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Comic Stage Routines in Guarinonius' Medical Treatise of 1610

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2009

M. A. Katritzky
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Extract

The theatrical descriptions of Hippolytus Guarinonius are among the most substantial of several significant discoveries of visual and textual documentation relating to the commedia dell'arte in recent decades. Not noted in the standard bibliography of the commedia dell'arte, they have made far less impact on theatre historians than their early date and richness of theatrical detail warrant. Here, selected descriptions are examined in the context of related textual and visual records, in order to highlight aspects of the new information they offer on the staging of comic routines, and to draw attention to some limitations of using material of this type as historical evidence for stage practice.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , Autumn 2000 , pp. 217 - 232
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 2000

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References

Notes

1. Valentin, Jean-Marie, ‘Bouffons ou religieux? Le débat sur le théâtre dans l'Allemagne catholique au début du xviie siècle (A. Albertinus, H. Guarinonius)’, Revue d'Allemagne, 12 (1980), pp. 442–76Google Scholar (reissued in Theatrum Catholicum. Les jésuites et la scène en Allemagne au xvie et au xviie siècles. Die Jesuiten und die Bühne im Deutschland des 16.–17. Jahrhunderts (Nancy: Presses Universitaires de Nancy, 1990, pp. 19–8);—‘Herr Pantalon und sein Knecht Zani: Zur Funktion und Bedeutung der welschen comedi in den Greweln dei Verwüstung des H. Guarinonius’, in Theatrum Europaeum. Festschrift für Elida Maria Szaota, Brinkmann, Richard et al. , eds., (Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 1982), pp. 193–216Google Scholar;—Französischer ‘Roman comique’ und deutscher Schelmenroman (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1992, Rheinisch-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vorträge G315), pp. 11, 26; Sprengel, Peter, ‘Herr Pantalon und sein Knecht Zanni. Zur frühen Commedia dell'arte in Deutschland’, Kleine Schriften der Gesellschaft für Theatergeschichte, 34–35 (1988), pp. 5–18Google Scholar; and, for brief quotes, Meissner, Johannes, Die englischen Comoedianten zur Zeit Shakespeares in Oesterreich (Vienna, 1884), pp. 4–10Google Scholar;—‘Die englischen Komödianten in Oesterreich’, Jahrbuch der deutschen Shakespeare Gesellschaft, 19 (1884), pp. 113–154 (115–117, 129–30); Trautmann, Karl, ‘Italienische Schauspieler am bayrischen Hofe’, Jahrbuch für Münchener Geschichte, 1 (1887), pp. 193–312 (232)Google Scholar; B, Jürgenücking, Kultur und Gesellschaft in Tirol um 1600. Des Hippolytus Guarinonius’ ‘Grewel der Verwüstung Menschlichen Geschlechts’ (1610) als kulturgeschichtliche Quelle des frühen 17. Jahrhunderts (Lübeck & Hamburg: Matthiesen, 1968, Historische Studien 401), pp. 95–7.Google Scholar

2. Heck, Thomas F., Commedia dell'arte: A Guide to the Primary and Secondary Literature (New York & London: Garland, 1988).Google Scholar

3. Dörrer, Anton et al. , Hippolytus Guarinonius (1571–1654). Zur 300. Wiederkehr seines Todestages (Innsbruck: Universitätsverlag Wagner, 1954, Schlern-Schriften 126).Google Scholar

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5. Guarinonius' German translation of Pietro Giussano's substantial biography of Borromeo (1538–84), canonized in 1610, was published in 1618.

6. Guarinonius, Hippolytus, Die Grewel der Verwüstung Menschlichen Geschlechts. In sieben unterschiedliche Bücher und unmeidenliche Hauptstucken (Ingolstatt: Andreas Angermayr, 1610)Google Scholar. A two volume facsimile reprint has been edited by Locher, Elmar (Bolzano: edition Sturzflüge, 1993–1994).Google Scholar

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10. MS della Biblioteca Comunale di Perugia, segnatura A-20(1734).

11. Valentin, , ‘Funktion und Bedeutung–3Google Scholar; and Theatrum Catholicum, pp. 27–8, 43; Sprengel, , ‘Zur frühen Commedia dell'arte’, p. 13.Google Scholar

12. Valentin, , ‘Funktion und Bedeutung’, p. 197Google Scholar; see also van Gemert, Guillaume, ‘Tridentische Geistigkeit und Mor-aldidaxis in Guarinonius' “Greweln”. Der Arzt als geistlicher Autor’, in Locher, Elmar, ed., Hippolytus Guarinonius im interkulturellen Kontext seiner Zeit. Acta der Tagung Neustift 1993 (Bozen: edition sturzflüge, 1995), pp. 45–63.Google Scholar

13. The manuscript of approximately the first two-thirds of the treatise, and some sections of its unpublished companion volume, are among four volumes of autographa by Guarinonius in the University Library, Innsbruck (=UBI) cod. 110, vols. 1–4 (Neuhauser, Walter, Katalog der Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Innsbruck, Teil 2, Cod.101–200 (Vienna, 1991), pp. 32–7)Google Scholar. My thanks to the Manuscripts Librarian, Sieglinde Sepp.

14. Katritzky, M. A., ‘Orlando di Lasso and the Commedia dell'arte’, in Schmid, Bernhold, ed., Orlando di Lasso in der Musikgeschichte (Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1996), pp. 133–55 (Figures 12; 13).Google Scholar

15. Artioli, Umberto, ‘A Palazzo Berla la casa delle maschere’, Quadrante padano, cultura, arte, storia e attualità, 19 (1998), pp. 47–50Google Scholar;—‘Le grottesche di Palazzo Berla’, Prima fila, mensile di teatro e di spettacolo dal vivo, 5 (1999), pp. 20–5.

