Italian «erudite comedy» in the sociocultural and linguistic context of the 16th century

Kuteko Dar'ya Andreevna ORCID: 0000-0002-0918-602X Postgraduate of Romance languages department, Philological Faculty, Lomonosov Moscow State University 119991, Russia, Moscow, Leninskie Gory str., 1, building 51 kuteko_darja@rambler.ru Other publications by this author

Introduction

As M.L. Andreev wrote, "the Italian comedy of the XVI century leaves the impression of diversity, almost enchanting, and monotony, almost depressing. Both impressions are true ... The diversity of Renaissance comedy is embedded in her style and her word – this is the level where she allows herself to be completely free and completely individual" ^{[1, p. 176]}.

Everyone knows about the Italian comedy of masks (commedia dell'arte), but few people know about the origins of this kind of comedy – the so-called "learned comedies" (commedia erudita). Their emergence was led by the appeal of humanists to antiquity, interest in the ancient theater, the first public productions of the plays of Plautus and Terence, carried out by students of the Studium urbis under the direction of Pomponius Leto in the 1470s.

The purpose of this work is to identify the main trends in the formation of the genre of scientific comedy, generalize existing and obtain new data on the development of comic theater: the information can be useful not only from a literary point of view, but also in the field of sociolinguistics. The novelty of the work lies in the material chosen for consideration: earlier comedies often became the subject of literary analysis, but their texts were unfairly ignored by linguists. It is important that in order to form the most complete picture of the Italian language of the XVI century, it is necessary to consider both the linguistic material (directly the texts of comedies) and the socio-cultural context (data on the analyzed genre, information about the biography of comediographers, their level of education), which is one of the fundamental principles of sociolinguistic research.

The origins and features of the "learned comedy"

The name "commedia erudita" ("learned comedy") arose due to the fact that Latin sources were available only to "learned" authors and readers with a sufficient level of education. In this regard, such comedies were usually shown to the secular public, at court, but not in squares.

The conflict in learned comedies was most often a love one: for example, a young man fought for the opportunity to be with his beloved, as a rule, vigilantly guarded by guardians or protected by parents. A faithful servant became the main helper and helper in this struggle. Servants as a whole were assigned a rather important function: during the action they practically did not leave the stage and were the most colorful characters, exponents of the dynamics of everyday life, performing tricks and tricks ^{[2, p. 56]}.

A variety of learned comedies was the comedy of intrigue, in which there were motives for dressing a girl into a young man and vice versa, which we will later see in Shakespeare's comedy "12 night". Despite the fact that the intrigue was complicated, it was repeated from play to play: substituted children, separated brother and sister, love failures of old men and roguish servants were the hallmarks of such comedies.  Frequent were appeals to the bodily bottom and the base desires of people (for this reason, adultery becomes a cross-cutting motive and the subject of ridicule and censure).

Another source of inspiration for the learned comedy, in addition to antiquity, was the novella: this genre brought proximity to real life, the use of live colloquial speech, and also helped to find its own, special, path of development. But despite the fact that the authors of the XVI century sought to bring the conflict as close as possible to modern realities and raise topical issues in comedies, the characters were rather devoid of individuality and represented only types invented by the authors of ancient Roman comedies. Except that new images were sometimes added to the traditional ones, "copied from nature" – for example, a courtesan or a pedant doctor. Also, comediographers of the XVI century came up with a perfect new character, whose task was to perform a prologue at the very beginning of the play in order to attract the attention of the audience, briefly tell about the plot of the comedy and provide valuable information for understanding the play.

A thorough attitude to the theater is also manifested in technical aspects: for example, it was in the XVI century that a curtain appeared, distracting actors from the audience during the intermission and helping not to leave the role for a short break. However, the action did not stop during the intermission – mythological or ancient interludes were popular. They already lacked references to the present and valued above all the maximum orientation to the past ^{[2, p. 89]}.

