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Pierrot

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For other uses, seePierrot (disambiguation).

Paul Legrandas Pierrot,c. 1855.Photograph byNadar.

Pierrot(/ˈpɪəroʊ/PEER-oh,USalso/ˈpiːəroʊ,ˌpiːəˈroʊ/PEE-ə-roh,PEE-ə-ROH;French:[pjɛʁo]ⓘ), astock characterofpantomimeandcommedia dell'arte,has his origins in the late 17th-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as theComédie-Italienne.The name is adiminutiveofPierre(Peter), using the suffix-otand derives from the ItalianPedrolino.His character in contemporary popular culture—in poetry, fiction, and the visual arts, as well as works for the stage, screen, and concert hall—is that of the sadclown,often pining for love ofColumbine(who usually breaks his heart and leaves him forHarlequin). Performing unmasked, with a whitened face, he wears a loose white blouse with large buttons and wide white pantaloons. Sometimes he appears with a frilled collaret and a hat, usually with a close-fitting crown and wide round brim and, more rarely, with a conical shape like a dunce's cap.

Pierrot's character developed from that of abuffoonto become an avatar of the disenfranchised.[1]Manycultural movementsfound him amenable to their respective causes:Decadentsturned him into a disillusioned foe of idealism;Symbolistssaw him as a lonely fellow-sufferer;Modernistsmade him into a silent, alienated observer of the mysteries of the human condition.[2]Much of that mythic quality ( "I'm Pierrot," saidDavid Bowie:"I'm Everyman" )[3]still adheres to the "sad clown" in thepostmodernera.

Origins: 17th century

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Antoine Watteau:Italian Actors,c. 1719.National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Pierrot is sometimes said to be a French variant of the sixteenth-century ItalianPedrolino,[4]but the two types have little but their names ( "Little Pete" ) and social stations in common.[5]Both are comic servants, but Pedrolino, as a so-called "first"Zanni,often acts with cunning and daring.[6]an engine of the plot in thescenarioswhere he appears.[7]Pierrot, on the other hand, as a "second" ' Zanni, stands "on the periphery of the action".[8]He dispenses advice and courts his master's young daughter, Columbine, bashfully.[9]

His origins among the Italian players in France go back toMolière's peasant Pierrot inDon Juan, or The Stone Guest(1665).[10]In 1673, the Comédie-Italienne made its own contribution to the Don Juan legend with anAddendum to "The Stone Guest",[11]which included Molière's Pierrot.[12]Thereafter the character—sometimes a peasant,[13]but more often now an Italianate "second" Zanni—appeared fairly regularly in the Italians' offerings, his role always taken by one Giuseppe Giaratone (or Geratoni, fl. 1639-1697).

Among the French dramatists writing roles for Pierrot wereJean de Palaprat,Claude-Ignace Brugière de Barante,Antoine Houdar de la Motte,andJean-François Regnard.[14]They present him as an anomaly among busy social personalities around him.[15]Columbine laughs at his advances;[16]his masters who are in pursuit of pretty young wives brush off his warnings to act their age.[17]His isolation bears the pathos ofWatteau's portraits.

18th century

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France

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Antoine Watteau:Gilles (or Pierrot) and Four Other Characters of the Commedia dell'Arte,c. 1718.Musée du Louvre, Paris.
Nicolas Lancret:Actors of the Comédie-Italienne,between 1716 and 1736. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
Jean-Honoré Fragonard:A Boy as Pierrot,between 1776 and 1780. The Wallace Collection, London.

An Italian company was called back to Paris in 1716, and Pierrot was reincarnated by the actors Pierre-François Biancolelli (son of the Harlequin of the banished troupe of players) and, after Biancolelli abandoned the role, the celebratedFabio Sticotti(1676–1741) and his sonAntoine Jean(1715–1772).[18]But the character seems to have been regarded as unimportant by this company, since he appears infrequently in its new plays.[19]

The character appeared often in the 18th century on Parisian stages. Sometimes he spoke gibberish, sometimes the audience itself sang his lines, inscribed on placards held aloft.[20]He could appear as a valet, a cook, or an adventurer; his character is not strictly defined.[21]

In the 1720s, Pierrot came into his own. In plays such asTrophonius's Cave(1722) andThe Golden Ass(1725),[22]one meets an engaging Pierrot. The accomplished comic actor Jean-Baptiste Hamoche portrayed him with success.[23]After 1733, he rarely appears in new plays.[24]

Pierrot also appeared in the visual arts and in folksongs ( "Au clair de la lune").[25]The art ofClaude Gillot(Master André's Tomb[c. 1717]), of Gillot's students Watteau (Italian Actors[c. 1719]) andNicolas Lancret(Italian Actors near a Fountain[c. 1719]), ofJean-Baptiste Oudry(Italian Actors in a Park[c. 1725]), ofPhilippe Mercier(Pierrot and Harlequin[n.d.]), and ofJean-Honoré Fragonard(A Boy as Pierrot[1776–1780]), features him prominently.

