The outdoor performances, funded by donations, were improvised around a repertory of conventional situations: adultery, jealousy, old age & love, with dialogue and action adjusted to satirize local scandals, current events, or regional tastes, mixed with ancient jokes and punch lines. Many of the characters were portrayed by actors wearing masks — including the witty gentleman's valet Harlequin; the Venetian merchant Pantelone; the honest and simpleminded servant Pierrot; the maidservant Columbina; the unscrupulous servant Scaramouche, and the braggart Capitano.
The classic, traditional plot is that the innamorati (the lovers) are in love and wish to be married, but one or several elders, (vecchio) are preventing this from happening, and so they must ask one or more of the zanni (servants) for help. Typically it ends happily with the marriage of the innamorati and forgiveness all around for any wrongdoings but there is much entertainment and comic dialogue along the way.
Arlecchino (Harlequin), is Pantalone's servant. Identified by the famous Harlequin costume, with its multicoloured diamond pattern of red, green, and blue – representing clothes that are so old and patched as to have lost their original colour and material.
He is a poor, illiterate peasant, who has left his native Bergamo to seek his fortune in the city of Venice, as it grows rich from its commerce with the orient. Although an agile acrobat, he is a slow thinker, typically cast as the servant of an innamorato or vecchio, who often had a love interest in the servant girl Columbina, with his lust for her only superseded by his desire for food or fear of his master.
With his black devilish mask and fumbling antics, Harlequin eventually wins over the audience with his childish innocence and has become one of the most popular of the zanni or comic servant characters from the Italian Commedia dell'Arte.
Brighella
Cunning,sly and unscrupulous, who can make up a spur-of-the moment lie for any situation. This servant figure is a money-grubbing villain, a partner of Arlecchino. He is a self made man, who has become comfortably off by starting his own business, despite humble beginnings. He is often the proprietor of the local tavern. An accomplished singer, dancer and musician, who would sometimes would play the guitar on stage.He is fond of money, but spends it rapidly, and tends to be especially fond of the drink.
His early costume consisted of loosely-fitting, white smock and pants with green trim, often equipped with a battachio or slapstick, or else with a wooden sword. Later he took to wearing a sort of livery with a matching cape. He wore a greenish half-mask (traditionally olive-green) displaying a look of preternatural lust and greed. He evolved out of the general Zanni, and came into his own around the start of the 16th century.
Columbina
Maidservant to the Innamorata and lover of Arlecchino, Columbina dressed in a ragged and patched dress, similar to her counterpart Arlecchino (or Harlequin). She was also known to wear heavy makeup around her eyes and carry a tambourine which she could use to fend off the amorous advances of Pantalone.
She was often the only functional intellect on the stage. Columbina aided her mistress, the innamorata to gain the affections of her one true love by manipulating Arlecchino and counter-plotting against Pantalone while simultaneously managing the whereabouts of the innamorato. A flirtatious and impudent character, who never loses her judgment.
Pantalone
A rich and miserly Venetian merchant, who is the father of the innamorati. He also employs Arlecchino and treats him cruelly. Pantalone is a stock character that is classified as one of the vecchi (old men) in Commedia dell'arte.
He loves to give advice. Often he is the recipient of blows from his servant. He is always duped by someone and often portrayed as a ‘rival in live’ with his own son, which inevitably leads to disaster.
He traditionally wears a large codpiece to advertise his virility (which everyone around him knows to be long gone) along with a mask with a long hooked nose, a tight red vest, red breeches and stockings, a black cassock, slippers and a brimless hat.
Dottore
The Doctor is the local aristocrat, and/or doctor of medicine or law or anything else he claims to know about, which is most things. Extremely rich, he adores food and good wines, thus he is a little round... Il Dottore or the Doctor is a commedia dell'arte stock character, one of the vecchio or old men whose function in a scenario is to be an obstacle to the young lovers.
His interaction in the play is usually mostly with Pantalone, either as a friend, mentor or competitor. He is typically depicted as an elderly man who only knows nonsense. He makes many cruel jokes about the opposite sex and believes that he knows everything about everything. His mask is unique in that it is the only mask in Commedia dell'arte to cover only the forehead and nose. It is sometimes black in color or else flesh-toned with a red nose.
His costume is usually all or mostly black, sometimes with a white collar. He frequently wears a hat, and long, trailing robes. If the actor playing the role is not naturally fat then he is padded out to make him seem so.
Il Capitano.
A braggart and comical figure, Der Capitano would give glowing and exaggerated accounts of memorable military events in contrast to the reality of his cowardly behaviour.
Il Capitano often talks at length about made up conquests of both military and carrnal nature in attempts to impress others, but often only ends up impressing himself. He gets easily carried away in his tales and doesn't realise when those around him don't buy his act. He would be the first to run away from any and all battles and he has trouble enough talking to and being around women. Columbina sometimes uses him to make Arlecchino jealous, much to his bewilderment and fright.
He is often dressed in his military uniform, albeit rather worn looking and sometimes shown wearing glasses. He occasionally went unmasked, but usually wears a flesh-hued mask with a large nose and a moustache turned up at the corners. He also wears his sword at all times, though it is exclusively for show: even if he were to ever work up enough nerve to cut somebody with it - he would faint at the very sight of the blood.
Pulcinella,
His main characteristic, from which he acquired his name, is his extremely long nose, which resembles a beak. In Latin, this was a pullus gallinaceus, which led to the word "Pulliciniello" and "Pulcinella", related to the Italian pulcino or chick.
Pulcinella or Punch started out as an idiot simpleton servant, who developed into a complex , cunning character. This poor love-struck hunchback eventually became the model for the English variation – ‘Punch and Judy’. Pulcinella was witty and crafty character but also full of common sense. He usually wears a black mask and light, loose linen blouse belted with a rope and light tights. He has loose and straggly hair, and a huge, warped belly..
Pierrot is a stock character of pantomime and Commedia dell'Arte. Pierrot (or Pierino, Vicenza, and most commonly nowadays known as Pierrot a dreamer with a white mask, now considered the French version of a clown). Pierrot's is a naïve, lunatic clown, outside reality, unaware of the outside world, always being cheated and joked on by the others. Despite his suspicions about things, Pierrot always end up trusting people and believing in their lies.
Scaramuccia, also known as Scaramouche, is a roguish commedia dell'arte character who wears a black velvet mask and black trousers, shirt and hat. He is usually portrayed as a buffoon or boastful coward. The character was invented by a 17th century Italian actor, Tiberio Fiorelli. Scaramuccia Scaramuccia is a plotter, shifty but also timorous. A roguish adventurer and swordsman who replaced Il Capitano in later troupes, he usually serves a master who is not of a high social scale. He wears a black velvet mask and black trousers, shirt and hat.
Bibliography: Maschere Italiane, Antonella Grignola.
Maschere a Venezia, Mario Belloni.