Arlequin, Serviteur De Deux Maîtres

by Carlo Goldoni

"First I've got no master, then all of a sudden I've got two!...I can't wait on both of them...Wait a minute...Get two pay packets, and eat and drink for two? Why not?" Carlo Goldoni's crafty servant who turns somersaults to please both his masters and serve himself is one of the great classic commedia dell'arte plays of world drama. This new adaptation by Dorothy Louise captures the remarkable pace of the story in fresh dialogue that is attuned to contemporary American audiences.

Genres: Plays, Classics, Drama, Theatre, Italian Literature, School, Italy

First published January 1, 1745

About the author

Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni was an Italian playwright and librettist from the Republic of Venice. His works include some of Italy's most famous and best-loved plays. Audiences have admired the plays of Goldoni for their ingenious mix of wit and honesty. His plays offered his contemporaries images of themselves, often dramatizing the lives, values, and conflicts of the emerging middle classes. Though he wrote in French and Italian, his plays make rich use of the Venetian language, regional vernacular, and colloquialisms. Goldoni also wrote under the pen name and title "Polisseno Fegeio, Pastor Arcade," which he claimed in his memoirs the "Arcadians of Rome" bestowed on him.

Reviews

[Keith Bruton · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a cracker of a play! You guys are missing out.
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Written in 1746. A comedy play set in Venice which opens up with the scene of Silvio proposing to Clarice at her father's home. Silvio's father is also present along with the maid and innkeeper...then a knock on the door comes and the comical story begins.
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Quick, funny, at times slapstick. This will not disappoint 👏
Goldoni is brilliant!

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve seen this staged in Italian in Milano, and in translation at Harvard’s American Repertory Theater, where for instance the Dottore was played like Chaplin, with clown shoes; where the masked Zanni trickster of commedia turns into the Servant Arlechino who’s more animalistic— his stage business includes eating from a body. Goldoni adapts the stock characters of commedia dell’arte: two old men, here Pantalone and Dottore; the Zanni Harlequin Truffaldino; the old men’s daughter and son in love, Clarice and Silvio (son of Dottore); another couple in love, and in disguise. Maids and porters who speak, maids who don’t.

While Shakespeare wrote of few bourgeois, a century later Goldoni shows the emerging bourgeois world. Director Giorgio Strehler says he also removed the commedia dell’ arte masks, finding equivalents in the society, so Harlequin becomes an actual servant, not one in the abstract, and Pantalone becomes not just a merchant, but one with a name and a family name, here de Bisognosi.* Pantalone here loses his commedia grumpiness (157).

The play begins with the Pantalone and Dottore sealing their daughter and son’s engagement, though Silvio calls Beatrice “mia cara sposa,” conventional “wife” for “amorosa,” lover. Couple of scenes later, Servant Truffaldino enters only to learn that his master in Turino has died; his master had been Pantalone’s agent. Here the dead man, Frederigo, shows up, earlier promised the daughter; we know Frederigo is his sister disguised as a man (shades of Shakepeare, like Rosalind/Ganymede); his sister's lover Florindo had killed the brother, but the sister, Beatrice, still loves him.
Great stage business throughout, before more added in the American Rep version; for instance, the Porter carries Florindo's trunk on his back, then Truffaldino helps by raising both the porter and the trunk onto his own back, but the Porter falls to the ground. Florindo pays for the Porter with two five coins; when asked for another, hegives him a kick (calcio). Five what you ask. Well each area made its own coins and in fact someone from Turin asks a gift of Venetian money because they didn't want to exchange theirs at the border (and lose value).


