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HARLEQUIN

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 955 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HARLEQUIN , in See also:

modern See also:pantomime, the posturing and acrobatic See also:character who gives his name to the " harlequinade," attired in See also:mask and parti-coloured and spangled tights, and provided with a See also:sword like a See also:bat, by which, himself invisible, he See also:works wonders. It has generally been assumed that Harlequin was transferred to See also:France from the "Arlecchino" of See also:Italian See also:medieval and See also:Renaissance popular See also:comedy; but Dr Driesen in his Ursprung See also:des Harlekins (See also:Berlin, 1904) shows that this is incorrect. An old See also:French " Harlekin " (Herlekin, Hellequin and other variants) is found in folk-literature as See also:early as 1100; he had already become proverbial as a ragamuffin of a demoniacal See also:appearance and character; in 1262 a number of harlekins appear in a See also:play by See also:Adam de la See also:Halle as the intermediaries of See also:King Hellekin, See also:prince of Fairyland, in courting See also:Morgan le See also:Fay; and it was not till much later that the French Harlekin was transformed into the Italian Arlecchino. In his typical French See also:form down to the See also:time of See also:Gottsched, he was a spirit of the See also:air, deriving thence his invisibility and his characteristically See also:light and aery whirlings. Subsequently he returned from the Italian to the French See also:stage, being imported by See also:Marivaux into light comedy; and his various attributes gradually became amalgamated into the latter form taken in pantomime.

End of Article: HARLEQUIN

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