Harlequin

La commedia dell'arte is based on a host of dazzling characters, who are the embodiments on stage of the most striking qualities of men and women in real life. Many of its characters are recognisable today - Pedrolino (Pierrot), Pulcinella (Punch), and Arlecchino (Harlequin).

As the story of Harlequin shows, the characters had a pan-European history reaching back into the Middle Ages.

An early appearance by Harlequin was in the Medieval French miracle plays, under the name of Hellequin. There he is found as the messenger of the Devil, coming straight from the inside of the Earth (hence his blackened face) and leading a boisterous gang of evil spirits, la Maisnie Hellequin. There is also an Alechino in Dante's Divine Comedy. It has been said that the name Hellequin has something to do with Erlenkönig (Erlking in English), the "king of elves" in German and Scandinavian mythology. "King Erla" is sometimes understood as a figure of Odin.

Harlequin, as a possible avatar of the supreme god, may carry a more mystical meaning, together with his counterpart Pedrolino (Pierrot in French). The former, with his multicoloured diamond-patterned costume, is the representation of life, its manysidedness and riches; the latter, with his sorrowful whitened face and his white loose pyjamas hanging around him like a shroud, symbolizes the realm of the dead.

The character was powerful enough to inspire an Italian theatre director, who brought it back to his native country and soon gave Harlequin his traditional attributes and traits. The Italian Arlecchino still wears a black mask and his traditional multicoloured costume. He is the typical scrounger, intrusive, greedy (like his German cousin Hans Wurst), always ready to lie, to pilfer and to kiss pretty girls. But nevertheless, he seems welcome, since he is also witty and carefree, physically and morally flexible. In his battle for Columbine's love he usually defeats his rival Pedrolino.

Over time, Arlequin (whose French name lost its initial H) became a milder and more refined character. In the XVIIIth century, painters like Watteau and writers like Marivaux gave him a more complex personality. The cunning but faithful valet of Arlequin poli par l'amour or La Double Inconstance can even be seen as a forerunner of Beaumarchais's Figaro. A hundred years later, he is still present in Verlaine's poems, in lines as swift and bouncy as their model:

Arlequin aussi
Cet aigrefin si
Fantasque
Aux costumes fous,
Ses yeux luisants sous
Son masque.