1. Commedia Dell Arte
The Art of Comedy

2. Vocabulary battacio: Slap stick. Carried by Arlecchino.
battute: Set dialogue that always happens between two specific characters.
burla: Improvised comic bit or practical joke done by the servants, often involving 2 actors.
innamorati: The lovers. These were unmasked characters. Males are innamorato, females are innamorata.
scenario: The outline of the play or scene.
stock characters: Commedia characters are set and never change from play to play. They follow the same set of personality quirks, gestures, movements, masks and costumes regardless of who plays them.
vecchio: The masters, usually old men.

3. Magnifico
He is the leader of the city and looks down upon everyone else.
He looks on others with a turned down nose.
Leads his walk with his head/nose

4. Pantalone He is an old merchant always wanting more…usually money.
He is physically young:
Hands: to count his money
Neck: to watch his back
Feet: to celebrate
His walk is lead with his chin and knees, with a bent back

5. Dottore was a caricature of learning—pompous and fraudulent.
He leads with his big belly
He has so much knowledge that he has to share it all of the time
He is slow moving, like a cow

6. 2nd Actor and Actress Children of Pantalone or Dottore
Well educated and wealthy
Young and pretty
In love with being in love
Not wise in the world, not street smart

7. Ill Captaino A caricature of the professional soldier
bold, swaggering, but cowardly
Leads with his chest
Walks like a big man, but will run away from a fight

8. Brighella Master Servent Sophisticated, tight walk
Takes his job very seriously
Arlecchino‘s “master”
Sophisticated, tight walk
Will do anything for money
What is in it for him

9. Arlecchino
acrobat and a wit, childlike and amorous. He wore a cat–like mask and motley colored clothes and carried a bat or wooden sword.
Also named Harlequin

10. Columbina She is Harlequin's wife a comic servant
She was also known to wear heavy makeup around her eyes and carry a tambourine which she could use to fend off the amorous advances of Pantalone.
She is very smart and can manipulate people into getting what she wants

11. Zanni The servants Bird like walk Very curious Wants to please
Hungry and poor

12. Lazzi or Lazzo
A physical comic bit, or joke, in the middle of the play unrelated to the plot.
Each actor would have a number of lazzi jokes or movements
acrobatic, exaggerated, and used to keep the audiences attention.