Volume 2

A cyclopaedia of costume or dictionary of dress, including notices of contemporaneous fashions on the continent : a general chronological history of the costumes of the principal countries of Europe, from the commencement of the Christian era to the accession of George the Third / by James Robinson Planché.

  • Planché, J. R. (James Robinson), 1796-1880.
Date:
1876-1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A cyclopaedia of costume or dictionary of dress, including notices of contemporaneous fashions on the continent : a general chronological history of the costumes of the principal countries of Europe, from the commencement of the Christian era to the accession of George the Third / by James Robinson Planché. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    background, and she wears a cap and a black mask, and is represented in an attitude traditionally assumed by our Harlequin. Pierrot is, however, the principal figure in the group ; and if this really represents an Italian company, it must have been after they had taken to the performance of French dramas, on their re-establishment in Paris during the regency of the Duke of Orleans. We can, therefore, form no conclusion from this picture respecting the nationality of Columbine, while the absence of such a character in the early Italian drama is a negative proof of her having been introduced to it from the French. Of the fusion that took place towards the end of the seventeenth century, we have abundant evidence in the publications of the period, viz. :— ‘ La Matrone d’Ephese, ou Arlequin Grapignan.’ Comedie en trois actes, representee pour la premiere fois par les Comldiens Italiens du Roi dans leur H6tel de Bourgogne, le 12 Mai 1682. Mise au Theatre par M. D * * * *. ‘Arlechino Tinto Bassa d’Algiera.’ Opera seria, by Doctor Gianella. Translated from the French. Printed at Venice ; no date. ‘ Gli’ Amore sfortunate de Pantalone,’ 1089, in which Arlechino appears as the servant of Pantaloon. ‘ Arlequin Mercure Galant.’ Comedie en trois actes. Mise au Theatre par Monsieur D * * * *, et representee pour la premiere fois par les Comediens Italiens du Roi dans leur H6tel de Bourgogne, le 22 Janvier 1682. ‘Arlequin Lingere du Palais,’ three acts, by Tatoniello, partly in Italian, at the Theatre in Paris, 4th October, 1682. Evarista Gherardi, himself a harlequin and dramatic author, wrote his ‘ Histoire du Theatre Italien, ou le Recueil general de toutes les Comedies et Schies frangoises jone par les Comediens Italiens du Roi, pendant tout le temps qu’ils ont ete au service,’ in 1697. He commenced acting Harlequin in 1689. His only surviving comedy, ‘Le Retour de la Foire de Basons,’ was performed in 1695 ; but he throws no light on the origin of the character of Harlequin, or of what is more important to us in this work, the peculiar and unique costume in which he first appears on the French stage, and which has been subsequently transmitted to our times. Having cleared the stage, to the best of my ability, of the rest of the pantomimic company, I shall devote the remainder of this portion of my task to the consideration of the conflicting theories afloat respecting Harlequin—a personage who, as Pere La Rousse remarks in his ‘Grande Dictionnaire Universelle,’ Paris, 1866, article “Arlequin,” has been the subject of what he correctly terms “ une des etymologies les plus controversies.” I am not called on to enter into this controversy so far as respects the derivation of the name of this character, as my inquiries in these pages are properly limited to his dress; but the two subjects are so dependent on each other, and the only facts of which we are at present in possession are apparently so irreconcilable with the theories promulgated, that I can see no way to separate them. First, then, as to the name, which has been variously derived from almost every conceivable source. Some similar appellation, it has been asserted, was rejoiced in by a wicked Crusader, a sort of legendary Robert the Devil; other commentators have discovered his prototype in the ‘ Inferno ’ of Dante, cap. xxx. German antiquaries have suggested derivations from Erlenking, Roi des Aunes, and “ Hollen Kind,” “ Enfant infernal,” and so on ad infinitum. Dismissing all these mere guesses, let us proceed to examine statements of a more substantial kind. Tradition associates Harlequin with the city of Bergamo. La Rousse, who in the article above referred to has well-nigh exhausted the subject, relates an anecdote which is so pretty and ingenious, that it is a pity it is not true. “A little boy, we are told, whose name was Arlechino, born in Bergamo, was a great favourite with his young companions. It was the custom of the citizens to give their children new clothes on the Mardi Gras of each year ; and Arlechino, having been asked by his young friends what sort of suit he was to have, answered that his parents were too poor to buy him a new one, and that he must therefore be content with what he had. The other boys thereupon agreed amongst themselves that they would each bring him a piece of the cloth of which their own suits were to be made. They did