Comic theater and linguistic situation

The heyday of the comic theater coincides with the gradual rejection of the idea of the equal position of all Italian bulgars, the promotion of the Florentine dialect as a national idiom and the emergence of a hierarchy in which the literary language occupies an incomparably higher position compared to dialects ^{[3, p. 18]}. This linguistic situation is reflected in Renaissance dramaturgy: the use of dialects becomes a vivid means of speech characterization of characters ^{[4, pp. 105-110]}.

            The Italian philosopher and historian Benedetto Croce proposed a special term for the conscious use of dialect features in comedies – "dialettalit? riflessa", contrasting this phenomenon with "spontaneous dialect literature" ("letteratura dialettale spontanea"), that is, works in dialect of earlier periods, when Latin was the literary language, and Italian did not yet have a codified form ^{[5, p. 235]}. The use of the dialect referred to the modern spoken language – it was no coincidence that Niccolo Machiavelli was convinced that the language of the "three crowns" could be used to write documents, but for art (primarily comedy, because naturalness is especially important in comedies) it is not suitable: "since all the faces are presented in a funny way, then the words and expressions they use they should cause laughter, for which they should be taken every single one, without admixture, from the native local dialect, and immediately recognizable" ^{[6, p. 22-23]}. Falsehood at the linguistic level ruins the whole idea of comedy, and it becomes incomprehensible to the viewer. Therefore, the authors often resorted to interspersing dialect in those genres where the use of natural colloquial speech was important from an ideological point of view.

It should be borne in mind that the diglossian situation of the coexistence of literary language and dialect characterized the Italian language throughout its history ^{[7, p. 500]}, however, it is important to understand that the Cinquecento comediographers did not write in dialect in the name of "its protection and glorification", but thanks to dialect inclusions only preserved variability in diamesia (variability through the communication channel – oral or written), diastracy (class stratification) and diatopia (territorial variability) and solved the problem of adequate stylistic transmission of the characters' spoken language.

            In the XVI century, the process of codification and unification of the language leads to the fact that many dialects of Tuscany gradually lose their individual features and originality, becoming more and more similar to Florentine ^{[8, p. 89]}. Thus, according to Pietro Trifone, the Sienese comediographers of the XVI century used "an average Tuscan dialect with separate Sienese inclusions, for the most part not marked as vernacular in any way" ^{[4, p. 110]}. Moreover, this alignment of Tuscan dialects according to the Florentine model was not regulated by the state in any way, was not limited exclusively to the written sphere of use and was not imposed from the outside forcibly, representing a phenomenon of natural language development.

            Information not only about the general trends in the development of comic theater in different regions of Italy, but also about the life of specific authors is very important, since for the most complete representation of the linguistic situation (namely, the characteristics of the socio–communicative system in a certain period of its functioning ^{[9, p. 19]}) it is necessary to take into account sociolinguistic data on its participants – territorial features, regional characteristics, level of education.

Comic theater in the center of Italy

The theater was best developed in the central regions of Italy. Thanks to the "three crowns", Tuscany has become a center of cultural and literary attraction and has remained so for many centuries. An important factor was the prestige of the Tuscan dialect, which was equal to all other regions of Italy. Probably for these reasons, the number of preserved and extant comedies by Italian authors of the central regions is much higher compared to the northern and southern ones. In addition, it was in the center that creative associations and theater troupes were created and developed.

The "Academy of the Stunned" (Accademia degli Intronati) was founded in 1525 by "six noble Sienese" and consisted of representatives of the intellectual elite strata of society. In her program statements, she renounced any political and ideological orientation, which is why her name is connected, expressing the desire of the founders to get away from the hustle and "noise of the world" that shocked all contemporaries, devoting herself to comedies "for relaxation" and the study of language and literature ^{[10, p. 129]}.

The theatrical debut of "Stunned" was the comedy "Gl'ingannati" ("Deceived"), published anonymously in 1531: perhaps not one author, but a whole creative team lies behind anonymity ^{[1, p. 250]}. This is a sitcom that continues the traditions of Plautus. In addition to focusing on antique samples, there are other elements characteristic of the genre of "learned comedy" in "Deceived": the motive of dressing up (to avoid an arranged marriage, the main character Lelia disguises herself as a young man named Fabio and escapes from the monastery in which she was locked by Father Virginio), an extremely complex and confusing love conflict (Fabio-Lelia becomes Flamminio's page, with whom Lelia is in love, and he, in turn, is in love with Isabella and uses Fabio to send her tender letters, but Isabella, unaware of Fabio's true identity, falls in love with him), appeals to the corporeal bottom (numerous and detailed descriptions of love scenes between different couples of lovers, put into the mouths of servants).

