SOURCE: Duchartre, Pierre Louis. “Women of the Commedia dell'Arte.” In The Italian Comedy: The Improvisation, Scenarios, Lives, Attributes, Portraits, and Masks of the Illustrious Characters of the Commedia dell'Arte. 1929. Reprint. Translated by Randolph T. Weaver, pp. 262-84. New York: Dover Publications, 1966.

In the following essay, Duchartre outlines the major female roles of the commedia dell'arte: the Cantarina, or songstress; the Inamorata; and the Soubrette, or serving-girl.

Their very names are redolent of dreams, the gracious names of these Inamoratas, some of whom were tender, some false, some modest servant-maids, and some wantons.

To mention them is to evoke the glamorous Italy of bygone days, the Italy of Casanova or of President de Brosses,¹ for they recall old chronicles of Renaissance splendours in which the charm and loveliness of these women of the Italian comedy have been captured and preserved for ever. Their gentle memories bear us far away...