[Music] welcome to the history of european theater podcast and thanks for joining me on this journey through millennia of theatrical history episode 83 comedia dellate players and troops last time was all about the plots used in comedia dellate which had been preserved as descriptive scenarios rather than play scripts now i want to complete what has become a mini-series of episodes on comedia de la te by looking at the people who played the comedies who wore the masks and lived and worked together and how they organized themselves as troops of travelling players the comedian de latte troops that primarily operated in italy and france in the renaissance period were like many actors before them traveling players operating if not exactly outside of society then in their own niche within it i've commented before that some aspects of theater have changed very little over the millennia and the life of the traveling player certainly comes into that category these players were mainly performing joyous slapstick acrobatic comedy that made their audience raw with laughter but their life and reputation was little better than it had been in the medieval and indeed in the roman periods that had come before the problem for the travelling troop was pretty much always as it had been they could be lauded by royalty and given spaces even theaters to performing in the capital or wherever the royal entourage was traveling to but outside of such royal protection troops were beholden to local magnets in the form of sponsoring dukes or princes and still had to get permissions to perform from the local town lawmakers many of whom were very concerned for public morals either because of their own moral standpoint or from the desire to please the church troops on average were composed of seven men and two women the women were still regarded as little better than prostitutes indeed it was mostly assumed that they were of that profession and the men were their pimps this was still rooted in the ancient assumptions that people who traveled in mixed groups must be engaged in immoral activities either amongst themselves or to the detriment of those they visited and the idea that there was something unsavory in inhabiting another character within yourself whatever credentials about royal support or well-received performances could be produced in some towns and particularly in rural areas permission to perform could easily be refused even promises signed by each member of the troops swearing to attend mass and confession regularly to refrain from profane behavior and to avoid moral turpitude could be insufficient to sway the stern town council now that's a rather bleak portrait that i've drawn but of course we know the form was popular and there were enough welcome places to allow many troops to forge a living even to thrive what follows here is mostly about the most successful troops who did manage to navigate this landscape to great success because those are the troops whose exploits have been recorded but i think it's useful to remember that lower down the scale as much as there could be success there was also a great amount of struggle and as we shall see even those at the top of the game had some problems the galossi troop was the first troop that took the form that would become the norm in italy and france or at least the first that we know of i've mentioned them before and translated their name which is derived from their motto as the company of the jealous ones i've now seen some variations on that which try to speak to the spirit of the name rather than a strict translation of the old italian so we could think of them as the company of the zealous ones or the company who aim to please which i think makes a bit more sense the origins of the company stretch back to the early formation run by alberto nacelli who is better known under his stage name of zan ganassa we've come across him before when i was discussing french renaissance theatre because his was the first troop to travel abroad and they were very much liked by the french court and spent a long time in paris a court that was of course heavily influenced by the italian medici queen ganassa was born about 1540 but first appears in records in mantua in 1568 when he was known for playing the lead zarni character it's possible that he created the harlequin character as a major role although as i shall mention later there is a competitor for this honour it was ganassa's wish to travel abroad that split his troop and the galossi were formed from the players who remained in italy while he travelled to france and then spain he stayed in spain and performed there from 1574 until his death 10 years later as you may remember from those episodes about spanish theatre his influence there was considerable in making theater buildings permanent he realized that the usual habit of dismantling a stage as soon as the performance was done was a bit of a waste of time when the troop could be spending weeks in one location thanks to the demand for their performances as was the case in madrid he donated to the city and the charitable guilds that controlled theatrical activity in the city and enabled the first permanent theater to be built he then also contributed to the construction of the second theatre the carol del principe meanwhile back in italy the galossi gathered themselves and came under the new management of flaminio scala known more commonly under his stage name of flavio it was he who later put together the collection of scenarios that i referred to in the last episode born in september 1552 he began his acting career in florence in the early 1570s where he played the young lover role as part of the golossi he progressed through the troop until 30 years later he created and played the older stock character the flavio that he then became known as he is one of those incredibly busy characters where we have to wonder how they found time to achieve all that he did he continued acting with the golossi but also wrote their plot scenarios and