Columbina

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This article is about the theatrical character. Columbina is also a genus of doves.

Columbina, in 1683 by Maurice Sand

Columbina (in Italian, Colombina, "little dove"; in French, Columbine) is a fictional character in the Commedia dell'Arte. She is a comic servant.

She is dressed in a ragged and patched dress appropriate to a hired servant. Occasionally, under the name Arlecchina she would wear a motley similar to her counterpart Arlecchino (or Harlequin). She was also known to wear heavy makeup around her eyes and carry a tambourine which she could use to fend off the amorous advances of Pantalone.

She was often the only functional intellect on the stage. Columbina aided her mistress, the innamorata to gain the affections of her one true love by manipulating Arlecchino and counter-plotting against Pantalone while simultaneously managing the whereabouts of the innamorato. She may be a flirtatous and impudent character, indeed a soubrette, but without losing her judgment.

In the verismo opera Pagliacci by Ruggiero Leoncavallo, the head troup's wife, Nedda, plays as Colombina, cheating on her husband both onstage and offstage with Arlecchino.