commedia dell' arte

commedia dell' arte, the Italian term for ‘professional comedy’, a form of improvised comic performance popular between the 16th and 18th centuries in Italy, France, and elsewhere in Europe, acted in masks by travelling companies of professional actors each of whom specialized in a stock character. The plots involved intrigues carried on by young lovers and their servants against the rich father (‘Pantaloon’) of the leading lady (the ‘Inamorata’), and included stock characters like Harlequin, Pulcinella, and Scaramouche, who survive as part of theatrical folklore. This form of comedy had an important influence on later forms of farce, pantomime, and light opera, as well as on some major dramatists including Molière and Goldoni.