In scene XX, the disguised Beatrice reveals herself to Clarice as not the feared alternative suitor, but a woman. She's disguised to avoid detection as the sister of the killed seeking her lover, the killer.
Such drama descends in Act 11. 14, to discussion of mutton soup versus veal (castra o vedelo) and minestra vs. zuppa--for us, minestrone a soup. Truffaldino of course, delivers to the wrong one of his two masters, keeping some of the meatballs (polpette) for himself. He also delivers the money purse to the wrong intermediary.
In the last act, III, scene 6, the Turinese lovers who have fled their city to find the other in Venice, told by Truffaldino that their lover has died (to clear up his theft of their trunks [bauli]), arrive onstage with knives to kill themselves. Back to back they faced each other, then turning they recognize, asking "Siete in vita?" You're alive?
Six more scenes take us to the end, which I leave it to readers to discover.

Pantalone, a dynamic part, speaks strong Venetian dialect, but that does not suggest lower class. Consider tht Sir Walter Ralegh's broad Devonshire at Queen Elizabeth's court did not mark him out as a parvenu, any more than king James I's strong Scots accent was a sign of lack of culture. (Allardyce Nicoll, The World of Harlequin, Cambridge, 1963) The varieties of speech enhanced the play and gave regional qualities to characters: Pantalone, Venetian (international traders); Zanni, Bergamesc tricksters; the Pedant Bolognese or Sicilian; the Captain, Neapolitan, etc.

Goldoni’s plays are Venetian, and this one in Venetian dialect, with z for gi, as in “zenero” for son in law, z for ch as in “xe”, and d for t, s for ci as in “disi,” I said. His Memorie recount being chased from Venice during the Austrian war, to Rimini (run by Spain, as was Napoli) and finally to Pisa, where the Arcadi Alfea poetry assembly met near the Castello, sat in a circle in the “giardino” or yard. They invited him to sit, though not from Pisa. He listened and heard “del buono e del cattivo,” though he applauded both equally. Asking whether though foreign he could say a poem, they announced his request and the group consented. He had by memory a sonnet he’d composed when young for a like occasion. He changed a few words referencing locale, and recited his lines “con duel tone e quelle inflessioni di voce che mettono in relieve i sentiment e la rime” (48). His skills as actor and director make his assessment of his own speaking revelatory. He says, “It appeared improvised, and was greatly applauded. (I had a similar experience a couple times, once at my town poetry reading I sponsored, “Poetry from Memory,” and once a month ago when my play-reading group (from printed page) included my reading my own poems I had memorized.



*Director Giorgio Strehler’s note links Goldoni and Brecht as turning points in the history of theater.

[Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Very Modern Day Adaptation
Review of the Ivan R. Dee paperback edition (June 7, 2003) translated and adapted by Dorothy Louise from the Italian language original Il Servitore Di Due Padroni (1745).

Truffaldino: In fact, I've got a theory about all those serial killers who've lost their jobs at the post office and come back one morning and blast the place to kingdom come. First, they're in Valium withdrawal, they're not responsible. And second --

The servant of two masters Truffaldino (left, in a traditional harlequin costume) discusses meals with the innkeeper/restauranteur character Brighella (right, wearing a chef's hat). Image sourced from Uanema.net.

After seeing and reading Richard Bean's One Man, Two Guvnors (2011) recently at Canada's Shaw Festival 2024 i was curious to read the original work on which it was based. Dorothy Louise's adaptation was the easiest to find, but as with most of the contemporary English language versions which I noticed it is not a direct translation but instead adopts very 20th/21st century references in an effort to make it more comprehensible to a modern day audience. It just seems anachronistic to have characters named Truffaldino and Smeraldina spouting dialogue which mentions modern day phenomena.

Still, Dorothy Louise does capture the manic energy and drive which is also present in Bean's version so it must all derive from the original Italian. The plots and subplots are similar in all of them: a hungry servant agrees to work for two masters who happen to be estranged lovers (one being a female impersonating her dead brother). The servant manages to mix up letters from the post office, meals at a restaurant, keepsakes found in trunks & suitcases, money exchanged as dowry, etc. But all works out in the end and the lovers are reunited and the servant themself finds love as well. Happy endings all around.

Trivia and Link
There is an early English language translation from 1928 which is more faithful to the original and which you can read at Project Gutenberg here.

