Love's Labour's Lost : Literary Influences

Commedia dell'arte; Beyond Italy and Into Love's Labour's Lost
Andrea Beyer '04

The Commedia dell'arte, also known as the Italian comedy, emerged around the end of the 16th century. Although influences are said to have come from ancient Roman theatre, the Renaissance form of the commedia is best known for its roots in northern Italy. From here, its popularity spread throughout Europe to countries such as France, Spain, and England. It remained in common theatrical use for nearly two centuries before dissipating into more modern forms of drama.

The commedia acting troops contain 6-12 members that consist of men as well as women. Women play in female roles such as a lover or an innamorte: mothers, maidservants, nurses, etc. (Herrick 212). Commedia players are always professionals, unlike the novice troops of courts and other acting troops. They typically perform outside, or in informal stage settings. Because of the rather simple scenery of the early commedia performances, the plays could be performed virtually anywhere.

Due to the satirical and comical nature of the plays, the commedia attracted audiences of different classes and cultures. Although the dialogue of the play may be in various dialects, the general idea is made clear through the use of physical motion. Much of the action of the play takes place through the use of gestures, mime, and acrobatics; "the action often has more significance than the words" (Oreglia 3). Often times, violence is incorporated in the play through beatings, rough horse play, or fight scenes. The absurdity of the situations, such as a person being beat with a hat, is cause for much laughter from the audience.

One of the most unique traits of the commedia is its use of improvised dialogue. The actors memorize a stock of verses and quips to use as the plot progresses. This plot, along with the character list and props, is given as dictated by a stock scenario (Oreglia 12). These scenarios were written for the primary use in commedia dramas. The actors carry out the plot and improvise along the way in response to the audience. When laughter is needed, the actors may use a lazzi. This involves a short rehearsed scenario in which a slapstick humor is used to make light of a situation. For example, "lazzi shut up" is a routine in which a master repeatedly tells a babbling servant to shut up. When the master finally calls upon him, the servant calls out "shut up!" (Oreglia 14). Eventually, the improvisation was replaced with scripted dialogues, and thus started the end of the commedia dell'arte form.

The commedia theme revolves around the actions of three sets of people: "the loves of young people, the jealousies and rivalries of old men, and the intrigues of the zanni" (Oreglia 17). These figures are stereotypical, and form the base of the commedia dell'arte form. Stock scenarios call for the use of characters that are used again and again in different performances. This allows the audience to become familiar with the characters from play to play. This parallels modern day television series, in which the same characters undergo different situations each show. The characters retain individuality unique to himself/herself. To show this in the commedia, without employing the same actors repeatedly for different performances, masks and costumes were devised for each stock character.

Of the many characters used in commedia dell'arte, a few dominate and appear most frequently in stock scenarios. Two such examples are of the Doctor and the Captain.

The Doctor is sometimes called "Dottore" or "Gretiano" (Groves 187). He is an older man of around 60 years, and he is usually depicted as a lawyer or physician, or someone of scholarly status. He boasts of his education at the University of Bologna, and claims to be quite intelligent. He wears a costume of all black, with a white collar, white cuffs, and a white handkerchief. He is portrayed as a portly man, with a swaggering gait. He wears a mask that promotes a large nose and a black mustache. The Doctor acts quite omniscient, yet he rambles on and on about topics he knows nothing about, or quotes Latin or Greek improperly (Oreglia 84-86).

On the same note, the Captain is a boastful man who claims his bravery in battle yet proves later to be a coward. He rarely wears a mask, yet he sports an elegant costume with ribbons and elaborate decoration. He saunters about, proclaiming his adeptness in love, while women ignore or despise him. The Captain primarily exhibits an ego that ultimately gets him in trouble or causes his mockery by others around him. He is usually escorted by a witty zanni that aids in his boasting by urging him to retell his heroic ventures (Oreglia 103).

Often times, the stereotypical characters were satirical in nature. For example, the braggart Captain usually depicted a Spanish officer that boasted of his heroism yet was rather cowardly. The actor had to go through great caution when portraying this character so as not to upset any Spaniards in the audience. On one account, the actor "was beaten up and left for dead by a group of Spanish officers who had been present at the performance" (Oreglia 101).

