Il Capitano
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Il Capitano (the Captain) is a masked character from the Commedia dell'Arte.
It is the character of a veteran sailor or soldier who pretends to be strong and brave; he often convinces people of these facts, though in actuality he really is a coward and, at best, claims the credit for what someone else did. He is often a foreigner who can maintain the claim only by benefit of the fact that none of the locals know him.
He is a very versatile character; he can be a friend of a Vecchio and ultimately act as a zanni for them, or sometimes fill the role of vecchio himself, or even the role of one of the innamorati. As a coward, when one of the characters orders him to do something, he often steps down out of fear, but is able to make up an excuse that ensures the other characters still see him as a brave and fierce individual.
Il Capitano often talks at length about made up conquests of both the militaristic and carnal nature in attempts to impress others, but often only ends up impressing himself. He gets easily carried away in his tales and doesn't realise when those around him don't buy his act. He would be the first to run away from any and all battles and he has trouble enough talking to and being around women. Columbina sometimes uses him to make Arlecchino jealous, much to his bewilderment and fright.
He is often dressed in his military uniform, with it often looking very worn. In one famous scenario, the Captain makes up a lie regarding the reason for his lack on an undershirt by claiming that it got that way because "I used to be an exceedingly fierce and violent man, and when I was made angry the hair which covers my body in goodly quantity stood on end and so riddled my shirt with holes that you would have taken it for a sieve." The real reason is that he has been too poor to afford one. The Captain is also often shown with a pair of glasses. He sometimes went unmasked, but usually wears a flesh-hued mask with a large nose and a moustache turned up at the corners. He also wears his sword at all times, though it is exclusively for show: even if he were to ever work up enough nerve to cut somebody with it he would faint at the very sight of the blood.
When frightened, he often screams in a high and womanly falsetto, or else faints.
He goes by many names, among them Spavento, Spezzafer, Zerbino, Cocodrillo, Matamoros, and Sangue y Fuego. He is often a Spaniard. It is up to the actor playing playing Il Capitano to come up with a properly showy name for him, preferably several lines long with many made up titles and relations following it.
The large-nosed Cyrano de Bergerac in the works of Rostand is a variant on the Captain, and also an un-named soldier in a short play by Miguel de Cervantes called "The Vigilant Sentinel" matched the Captain's character to the letter as he waited, bespectacled and donning ragged clothes, desperately trying to frighten away any rival suitors from the house of the girl he wished to marry.
Some scenarios have a character holding the rank of captain without fitting this role, but rather that of the innamorato; the rank itself does not make the character.
[edit] References
- John Rudlin, Commedia dell'Arte: An Actor's Handbook, ISBN 0415-047706
- Maurice Sand, The History of the Harlequinade