England

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As early as 1673, just months after Pierrot had made his debut in theAddendum to "The Stone Guest",ScaramoucheTiberio Fiorilli and a troupe assembled from the Comédie-Italienne entertained Londoners with selections from their Parisian repertoire.[26]And in 1717, Pierrot's name first appears in an English entertainment: apantomimebyJohn RichentitledThe Jealous Doctor; or, The Intriguing Dame.Thereafter, until the end of the century, Pierrot appeared fairly regularly in English pantomimes (which were originally muteharlequinades;in the 19th century, the harlequinade was a "play within a play" during the pantomime), finding his most notable interpreter inCarlo Delpini(1740–1828). Delpini, according to the popular-theater historian, M. Willson Disher, "kept strictly to the idea of a creature so stupid as to think that if he raised his leg level with his shoulder he could use it as a gun."[27]Pierrot was later displaced by the Englishclown.[28]

Denmark

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In 1800, a troupe of Italian players led by Pasquale Casorti performed inDyrehavsbakken.Casorti's son, Giuseppe (1749–1826), began appearing as Pierrot in pantomimes, which now had a formulaic plot structure.[29]Pierrot is still a fixture atBakken,at nearbyTivoli GardensandTivoli FrihedeninAarhus.[30][31]

Francisco de Goya:Itinerant Actors(1793). Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Germany

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Ludwig Tieck'sThe Topsy-Turvy World(1798) is an early—and highly successful—example of the introduction of thecommedia dell'artecharacters intoparodicmetatheater(Pierrot is a member of the audience watching the play).

Spain

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The penetration of Pierrot and his companions of thecommediainto Spain is documented in a painting byGoya,Itinerant Actors(1793). It foreshadows the work of such Spanish successors asPicassoandFernand Pelez,both of whom also showed strong sympathy with the lives of travelingsaltimbancos.

19th century

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Pantomime of Deburau at the Théâtre des Funambules

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Auguste Bouquet:Jean-Gaspard Deburau,c. 1830

TheThéâtre des Funambuleswas a little theater licensed in its early years to present only mimed and acrobatic acts.[32]It was the home, beginning in 1816, ofJean-Gaspard Deburau(1796–1846),[33]the most famous Pierrot ever. He was immortalized byJean-Louis BarraultinMarcel Carné's filmChildren of Paradise(1945).

Deburau, from the year 1825, was the only actor at the Funambules to play Pierrot,[34]and he did so in several types of pantomime: rustic, melodramatic, "realistic", and fantastic.[35]His style, according toLouis Péricaud,formed "an enormous contrast with the exuberance, the superabundance of gestures, of leaps, that... his predecessors had employed".[36]He altered the costume: he dispensed with the frilled collaret, substituted a skullcap for a hat, and greatly increased the wide cut of both blouse and trousers. Deburau's Pierrot avoided the crude Pierrots—timid, sexless, lazy, and greedy—found in earlier pantomime.[37]

The Funambules Pierrot appealed to audiences in the faery-tale style which incorporate thecommediatypes. The plot often hinged on Cassander's pursuit of Harlequin and Columbine, having to deal with a clever and ambiguous Pierrot. Deburau early—about 1828—caught the attention of theRomantics.[38]In 1842, Théophile Gautier published a fake review of a "Shakespeare" pantomime he claimed to have seen at the Funambules.[39]It placed Pierrot in the company of over-reachers in high literature such asDon JuanorMacbeth.

Pantomime after Baptiste: Charles Deburau, Paul Legrand, and their successors

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Nadar:Charles Deburau as Pierrot, 1854

Deburau's son,Jean-Charles(or, as he preferred, "Charles" [1829–1873]), assumed Pierrot's blouse the year after his father died.[40]Another important Pierrot of mid-century was Charles-Dominique-Martin Legrand, known asPaul Legrand(1816–1898; see photo at top of page). He began appearing at the Funambules as Pierrot in 1845.[41]

Georges Waguein one of thecantomimes(pantomimes performed to off-stage songs) ofXavier Privas.Poster byCharles Léandre,1899.

Legrand left the Funambules in 1853 for theFolies-Nouvelles,which attracted the fashionable set, unlike the Funambules' working-class audiences. Legrand often appeared in realistic costume, his chalky face his only concession to tradition, leading some advocates of pantomime, such as Gautier, to lament that he was betraying the character of the type.[42]Legrand's Pierrot influenced future mimes.

Pantomime and late 19th-century art

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France

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Popular and literary pantomime
Atelier Nadar:Sarah BernhardtinJean Richepin'sPierrot the Murderer,1883. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
Anon.: Poster for Hanlon-Lees'Superba,1890–1911. Theatre Collection of the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center.
Jules Chéret:Title-page of Hennique andHuysmans'Pierrot the Skeptic,1881
Paul Cézanne:Mardi gras (Pierrot and Harlequin),1888,Pushkin Museum,Moscow

In the 1880s and 1890s, the pantomime reached a type of apogee, and Pierrot became ubiquitous.[43]Moreover, he acquired a female counterpart, Pierrette, who rivaled Columbine for his affections. ACercle Funambulesquewas founded in 1888, and Pierrot (sometimes played by female mimes, such asFélicia Mallet) dominated its productions until its demise in 1898.[44]Sarah Bernhardteven donned Pierrot's blouse forJean Richepin'sPierrot the Murderer(1883).

