SOURCE: Erenstein, Robert L. “Satire and the Commedia dell'Arte.” In Western Popular Theatre, edited by David Mayer and Kenneth Richards, pp. 29-47. London: Methuen, 1977.

In the following essay, Erenstein looks at the commedia dell'arte as a pan-European phenomenon and suggests that as farcical humor shifted gradually to satire the commedia lost much of its original character.

No one can study the commedia dell'arte for long without encountering the word satire. Many scholars apparently find the two notions related. Constant Mic, equating caricature with satire, says that Italian commedia dell'arte actors would habitually introduce into their performances unmistakable satirical allusions to real-life situations, persons or issues¹. In his quest for the origins of the commedia dell'arte Toschi points out—among other things—the influence of medieval carnival satire on the new genre², while Kindermann holds that quite soon after the rise of the commedia dell'arte the prevailing interest in...