16. Guarinonius, , Grewel, p. 214Google Scholar (MS: UBI cod.110 vol.1, f.308v).

17. Meissner, , Die englischen ComoediantenGoogle Scholar; ‘Die englischen Komödianten’, Morris, Irene, ‘A Hapsburg Letter’, Modern Language Review, 69 (1974), pp. 12–22 (17)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Limon, Jerzy, Gentlemen of a Company: English Players in Central and Eastern Europe 1590–1660 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), p. 120.Google Scholar

18. Guarinonius, , Grewel, p. 180 (=HG.1).Google Scholar

19. Ibid., pp. 215, 221–3, 1256. His position regarding Italy was considerably more complex than the ‘Italian=negative, German=positive’ allowed by Battafarano, Italo Michele (in ‘Zettelkraut statt Zitronen. Nationaler Stolz aus defensiver Kritik an Ausländerei und Exotismus bei Hippolytus Guarinonius, Simpliciana, 17 (1995), pp. 141–53Google Scholar;—‘Hippolytus Guarinonius. Gli italiani ci disprezzano e corrompono la nostra gioventù’, chapter n in L'Italia ir-reale. Descritta dai tedeschi negli ultimi cinque secoli e raccontata agli italiani dal loro punto di vista (Taranto: Scorpione Editrice, 1995), pp. 25–8).

20. Ibid., pp. 296–7 (=HG.6); UBI cod. 110 vol. 1, ff. 435v–436r.

21. Ibid., pp. 373–4; UBI cod. 110 vol. 1, ff. 540–4.

22. McDowell, John Huber, An Iconographical Study of the Early Commedia dell'arte (1560–1650), (Yale, unpublished doctoral diss., 1937)Google Scholar, part I, chapter IV: ‘Stage Business and Lazzi’, pp. 120–46; Hallar, Marianne, Teaterspil og Tegn-sprog: Ikonografiske Studier i Commedia dell'arte (Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, 1977)Google Scholar, part III, ‘Lazzi’, pp. 76–142; Gordon, Mel, Lazzi: The Comic Routines of the Commedia dell'arte (New York: Theatre Library Association, 1981Google Scholar (Performing Arts Resources, vol.7); Performing Arts Journal Publications, 1983).

23. Guarinonius, , Grewel, p. 375 (=HG.8).Google Scholar

24. Scott, Virginia, The Commedia dell'arte in Paris 1644–1697 (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1990), pp. 143–4Google Scholar, in her translation.

25. Butterworth, Philip, Theatre of Fire. Special Effects in Early English and Scottish Theatre (London: Society for Theatre Research, 1998).Google Scholar

26. Guarinonius, , Grewel, pp. 1187–8 (=HG.28–29).Google Scholar

27. Ibid., p. 889 (=HG.22–23).

28. Gordon, , Lazzi, p. 29.Google Scholar

29. Scott, , The Commedia dell'arte in Paris, p. 72Google Scholar, in her translation.

30. Guarinonius, , Grewel, pp. 49, 548.Google Scholar

31. Artist, Peter Flötner; reproduced in Rowlands, John, ‘The Procession of Gluttony’, Print Quarterly, 4 (1987), pp. 158–62(159).Google Scholar

32. Guarinonius, , Grewel, p. 718Google Scholar (=HG.15). The paragraph is part of a longer manuscript addendum that was not published in full (UBI Cod. 110 vol.2, ff. 461v–462r).

33. Ibid., p. 593 (=HG. 14).

34. Ibid., p. 1158 (=HG. 26).

35. Sprengel, , ‘Zur frühen Commedia dell'arte’, p. 15.Google Scholar

36. Guarinonius, , Grewel, pp. 881–2 (=HG. 21).Google Scholar

37. For example, ‘the tricks of Zannis and fools are fine words and wretched deeds’ (reproduced in Katritzky, , ‘Hippolytus Guarinonius' Descriptions’, Figure 4 (pp. 77, 97, 125)).Google Scholar

38. Albertinus, Ægidius, Der Landtstörtzer: Gusman von Alfarche oder Picaro genannt (Munich: Nicolaus Henricus, 1615), chapter 54, pp. 452–60.Google Scholar

39. Valentin, , Theatrum Catholicum, pp. 34–41.Google Scholar

40. Albertinus, , Gusman, p. 454.Google Scholar

41. Guarinonius, , Grewel, p. 377 (=HG. 9).Google Scholar

42. Scala, , Il teatro delle Fauole rappresentatiueGoogle Scholar, Giorn.6 (Il vecchio geloso).

43. Moro, Anna L., ‘A semiotic interpretation of the “lazzi” of the commedia dell'arte’, Theatre Symposium, 1 (1993), pp. 66–76 (66).Google Scholar

44. For further album illustrations featuring stock commedia dell'arte characters, including others from some of the albums illustrated here, see Katritzky, M. A., ‘Was Commedia dell'arte Performed by Mountebanks? Album amicorum Illustrations and Thomas Platter's Description of 1598’, Theatre Research International, 23 (1998), pp. 104–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar (Colour Plate 7 is from the New York album); ‘Hippolytus Guarinonius' Descriptions’ (Figure 3 is f. 8v of the Wintholtz album); ‘Orlando di Lasso’ (Figure 15 is f. 37r of the Harsdor-fer album); ‘Carnival and comedy in Georg Straub of St. Gallen's printed album amicorum of 1600’, in Künste und Natur in Diskursen der Frühen Neuzeit, Laufhütte, Hartmut, ed. (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2000, Wolfenbütteler Arbeiten zur Barockforschung 35), pp. 603–33 (Plate 11 is from the New York album).Google Scholar