Portal:Harlequinade
Harlequinade is a British comic theatrical genre, defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "that part of a pantomime in which the harlequin and clown play the principal parts". It developed in England between the 17th and mid-19th centuries. It was originally a slapstick adaptation or variant of the Commedia dell'arte, which originated in Italy and reached its apogee there in the 16th and 17th centuries. The story of the Harlequinade revolves around a comic incident in the lives of its five main characters: Harlequin, who loves Columbine; Columbine's greedy and foolish father Pantaloon (evolved from the character Pantalone), who tries to separate the lovers in league with the mischievous Clown; and the servant, Pierrot, usually involving chaotic chase scenes with a bumbling policeman.
Fictional works[edit]
- Harlequin and Mother Goose (1806) by Thomas John Dibdin
- Harlequin and the Fairy's Dilemma (1904) by W. S. Gilbert
- Harlequin (1902), poem by Guy Wetmore Carryl
- Five Russian plays with one from the Ukrainian/A Merry Death, a Harlequonade, by Nicholas Evréinov (1916)