The entry into Siena of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1536, the Academy of the Stunned celebrated with the production of Alessandro Piccolomini's comedy "L'amor costante" ("Constancy in love"). The comedy was published in 1540 and was reprinted until 1611. This happened not only and not so much because Piccolomini ("Signor Stordito", that is, "Mr. Stunned", as the author and other writers called themselves) he was one of the founders of the Academy, but because of the great popularity of the production. The plot of "Constancy in Love" is in many ways similar to the comedy "Deceived", which suggests the alleged authorship or at least the involvement of Piccolomini in the collective of its creators. The prologue again acts as a full-fledged hero of the comedy, but, unlike the "Deceived", the first action is preceded not by his monologue, but by the dialogue of the Prologue with the Spaniard. The abundance of languages and adverbs in the text of the comedy is generated by characters belonging to different cultures (for example, the Spanish captain not only speaks Spanish, but is also the bearer of numerous stereotypes attributed to foreign characters), thereby reflecting the Italian sociolinguistic situation of that era.

            Florentine comediographers also represent a fairly large group. Even a member of the famous Medici family Lorenzino (1513-1548) wrote comedies. Of course, for historians and literary critics, Lorenzino is known primarily for the murder of his cousin Alessandro de' Medici (for which Lorenzino would be executed in 1548), as well as the work "Apology", where the political ideas of Niccolo Machiavelli are developed and the intrigues and secrets of Italy of that time are revealed. However, Lorenzino's only play "Aridosia" ("Aridosia", 1535) deserves no less attention: It was staged with great success in Florence – first at the Spedale dei Tessitori, and then at the Palazzo Medici. The text contains all the characteristics of the genre of "learned comedy", however, it is noteworthy that the plot of the comedy has not one, but three ancient sources: with Plautus' comedies "Pot" and "Brownie", the image of a robbed miser and the situation with the spirits who allegedly stole the money hidden by him, and from the comedy of Terence "Brothers" Medici borrows heroes-brothers who received different upbringing. It is curious that later, under the influence of the Medici, many of his contemporaries will begin to write in Italian, and not in Latin: for example, the poet Angelo Poliziano, the founder of the Platonic Academy Marsilio Ficino, the humanist thinker Cristoforo Landino ^{[12, p. 80]}.

The famous Florentine philosopher, politician and author of military theoretical works Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) also wrote comedies. The comedy "Mandragora" ("La Mandragola", 1514) is considered an example not only of "learned comedy", but also the first example of a comedy of characters — a kind of comedy in which the source of comedy is hyperbolized vices. So, in "Mandragora", the doctor of law Messer Nich measures his own merits exclusively with cash, and it is said about the hypocritical monk Timoteo, "get to know one of them, and you will know all of them."

 In addition, Machiavelli's innovation lies in constant references to modernity: for example, the character of the play Kallimako claims that in the tenth year of his stay in Paris, Charles VIII's Italian campaign against Italy began and the war has been dragging on for 20 years (hence, the comedy dates back to 1514). The importance and popularity of "Mandrake" is so high that in the XXI century the comedy is put on the stage of world stages, and several films have been made based on the work.

It is important to note that Nicolo Machiavelli took an active part in the so-called "language dispute" and was convinced that in matters of language rationing, one should be equal to the Florentine dialect, since the territorial base of the norm prevails over any other.

Another famous comedian (in particular, the unfinished translation of his comedy "Artzigogolo" belongs to A.N. Ostrovsky), who lived and worked in Florence in the XVI century, is Antonio Grazzini (1503-1584). In 1540, together with Giovanni Mazzuoli, Grazzini founded the Accademia degli Umidi, which was later renamed the Florentine Academy. In 1582 Grazzini left it to take part in the creation of the Accademia della Cruca together with Leonardo Salviati.