acted as a general manager he was also associated with another troop the confidenti another of the most successful troops and we'll hear some more of them later the glossy and the style of acting that scala required became the standard for comedia de latte he emphasized the physicality of performance and with the troop developed many of the common moves and features that each character was recognized by in fact the signature moves of each character became so well recognized that an audience would be disappointed if they were not on display it's a bit like a band not playing their hits at a concert or the comic not repeating their catchphrase like the renaissance italians we still like repetition and familiarity in our entertainment the troop played a circuit in italy that took in venice genoa florence milan and mantua and then also they took their turn in france the mother of henry iii king of france was italian medici and she and her son enjoyed the plays the golossi had two invitations from the king to perform in paris but their experiences were not all that they could have been on both occasions they got caught up in arguments between the king and a parliament that was trying to flex its muscles and under the threat of fines being imposed on them the troop had to leave in a hurry despite the royal patronage they found themselves caught up in some strong anti-italian feeling which the members of parliament characterized as the root of courtly decadence and mole decline at the top that sentiment was also used by established players in the city who encouraged protest and disruption at the golossi's performances perhaps the strangest story from one of their visits was that they were kidnapped by a group of huguenots and only released when the king paid the ransom that had been demanded not completely put off from international travel they appeared in venice for the holy roman emperor and then in 1577 they came to england where they performed for queen elizabeth there is a suggestion that they must have performed in local language in each case but that seems to put an incredible onus on the actors as they improvise their way through a play and perhaps performing in french or italian or a mixture of both is more likely as both were widely understood and spoken in royal and aristocratic circles after about 1600 scala focused on writing plays and working with other troops and francesco anderini succeeded him as the leading man and director of the golossi he was born about 1548 and had served as a soldier fighting for the medici in the ottoman venetian war which was a three-year engagement over possession of cyprus in which the ottomans were ultimately successful andreini was captured by the turks and held captive for seven years before he was able to escape and found his way back to italy he had not just wasted his time in captivity having learned several languages and musical instruments joining the galossi troupe seems inevitable for a man of his talents he initially took on the role of the young lover one which actors appear to have played well into maturity until he transitioned into playing the captain the particular captain spavento version of the stock character being his creation and to which he could add much personal experience he was noted for mixing italian and turkish and claiming the latter was arabic when playing the captain it was also one of the original inventors of a gibberish pseudo-language used to indicate the speech of generic savage people which attempted to convey emotion without having any meaning to the actual sounds it made in 1578 when he was about 30 he married the 16 year old isabella cannellini something we might find a little squeamish today but was not uncommon at the time she was a beauty of renown turning the heads of princes and other lofty types wherever she went songs and poems were written about her but it seems that their marriage was a very happy one and she combined acting with producing seven children many of whom eventually performed with the troop too the golossi continued to tour successfully in italy but nearly came to grief when visiting mantua juke guillemot and his court loved the theater and the duke requested that the golossi performed one of his favorite plays in which all of the characters were humpback yes i know they were very different times the company julie obliged and the duke was apparently delighted with the performance as the applause died down he called for the author and the main players to come forward but the whole troop presumably interpreting his request as including each and every one of them rushed towards him pushing and shoving each other in a bid to be in the front of the queue for the expected reward the duke was notoriously short-tempered and taking offense at their disrespectful manner had them all thrown into his dungeons on the spot it took several days for the duke to cool off and release them during which time the threat of a hanging loomed over them all eventually he did release them and sent them on their way banishing them from his territory and branding them as a band of rascals before the old duke died in 1587 his son vicenzo who had inherited his father's love of the theater hatched a plan in which he wanted to see all of the best troops of the time combined into what we would now call today a super troop he sought out the best actors from the golossi the confidenti and the assassi troupe but had to get his father's permission to bring the actors into his territory however the old duke had not mellowed that much and despite much pleading and promises of gravity good behaviour the plan never came to fruition in fact the duke was so annoyed by his son over the whole business that he revoked his right to license actors for the court shortly after vicenzo inherited the land and title on the death of his father and he created a troop known as the duke of manchester's servants and isabella andreini of the golossi and vittoria passimi of the confidenti performed with the troop at