medy; popular forms.

Commedia dell' arte.

Masked comedy.

In comedy, the efforts of the scholars of the Italian Renaissance for a
time went side by side with the progress of the popular entertainments
noticed above. While the _contrasti_ of the close of the 15th and of the
16th century were disputations between pairs of abstract or allegorical
figures, in the _frottola_ human types take the place of abstractions,
and more than two characters appear. The _farsa_ (a name used of a wide
variety of entertainments) was still under medieval influences, and in
this popular form Alione of Asti (soon after 1500) was specially
productive. To these popular diversions a new literary as well as social
significance was given by the Neapolitan court-poet Sannazaro (c. 1492);
about the same time a _capitano valoroso_, Venturino of Pesara, first
brought on the modern stage the _capitano glorioso_ or _spavente_, the
military braggart, who owed his origin both to Plautus[25] and to the
Spanish officers who abounded in the Italy of those days. The popular
character-comedy, a relic of the ancient _Atellanae_, likewise took a
new lease of life--and this in a double form. The _improvised_ comedy
(_commedia a soggetto_) was now as a rule performed by professional
actors, members of a _craft_, and was thence called the _commedia dell'
arte_, which is said to have been invented by Francesco (called
Terenziano) Cherea, the favourite player of Leo X. Its scenes, still
unwritten except in skeleton (_scenario_), were connected together by
the ligatures or links (_lazzi_) of the _arlecchino_, the descendant of
the ancient Roman _sannio_ (whence our _zany_). Harlequin's summit of
glory was probably reached early in the 17th century, when he was
ennobled in the person of Cecchino by the emperor Matthias; of
Cecchino's successors, Zaccagnino and Truffaldino, we read that "they
shut the door in Italy to good harlequins." Distinct from this growth is
that of the _masked_ comedy, the action of which was chiefly carried on
by certain typical figures in masks, speaking in local dialects,[26]
but which was not improvised, and indeed from the nature of the case
hardly could have been. Its inventor was A. Beolco of Padua, who called
himself Ruzzante (joker), and is memorable under that name as the first
actor-playwright--a combination of extreme significance for the history
of the modern stage. He published six comedies in various dialects,
including t