First of all, Grazzini became famous for the short story book "Evening Meals" ("Le Cene", 1547), written in the tradition of the "Decameron", but he was also a prolific playwright – the author of seven comedies, among which the most successful was "The Witch" ("La Strega", 1582). Its innovation lies in the prologue: if usually the prologue of a learned comedy briefly describes its plot and anticipates the events to be discussed, the prologue of "The Witch" is dedicated to ridiculing the mechanical transfer of ancient situations into modern realities. The language of comedy is also interesting: the text uses many expressions characteristic of Florence.

There is quite little information about one of the most famous Roman comediographers Francesco Belo ("Il pedante", "Il beco"): the years of the author's life are unknown, the oppositional nature of his work can be explained not only and not so much by ideological choice as by social reasons – Belo remained an outcast all his life, was not a member of the intelligentsia and he did not have access to the spheres and areas that generate culture solely for the sake of prestige ^{[1, p. 164]}.

"The Pedant" ("Il Pedante") is a comedy by Francesco Belo, written in 1529. The main message of the comedy is the criticism of social institutions through the criticism of culture directly related to them. Its bearer is the main character of the work – the first image of a pedant in Italian comedy.

Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533) devoted himself to the study of classical literature and easily wrote poetry in Latin. Thanks to his talent, Ariosto became a court comedian in Ferrara. The subject of ridicule in his comedies became the vices of his contemporaries — an excessive passion for profit or for carnal pleasures (while the Duke of Ferrara always remained beyond criticism). 

It is important that it was thanks to Ariosto's comedies, for example, the comedy "The Warlock" ("Il Negromante", 1520), that the traditional structure for the comic theater was established and his creations served as a kind of canon for subsequent works — five-act, with thoughtful decorations and reference to Latin samples ^{[5, p. 411]}.

Comic Theater in northern Italy

            In the XVI century, the north of Italy was the largest center of book printing: Venice produced more books than all other Italian cities combined.  It was there that the most important printing houses were located, in particular the publishing house of Alda Manuzia. He gained fame through the release of "pocket" books typed in small print (italics), and also introduced a publishing brand to combat counterfeiting of his publications. It is curious that both the emblem (the image of a dolphin wrapping an anchor) and the motto of the printing house ("Festina lente", which means "Hurry slowly") Manutius borrowed from the reverse of a Roman coin presented to him by Pietro Bembo ^{[5, p. 398]}.

First of all, Manutius sought to preserve ancient Greek literature, so he published ancient Greek authors (Aristotle, Aristophanes, Thucydides, Sophocles, Euripides, Plutarch, Plato, and many others), but almost all comedies of the XVI century also ended up in the Venetian printing house sooner or later ^{[13, p. 411]}. However, in addition to publishers, there were also many talented authors in the north.

            For example, the writer, critic and playwright Lodovico Dolce (1508-1568), who belonged to a noble but impoverished Venetian family. Unfortunately, accurate biographical data about Dolce's life has not been preserved. Presumably, having been educated at the University of Padua, Dolce joined the famous publisher Giolitto de Ferrari, for whom he edited articles and works by modern authors, as well as translated ancient thinkers: Virgil, Horace, Cicero. Dolce's special attention was drawn to the problems of fine art: he closely communicated with Pietro Aretino, compared Florentine and Venetian schools of painting, published works on art (the most significant is considered to be "Dialogo della pittura intitolato l'aretino" / Dialogue on painting dedicated to Aretino), but also reflected on the vernacular ("Osservationi nella volgar lingua" / Observations on the vernacular) and he wrote treatises, chivalric novels, tragedies and comedies ^{[5, pp. 310-311]}. Thus, the comedy "The Young Man" ("Il ragazzo", 1541) corresponds to all the main characteristics of the genre of "learned comedy". In the play there is an image of an old man in love (Messer Cesare), a love conflict (Messer Cesare suffers from love for his son's beloved), a motive for dressing up (Messer Cesare adjusts so that a young man similar to his beloved comes to his son), through which modern Dolce society is ridiculed and censured.

