Scripted Theatre and the Commedia Dell’Arte

Abstract

There has always been discussion — perhaps more in the form of questions than of answers — about the influence of commedia dell’arte on other forms of theatre. The most obvious difficulty in pursuing such a question is that, by definition, there are no texts of arte performances from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Since the actors ‘improvised’ — whatever that may turn out to mean — from a summary scenario, they used no written script. Whenever we find a written script which looks as if it might be informative, then by purist definition it is no longer improvised and therefore no longer commedia dell’arte. This creates a problem of evidence which in strict logic is insoluble, and throws us back of necessity on various forms of speculation in which instinct, hunch, probability and even practical experience must all play their part. We have to decide empirically, not logically, what can rank in any dramatic script as ‘evidence’ of the influence of non-scripted performing practice, and in our present context what might constitute ‘evidence’ of commedia dell’arte influence on English Renaissance theatre or any other theatre of the period. This article proposes, on the basis of hunch, probability and some limited experience, that a part of the evidence which might be considered, alongside many other features, is the structuring of dialogue in a certain identifiable way which could be called ‘modular’.