here, indeed, a pageant has been secretly arranged.
The room is discovered to be richly adorned with costly hangings and
pictures, ablaze with lights, and presently, after various masqueraders
have appeared dressed as the astronomers Keplair and Galileus, as the
different signs of the zodiac, and in other fantastic garbs, Cinthio and
Charmante are seen in a silver chariot like a half-moon, attended by a
train of heroes and amorini. There is no delay, the lovers are united in
matrimony, Baliardo being overwhelmed at the honour done his house. But
when Scaramouch and Harlequin fight a ridiculous duel, in which the
former wins, for the favour of Mopsophil, the doctor discovers the whole
trick, to wit, that the lunar courtiers are in reality his own friends
and neighbours. He soon, however, yields to the persuasions of the
lovers and the common-sense of his physician, who has taken part in the
masque, and, realizing the folly of the fables he has so long implicitly
believed, condemns his books to the fire and joins in the nuptial
rejoicings with a merry heart.

SOURCE.

Mrs. Behn's farce is derived from _Arlequin Empereur dans la Lune_,
which was played in Paris by Guiseppe-Domenico Biancolelli, a famous
Harlequin and the leading member of the Italian theatre there from 1660
to 1688. The original Italian scenes from which the French farce is
taken belonged to that impromptu Comedy, 'Commedia dell' Arte all'
Improviso,' which so far from being printed was but rarely even
committed to writing. 'The development of the intrigue by dialogue and
action was left to the native wit of the several players,' writes J.A.
Symonds in his excellent and most scholarly introduction prefacing Carlo
Gozzi's _Memoirs_. In the case of a new play, or rather a new theme, the
choregus or manager would call the company together, read out the plot,
sketch the scenario, explain all business, and leave the dialogue to the
humour and smartness of the individual performer. Their aptitude was
amazing. In Kyd's _Spanish Tragedy_ we find Heironymo, who wishes to
have a subject mounted in a hurry, saying:--

The Italian tragedians were so sharp of wit,
That in one hour's meditation
They would perform anything in action.

And Lorenzo rejoins:--

I have seen the like
In Paris, among the French tragedians.

Of course much was bound to become stereotyped and fixed, but much was
ever fluctuating and new.

When Biancolelli died