But French mimes and actors were not the only figures responsible for Pierrot's ubiquity: the English Hanlon brothers (sometimes called theHanlon-Lees), gymnasts and acrobats who had been schooled in the 1860s in pantomimes from Baptiste's repertoire, traveled (and dazzled) the world well into the 20th century with their pantomimic sketches and extravaganzas featuring riotously nightmarish Pierrots. TheNaturalists—Émile Zolaespecially, who wrote glowingly of them—were captivated by their art.[45]Edmond de Goncourtmodeled his acrobat-mimes in hisThe Zemganno Brothers(1879) upon them;J.-K. Huysmans(whoseAgainst Nature[1884] would becomeDorian Gray's bible) and his friendLéon Henniquewrote their pantomimePierrot the Skeptic(1881) after seeing them perform at the Folies Bergère (and, in turn,Jules Laforguewrote his pantomimePierrot the Cut-Up[Pierrot fumiste,1882][46]after reading the scenario by Huysmans and Hennique).[47]It was in part through the enthusiasm that they excited, coupled with theImpressionists' taste for popular entertainment, such as the circus and the music-hall, as well as the new bohemianism that then reigned in artistic quarters such asMontmartre(and which was celebrated by such denizens asAdolphe Willette,whose cartoons and canvases are crowded with Pierrots)—it was through all this that Pierrot achieved almost unprecedented currency and visibility towards the end of the century.

Visual arts, fiction, poetry, music, and film

He invaded the visual arts[48]—not only in the work of Willette, but also in the illustrations and posters ofJules Chéret;[49]in the engravings ofOdilon Redon(The Swamp Flower: A Sad Human Head[1885]); and in the canvases ofGeorges Seurat(Pierrot with a White Pipe [Aman-Jean][1883];The Painter Aman-Jean as Pierrot[1883]),Léon Comerre(Pierrot[1884],Pierrot Playing the Mandolin[1884]),Henri Rousseau(A Carnival Night[1886]),Paul Cézanne(Mardi gras [Pierrot and Harlequin][1888]),Fernand Pelez(Grimaces and Miseriesa.k.a.The Saltimbanques[1888]),Pablo Picasso(Pierrot and Columbine[1900]),Guillaume Seignac(Pierrot's Embrace[1900]),Théophile Steinlen(Pierrot and the Cat[1889]), andÉdouard Vuillard(The Black Pierrot[c. 1890]). The mime "Tombre" ofJean Richepin's novelNice People(Braves Gens[1886]) turned him into a pathetic and alcoholic "phantom";Paul Verlaineimagined him as a gormandizing naïf in "Pantomime" (1869), then, like Tombre, as a lightning-lit specter in "Pierrot" (1868, pub. 1882).[50]Laforgueput three of the "complaints" of his first published volume of poems (1885) into "Lord" Pierrot's mouth—and dedicated his next book,The Imitation of Our Lady the Moon(1886), completely to Pierrot and his world (Pierrots were legion among the minor, now-forgotten poets: for samples, see Willette's journalThe Pierrot,which appeared between 1888 and 1889, then again in 1891). In the realm of song,Claude Debussyset both Verlaine's "Pantomime" andBanville's "Pierrot" (1842) to music in 1881 (not published until 1926)—the only precedents among works by major composers being the "Pierrot" section ofTelemann'sBurlesque Overture(1717–22),Mozart's 1783 "Masquerade" (in which Mozart himself took the role of Harlequin and his brother-in-law,Joseph Lange,that of Pierrot),[51]and the "Pierrot" section ofRobert Schumann'sCarnival(1835).[52]Even the embryonic art of the motion picture turned to Pierrot before the century was out: he appeared, not only in early celluloid shorts (Georges Méliès'sThe Nightmare[1896],The Magician[1898];Alice Guy'sArrival of Pierrette and Pierrot[1900],Pierrette's Amorous Adventures[1900]; Ambroise-François Parnaland'sPierrot's Big Head/Pierrot's Tongue[1900],Pierrot-Drinker[1900]), but also inEmile Reynaud'sPraxinoscopeproduction ofPoor Pierrot(1892), the first animated movie and the first hand-colored one.

Belgium

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In Belgium,Félicien Ropsdepicted a grinning Pierrot who witnesses an unromantic backstage scene (Blowing Cupid's Nose[1881]).James Ensorpainted Pierrots obsessively, in various poses from prostrate to bowing his head in despondency, sometimes even with a smiling skeleton. The Belgian poet and dramatistAlbert Giraudalso identified with the Zanni: the fiftyrondelsof hisPierrot lunaire(Moonstruck Pierrot,1884) inspired generations of composers (seePierrot lunairebelow), and his verse-playPierrot-Narcissus(1887) offered a definitive portrait of the poet-dreamer. The choreographerJoseph Hansenstaged the balletMacabre Pierrotin 1884 in collaboration with the poetThéo Hannon.

England

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Aubrey Beardsley:"The Death of Pierrot",The Savoy,August 1896

Pierrot figured prominently in the drawings ofAubrey Beardsley,and various writers referenced him in their poetry.[53][54][55]Ethel Wright paintedBonjour, Pierrot!(a greeting to a dour clown sitting disconsolate with his dog) in 1893. The Pierrot of popular taste also spawned a uniquely English entertainment. In 1891, the singer and banjoistClifford Essex,resolved to create a troupe of English Pierrot entertainers,[56]and called them theseaside Pierrotswho, as late as the 1950s, performed on the piers ofBrighton,Margate,andBlackpool.[57]They inspired the Will Morris Pierrots, named after theirBirminghamfounder. They originated in theSmethwickarea in the late 1890s and played to large audiences inthe Midlands.Walter Westley Russellcommitted these performers to canvas inThe Pierrots(c. 1900).

