Befriending the Commedia Dell’arte of Flaminio Scala: The Comic Scenarios by Natalie Crohn Schmitt (review)

If “befriending” means anything in scholarship, it must be more than just cozying up to a good read on a Sunday afternoon; other values come into play. Natalie Crohn Schmitt’s self-described task in befriending Flaminio Scala’s comic scenarios was to combine a “close reading” of these theatrical skeletons with a liberal dose of humanities scholarship in order to “redefine many of the Scala scenarios as carefully crafted works of art that are rich in cultural history” (xii).

Does this sound like the work of a dramaturg? If so, it should come as no surprise. Clarifying the historical and cultural dimensions of a representative selection of Scala scenarios is precisely what Schmitt’s agenda seems to be. When it comes to early theatre there is always a need for sound commentary, both cultural and practical. The author has responded well to that need.

The fact that only four of the fifty Scala scenarios have been thoroughly explained or elucidated in this edition (Days 6, 21, 25, 36) may be disappointing to those who hope for everything: completeness of coverage, as well as meaningful depth. But in the author’s defense she clearly knows and references the other scenarios liberally in making her points. For example, regarding the place of the son in the household, she writes: “With the exception of the time he might spend travelling for his father’s business (as in Days 8, 9, 19, 32, 34) or away at a university, receiving an expensive education (as in Days 11, 13, 26), the son lived at home” (28). These pointers reassure us of Schmitt’s knowledge of the entire Scala repertoire.

The book’s subtitle “The Comic Scenarios” could easily be misunderstood, since the majority of Scala’s fifty scenarios are nothing if not comedies; there are forty of them, not just four. But from the viewpoint of access to the entire Scala legacy, both in Italian and English translation, enough breadth of coverage already exists to satisfy most theatrical needs. Breadth is no longer the point; depth is what is needed now. Consider the wealth of source material currently available in Italian: the first edition, Il teatro delle favole rappresentative . . . (1611), is now online as a free Google book; a modern (1976) critical edition by Ferruccio Marotti of the same complete text, although long out of print, is still widely available in university libraries.

When it comes to English translations of the Scala material Henry Salerno’s was first, Scenarios of the Commedia dell’arte . . . (1967), now in its fourth reprinting. While not universally applauded for its accuracy, it still covers the gamut—all fifty scenarios. The noted Italianist Richard Andrews published new translations of thirty of what he regards as the best of them in The Commedia dell’Arte of Flaminio Scala: A Translation and Analysis (2008), and includes the four comedies in the Schmitt edition: “The Jealous Old Man” (Day 6), “The Fake Sorcerer” (Day 21), “The Jealous Isabella” (Day 25), and “Isabella [the] Astrologer” (Day 36). The translations by David Harwell in the Schmitt book compare favorably to those by Andrews.

An example of Schmitt’s methodology might be helpful. What follows is a typical interlinear comment in “The Jealous Isabella” (act 1, scenes 3–4). First, we have a reminder of what the sparse original text (in the translation by Andrews) looks like:

3. Servants with lighted torches, followed by

4. Flavio escorting Flaminia, both laughing . . . Schmitt amplifies the same scenes—indeed, all the scenes in the four chosen scenarios—by interspersing commentary. She puts plausible flesh on the bones of the original, as this excerpt illustrates:

3. SERVANTS with lighted torches, followed by The servants are evidently present to maintain the idea that it is night and that Flavio and Orazio are gentlemen, Orazio wealthy enough to be an acceptable marriage partner for Isabella. They do not appear again and are...