[28] Fescenninus is variously derived from the town Fescennia in South Etruria, or from fascinum, the Latin form of phallus.
[29] The common meaning of satura and farsa, both of which have reference to stuffing, is somewhat singular.
[30] I have seen them doing this with reticence and decorum at Montepulciano.
[31] A curious passage in the Life of Don Pietro di Toledo (Arch. Stor., vol. ix. p. 23) shows what a startling impression these Dionysiac revels made upon a Spanish Viceroy in the early seventeenth century. Pontano's Latin poems are full of matter bearing on the vitality of antique rustic habits in the neighbourhood of Naples.
[32] It was included in the first edition of the Canti Carnascialeschi, 1559, and is reprinted in Verzone's edition of Grazzini's Rime Burlesche, Firenze, Sansone, 1882.
[33] "Acting the Bergamasque and the Venetian, we roam the whole world over, and the recitation of comedies is our trade.... We are all of us Zanni, excellent and perfect players; the other choice actors of our troupe, lovers, ladies, hermits, and soldiers, have stayed behind to guard our booth.... We have a stock of new comedies, so fine, so mirthful, and so witty, that when you hear them you will die of laughing. Afterwards you will see a dance upon our stage, all full of new and varied sports.... But since there is a certain custom in this country, ladies, which prevents your coming to our public show, if you will open your house-doors to us, we will let you taste in part the sweetness and the pleasure of our sports."
[34] The other channels were French plays, modifications of English plays, adaptations of Spanish plays, and musical melodramas.
[35] I do not vouch for this etymology, which Boerio, the compiler of the Venetian Glossary, has adopted. For myself, I should be well contented with the derivation from San Pantaleone, and would willingly make him the patron saint of pantaloons and professed trousers-makers.
[36] It is singular that Shakespeare, who uses Pantalone as the symbol of old age in As You Like It, knew him already in decrepitude.
[37] It was my good fortune, while writing these pages at Davos in the summer of 1888, to become acquainted with two brothers from Bergamo, who were living representatives of the Zanni. They had come to help at the hay-harvest, leaving their own farm in the Bergamasque hills. Brighella's wit and knavery amused me. I marvelled at Arlecchino's simplicity and suppleness.