ABSTRACT
Professional actresses routinely featured in the performances of early modern Italian and French travelling troupes, many of whose female roles were played by women.During the sixteenth century, the commedia dell’arte established the international fame of actresses such as Isabella Andreini, Vincenza Armani and Vittoria Piisimi. Valeran le Comte, whose troupes had included actresses since at least 1592, led a mixed-gender troupe to the Low Countries in 1613, as did Isabel Legendre and her husband André du Soleil in 1617.1 Although the origins of the earliest of these actresses are disputed and varied, by the time women became established on Italian and French stages, most of them were born or married into established acting troupes. As noted above, female performers were far from unknown elsewhere in Europe. However, the systematic introduction of actresses into dramatic performances on German-speaking stages was pioneered by visiting English troupes, and the first such troupe to employ them was George Jolly’s. Jolly led troupes throughout the German-speaking regions in the midseventeenth century, at a time when most English actors had permanently returned to Britain. Exceptions include a troupe of sixteen, led by George Bentley to Danzig in 1670.2 In the 1650s, Jolly toured Germany staging plays featuring actresses, rather than boys or men, in the female roles. Here, the records concerning these women are re-examined, in order to gain further insights into their identities and performances.