There is a filmed performance of an Italian language version on YouTube which you can watch here. This is much closer to the original Commedia dell'Arte style, including the use of face masks. You can watch it in the language of your choice by turning on subtitles and then auto-translate and then selecting your preferred language.

[Bianca · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first time when I read it I had a pretty good impression, but when I played it with my theatre band I realized that is funnier and more interesting than I thought. Because it is the first time I heard of Carlo Goldoni and I had no expectations about his plays, I was really surprised to get caught by a story of the eighteenth century.

[Kristýna Revajová · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book became one of my favorite books i´ve read so far. It has a nice sense of humor, great plot and beautifuly written characters.

[sberatelka.knih · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jednohubka, která pobaví. Tuto divadelní hru jsem milovala jako malá a pořád si ji na kazetě přetáčela. Nikdy nezapomenu na Donutilovo lepení chlebem a na jeho pudlik :D

[Alex (The Scribe Owl) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 stars

Excellent example of a classic 1700s Commedia play

[Wiccat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read, you can't go wrong with commedia dell'arte. I've always loved comedies of mistaken identity.

[American Shakespeare Center · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disguised lovers, tricky servants, and well-meaning parents cross and double-cross one another along the canals of Venice in Carlo Goldoni’s slapstick-filled, comic gem. The characters’ search for a happy ending depends entirely on the titular servant Truffaldino, who is constantly on the lookout for a decent meal. Truffaldino’s attempt to double his wages unravels with delicious mayhem in this joyous, 18th century lark.

Come see it live onstage at the American Shakespeare Center's Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, VA.

ASC's The Servant of Two Masters

[Georgiana 1792 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Troppo divertente questa commedia che nasce come rappresentazione "a soggetto", con solo alcune scene per atto a fare da canovaccio, su cui poi gli attori dovevano improvvisare, ma che poi Goldoni fu costretto a scrivere per intero onde evitare che gli attori si perdessero per strada o che si prendessero libertà a volte troppo volgari, Truffaldino in particolare. Prego però que' tali, che la parte del Truffaldino rappresenteranno, qualunque volta aggiungere del suo vi volessero, astenersi dalle parole sconce, da' lazzi sporchi; sicuri che di tali cose ridono soltanto quelli della vil plebe, e se ne offendono le gentili persone.

[Ana Lelis · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was my first comic opera and I enjoyed it a lot. Goldoni's written about real problems and that made him a real unique playwright. I was really surprised to see him talking about women rights on a play from the 18th century.
I had so much fun reading about Harlequin and all the problems he was causing to his masters. I can't wait to read more plays by him.

[Nadja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ein Verwirr- und Verwechslungspiel par excellence und die Dialoge sind zum Teil zum schreien komisch. Truffaldino ist ein typischer Dienerkauz der Commedia dell'arte. So doof und frech, dass man ihn nur ins Herz schliessen kann.

[Kačaba · Rating 5 out of 5]

2023:
Pořád jedna z mých nejoblíbenějších her, tentokrát jsem poslouchala audio zpracování s Kryštofem Hádkem v roli Truffaldina.

2018:
Geniální. ^^

[Adelína čte · Rating 4 out of 5]

To bylo skvělý!
Samozřejmě jsem skoro celou dobu čtení slyšela v hlavě hlas nezapomenutelného Miroslava Donutila :D
K maturitě výborný, hezky se o tom bude mluvit, přečteno za chvilku.

[Katka Neumannová · Rating 3 out of 5]

klasika. a teď mám největší chuť se podívat na záznam z představení z Národního divadla s Donutilem. <3

[Nora · Rating 5 out of 5]

fucking amazing i have no words this issss sooo fun the most fun i had reading anything in a while actually
made me laugh out loud
my top summer read thus far!
viva l’amore

[Chiara Pagliochini · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Oh bella! Ghe n’è tanti che cerca un padron, e mi ghe n’ho trovà do. Come diavol oia da far? Tutti do no li posso servir. No? E perché no? No la saria una bella cossa servirli tutti do, e guadagnar do salari, e magnar el doppio?”

