The Commedia Dell'arte

I've lately become very interested in the Commedia dell'arte, which began with certain commedic stock characters of the ancient Roman theatre and reached its zenith in the 17th and 18th Centuries. The humour of the commedia was satiric and ribald filled with bombasts and buffons, sly, lazy servants, ignorant doctors and inamorata. Remnants of the Commedia carried into the early 20th Century with the films of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. There's something of a revival going on today and if you're fortunate enough to live near a major metropolis you might be fortunate enough to see a Commedia production from one of the numerous troupes.

Here's a nifty site on the Commedia and here's a lengthy article on the characters, the plots and the general history of the Commedia