ABSTRACT
During the first phase of his dramatic career, when he was writing mainly for the Fairs, Piron also completed three works for the Italians. The nature of the rivalries between the various theatres and their tendency to steal ideas from each other mean that none of these groups of characters is unique either to the Fairs or to the Italians. Even though the Fair repertoire grew from that of the Old Italian theatre, the Italians had already made their own borrowings from their French contemporaries. The use of mythological characters is also a feature common to both traditions, and they appear in various ways. They are an inevitable feature of parodies, since they are the stock in trade of both the tragedies and the operas that are the targets of such works, but both theatres also make free use of burlesque versions of mythological subjects in works that are not targeting specific contemporary adaptations.
