ment, containing a hundred and twenty subjects or sketches of
Italian pieces, called comedies of art, and of which the basis of the
comic humor is always Pantaloon, a Venetian merchant; the Doctor, a
Bolognese jurisconsult; and Brighella and Harlequin, Bergamask
valets,--the first clever and sprightly, and the other a mere dolt.
Their antiquity and their long existence indicate their origin.

With respect to their employment, Pantaloon and the Doctor, called by
the Italians the two old men, represent the part of fathers, and the
other parts where cloaks are worn. The first is a merchant, because
Venice in its ancient times was the richest and most extensively
commercial country of Italy. He has always preserved the ancient
Venetian costume; the black dress and the woolen bonnet are still worn
in Venice; and the red under-waistcoat and breeches, cut out like
drawers, with red stockings and slippers, are a most exact
representation of the equipment of the first inhabitants of the Adriatic
marshes. The beard, which was considered as an ornament in those remote
ages, has been caricatured and rendered ridiculous in subsequent
periods.

The second old man, called the Doctor, was taken from among the lawyers,
for the sake of opposing a learned man to a merchant; and Bologna was
selected because in that city there existed a university, which,
notwithstanding the ignorance of the times, still preserved the offices
and emoluments of the professors. In the dress of the Doctor we observe
the ancient costume of the university and bar of Bologna, which is
nearly the same at this day; and the idea of the singular mask which
covers his face and nose was taken from a wine stain which disfigured
the countenance of a jurisconsult in those times. This is a tradition
still existing among the amateurs of the comedy of art.

Brighella and Harlequin, called in Italy the two Zani, were taken from
Bergamo; because, the former being a very sharp fellow and the other a
stupid clown, these two extremes are only to be found among the lower
orders of that part of the country. Brighella represents an intriguing,
deceitful, and knavish valet. His dress is a species of livery; his
swarthy mask is a caricature of the color of the inhabitants of those
high mountains, tanned by the heat of the sun. Some comedians, in this
character, have taken the name of Fenocchio, Fiqueto, and Scapin; but
they have always represented the same valet and the same Bergama