Pietro Aretino himself wrote comedies (1492-1556). Despite the fact that the creator's native region is Tuscany, and in his youth the comedian lived in Rome for some time, the most fruitful period of his work was the Venetian. Aretino was one of the most famous authors of the XVI century, who earned fame primarily for his scathing satires and pamphlets ridiculing the papal clergy. In 1559, all the works of Pietro Aretino were included in the Index of Forbidden Books, and the writer himself was accused of heresy. The more interesting are the works published after the author's death: for example, the comedy "Talanta" ("La Talanta", 1588) ^{[13, p. 275]}. Probably, despite the fact that appeals to the corporeal bottom are characteristic of learned comedies, and the plot of the play is inspired by the comedy of Terence "The Eunuch", the topics raised in "Talent" turned out to be too scandalous for their time: it is enough that the main character, after whom the play is named, became a courtesan, talking about that he has no feelings for any of his four lovers, identifying love and business relationships. The language of comedy is of particular interest because, following the need to write about everyday situations and interpersonal relationships, Aretino used an idiom as close to colloquial as possible. 

Comic theater in the south of Italy

In the XVI century, the south of Italy and, in particular, Naples were not visited by large and well-known theatrical communities throughout the country. It was rather the opposite: if a Neapolitan actor achieved success in his hometown, he went to conquer the northern cities ^{[2, p. 112]}. For example, Fabrizio de Fornaris (1550-1637), an actor who played the role of Captain Coccodrillo, made a career. He received recognition in Naples, after which he accepted an offer from the troupe of Confidantes (compagnia dei Confidenti) to go to Paris, where he became one of the most beloved actors by both the public and critics.

However, de Fornaris became famous not only as an actor, but also as a comedian. So, in 1585, he published the play "Angelica" ("L'Angelica", 1585), which was staged at the residence of the Duke of Joyeuse. The main heroine of the comedy is a Venetian woman whose father and brother were abducted by the Turks. Angelica and the young Neapolitan Fulvio love each other, but her mother promised to marry Angelica to Captain Coccodrillo. It is curious that the Captain is explained in Spanish, and not in Tuscan, as it was in Giambattista della Porta's comedy Olympia, which served as the basis for de Fornaris' work.

From the sources available to us, the comic theater of the southern regions of Italy is represented primarily by Neapolitan authors who were not only humanists and comediographers, as in the case of de Fornaris, but primarily occultists, philosophers, alchemists and mystics.

Just such authors include one of the most mysterious heroes of the Middle Ages Giambattista della Porta (1535-1615). Throughout Europe, della Porta collects the secret knowledge of scientists and finds the rarest books in the largest libraries of his time, organizes the first physical academy in Naples – the "Academy of Secrets of Nature" (Academia Secretorum Naturae), which, however, in the year of its creation is abolished and banned by the Pope, compiles a fairly detailed description of the camera obscura, which became the predecessor a modern camera, writes a number of works on agriculture, and also puts numerous physical experiments.

Alchemical experiments and interest in magic lead to the fact that the Holy Inquisition begins an investigation against the researcher. Fortunately, the investigation ends without any consequences for the scientist, but after that della Porta devotes more and more time to literary and dramatic activities, in particular, writes comedies ^{[5, p. 648]}.

"The Maid" ("La Fantesca", 1592) is considered one of the most famous comedies of della Porta. In the spirit of the era, the play imitates Latin comedy: disguises, deceptions, puns are built around Essandro (aka Fioretta) and his servant Panurga, who seek to prevent their beloved Cleria from marrying another. However, in della Porta we see more elaborate and complex characters than in ancient plays, and, of course, a very modern language used according to the Tuscan model.

Another mysterious and no less famous character is the Dominican monk and philosopher Giordano Bruno (1548-1600). Because of his fascination with the occult, he incurred suspicion of heresy and was forced to leave Italy. Subsequently, returning to his homeland, Bruno was arrested in Venice and handed over to the Inquisition court in Rome. Refusing to renounce his creed, after seven years of imprisonment, Bruno was burned.

