Pantalone (Versace Provolone de Bisognosi) - Shane
Character Name
Pantalone Di Bisognosi. Pantalone's name has given a good deal of
trouble to students; he was quite certainly not christend after St.
Pantaleone... A modern derivant from the Greek, pantos-elemon seems
still less likely...The name Pantalone was semi-proverbial by 1658,
whatever its derivation. -Smith
Sometimes he is Pantalone de Bisognosi, literally "of the needy",
presumably meaning that you have to be pretty hard up to regard him as
well-off. - Rudlin
...even his name was a jibe. It seems orginally to have come from the
phrase pianta leone, "to plant the lion." -Duchartre
Status
Top of pecking order. Money. Controls finance in the character world
of Commedia is therefore his orders are usually obeyed. Employer,
Father, Godfather. – Rudlin
Costume
Dark colors of black, grey and red. Dynamic Pantaloons, red tights and
yellow turkish slippers. – Tim Shane
Always preserved the ancient Venetian costume; the black dress and
woolen bonnet are still worn in Venice; and the red underwaist and
breeches, cut out like drawers, with red stockings and slippers, are a
most exact representation of the equipment of the first inhabitants of the
Adriatic marshes. – Goldoni
Tight-fitting long red trousers or red breeches and stockings, a short,
tight-fitting jacket, a loose long black cloak with plain sleeves, redwoolen skull-cap and yellow turkish slippers. Supposedly, he changed
the colour of his tights and/or cloak tp black as a sign of mourning when
Negroponte was captured by the Turks from the Venetians. – Rudlin
Wore red breeches, a red vest, and a black ankle-length coat. - Gordon
Origin (History)
Physical
Appearance
Mask
God of the dying year at Carnival (The Lovers are spring to Pantalone’s
Winter). – Rudlin
Lean and Scrawny, often short in stature. Early from often has a phallic
codpiece. – Rudlin
Tall and skinny, like a stork with a large penis. – Tim Shane
Long, hooked nose with bushy eyebrows, sometimes also a moustache.
Pointed beard just forward as if to meet the nose coming down, thuse
giving a very dynamic profile. – Rudlin
Wore a dark brown mask with a hooked nose. -Gordon
He wore a brown mask with a prominent hooked nose, and,
occaisionally, round spectacles. The moustache was greay and sparse. A
white beard stretched from ear to ear, and came to one or two points
well in advance of the chin, so that the tufts shook ludicrously as soon as
Pantalone began to talk. -Duchartre
Gold chain around the neck with a large medallion and a dagger. –
Rudlin
Signature
Props
Carried a ubiquitous handkerchief and a money pouch slung before his
genitals. -Gordon
During the 16th Century, Pantaloon almost always carried a huge
dagger and purse at his belt, while underneath the shameless phallus,
doubtless a survival from the theatre of antiquity, was quite visible. Duchartre
Multi-functional cod piece, purse and a cane. – Tim Shane
Stance
His back bends the other way to the zannis, giving him an old man’s
stoop, protecting his purse and his penis and effectively restricting the
motion of his legs. The feet are together, toes apart, knees well bent and
facing apart creating a focus on the crutch. However, early illustrations
show a much more vertical basic posture, complemented by an erect
phallus nestling next to his dagger. The legs are also much more muscled
with the possibility of sustaining extreme forward positions of the torso
or making large strides. The Pantalone of the zannata. A genuinely
magnifigent figure, but there is no inheritance of how to play Pantalone
in this way. - Rudlin
Bullying, aggressively, mean-minded, all trace of his forebears had
vanished, leaving only a pauper who had squandered his diginity along
with his cash. Always on the prowl, he could be termed a Beelzebub of
sex. Any woman who happens to cross his path becaomes at once an
object of winks, leers and nudges... Puts on the mask and parades up and
down in a series of showily self-important struts, trips, trots and sudden
halts. – Dario Fo
Was bent over from age. - Gordon
Crochity, supporting the upper body either in front or behind the legs
with the cane. Head learing upward, like the bird-like creatures
(skeksis) from The Dark Crystal. – Tim Shane
He is a crutch (upside down “U”) bow-legged, and toes pointing out and
upper body leaning forward. When he is talking to someone, he leans
forward, when he is listening to something, or getting bad news, he leans
back – Danny Fletcher
Walk
The same as for little zanni, but smaller steps. He can only walk at one
pace: whatever his feet do his legs cannot go any faster, whatever the
motive or stimulus. – Rudlin
Walks like a side-winding crab. – Tim Shane
Poses
1.) Bent over as if spine just went out supporting upper body with cane.
