ABSTRACT
In sixteenth-century English plays, playwrights and actors transitioned from the portrayal of medieval stock characters to representational characters. In the early sixteenth century, commedia dell'arte developed its distinctive style during the age of Mannerism. The Mannerist style dovetails with choreographer John M. Wilson's "Hieratic Gestures" theory from 1981. During the sixteenth century, the Italian clown and buffone became increasingly differentiated. The buffone could incorporate an animalistic version of himself into the role. Elizabethan writers frequently extended images through literary and poetic devices. Commedia dell'arte players infused the verbal banquet with wordplay and physical theatre. Early commedia dell'arte companies included master–servant duos, first and second clowns, and eloquent and acrobatic actresses. Shakespeare's allusion to the commedia dell'arte masks of I Gelosi, I Confidenti, and the Drusiano Martinellis makes a link between commedia dell'arte and Shakespeare visible and viable. Drusiano Martinelli was the only named commedia dell'arte player on English tours of Italian players in the 1570s.
