[18] De Musset, in order to support his view of Gozzi as the precursor of Romanticism and of Hoffmann, strains to the utmost the chapter on Contrattempi in the Memoirs. He furthermore professes to have extracted a very bizarre account of the reasons why Gozzi abandoned his Fiabe—in plain words, because the elves and spirits he brought upon the stage were resolved to be revenged on him—from a letter addressed to Gasparo by Carlo Gozzi (Mémoires de Charles Gozzi, pp. 184-188). De Musset adds no reference to the source of this alleged letter, which is mentioned by neither Magrini nor Masi. Indeed, Signor Ernesto Masi informs me that he knows nothing about it. I too have failed to discover it. In his Memoirs, and in the prefaces to several plays, Gozzi gives a very different account of the reasons why he stopped producing Fiabe. I am loth to draw the conclusion that the letter in question was a deliberate forgery of Paul de Musset's. Further researches may bring it still to light, but at present it has to be regarded with the greatest possible suspicion.
[19] I have treated the subject of the Italian drama elsewhere: Renaissance in Italy, vol. v. ch. 11.
[20] The full title would be Commedia dell' Arte all' Improviso. It is also called Commedia a soggetto, Commedia non scritta, Commedia improvisa. The written comedy, beside Commedia Erudita, was also called Commedia sostenuta, scritta, or letteraria.
[21] See what I have said at length upon this point in my Shakespeare's Predecessors, p. 259, and Renaissance in Italy, vol. v. p. 188.
[22] To Maurice Sand, in his Masques et Bouffons, vol. ii. p. 77 et seq., is due the merit of having resuscitated the fame of this great local dramatist, yet I think M. Sand exaggerates Beolco's influence in the creation of impromptu comedy.
[23] See Collier's English Dramatic Poetry (ed. 1879), vol. iii. p. 197.
[24] It is impossible to avoid the awkwardness of using the word mask in a double sense,—both to indicate the fixed character assumed by a certain species of actor, and also the vizard which concealed his features.
[25] It may here be mentioned that in English we still retain the names of some of these masks, as Zany, Harlequin, Pantaloon, and Punch. Our Columbine is the Neapolitan form of the Servetta or soubrette. Our Scaramouch is one of the numerous forms of the Captain, which obtained great popularity at Paris. Whether the Clown of our pantomimes has to be classed with the Villano, or rather with one of the Zanni, I am uncertain. His traditional connection with the part of Pantaloon seems to indicate the latter alternative.
[26] In a comedy by Virgilio Verucci (Li Diversi Linguaggi, Venezia, 1609), French, Venetian, Bergamasque, Roman, Sicilian, Bolognese, Neapolitan, Matriccian, Perugian, and Florentine dialects were spoken. See Bartoli, op. cit., p. lxxix.
[27] Conversely, masks were sometimes created out of persons. Thus the plebeian poet of Naples, Francesco Cerlone, moulded the mask of Don Fastidio upon a barber of his acquaintance, Francesco Massaro. Here the man became a type; and after he had made it famous, it was continued by other players, who adapted themselves to his humours. (See Scherillo's Commedia dell' Arte, chap, iii., for the history of Don Fastidio). This mask was very popular for a time in Southern Italy. When Casanova wanted to engage a troop at Otranto for performance at Corfu, he had to choose between the rival companies of Neapolitan Don Fastidio and Sicilian Battipaglia (Mémoires, vol. i. ch. xv.). The Capocomici, as I have previously mentioned, were known by the names of their masks.