Page "Harlequin" Paragraph 8

Zan Ganassa, whose troupe is first mentioned in Mantua in the late 1560s, was one of the earliest known actors believed to have performed the part.

Another early Italian exponent of the role was the Bolognese actor, Nicolò Zecca, active c. 1630 in Bologna as well as Turin and Mantua.

Ganassa had performed in Paris in 1571 and 1572, and further transformations of the character occurred in France, where Arlecchino was performed at the Comédie-Italienne in Italian by Tristano Martinelli, Giovan Battista Andreini, and Angelo Costantini ( c. 1654 – 1729 ).

The role was played in French as Arlequin in the 1660s by, who combined the zanni types, " making his Arlecchino witty, neat, and fluent in a croaking voice, which became as traditional as the squawk of Punch.

" The Italians were expelled from France in 1697 for satirizing King Louis XIV's second wife, Madame de Maintenon, but returned in 1716 ( after his death ), when Tommaso Antonio Vicentini (" Thomassin ", 1682 – 1739 ) became famous in the part.