Mi viene il dubbio che io sia francamente impazzita. Tre giorni fa non mi sarebbe mai passato per la testa che potessi leggere Goldoni con tanta serenità, disponibilità, persino allegria. Tre giorni fa, quando l’ho messo nella valigia, pensavo soltanto, Cristo, sarà ora di sbarazzarsi di questa roba oscena, così do l’esame al più presto e chi s’è visto s’è visto. Tre giorni fa non avrei neanche pensato che in questo breve lasso di tempo fosse possibile rivalutare la mia posizione nei confronti del teatro, dopo averlo denigrato per mesi con così vivo accanimento. Eppure, eccomi qui ad ammettere i miei errori di valutazione e la mia ignoranza. Ora, io non dico che leggere l’Arlecchino sia l’esperienza artistica più preziosa da darsi nel corso della vita. Anzi. Però è meno terribile di come uno se lo immagina.

È Goldoni a dare il via a una riforma del teatro su vasta scala, riforma che lo porterà ad assumere la forma che noi conosciamo. E l’Arlecchino si inserisce in questo progetto come il primo passo avanti, il primo compromesso con un pubblico abituato ad altre salse. Nel Sei-Settecento il teatro, almeno di un certo tipo, era stato teatro di piazza e di strada, il dominio della Commedia dell’Arte. Gli attori, coi loro abiti sbrindellati, i carrozzoni, i sipari scoloriti, i tendoni allestiti alla buona, viaggiavano coi loro canovacci di città in città, rappresentando spettacoli che molto dovevano all’improvvisazione e che si fondavano sul sistema delle maschere. Arlecchino (o Truffaldino), Pantalone, Brighella, Smeraldina, così nascono quei personaggi fissi che io tendo ad associare al Carnevale – forse perché per Carnevale, quando ero all’asilo, ci davano da ricopiare ogni anno i disegni di queste maschere tradizionali (se cerco bene, negli vecchi album, avrò almeno quattro Colombine).
Goldoni arriva col suo progetto di riforma, prende quel che può, inizia a fare altro. Perché nel suo Arlecchino, a differenza di quanto avvenuto finora, gran parte del testo è scritto e solo un poco è lasciato all’improvvisazione; perché le maschere ci sono, ma non sono più quelle di una volta: Pantalone abbandona la sua consueta avarizia per diventare un padre affezionato, Brighella passa da servitore a proprietario di locanda, Arlecchino assume una personalità, uno stampo caratteriale sconosciuto alla tipicità della maschera.
È proprio Arlecchino il centro pulsante della vicenda, l’elemento unificante, l’orditore di intrighi, il catalizzatore dell’attenzione del pubblico, col suo colorito accento misto di veneziano e bergamasco, i suoi salti, il suo appetito insaziabile. Ed è Arlecchino che seguiamo con trepidazione nel suo tentativo di servire contemporaneamente due padroni, senza che nessuno sappia dell’altro, così da non esser bastonato e mangiar per due. E alla fine di una sola giornata sarà sì stato promotore di due tentativi di suicidio e di innumerevoli frottole, ma sarà anche suo il merito di due riconciliazioni e ben tre matrimoni. Animato allo stesso tempo da furbizia e ingenuità, Arlecchino si destreggia con una briosità che a teatro farebbe (e ha fatto e fa ancora) piovere minuti di applausi.