Pierrot's mask claimed the attention of the great theater innovatorEdward Gordon Craig.[58]Craig's involvement with the figure grew with time. In 1897, Craig, dressed as Pierrot, gave a quasi-impromptu stage-reading ofHans Christian Andersen's story "What the Moon Saw" as part of a benefit performance for theater artists in need.[59]

Austria and Germany

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Although he lamented that "the Pierrot figure was inherently alien to the German-speaking world", the playwrightFranz Bleiintroduced him enthusiastically into his playletThe Kissy-Face: A Columbiade(1895), and his fellow-AustriansRichard SpechtandRichard Beer-Hofmannmade an effort to naturalize Pierrot—in their playsPierrot-Hunchback(1896) andPierrot-Hypnotist(1892, first pub. 1984), respectively—by linking his fortunes with those ofGoethe's Faust.[60]Still others among their countrymen simply sidestepped the issue of naturalization:Hermann Bahrtook his inspiration for hisPantomime of the Good Man(1893) directly from his encounter with the exclusively FrenchCercle Funambulesque;Rudolf Holzer set the action of hisPuppet Loyalty(1899), unapologetically, in a fabulous Paris; andKarl Michael von Levetzowsettled hisTwo Pierrots(1900) in the birthplace of Pierrot's comedy, Italy.[61]

Paul Hoecker:Pierrots with Pipes,c. 1900.Location unknown.

In Germany,Frank Wedekindintroduced thefemme-fataleof his first "Lulu" play,Earth Spirit(1895), in a Pierrot costume. In a similar spirit, the painterPaul Hoeckerput cheeky young men into Pierrot costumes to ape their complacent burgher elders inPierrots with Pipes(c. 1900) and swilling champagne inWaiting Woman(c. 1895).

Italy

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Canio's Pagliaccio in the famousopera(1892) byLeoncavallois close enough to a Pierrot to deserve a mention here. Much less well-known is the work of two other composers—Mario Pasquale CostaandVittorio Monti.Costa's pantomimeL'Histoire d'un Pierrot(Story of a Pierrot), which debuted in Paris in 1893, was so admired in its day that it eventually reached audiences on several continents, was paired withCavalleria Rusticanaby New York's Metropolitan Opera Company in 1909, and was premiered as a film byBaldassarre Negroniin 1914.[62]Its libretto, like that of Monti's "mimodrama"Noël de Pierrota.k.a.A Clown's Christmas(1900), was written by Fernand Beissier, one of the founders of theCercle Funambulesque.[63](Monti would go on to acquire his own fame by celebrating another spiritual outsider much akin to Pierrot—theGypsy.HisCsárdás[c. 1904], likePagliacci,has found a secure place in the standard musical repertoire).

The portrait andgenrepainterVittorio Matteo CorcosproducedPortrait of Boy in Pierrot Costumein 1897.

Spain

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In 1895, the playwright and futureNobellaureateJacinto Benaventewrote rapturously in his journal of a performance of theHanlon-Lees,[64]and three years later he published his only pantomime:The Whiteness of Pierrot.A truefin de sièclemask, Pierrot paints his face black to commit robbery and murder; then, after restoring his pallor, he hides himself, terrified of his own undoing, in a snowbank—forever. Thus does he forfeit his union with Columbine (the intended beneficiary of his crimes) for a frosty marriage with the moon.[65]

North America

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Pierrot and his fellow masks were late in coming to the United States, which, unlike England, Russia, and the countries of continental Europe, had had no early exposure to commedia dell'arte.[66]TheHanlon-Leesmade their first U.S. appearance in 1858, and their subsequent tours, well into the 20th century, of scores of cities throughout the country accustomed their audiences to their fantastic, acrobatic Pierrots.[67]But the Pierrot that would leave the deepest imprint upon the American imagination was that of the French and EnglishDecadents,a creature who quickly found his home in the so-calledlittle magazinesof the 1890s (as well as in the poster-art that they spawned). One of the earliest and most influential of these in America,The Chap-Book(1894–98), which featured a story about Pierrot by the aesthetePercival Pollardin its second number,[68]was soon host to Beardsley-inspired Pierrots drawn by E.B. Bird and Frank Hazenplug[69](the Canadian poetBliss Carmanshould also be mentioned for his contribution to Pierrot's dissemination in mass-market publications such asHarper's).[70]Like most things associated with the Decadence, such exotica discombobulated the mainstream American public, which regarded the little magazines in general as "freak periodicals" and declared, through one of its mouthpieces,Munsey's Magazine,that "each new representative of the species is, if possible, more preposterous than the last".[71]And yet the Pierrot of that species was gaining a foothold elsewhere. The composersAmy BeachandArthur Footedevoted a section to Pierrot (as well as to Pierrette, his Decadent counterpart) in two ludic pieces for piano—Beach'sChildren's Carnival(1894) and Foote'sFive Bagatelles(1893).

