The ride of the Jungiards

I picked up a biography of P. G. Wodehouse from somewhere, probably because a film about his bad war had been on the telly. For the second time in as many months, a book which I positively failed to finish. I have enjoyed the Berties' outings on ITV3, I dare say I would like the books well enough and I was once tempted to investigate another member of the pantheon, one Psmith. But I did not like this biography at all, whether because I did not care for Wodehouse the man or because I did not care for the biographer, I can't say.

But I was interested by the notion - well enough documented online once one takes a look - that English repertory companies of Wodehouse's day were organised around stock characters, for example a penguin suited butler or an insolent maid, and a repertory actor (or actress) would specialise in one such stock character and might stick to it throughout his career. Playwrights were expected to turn out repertory fodder organised around these stock characters. Audiences expected their plays to be organised around these stock characters. It all sounds like an admirable system; one could provide variety without too much strain on either the supply or the demand side of the equation. Also evidence that we can and do organise our perceptions of others into a fairly small number of types, or archtypes to use a term from the Jungian shrinks (I think).

An English version, more or less, of Commedia dell’arte. With Punch & Judy being another spin off from same. It took a few clicks to get a catalogue of such types, but I ran one down in a study guide to Frayn's 'Noises Off', a play which, as it happens we actually saw (see 13th January 2012 in the other place). So, in brief...

Zanni (the Italian nickname for Giovanni) can refer to either the character servant of the Commedia dell’arte or various stereotypical servant characters of the same genre. The character of Zanni was an older poor man who was the hired servant of another character, typically Pantalone. Later, the character fell into disuse and the word “zanni” came to encompass all comic servant characters including Harlequin or Arlecchino, Brighella, Coviello, Pedrolino, Pulcinella, Pierrot, and Trivelino.

Pantalone (Pants) is a stock character, one of the vecchi - or “old men”. He is a miserly and often lecherous character who usually hails from Venice. Traditional actions and comic pratfalls for Pantalone are commonplace, and include Pantalone has a heart attack and his servant attempts to save him by various means and Pantalone is knocked over and has to be helped up.

Il Dottore (The Doctor) is another stock character from the “vecchi” category. His function in a scenario is to be an obstacle to the young lovers. Il Dottore is usually angry and intrusive. He doesn’t listen to anyone else, and claims to know about everything about medicine and law. He is very rich, generally with “old” family money. This makes him pompous and hard to argue with. He makes many cruel jokes about the opposite sex. An obese man, he enjoys drinking and eating to excess.

Il Capitano (The Captain) uses bravado and excessive manliness to cover the fact that he is really a coward. A foreigner, he is mostly portrayed as a Spaniard, this because most of Renaissance Italy was under Spanish control. Il Capitano often makes up elaborate tales of war and bravery, that no one around him believes. He is also very greedy and would sell his loyalty to the highest bidder.

Columbina (Little Dove) is a comic servant to the young Inamorata (see below). She is dressed in rags, but looks appropriate enough to be a hired servant. Occasionally called Arlecchina, she wears heavy makeup around her eyes and carries a tambourine which she could use to fend off the amorous advances of lecherous men. She was often the smartest character on stage. Columbina would help her mistress the Inamorata win her true love by tricking her father (Pantalone). She is a flirtatious and sassy character, but never lacks good judgment.

Pulcinella, often called Punch or Punchinello in English, was well known for his long nose which looked like a beak. In Latin, the term was a pullus gallinaceus, which led to the word “Pulliciniello” and “Pulcinella”.

Scaramuccia, aka Scaramouche, is a clown character who wears a black mask and black trousers, shirt and hat. The name derives from the Italian “scaramuccia” meaning “skirmish”. Usually a boastful buffoon, Scaramouche is one of the characters in the Punch and Judy puppet shows. In some scenarios, he owns a Dog, which is another stock character. During performances, Punch usually hits Scaramouche, causing his head to come off of his shoulders. Because of this, the term “scaramouche” has become associated with a class of puppets with extendable necks.

Tartaglia is a minor character who is short sighted and with a terrible stutter. His social status varies quite often - he can be a bailiff, lawyer, notary or chemist.

The Innamorati. The young male and female lovers. These consisted of several characters: Isabella, Lelio, Flavio and Vittoria. Since there are so many more of them their characters were never fully developed, but they are typically featured in some sort of romantic entanglement, often alongside Pantalone.

Clearly not quite right as we have nine rather than the magic seven characters, a number which both brings good luck and is affordable. Need to sort that out. Then, the fit with 'Noises Off' not being that clear to me and as I don't think that the episode of 'Poirot' which uses the characters is really relevant, I think the next step should be to see how all this plays against 'Midsomer Murders', which series does, I think, use a repertoire of stock characters to go with its repertoire of stock actors and actresses. In the meantime, with thanks to Samantha Starr.

PS: a second visit to 'Los Amigos' today (see 2nd January for previous visit). Two excellent bacon sandwiches for the two of us, with one and one half falling to my share. Bread not quite packaged sliced, whatever the Guardian cookery page might say in its favour for these particular purposes. BH rather liked her banana milkshake too, something I did not care to try myself.