different times isabella was born in 1562 in padua of venetian stock and although her family weren't rich they ensured that she had a good education she displayed an interest in literary culture and was a proficient linguist she joined the golossi while it was still under the direction of scala in 1576 playing the young lover a part that she is credited with enhancing to make it more individual and more involved in the plots than had been the case before the suggestion is of a strong and determined woman from a very young age she was with the troop on their first visit to henry's court in paris her ability to improvise and stretch the form were recognised early on and she became well known for her emotional and convincing performances as a woman driven to or pretending to madness a common feature of the place she became well known for her portrayal of madness and the way she would rip up her costume and fling it across the stage as we heard already she married at 16 but continued to act and it's very possible that she ran the troop as or as near to an equal partner with her husband as was possible at the time she seems to have had influence over the artistic and commercial directions of the company playing her part in persuading patrons to support the work and all that between confinements for childbirth at regular intervals you'll remember that last episode i summarized the plot of the play madness that she performed in for the medici wedding in 1589 a piece very much crafted for her particular talents as far as we can tell the prolonged scenes of her supposed and then real madness were her forte and she used her skills at languages to create the appearance of meaning within something near to gibberish as part of her portrayal of madness more generally her versatility was noted in the cross-dressing roles she often played usually as a disguised page boy and in one scenario where she took on three individual roles in one play she undoubtedly became famous in her own right and for some was the leading light of the troop when they returned to france in 1599 to perform again for the king and his mother she recorded it as a performance by isabella and her company isabella remained with the galossi her whole career with the exception of as far as we know just one performance for the duke of manchur that i've already mentioned and another with the unity troupe but it seems likely that there were other special appearances for other troops where the record has not survived in 1602 the troops set off on another tour of italy taking in northern cities and then working their way to fontainebleau and paris where they again performed for the king and the court by 1604 they were working their way back to italy having produced seven children four boys and three girls isabella was pregnant again but died in leon following a miscarriage she was aged just only 42. in italy she was given a state funeral and memorial coins were cast in her honor aviosto and others wrote poems celebrating her life talent and beauty it was said that she was as celebrated for her virtue as for her beauty and she brought such glory to the profession of acting that her name will be held in veneration as long as the world shall endure and unto the end of the ages perhaps the greatest italian poet of the late renaissance tokato tasso wrote of her when fostering mother nature fashioned the fair veil of her physical graces she sought out beauty and gathered as a flower taking jewels out of the earth and stars from the heavens happy those souls and blessed those hearts in which love has been stamped in letters of gold after your image the galossi disbanded soon after her death and francesco quit the theater for the rest of his life in what she might have considered the greatest of tributes the female young lover character was almost always called isabella in future plays and her sons continued the family traditions giovanni in particular was a successful actor playing the young lover and then harlequin and a playwright who became known for particularly salacious plays that were sometimes banned but always popular and that's not the last well here of giovanni and andreini and the legacy of his parents the other famous lady of the golossi was vittoria pissimi we know very little of her life but from what we do know she seems to have been a very different character from isabella vittoria is first mentioned in the company in 1568 but almost certainly active before then in that early mention she is described as the sweet siren of the company when king henry visited venice and saw the troop perform he determined to invite them to paris which was the tour that happened two years later in his request he begs especially that the woman called vittoria and the manifeek should not fail to come details about vitoria's life are slight but we think that she was only with the golossi for a few years and left them to establish a company of her own in 1578. one rather slender thread of evidence is that a play from the scala collection called the portrait is from 1578 and features a character who is not a respectable girl of the upper classes but a free-living actress called victoria and the assumption is that this role was created for the same vitoria who seems to have had a character much like this one it is possible that she returned to the troupe some years after her initial departure and having led her own troop but details of that and her death are not clear in the few years that vittoria and isabella perform together one can only imagine the tensions that must have arisen between such two different actresses both vying for the number one position contemporary accounts suggest that there was rivalry between them which is not surprising as vitoria seems to have been the star of the early troop who was eclipsed by isabella as she rose in influence in everything the troop did some semblance of order was probably kept by keeping them apart the records indicate that at that medici wedding while isabella was playing her