The fin de siècle world in which this Pierrot resided was clearly at odds with the reigning American Realist and Naturalist aesthetic (although such figures asAmbrose BierceandJohn LaFargewere mounting serious challenges to it). It is in fact jarring to find the champion of American prose Realism,William Dean Howells,introducingPastels in Prose(1890), a volume of Frenchprose-poemscontaining aPaul Marguerittepantomime,The Death of Pierrot,[72]with words of warm praise (and even congratulations to each poet for failing "to saddle his reader with a moral" ).[73]So uncustomary was the French Aesthetic viewpoint that, when Pierrot made an appearance inPierrot the Painter(1893),[74]a pantomime byAlfred Thompson,set to music by the American composerLaura Sedgwick Collins,The New York Timescovered it as an event, although it was only a student production. It was found to be "pleasing" because, in part, it was "odd".[75]Not until the first decade of the next century, when the great (and popular) fantasistMaxfield Parrishworked his magic on the figure, would Pierrot be comfortably naturalized in America.

Of course, writers from the United States living abroad—especially in Paris or London—were aberrantly susceptible to the charms of the Decadence. Such a figure wasStuart Merrill,who consorted with the FrenchSymbolistsand who compiled and translated the pieces inPastels in Prose.Another wasWilliam Theodore Peters,an acquaintance ofErnest Dowsonand other members of theRhymers' Cluband a driving force behind the conception and theatrical realization of Dowson'sPierrot of the Minute(1897; seeEnglandabove). Of the three books that Peters published before his death (of starvation)[76]at the age of forty-two, hisPosies out of Rings: And Other Conceits(1896) is most notable here: in it, four poems and an "Epilogue" for the aforementioned Dowson play are devoted to Pierrot (from the mouth of Pierrotloquitur:"Although this pantomime of life is passing fine,/Who would be happy must not marry Columbine" ).[77]

Another pocket of North-American sympathy with the Decadence—one manifestation of what the Latin world calledmodernismo—could be found in the progressive literary scene of Mexico, its parent country, Spain, having been long conversant with the commedia dell'arte. In 1897,Bernardo Couto Castillo,another Decadent who, at the age of twenty-two, died even more tragically young than Peters, embarked on a series of Pierrot-themed short— "Pierrot Enamored of Glory" (1897), "Pierrot and His Cats" (1898), "The Nuptials of Pierrot" (1899), "Pierrot's Gesture" (1899), "The Caprices of Pierrot" (1900)—culminating, after the turn of the century (and in the year of Couto's death), with "Pierrot-Gravedigger" (1901).[78]For the Spanish-speaking world, according to scholar Emilio Peral Vega, Couto "expresses that first manifestation of Pierrot as an alter ego in a game of symbolic otherness...".[79]

Central and South America

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Inspired by the FrenchSymbolists,especially Verlaine,Rubén Darío,the Nicaraguan poet widely acknowledged as the founder of Spanish-American literarymodernism(modernismo), placed Pierrot ( "sad poet and dreamer" ) in opposition to Columbine ( "fatal woman", the arch-materialistic "lover of rich silk garments, golden jewelry, pearls and diamonds" )[80]in his 1898 prose-poemThe Eternal Adventure of Pierrot and Columbine.

Russia

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In the last year of the century, Pierrot appeared in a Russian ballet,Harlequin's Millionsa.k.a.Harlequinade(1900), its libretto and choreography byMarius Petipa,its music byRiccardo Drigo,its dancers the members of St. Petersburg'sImperial Ballet.It would set the stage for the later and greater triumphs of Pierrot in the productions of theBallets Russes.

19th-century legacy

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The Pierrot bequeathed to the 20th century had acquired a rich and wide range of personae. He was the naïve butt of practical jokes and amorous scheming (Gautier); the prankish but innocent waif (Banville, Verlaine, Willette); the narcissistic dreamer clutching at the moon, which could symbolize many things, from spiritual perfection to death (Giraud, Laforgue, Willette, Dowson); the frail,neurasthenic,often doom-ridden soul (Richepin, Beardsley); the clumsy, although ardent, lover, who wins Columbine's heart,[81]or murders her in frustration (Margueritte); the cynical and misogynisticdandy,sometimes dressed in black (Huysmans/Hennique, Laforgue); the Christ-like victim of the martyrdom that is Art (Giraud, Willette, Ensor); the androgynous and unholy creature of corruption (Richepin, Wedekind); the madcap master of chaos (the Hanlon-Lees); the purveyor of hearty and wholesome fun (the English pier Pierrots)—and various combinations of these. Like the earlier masks of commedia dell'arte, Pierrot now knew no national boundaries. Thanks to the international gregariousness of modernism, he would soon be found everywhere.[82]

Pierrot and modernism

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Main article:Cultural references to Pierrot

Pierrot played a seminal role in the emergence ofmodernismin the arts. He was a key figure in every art-form except architecture.

