ABSTRACT
In the decades before 1600, English travelers saw commedia players in action and marveled at their rhetorical range and quick wit. In 1582, the poet George Whetstone was impressed by the comedians of Ravenna, who could speak on demand on such abstractions as Inconstancie, Dissimulation, Ignorance, Chastytie, and Beautie' and devise extempore actions to express those themes. Significantly, the Italianate 'plotte' names Burbage and other actors who, along with Shakespeare, became the Lord Chamberlain's Men in 1594, assuring us that his company, if not Shakespeare himself, had experience with popular commedia techniques. It was in this Italianate milieu that Shakespeare served his apprenticeship and absorbed its lessons, particularly in the early comedies. Hamlet, perhaps more than any of the tragedies, reveals the commedia roots of Shakespeare's creativity. The visual parody is reinforced by Polonius' garrulous introduction to the visiting comici.
