Profilo biografico e nota al testo ..................................... » 205 Sulla professione della recitazione (On the Profession of Acting) ............... » 207 CHARLES MACKLIN. Profilo biografico e nota ai testi ................................... » 211 L’arte e il compito dell’attore (The Art and Duty of an Actor) ................... » 215 Sulla recitazione (On Acting) ........................................................................ » 216 JOHN HILL. Profilo biografico e nota al testo ............................................... » 217 L’attore: ovvero, un trattato sull’arte della recitazione (The Actor: or, a Treatise on the Art of Playing) ........................................ » 230 5 INDICE GENERALE ROBERT LLOYD. Profilo biografico e nota al testo ........................................ » 283 L’attore. Un’epistola poetica (The Actor. A poetical epistle) ....................... » 286 JAMES BOSWELL. Profilo biografico e nota al testo ........................................ » 293 Sulla professione dell’attore (On the Profession of a Player) ....................... » 299 JOHN WALKER. Profilo biografico e nota al testo ......................................... » 311 Elementi di dizione (Elements of Elocution) ............................................... » 314 APPENDICI Cronologia essenziale ..................................................................................... » 321 Bibliografia - Fonti ....................................................................................... » 327 - Studi ....................................................................................... » 332 Illustrazioni .................................................................................................... » 339 Indice dei nomi ............................................................................................... » 343 6 PREFAZIONE Negli anni tra il 1475 e il 1515 si colloca quella che è stata autorevolmente defi- nita la ‘reinvenzione’ del teatro. Approssimativamente: tutti sanno che le perio- dizzazioni sono sempre arbitrarie e schematiche, né sanno coprire il complesso intreccio delle continuità e delle rotture. La storiografia, come tutte le scienze, è fatta di semplificazioni e di riduzioni che rendono in qualche misura comprensi- bile e dominabile la magmatica complessità del reale. ‘Reinvenzione del teatro’ è forse soltanto un modo più elegante di ripetere il luogo comune secondo il quale nei ‘secoli bui’ del Medio Evo, dopo la splendida fioritura dell’età classica, greca e latina, il teatro si sarebbe disperso nel nulla, dissolto e cancellato dal novero delle attività umane. Ma d’altra parte l’espressione, che in sé comporta una pre- cisa e specifica definizione del concetto di ‘teatro’, in realtà si oppone, a ben ve- dere, ad un altro diffuso luogo comune che aveva cercato la nuova ‘origine’ del teatro nel rito liturgico del Quem quaeritis, definito “dramma liturgico”, che poi si sarebbe sviluppato, con organica lentezza, fino a compiersi nei grandi misteri francesi e tedeschi del Basso Medio Evo: una nuova origine che ripete, collocan- dosi fuori e prima del teatro stesso, quella dell’antica tragedia dal rito dionisiaco. ‘Reinventare’ il teatro significa invece collocare il fenomeno in un’area di volon- taristica e artificiosa intenzionalità, che implica un cercare e un costruire: cercare qualcosa di cui si sa che c’era, senza conoscere in che cosa esattamente consistes- se, costruire qualcosa di cui si vengono raccattando sparsi frammenti da compor- re in una sorta di puzzle. Perché in effetti di questa entità dissolta, di cui non si riusciva a scorgere l’insieme, si incontravano o si scoprivano le parti nei mano- scritti dei monasteri, in edifici semidistrutti o sepolti sotto la terra o sotto escre- scenze architettoniche, nelle fantasie dei lessicografi e degli eruditi come in quel- le apparentemente più concrete dei miniaturisti. E non si sapeva (né ancora si sa) se questi frammenti avessero, o avessero avuto, vita propria ed autonoma, o se invece andassero considerate come le sparse membra di un organismo complesso e unitario. Di queste incertezze la traccia più vistosa è forse da individuarsi nelle diffi- coltà terminologiche che si incontravano per definire fatti e fenomeni che oggi saremmo tentati di chiamare teatrali o parateatrali, senza rispetto per le differen- 7 PREFAZIONE ze come per le coincidenze: demostrationi, rappresentationi, momarie, egloghe, fe- ste. E se da una parte si pensava che tali cose potessero aver vita, come effettiva- mente avevano, in qualsiasi luogo o ambiente, dal sagrato della chiesa alla sala del banchetto alla strada stessa delle città, dall’altra una vaga percezione veniva via via consolidandosi che il loro luogo proprio fosse un edificio, monumento e funzio- ne ad un tempo, destinato a cambiare il volto e il tessuto della città, se non addi- rittura a qualificarla come tale: «Qua re a te quoque theatrum novum tota urbs magnis votis expectat» scrisse Sulpizio da Veroli al Cardinal Riario. E in tempi più recenti Ortega y Gasset sostenne, in una famosa conferenza del 1946 che il termine “teatro” «en su sentido fuerte» si riferisce all’edificio. Tuttavia, dopo il tem- poraneo exploit del Campidoglio nel 1513, i ‘teatri’ continuarono ad essere alle- stiti nelle sale e nei cortili dei palazzi, e bisognerà aspettare gli anni fra il 1637 e il 1652 perché un teatro venisse edificato in forma di edificio autonomo. In Italia. Perché nella lontana Inghilterra, non ancora del tutto inserita nel fervore degli ideali umanistici, ciò era avvenuto cinquant’anni prima, senza molti clamori, ad opera di attori che erano stati carpentieri. Teatri in legno, certo, ma che avevano forma e misura monumentale. Gli umanisti che avevano riscoperto o re-inventato il teatro forse non
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