With respect topoetry,T. S. Eliot's "breakthrough work",[83]"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"(1915), owed its existence to the poems ofJules Laforgue,whose"ton 'pierrot'"[84]informed all of Eliot's early poetry.[85](Laforgue, he said, "was the first to teach me how to speak, to teach me the poetic possibilities of my own idiom of speech." )[86]Prufrock is a Pierrot transplanted to America.[87]Another prominent Modernist,Wallace Stevens,was undisguised in his identification with Pierrot in his earliest poems and letters—an identification that he later complicated and refined through such avatars as Bowl (inBowl, Cat and Broomstick[1917]), Carlos (inCarlos Among the Candles[1917]), and, most importantly, Crispin (in "The Comedian as the Letter C" [1923]).[88]

As forfiction,William Faulknerbegan his career as a chronicler of Pierrot's amorous disappointments and existential anguish in such little-known works as his playThe Marionettes(1920) and the verses of hisVision in Spring(1921), works that were an early and revealing declaration of the novelist's "fragmented state"[89](some critics have argued that Pierrot stands behind the semi-autobiographicalNick Adamsof Faulkner's fellow-NobellaureateErnest Hemingway,[90]and another contends thatJames Joyce'sStephen Dedalus,again an avatar of his own creator, also shares the same parentage).[91]

Inmusic,historians of modernism generally placeArnold Schoenberg's 1912 song-cyclePierrot lunaireat the very pinnacle of high-modernist achievement.[92]And inballet,Igor Stravinsky'sPetrushka(1911), in which the traditionallyPulcinella-like clown wears the heart of Pierrot,[93]is often argued to have attained the same stature.[94]

Students of modernistpaintingandsculptureare familiar with Pierrot (in many different attitudes, from the ineffably sad to the ebulliently impudent) through the masterworks of his acolytes, includingPablo Picasso,Juan Gris,Georges Rouault,Salvador Dalí,Max Beckmann,August Macke,Paul Klee,Jacques Lipchitz—the list is very long (seeVisual artsbelow).

As for thedrama,Pierrot was a regular fixture in the plays of theLittle Theatre Movement(Edna St. Vincent Millay'sAria da Capo[1920], Robert Emmons Rogers'Behind a Watteau Picture[1918], Blanche Jennings Thompson'sThe Dream Maker[1922]),[95]which nourished the careers of such important Modernists asEugene O'Neill,Susan Glaspell,and others.

Infilm,a beloved early comic hero was theLittle TrampofCharlie Chaplin,who conceived the character, in Chaplin's words, as "a sort of Pierrot".[96]

As the diverse incarnations of the 19th-century Pierrot would predict, the hallmarks of the modernist Pierrot are his ambiguity and complexity.

One of his earliest appearances was inAlexander Blok'sThe Puppet Show(1906), called by one theater-historian "the greatest example of the harlequinade in Russia".[97]Vsevolod Meyerhold,who both directed the first production and took on the role, dramatically emphasized the multifacetedness of the character: according to one spectator, Meyerhold's Pierrot was "nothing like those familiar, falsely sugary, whining Pierrots. Everything about him is sharply angular; in a hushed voice he whispers strange words of sadness; somehow he contrives to be caustic, heart-rending, gentle: all these things yet at the same time impudent."[98]

Pierrot lunaire

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Main article:Pierrot lunaire (book)

The fifty poems that were published byAlbert Giraud(born Emile Albert Kayenbergh) asPierrot lunaire: Rondels bergamasquesin 1884 were set to music several times. The best known version is byArnold Schoenberg,i.e., his Opus 21:Dreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert GiraudsPierrot lunaire(Thrice-Seven Poems from Albert Giraud'sPierrot lunaire—Schoenberg was numerologically superstitious). This led, among other things, to ensemble groups' appropriating Pierrot's name, such as the EnglishPierrot Players(1967–70).[99]The Pierrot behind those cycles has invaded worlds well beyond those of composers, singers, and ensemble-performers. Theatrical groups such as theOpera Quotannishave brought Pierrot'sPassionto the dramatic stage; dancers such asGlen Tetleyhave choreographed it; poets such asWayne Koestenbaumhave derived original inspiration from it.[100]It has been translated into still more distant media by painters, such asPaul Klee;fiction-writers, such as Helen Stevenson; filmmakers, such asBruce LaBruce;and graphic-novelists, such as Antoine Dodé.[101]A passionately sinister Pierrot Lunaire has even shadowed DC Comics'Batman.[102]Pierrot is aptly honored in the title of a song by the British rock-groupThe Soft Machine:"Thank You Pierrot Lunaire" (1969).[103]

Carnivals

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Pierrot appears among the revelers at various international carnivals. His name suggests kinship with the Pierrot Grenade ofTrinidad and Tobago Carnival,being a satire on the richer and more respectable Pierrot. Pierrot Grenade was a finely dressed masquerader and deeply supreme scholar/jester proud of his ability to spell any word in his own fashion and quoting Shakespearean characters as Julius Caesar, Mark Anthony, and Othello at length.