Giordano Bruno left a rich legacy of works on a variety of topics, but only one comedy, "The Candlestick" ("Il Candelaio", 1582), on the title page of which he called himself "An Academician of none of the Academies, nicknamed Boring, cheerful in sadness, sad in joy." The work on the play was carried out in France, where Bruno hoped to find a scientific community different from Italy, but the situation was similar to the Kingdom of Naples. Warlocks and astrologers were held in high esteem, influential members of the society dreamed of finding out the secrets of magic and were actively interested in alchemy. Therefore, in the comedy, Bruno depicted the "Neapolitan street" familiar from childhood (it is no coincidence that this phrase is another translation of the name) and highlighted topics relevant to modern times: love, alchemy and pedantry ^{[2, p. 163]}.

Of particular note is how Bruno ridicules and denounces pedantry in the person of the head of the gymnasium and a doctor of many sciences ("philosophy and theology, medicine and all rights") Manfurio. The speech of this professor of ancient literature is a mixture of Italian and Latin (besides full of quotations and allusions to ancient authors), which ordinary Neapolitans understand with great difficulty. Even when money is snatched from Manfurio, he does not shout "robbed", because a highly educated person should avoid everyday words. Bruno shows the utter inconsistency of that book learning, which has no use except to give an imaginary reason to put oneself above other, less educated people ^{[15, p. 347]}.

The language of comedy

The language of comedies is also valuable material for research, since it imitates spontaneous oral speech in order to create a comic effect ^{[16, p. 74]}. This phenomenon was called parlato-recitato – the term was proposed by Giovanni Nencioni to denote the imitation of colloquial speech in stage performance ^{[17, p. 151]}. In addition, among the characters of comedies, representatives of almost all segments of the population can be found, so the reader does not encounter a refined version of Italian, which was not actually used in everyday communication situations ^{[18, p. 979]}. Accordingly, the comedies of the XVI century are almost the only source that allows us to analyze the colloquial speech of five centuries ago.

It is curious that already in the texts of the XVI century, one can find phenomena that are considered innovative at the modern stage of language development. The following features can be distinguished, which are found in all comedies, regardless of the region native to the author of the work:

1). the use of pronouns lui/lei/loro in the syntactic function of the subject:

Mi vien voglia di far quel conto di lui che lui fa di me. ^{[19, p. 73]} / I want to repay him in the same way that he will repay me.

Ma ricordatevi che lei e donna ed e bella e giovane ... ^{[20, p. 133]} / But remember that she is a woman, and she is beautiful and young.

bene che loro mi potessero fare. ^{[19, p. 12]} / it's good that they were able to do to me.

2). the use of an unstressed indirect pronoungli in the meaning of the indirect complement of 3 persons of the masculine and feminine gender, i.e. capable of replacing the constructions a lui, a lei, a loro:

Messer Giannino. <...> E, se trovi lo Sguazza, gli dirai dove io sia. ^{[19, p. 13]} / Messer Giannino. <...> And if you find Sguazza, tell him where I am.

Se io gli prometto ci? ch'ella vole, noi stiam conci! ^{[20, p. 91]} / If I promise her what she wants, we will stick together!

Ma voi mi parete uno di quelli che aspetta che il confessore gli addimandi i peccati. ^{[19, c. 214]} / But you seem to me to be the kind of person who is waiting for the confessor to start asking them about their sins.

3). a double dative, namely, a combination of stressed and unstressed forms of an indirect pronoun:

Sguazza. <...> Che diavolo mi fa, a me, questo? ^{[19, p. 53]} / Sguazza. <...> What the hell is this doing to me?

4). simplification of the three-part system of demonstrative pronouns characteristic of Tuscany and the spread of truncated forms'sto and ’sta:

voio andare de sto maestro... ^{[20, p. 125]} / I want to go and talk to this gentleman.

Mi s? tanto innamorao in sta donna mia vicina... ^{[20, p. 149]} / I fell so much in love with this woman next to me…

5). the multifunctional union che, acting as a universal connector and introducing target, causal and a number of other adjuncts, as well as replacing constructions with prepositions and pronouns – di cui, del quale, dei quali, etc. ^{[21, p. 70]}:

Essandro. Entratevene, che vostro padre non vi vegga ^{[22, c. 13]} / Essandro. Come in, so that your father does not see you.