madness in madness vittoria played a gypsy in a different play called zingara and as we might expect the personal lives of the actors sometimes spilled over vittoria was reportedly the lover of actor adriano valerini who left her for another actress vincenza armani clearly two very different women but both were highly influential in the history of comedia de latte the assassi troupe who the duke of manchu wanted to raid for his super troop were formed under his father's auspices and had their own roster of famous names of the time including flaminio scala for a time after he left the galossi their leader and their harlequin was tristano martinelli his activities can be traced back to france where he is recorded playing harlequin in 1584. when it's thought that he was aged about 30. it is the first recording of the character as a major role when at the carnival martinelli donned the patchwork costume the hair tail and the black cap and mask all of which lends weight to the idea that the character's origins were from french medieval plays and then traveled to italy with the troops to be further developed into the classic harlequin there this is the alternative creation story for harlequin to that of zanganasa working in spain and i think these slightly more plausible one of the two perhaps the confusion speaks to the fact that these characters were evolved rather than created and that both actors and others would have been more than willing to take the credit for the creation when it was offered to them the version of the character that emerged may well have something that they both added to it or maybe even nothing of theirs at all by 1596 martinelli was leading the duke of manchester's troop had taken on the role of organizing official public events for the duke and was acting as a licensing manager amongst the actors and street performers the duke had passed a decree placing martinelli above all other performers and requiring them to obtain a performing licence from him to legalize their activities in his lands martinelli was also given the power to impose fines for those he caught operating illegally martinelli's highly favored status with the duke and his power within the troop eventually caused some frictions his promotion of harlequin within the place was seen by some as usurping the traditional preeminence of the young lovers and perhaps understandable jealousies within the troop abounded in 1611 virginia rampone a prominent actress at her time and the first wife of francesco andreini wrote to the cardinal to ask him to block a theatrical licence being granted to martinelli that would have allowed him to run his own troop she believes such advancement would be of no benefit to the theater just to martinelli himself in martinelli and his work we can see just how popular comedia de latte was across europe he moved between several troops often in the company of his brother and with them travelled widely a tour in spain in 1587 was followed by performances in turin where the duke enforced a longer stay on them that was planned because he had enjoyed their performances so much when they eventually left it was to perform for the french king in paris presumably such an auspicious invitation gave them the means to extricate themselves politely from the court in turin after paris they returned to mantua martinelli also visited austria and bohemia but was back in paris at the request of catherine de medici in 1611 1613 and 1614 of his time in paris martinelli noted that the comedy was most successful contrary to all expectations they are wild for our comedies here and so all could not be better and that was an understatement when a martinelli baby was christened in paris in 1614 the king ben louis xiii agreed to hold the child for a moment a great honour indeed following that triumph martinelli returned to italy and slowed down a bit not travelling again until 1621 when he came back to paris and remained there until 1624 playing for the court and becoming a confirmed favorite of the king he ran his own company there which lasted a decade beyond his death in venice in 1630 and included many fine actors including virginia rampone who had previously complained about him on his death he was hailed by many as the finest actor of his time something that he had already appreciated for himself later in life he referred to himself as the greatest of the harlequins at the time of his death martinelli was playing in a troupe called il fadili the faithful ones the troop had been formed by giovanni batista androini the son of isabella and francesco he had formed the troop from the remnants of the golossi after the death of his mother and withdrawal of his father in 1605. as i said giovanni was a talented actor and wrote his own plays too the salacious ones i mentioned so the troop was very much his vehicle but also benefited from the heritage of the colossae but he also performed at intervals with other troops which seems to have been acceptable for those in the comedic acrobatic roles to do they were the stars and they knew it and there is a sense that they were a restless lot always looking for the next opportunity to shine contrary to their name the faithful ones went through many reorganizations sometimes with giovanni sometimes without him but the troop continued to prosper for almost half a century finally disbanding in 1651 they followed the now familiar traveller's route through the ducal and royal courts of italy and then to paris on at least four occasions between 1613 and 1625. when they performed at court and fontenblo and at the hotel de bulgoin italy may have been the spiritual home of the comedia dellate but the troops were never more comfortable than when they were in paris the somewhat volatile political situations notwithstanding the golossi's bad experiences were not often repeated and the demand from the court and the theatre loving public was strong murida medici then acting as regent wrote to giovanni andreini in the following imploring tones i see from