Ma quel che più mi ha colpito di questa esperienza con l’Arlecchino non è stato il testo in sé quanto tutti i documenti contenuti nella mia edizione BUR. E adesso lasciate che io esprima amore incondizionato per queste edizioni: introduzioni curatissime, note di regia, tutti gli strumenti necessari per apprezzare un testo non soltanto nella sua singolarità, ma come elemento di un tessuto più ampio e più complesso che è la messa in scena di quel testo. Questa edizione dell’Arlecchino, in particolare, riporta il diario di un attore in occasione di un tour europeo dello spettacolo (1957, per la regia di Giorgio Strehler) e il ricordo che Strehler fa di Marcello Moretti, storico interprete di Arlecchino. Testimonianze a loro modo entrambe istruttive e toccanti che mi hanno fatto capire che il teatro non è soltanto quella porcheria che ho guardato per settimane in videocassetta, ma soprattutto è umanità, dedizione e quasi una forma altra di intendere la vita.

[Newly Wardell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read two translations of this comedy and laughed like a maniac for totally different reasons.

[Stela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Je ne me rappelle pas si j’ai déjà lu une autre pièce dans le genre commedia dell’arte. Je pense que non. J’ai lu, évidemment, des œuvres inspirées par celui-ci (et je pense surtout à Molière et à Beaumarchais, mais à Shakespeare aussi), pourtant jusqu’à maintenant mes connaissances du genre étaient simplement théoriques.

Je sais également qu’Arlequin valet de deux maîtres n’est pas une comédie typique non plus – le génie de Carlo Goldoni qui a révolutionné d’ailleurs la dramaturgie ne se contente pas à respecter les règles de l’art et introduit, avec la comédie de situation, la comédie des caractères, en la rapprochant ainsi du réalisme tout en l’écartant de l’improvisation et de la bouffonnerie facile.

Même s’il garde quelques personnages typiques avec les noms qui les avaient rendus célèbres (Brighella – l’aubergiste, Pantalon – le vieux cette fois père d’une jeune fille et non amoureux d’elle, Sméraldine – la servante et bien sûr Arlequin – le serviteur fourbe), il utilise, à part les techniques de la commedia dell’arte, celles de la comédie de mœurs et de l’opéra bouffe. Le triangle amoureux, le qui pro quo, le travesti, le double, le langage allusive, le jeu de mots, l’ironie, le contraste entre apparence et essence et autres encore aident à créer un monde léger, sans soucis et sans problèmes graves, où chacun est un peu malhonnête, un peu opportuniste mais dont l’ambition, en fin de compte, n’est que d’accomplir son morceau de bravoure :

ARLEQUIN, seul : - …il y en a tant qui se cherchent un maître et moi j’en ai trouvé deux. Comment diable vais-je faire ? je ne peux pas les servir tous les deux. Non ? et pourquoi non ? est-ce que ce ne serait pas une belle chose que de les servir tous les deux et gagner deux salaires et manger le double ? ce serait magnifique, s’ils ne s’en apercevaient pas. Et s’ils s’en aperçoivent, qu’est-ce que j’ai à y perdre ? rien. Si l’un de deux me chasse, je resterai avec l’autre. Foi d’honnête homme, je veux essayer. Même si cela ne doit durer qu’un jour, je veux essayer. Finalement j’aurai tout de même réussi une jolie prouesse.

Ça va sans dire que le plus intéressant personnage de ce monde est Arlequin, qui fait de la tromperie une telle art qu’à la fin non seulement est pardonné par tous, mais même récompensé. La scène la plus géniale (excusez le pléonasme) est, évidemment, la scène du double repas. Elle est aussi la scène la plus originale, car on sait que Goldoni s’est inspiré pour son œuvre du scénario d’un certain Jean-Pierre des Ours de Mandajors.

Arlequin valet de deux maîtres a connu un bien mérité succès depuis son début, en 1746. Aujourd’hui même, cette pièce en trois actes peut être lue et regardée sans aucune crainte de s’ennuyer, car la plupart des dialogues restent vives et amusantes tout en révélant parfois des profondeurs inattendues:

PANTALON : Il faut faire de nécessité vertu.
CLARICE : Mon cœur n’est pas capable d’un effort si grand.

[Lise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Smeraldina is the greatest. That is all.