Such characters became so familiar with audiences that playwrights included them, or a character representing them, in their own plays. An example of this occurs in William Shakespeare's play Love's Labour's Lost. Although this piece is not considered as a comedy (the lovers do not marry at the end), several instances throughout the performance provoke humor. Many times, it is through the antics of characters such as Holofernes and Don Armado. These two are direct descendents of the commedia characters of the Doctor and the Captain, respectively. Also, Love's Labour's Lost mirrors a commedia in several other ways.

Holofernes plays the role of the educator of the young men at the university. The other characters in the play often go to him for his wisdom and insight, such as when the young lovers seek him to read their love letters. Like the Doctor, Holofernes uses his vocabulary quite extensively, and uses Latin and Greek interspersed through his language. A good example of this is the scene in which Holofernes and Nathaniel are describing the deer that the princess killed. Holofernes proclaims

"Most barbarous intimation! Yet a kind of insinuation, as it were in via, in way,
of explication, facere, as it were, his inclination after his undressed, unpolished,
uneducated, unpruned, untrained, or rather unlettered, or rather unconfirmed,
fashion, to insert again my 'haud credo' for a deer" (Act IV Scene ii).

As one can see, he uses several Latin phrases (some unjustly) and an abundance of vocabulary. Just like the Doctor, he makes it sound like he knows exactly what he is talking about, and he turns a simple explanation into a laborious process. Because of his lengthiness and extravagance, the other characters do not quite understand him, but because it sounds educated they assume he is quite wise and knowledgeable.

In a similar fashion, Don Armado parallels the commedia figure of the Captain. He is viewed by his peers as a braggart and is often the source of much laughter through his "verbosity and the fact that he 'loves the music of his own vain tongue'" (Groves 190). Examples of this are the love letters that he sends to Jacquenetta. They are very wordy and "flowery" but they fail to make a point (Groves 191). Similar to commedia performances, Armado is flanked by a zanni by the name of Moth. The two participate in many conversations that constitute wordplay, a common lazzi of commedia performances. For example, in Love's Labour's Lost, the men banter about the meaning of the word "envoy" (Act III Scene I), by playing upon its multiple definitions.

Holofernes and Don Armado represent the older men in the conventional commedia performance, surrounding the antics of the zanni and the actions of the young lovers. Within the Shakespearean performance, four sets of lovers requite their love in very humorous, round-a-bout ways, using tactics typical of the commedia. The gentlemen write their ladies long, poetic love letters, and approach them in disguise, and the ladies switch favors to mislead their suitors (Act V Scene ii), creating a slightly confused yet humorous atmosphere between the lovers.

Although few have heard of the commedia dell'arte, its widespread influences are apparent in works such as Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost. Through the use of stock characters from the commedia, writers can create a comedy in which the audience familiarizes with the figures involved and can expect humor from their mishaps and folly.


Works Cited
"Commedia Dell'arte," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000. http://encarta.msn.com ©1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation.

"Commedia dell'Arte." The Theophrastan or Naturalist Tradition. Modern Cottage Industries. 10 Oct. 2000. http://shift.merriweb.com.au/characters/commedia.html

Ducharte, Pierre Louis. Trans. Randolph T. Weaver. The Italian Comedy; The Improvisation Scenarios Lives Attributes Portraits and Masks of the Illustrious Characters of the Commedia dell'Arte. London: Harrap, 1929.

Groves, William McDonald. The Commedia Dell'arte and the Shakespearean Theatre: A Study of the Relevance of Applying Commedia Dell'arte Techniques to Shakespearean Production. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 1987.

Herrick, Marvin T. Italian Comedy in the Renaissance. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1960.

Oreglia, Giacomo. Trans. Lovett F. Edwards. The Commedia dell'Arte. New York: Hill and Wang, 1968.

Shakespeare, William. Love's Labour's Lost. The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997. 733-802.

Smith, Winifred. The Commedia Dell'Arte. New York: B. Blom, Inc., 1964.

[ Home ] [ Literary Influences ] [ Cultural/Historical Influences ] [ Textual/Performance History ]
[ Critical History ] [ Web Resources ] [ Site Information ]