Curzio. <…> Ma non curare, che gli trattono bene! ^{[20, c. 91]} / Curzio. <…> But don't worry, because he's being treated well! 

6). the implementation of secondary functions of the times, for example, the appearance of an imperfect shade of the meaning of politeness – the so-called Imperfetto di cortesia:

Malfatto. Volevo toccare un po’ qua dentro ^{[20, p. 103]} / Malfatto. I'd like to touch a little bit inside here.

7). replacement of the conjunctiva with an indicative:

Vergilio. Se gli ? cos?, dubito che cotesto Lorenzino ci ar? fatto su disegno per s? ^{[19, c. 50]} / Virgilio. If so, I doubt if this Lorenzino made a drawing for himself.

8). numerous emphatic constructions (e.g., dislocazione a destra, dislocazione a sinistra, frase scissa):

Messer Ligdonio. <…> Dimme: credi le piacer? a Margarita? ^{[19, c. 18]} / Messer Ligdonio. <…> Tell me: do you think Margarita will like it?

Belcolore. Di che ve ne ridete voi? ^{[23, p. 275]} / Belcolore. Well, what are you laughing at?

With esare, O Lucido, quanto ? che tu sei qui? ^{[24, p. 144]} / O Lucido, how long have you been here?

9). an abundance of discursive markers (that is, units that delimit and structure individual parts of the discourse, express the speaker's attitude and contribute to ensuring logical intra-textual communication ^{[25, p. 1]}):

Ch? non lo dici, adunque? ^{[20, c. 127]} / Why don't you say it then, well?

Narticoforo. Ascolta, che non so come puoi tu vivere senza saper questo ^{[22, c. 51]} / Narticoforo. Listen, I do not know how you live without knowing it. 

10). the pronominal actualizer ci is a desemantized particle that loses its original locative meaning, but emphasizes the connection of the message with the current moment and increases the degree of emotional involvement:

Fulvia. E che ci potevo fare? ^{[20, p. 93]} / Fulvia. And what could I do? 

11). active pronominalization of verbs using ci and ne particles:

Panurgo. Troppo tempo ci vuole ^{[22, p. 39]} / Panurgo. It takes too much time.

Ceca. <...> El bello ? che poi se ne vanno come se gli fosse un grande onore ^{[20, p. 95]} / Check. <...> It's great that they leave as if it's a great honor for them.

12). the use of the partitive article with a preposition:

Agnoletta. <...> E io ancora ho avuto pratica con degli altri, e so quanto pesano a ponto a ponto. ^{[19, p. 28]} / Agnoletta. <...> And I've been around all sorts of people and I know how they sit in their livers.

Thus, the Italian "scientists" comedies of the XVI century are a source of information about the linguistic norm and colloquial usage of the XVI century, which is reflected in the imitation of colloquial speech in stage performance. These phenomena are not dialectally marked, since they occur in the texts of comedies of natives of both central, northern and southern regions. However, the phenomena under consideration belong mainly to representatives of the lower social strata: servants, parasites, wet nurses. Consequently, the analyzed contexts give reason to believe that, firstly, the phenomena undergoing standardization at the present stage of the development of the Italian language have existed in the language of informal communication of native speakers in different regions of Italy for more than 500 years, and, secondly, at this stage the Italian language is undergoing a process of re-standardization, in which phenomena that were previously characteristic of reduced usage are normalized (biographies of comediographers demonstrate that all the creators possessed a sufficient level of education to stop using various language registers as a means of artistic expression and make colloquial replicas one of the ways of characterization of characters). 

Conclusion

By the middle of the XVI century, "learned comedies" in the productions of amateur intellectuals began to give way to the professional improvisational theater "Commedia dell'arte": the influence of "learned comedy" gave impetus to its development, widespread throughout Europe and beyond, as well as its popularity for many centuries. In addition, by developing the national language, Renaissance theatrical art has made an important contribution to the formation of the national identity of the Italian people.

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