the letter you wrote to me about the company of comedians that they have finally come to a decision to bring their journey hither albeit that they have waited a long while and i had almost lost hope of seeing them they will however be well received and each and all i trust would enjoy that journey this will suffice to serve you as a passport hasten then as quickly as you may upon this assurance and dispose yourselves to maintain the highest reputation of harlequin and his troop together with the other good roles that you have recently added to it the king my son and i await the pleasure and diversion that you always provide you will note that the queen refers to giovanni as harlequin showing again the close association these actors had with the roles they played in a later letter she comments on the impending birth of a child due to giovanni's wife promising the gift of a gold baptismal chain she ends the letter saying the sooner you'd set forth the greater will be your welcome come then quickly with all speed and we can't leave paris without as it were coming full circle to flaminio scala again by 1571 he was performing with a troop called the confident ones they had traveled widely in italy and then it seems without any special invitation worked their way through france to paris they performed in the city giving not only comedies but tragedies and pastorals as well a reminder that the troops had a repertoire wider than just the improvised comedies of intrigue rival companies in the locality objected to the new competition and managed to get them evicted but thanks to a letter of recommendation from the duke of mantua they were invited to remain by royal appointment and enjoyed a successful stay in the city the confident ones were one of several troops that were led by women in this case vittoria passimi took up the reigns and it became known simply as senora vittorio's company the troops that i've mentioned in this episode the golossi the confidenti the assessee the faithful ones the confident ones were the most successful locally and internationally famous and well supported but there were many other smaller troops who worked a less prestigious circuit in italy and still made a contribution to the development of the characters and scenarios for example the first recorded punchinello was played by giovanni fiorillo in 1609 he was a member of the kamisi unity troupe who operated mainly in padua and genoa but at times their number included some very highly rated actors giovanni's father silvio was also a member of the same troupe and wrote a number of comic sketches and as a final example there was a 16th century troupe called ile desiosi which after 1582 was led by diana ponti an actress of renown who was once with il confidenti the troupe's patron was the illustrious cardinal montalo also a poet ponti was best known for her role as the innomorata as we've seen before working as a member of a comedia latte troupe was often a family business and the same is true here diana's father adriano valerini directed a troop based in milan in the 1580s of noble stock from verona he was no mere montebank but a doctor of philosophy no less and wrote poetry in greek latin and the vernacular it seems that somewhat paradoxically many of these acclaimed comedians were well versed in some really solid learning and culture from what we know of the comedia de latte troops i think two things really stand out they were for many a family business to the extent that a son or a daughter even a grandchild could in time take on the very same role that a mother father or grandparent had played and doing so in the very same costume was not an unthinkable possibility that closeness and familial connection must have helped with the improvisation process the onstage rapport and close timing required for this type of entertainment if not on stage then other family members were often the support network that allowed actors and particularly the actresses to continue working through what were for the time long careers given those close connections the other standout feature seems a bit contrary but it is the way members of troops and particularly the star comics and acrobats could move from one troop to another in some cases this looks like little more than a very short engagement but in others it could last for an extended period of months or even years there is i think a tension here between loyalty to troop and loyalty to family and the desire to be the star performer and keeping the ego soothed but it is also part of the reason why the portrayal of individual characters were both similar and yet different as we have seen star performers were very much appreciated up to the highest echelons of society and that was an appreciation of the performer and what they could bring to the role but also an appreciation of the character to the point where the two often became inseparable next time we'll move away from the comedia delta and travel north just to prove that the renaissance theatre in continental europe did make it beyond paris we're off to holland where despite monumental events like the 30 years war and a country divided by religious disputes there was a flourishing of theatrical art and a literary set that produced many of the finest works of the period in the meantime don't forget to join the facebook page or group to keep up to date with what's coming next in the podcast also you can see additional information and blog posts on the website that's at www dot the history of european theater dot com if you would like more audio content relating to the podcast and other things related to history of theater please take a look at the offering on patreon where you can access all the content for a small monthly fee i've put a link in the show notes thanks again for listening and your support in whatever form and i look forward to your company next time but if you have any comments or concerns in the meantime you can contact me by email at th oetp gmail.com or via twitter at thoetp [Music] you