See also

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Notes and references

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  1. ^Janin called Deburau's Pierrot "the people among the people" (pp. 156-57); Gautier identified him as "the modern proletarian, the pariah, the passive and disinherited being" (V, 24).
  2. ^On Pierrot in the art of the Decadents and Symbolists, seePantomime and late 19th-century art;for his image in the art of the Modernists, see, for example, theJuan Griscanvases reproduced inWorks on canvas, paper, and board.[dead link]
  3. ^Jean Rook,"Waiting for Bowie, and finding a genius who insists he's really a clown".Archived2017-12-27 at theWayback Machine,Daily Express,5 May 1976.
  4. ^Sand, Duchartre, and Oreglia see a close family resemblance between—if not an interchangeability of—both characters. Mic claims that an historical connection between Pedrolino and "the celebrated Pierrots of [Adolphe] Willette" is "absolutely evident" (p. 211). Nicoll writes that Pedrolino is the "Italian equivalent" of Pierrot (World,p. 88). As late as 1994, Rudlin (pp. 137-38) renames Pierrot "Pedrolino" in a translation of a scene from Nolant de Fatouville'sHarlequin, Emperor of the Moon(1684): see Gherardi,I, 179.
  5. ^There is no documentation from the 17th century that links the two figures. In fact, what documentation does exist links Pierrot, not with Pedrolino, but withPulcinella."Dominique" Biancolelli, Harlequin of the first Comédie-Italienne in which Pierrot appeared by name, noted that "The nature of therôleis that of a Neapolitan Pulcinella a little altered. In point of fact, the Neapolitan scenarii, in place of Arlecchino and Scapino, admit two Pulcinellas, the one an intriguing rogue and the other a stupid fool. The latter is Pierot's [sic]rôle:MS 13736, Bibliothèque de l'Opéra, Paris, I, 113; cited and tr. Nicoll,Masks,p. 294.
  6. ^
    Pedrolino scuffles withil Dottore,1621.

    In one of the few extant contemporary illustrations involving Pedrolino—i.e., the frontispiece of Giulio Cesare Croce'sPedrolino's Great Victory against the Doctor Gratiano Scatolone, for Love of the Beautiful Franceschina(1621)—the Zanni is shown thrashingil Dottorerather savagely (and, as the title indicates, victoriously). Such aggressive ferocity is almost never to be seen, early or late, in the behavioral repertoire of Pierrot. Pierrot can be murderous (see"Shakespeare at the Funambules" and aftermathbelow), but he is very rarely pugnacious (as he is in the pantomimes of theHanlon-Lees).