2.) Leaning slightly forward with nose in the air.
3.) One leg bent, with on foot resting on heel.
4.) One hand behind back or holding purse, other hand on cane, bending
upper body at 45 degrees.
5.) Leaning back with pelvis thrust forward and phallic cod piece
standing out with the entire rest of the body behind it.
6.) Nose targeted towards parts of female anatomy.
7.) Hands out, legs together shoulders together.
8.) Seated with head in hands.
9.) Cuddle position with women
10.) Lunge position with cane
Movements
Can mimic those of any other character, but only in a form diminished
by age. Sometimes falls flat on his back on hearing bad news (usually
financial). Like a beetle, he cannot then right himself. – Rudlin
Head is very quick like a bird, but the rest of the body is very lathargic
as if moving through water. – Tim Shane
Gestures
Old in body, but his head, feet and hands are still active. The hands
(which he can’t keep to himself) flutter continuously, gesticulating each
thought as it comes into his head. The only way he can stop this is to
hold them behind his back, underneath his cloak. – Rudlin
A high-pitched chicken Squawk: - Rudlin
Speech
His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. – As You Like It. Shakespeare
The actor who assumes this role should have at his fingertips a complete
command of the Venetian dialect with all of its variations, proverbs and
phrases. -Duchartre
Like the Skeksis from the film "The Dark Crystal." – Tim Shane
Chicken or Turkey – Rudlin
Animal
Stork or Crab – Tim Shane
Jewish Hermit Crab – Danny Fletcher
Relationships
Relationship
to
Audience
Frequent
Plot
Function
Mean to his servants, narrow-mindedly proscriptive to his children,
fawning to Il’ Dottore, scheming with Il’ Capitano, lecherous with
Colombina and indulgent to himself. – Rudlin
Too self-interested to be aware of spectators. Yet his main, perhaps only,
virtue is that of transparency: his motives are so obvious that he almost
emerges as an honest man – again unlike Il’Dottore. – Rudlin
Pantalone gives voice to the darker side of the male consciousness, a
secret hero to the unenlightened males in the audience. - Fletcher
An impediment to the action. For example, he typically wants to marry
the same woman as his son Flavio, or is too mean to provide a dowry for
his daughter, Isobella. – Rudlin
Characteristics
Two only: avarice and trouble with his prostate gland. Pantalone
operates on the assumption that everything can be bought and sold, and
this turns out to be true, with the exception of loyalty (and love). But he
also loves money for its own sake and will therefore only part with it
when there is no other option. He always wants to marry his daughter to
a wealthy man – and avoid giving her a dowry. When things do not go
his way he quickly slips into emotional extremes, particularly enraged
petty tyranny. He has a long memory and never forgets or forgives the
slightest past transgression. Pantalone is action, not words – in contrast
with Il’ Dottore. – Rudlin
Old Man. A cheap and ridiculously gullible merchant from Venice. A
foolish authoritarian figure who attempted to disguise his old age
through his tight-fitting Turkish outfit. Although married to a beautiful
woman, who often cuckolded him, he chased other women. Rarely
successful, he never gave up hope. - Gordon
His personality is as old as mankind, of course, but it was Venice who
individualized him with the stamp of her own particular color and
pircturesqueness. He is always old and as a rule retired from active
business. Sometimes he is rich, sometimes poor, somtimes the father of a
family, and again, an old bachelor. He should be able to play a decrepit
old man who tries to pass himself off as a youth. -Ducharte
Lazzi
1. Lazzo of the tooth extractor
2. Lazzo of the returning coin
3. Lazzo of the urine test
4. Lazzo of the echo
5. Lazzo of fondling the nurse
6. Lazzo of wooing young women
7. Lazzo of the bent back
8. Lazzo of the wake
9. Lazzo of farting
10. Lazzo of impotence