Where Did the Parti-coloured Come From?
Harlequins are associated with blazing diamond shapes and with ballet and pantomime characters from the Commedia dell'Arte tradition. With stylish half-masks and tight-fitting costumes, harlequins actually stand elsewhere from the class with their fancy dress. Their animated estimation appears in latest pantomimes and in operas such as Leoncavallo's "I Pagliacci," on the contrary harlequins chalk up origins that propose anything however comedy.
Italian
He was the Sonny of Ragnhart and married Bertha of Ponthieu enclosing 850 A.D.
Development
In the mid-sixteenth century, according to the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," the Variegated was a zanni (lower class and comic), and he was weak, impressionable and poor. By the early seventeenth century, the harlequin character had matured into a faithful servant with many of his master's virtues. Harlequin came to England--and was incorporated into the country's pantomime tradition--after the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, when Charles II's exile in Europe ended and Commedia dell'Arte troupes followed his court back across the English Channel, according to historian David Mayer.They rode ghostly horses in the dim and Terrified the superstitious peasants. This was probably the equivalent as the Senile English Herla Cyning, or Herla the Mogul, linked with the Norse divine being Woden, or Wotan. Derivations end to the depraved Ellerkonge, or Caesar of the Elves, the Erlkonig of the Goethe poem.
Ninth Century
Harlequins are sometimes associated with the (maybe depraved) Herrequin, or Hernequin, founder of the ninth century dynasty of the Counts of Boulogne.The parti-coloured of the sixteenth century Italian Commedia dell'Arte was a comedian, nearly buffoonish disposition, slow-witted on the contrary mere agile. Audiences loved them whereas other actors used conscientious gestures, on the contrary harlequins embellished their performances with impromptu cartwheels, backflips and other gymnastic feats. "Parti-coloured" is "arlecchino" in Italian, from the Latin "herculinus," or "hardly any Hercules." Illustrations of arlecchinos interval back to 1572.
French
Extremely back, in Mediaeval France, herlequins--or "hellequins" in Deficient French--led a band of demons across the sky.The foremost English harlequin, John Rich, gave the character a comic rowdiness quality.
Costume
Harlequins were not always dressed in bright diamond shapes. According to "Encyclopedia Britannica," the costumes originally consisted of a peasant shirt and long trousers with bright patches. It later developed into the familiar tight-fitting costume with triangle- and diamond-shaped decorations. He held a batte, or slapstick, and his half-mask was black with large, raised eyebrows. The harlequin character gave rise to the English word meaning "particolored," which was added to the language in 1779.
