ABSTRACT
In Romeo and Juliet another subversion of Italian carnivalesque is found in Mercutio's 'Queen Mab' soliloquy just before the group of friends and cousins enters Capulet's house. Shakespeare's representation of Italy and performance of scenes borrowed from Italian popular drama should include carnivalesque elements with masques, torches, fifes and drums, cross-dressing as well as more subversive aspects such as those concerned with sexuality and satire. As Richard Andrews notes, The Merchant of Venice comes out as a comedy which assembles a notably higher number of moveable dramaturgical theatregrams, often with links to material in Italian plays and scenarios. As in Julia's monologue, the carnivalesque image is turned into a complex signifier, at the heart of the play's 'discordia concors', where the inclusion of difference and otherness simultaneously connotes harmony and destruction. Shakespeare's variation on the English tradition of the 'domestic tragedy' to which a new version of Italian commedia dell'arte is being added.
