Comedia Dell Arte

9 Pages 2163 Words

zanni” servant. They were usually the ones with the most humor and mystery. The characters that birthed from Commedia are known today as stock characters.
Harlequin is the most popular character of Commedia. He is the youngest of the characters, but the most energetic and enigmatic. Harlequin is the Zanni servant; he tends to be the second zanni, if Brighella is the other servant in the scenario. He did have a number of names such as, Arlechino, or Hellechino, however, Harlequin is what he is best known as. He is from the lower part of Bergamo and there fore is a simpleton. However Harlequin takes claim to begin from the higher and lower parts of town. Harlequin if full of wit and stupidity.
Harlequin is usually the servant to Pantalone or the Capitano. He started out by not having a major role, just a small but as his popularity grew so did his role. In Goldoni’s Commedia he was usually the central character in the scenarios. Harlequin was usually the one cause trouble among the upper class. The young lovers would use him to communicate to each other; however, he would mess up the messages and cause a huge ordeal. He was noted for doing a lot of dancing, acrobatics, leaping, and singing.
His personality would come off that he is very naïve and ignorant of what is going on around him. He would try to make every effort to come off as intelligent. He loves to take on anything that would cause him to be rascally or deceitful, whether it be playing cupid with the young lovers or out of fear he would take on the task. He is like a chameleon in which he takes on a color. Harlequin must be very good in ...