[نرگس پ · Rating 3 out of 5]

این رو شروع کردم چون خبر رسید که تئاتر ملی انگلستان قراره دوم آپریل یه اجرا ازش رو آنلاین در دسترس عموم قرار بده. خوندمش چون می دونستم اگه تئاترش رو ببینم ممکنه دیگه رغبت نکنم بخونمش.
طنز کل نمایش جزو اون دسته بود که شخصیت ها از نکته ای که تماشاچیا می دونن خبر ندارن و این تولید ماجرا می کنه. نسبت به فیلم ها و نمایش هایی که دیده بودم و این دسته از طنز رو داشت، خیلی کم از این فرصت استفاده کرده بود و می تونست شرایط رو پیچیده تر کنه. البته اگه زمان نوشته شدن اثر رو هم در نظر بگیریم شاید این میزان از پیچیدگی طنز طبیعی بوده و من نسبت به این میزان از طنز بی حس شدم.

[Manea Ionut · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Arta ascunde efortul sub aparentul firescului."

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moje ogarnięcie życiowe to poziom truffaldino

[Rahma.Mrk · Rating 3 out of 5]

c'est une pièce de théâtre,appartient au classique français,l'l'idée un peux original,deux maitre un seul serviteur,il ya de l'l'humour ,mais c'est de l'humour noir.

[Katrinka Josephine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nooojah, muidu siuke commedia dell'arte nagu ikka, korraks viskas mingi feministliku vaate sisse, mis oli tore üllatus, muidu muigasin ja vangutasin pead terve aja

[rozálie · Rating 4 out of 5]

moje první letošní knížka do maturitní četby byla skvělá! vtipné, krátké, jednoduché drama, já jsem fakt spoko a vůbec bych si nestěžovala, kdybych si tohle u maturity vytáhla :D

[Aneta Zemánková · Rating 5 out of 5]

Divadelní představení Sluha dvou pánů s Miroslavem Donutilem patří mezi moje nejoblíbenější. Při přemítání, jakou knihu vydanou před sto a více lety si chci přečíst, byla tak volba jasná, obzvlášť proto, že jsem hledala malou a zábavnou knihu na dovolenou k moři. Oceňuji vysvětlivky a pozámky v překladu, jsou velmi zajímavé. Knihu jistě doporučuji, stránky plynou jedna za druhou neskutečným tempem a po přečtení ve vás zůstane příjemný pocit lehkosti. Neopomeňte však zmíněnou divadelní hru, v níž Miroslav Donutil celou komedii pozvedává ještě o úroveň výše.

[Vicky Bernard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Une de mes pièces de théâtre classiques préférées!

Même si je l'ai déjà lue plusieurs fois et vue sur scène à quelques reprises, je prends toujours autant de plaisir aux inventions d'Arlequin et aux quiproquos qui parsèment cette histoire.

Et même si elle date de plus de deux siècles et s'inspire de la tradition de la commedia del arte, cette pièce n'en a pas moins un côté moderne et revendicateur, notamment en ce qui a trait au féminisme (voir entre autres les commentaires cinglants de Esmeralda sur les relations hommes femmes).

Et tout ça dans un feu roulant de drôleries et de "Ciel, ma fiancée"!

[Dr. Lloyd E. Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a review claiming Goldoni wrote a masterfully constructed play which has been copied by many people for over two hundred years. I’m surprised by how contemporary his portrayals of conflicts in roles, power and values are. We haven’t come far in resolving these conflicts over two hundred years later. I am particularly impressed how much of the comedy holds up. I found it lived up to it’s billing and I think it is well worth reading for anyone interested in reading how cleverly the author maintains tension while creating a comic atmosphere about serious topics.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wildly comical play written by Carlo Goldoni in 1746. As you would expect, it’s about the humorous aspects of a servant thinking he can work for two different masters, and how it becomes harder than he thinks. It’s written in a completely different structure where the stock characters are used as guides for the actors to improvise from. Each character would have a possible scenario and would preform the comedy acts with wit and humour. It has a similar feel to Twelfth Night by Shakespeare.