The first Italian actors wore masks—­objections have been raised against their use.  Signorelli shows the inferiority of the moderns in deviating from the moveable or rather double masks of antiquity, by which the actor could vary the artificial face at pleasure.  The mask has had its advocates, for some advantages it possesses over the naked face; a mask aggravates the features, and gives a more determined expression to the comic character; an important effect among this fantastical group.[41]

The HARLEQUIN in the Italian theatre has passed through all the vicissitudes of fortune.  At first he was a true representative of the ancient Mime, but afterwards degenerated into a booby and a gourmand, the perpetual butt for a sharp-witted fellow, his companion, called Brighella; the knife and the whetstone.  Harlequin, under the reforming hand of Goldoni, became a child of nature, the delight of his country; and he has commemorated the historical character of the great Harlequin Sacchi.  It may serve the reader to correct his notions of one, from the absurd pretender with us who has usurped the title.  “Sacchi possessed a lively and brilliant imagination.  While other Harlequins merely repeated themselves, Sacchi, who always adhered to the essence of the play, contrived to give an air of freshness to the piece by his new sallies and unexpected repartees.  His comic traits and his jests were neither taken from the language of the lower orders, nor that of the comedians.  He levied contributions on comic authors, on poets, orators, and philosophers; and in his impromptus they often discovered the thoughts of Seneca, Cicero, or Montaigne.  He possessed the art of appropriating the remains of these great men to himself, and allying them to the simplicity of the blockhead; so that the same proposition which was admired in a serious author, became highly ridiculous in the mouth of this excellent actor."[42] In France Harlequin was improved into a wit, and even converted into a moralist; he is the graceful hero of Florian’s charming compositions, which please even in the closet.  “This imaginary being, invented by the Italians, and adopted by the French,” says the ingenious Goldoni, “has the exclusive right of uniting naivete with finesse, and no one ever surpassed Florian in the delineation of this amphibious character.  He has even contrived to impart sentiment, passion, and morality to his pieces."[43] Harlequin must be modelled as a national character, the creature of manners; and thus the history of such a Harlequin might be that of the age and of the people, whose genius he ought to represent.