  7. ^He appears in forty-nine of the fifty scenarios in Flaminio Scala'sIl teatro delle favole rappresentative(1611) and in three of the scenarios in the unpublished "Corsini" collection. Salerno has translated the Scala scenarios; Pandolfi (V, 252–276) has summarized the plots of the "Corsini" pieces.
  8. ^"Indeed, Pierrot appears in comparative isolation from his fellow masks, with few exceptions, in all the plays ofLe Théâtre Italien,standing on the periphery of the action, commenting, advising, chiding, but rarely taking part in the movement around him ": Storey,Pierrot: a critical history,pp. 27-28.
  9. ^See the discussion in Storey,Pierrot: a critical history,pp. 22–28.
  10. ^Fournier,p. 113,provides the information for this paragraph. "If, asFournier points out,Molière gave [his Pierrot] 'the white blouse of a French peasant', then I doubt very much that we have to look for traces of his origins [i.e., of the origins of the Italians' Pierrot] in the commedia dell'arte at all ": Storey,Pierrot: a critical history,p. 20.
  11. ^This was its second such contribution, the first beingIl Convitato di pietra(The Stone Guest, 1658), which was the basis for theAddendum(albeit without its Pierrot) and the inspiration for Molière's play. See Fournier,pp. 112-113.
  12. ^Harlequin Biancolelli's manuscript-scenarioof the play offers no insight into Pierrot's character. Pierrot's name appears only once: "This scene takes place in the country. I drop the hunting horn at Spezzafer's feet; he blows it; then, on the run, I trip upPierrot;then I find a blind man.... ". MS of the Opéra (Paris), II, 177; cited in Klingler, p. 154.
  13. ^See, e.g.,Act III, scene iiiofEustache Le Noble'sHarlequin-Aesop(1691) in the Gherardi collection. A translated excerpt from the scene appears in Storey,Pierrot: a critical history,p. 20.
  14. ^See especially Regnard'sHappy-Go-Lucky Harlequin(1690),The Wayward Girls(1690), andThe Coquette, or The Ladies' Academy(1691); Palaprat'sThe Level-headed Girl(1692); Houdar de la Motte'sThe Eccentrics, or The Italian(Les Originaux, ou l'Italien, 1693);and Brugière de Barante'sThe False Coquette(1694). All appear in the Gherardi collection.
  15. ^See, e.g., theScene des remontrancesof Regnard'sWayward Girlsin the Gherardi collection. A translated excerpt from this scene appears in Storey,Pierrot: a critical history,p. 23.
  16. ^SeeAct I, scene vof Regnard'sLa CoquetteandAct III, scene iof Houdar de la Motte'sThe Eccentrics(Les Originaux), both in the Gherardi collection. Translations of these scenes appear in Storey,Pierrot: a critical history,pp. 26-27.
  17. ^See, e.g.,Act I, scene ii[permanent dead link]of Palaprat'sLevel-Headed Girlin the Gherardi collection. A translated excerpt from this scene appears in Storey,Pierrot: a critical history,pp. 24-25.
  18. ^Courville, II, 104; Campardon,Comédiens du roi,II, 145;Meldolesi.
  19. ^In the last (1753) edition of theNouveau Théâtre Italien,he appears only once—in Delisle de la Drévetière'sThe Falcon and the Eggs of Boccaccio(1725). The new company still produced pieces from the first Comédie-Italienne; they were added to the repertoire in 1718: Gueullette, pp. 87ff.
  20. ^These developments occurred in 1707 and 1708, respectively; see Bonnassies.
  21. ^Barberet, p. 154; tr. Storey,Pierrot: a critical history,pp. 52, 53.
  22. ^Both in Piron, IV; Storey translates a scene fromTrophonius's CaveinPierrot: a critical history,pp. 57-58.
  23. ^Campardon,Spectacles,I, 391;tr. Storey,Pierrot: a critical history,p. 54, note 31.
  24. ^Barberet, p. 155; tr. Storey,Pierrot: a critical history,p. 58.
  25. ^"... without the least proof": Fournier,p. 114.
  26. ^On the French players in England, and particularly on Pierrot in early English entertainments, see Storey,Pierrot: a critical history,pp. 82–89.
  27. ^Disher 1925,p. 135.
  28. ^Findlater 1978,p. 79.
  29. ^"Casorti",Gyldendals encyklopædi.
  30. ^"Pjerrot i Tivoli Friheden".friheden.dk.Retrieved28 December2022.
  31. ^Pjerrot fejrer 25 år jubilæum i Tivoli Friheden,retrieved28 December2022
  32. ^The chief historian of the Funambules isLouis Péricaud.
  33. ^On Deburau's life, see Rémy,Jean-Gaspard Deburau;on his pantomime, see Storey,Pierrots on the stage,pp. 7–35, and Nye (2014), Nye (2015-2016), and Nye (2016).
  34. ^Nye (2016), p. 18, n. 12.
  35. ^See Storey,Pierrots on the stage,pp. 15-23.
  36. ^Péricaud,p. 28;tr. Storey,Pierrots on the stage,pp. 31–32.
  37. ^On the early Pierrots, see Storey,Pierrots on the stage,pp. 12–13.
  38. ^For a full discussion of the connection of all these writers with Deburau's Pierrot, see Storey,Pierrot: a critical history,pp. 104, 110–112, and Storey,Pierrots on the stage,pp. 7, 74–151.
  39. ^"IV. Pierrot posthume: Théophile Gautier".Pierrots on the Stage of Desire.Princeton University Press. 14 July 2014. pp. 105–126.doi:10.1515/9781400854820.105.ISBN978-1-4008-5482-0.
  40. ^See, e.g., Gautier inLe Moniteur Universel,August 30, 1858; tr. Storey,Pierrots on the stage,p. 59.
  41. ^Many reviewers of his pantomimes make note of this tendency: see, e.g., Gautier,Le Moniteur Universel,October 15, 1855; July 28, 1856; August 30, 1858; tr. Storey,Pierrots on the stage,pp. 66–68.
  42. ^On the Folies-Nouvelles, Legrand's pantomime, and Champfleury's relationship to both, see Storey,Pierrots on the stage,pp. 36–73.
  43. ^On late 19th-/early 20th-century French pantomime, see Bonnet,La pantomime noireandPantomimes fin-de-siècle;Martinez; Storey,Pierrots on the stage,pp. 253–315; and Rolfe, pp. 143–58.
  44. ^See Storey,Pierrots on the stage,pp. 284–294.
  45. ^See Cosdon, p.49.
  46. ^"Pierrot fumiste (Jules Laforgue)".laforgue.org.Retrieved5 July2016.
  47. ^On the influence of the Hanlons on Goncourt and Huysmans and Hennique, see Storey,Pierrots on the stage,pp. 182–188, 217–222; on the influence of Huysmans/Hennique on Laforgue's pantomime, see Storey,Pierrot: a critical history,p. 145, 154.
  48. ^See Lawner; Kellein; also the plates in Palacio, and the plates and tailpieces in Storey's two books.
  49. ^For posters by Willette, Chéret, and many other late 19th-century artists, see Maindron.
  50. ^For a full discussion of Verlaine's many versions of Pierrot, see Storey,Pierrots on the stage,pp. 230-52.
  51. ^Deutsch 1966,p. 213. The score, which is fragmentary, exists as K. 446.
  52. ^Debussy may have added the operettaMon ami Pierrot(1862) byLéo Delibes,whom he admired, to this list. He probably would have excludedJacques Offenbach'sPierrot Clown,a theater score of 1855.
  53. ^Dobson, Austin(1913)."After Watteau".Collected Poems(9th ed.). New York:E.P. Dutton & Company.p. 476.Retrieved1 July2016– viaInternet Archive.Poem first published in December 1893 number ofHarper's Magazine.
  54. ^Symons, Arthur(1896)."Pierrot in Half-Mourning".Silhouettes; and, London nights(2nd ed.). London:Leonard Smithers.p. 90.Retrieved1 July2016– via Internet Archive.
  55. ^Custance, Olive(1897)."Pierrot".The Yellow Book, An Illustrated Quarterly.Vol. XIII. p. 121.Retrieved1 July2016– via Internet Archive.
  56. ^""Pierrot Hero: The Memoirs of Clifford Essex"".Archived fromthe originalon 1 June 2019.Retrieved1 June2019.
  57. ^See Calvert, Pertwee.
  58. ^Craig, p. 89.
  59. ^Martin Shaw,How We Met—Edward Gordon Craig and Martin Shaw.
  60. ^Vilain, pp. 69, 77, 79.
  61. ^Toepfer,"Germanic Pantomime: Pierrot in Vienna",n.p. (pp. 731-32, 742-44 in PDF download)
  62. ^Sansone, n.p.
  63. ^Storey,Pierrots on the stage,p. 286
  64. ^Peral Vega 2015,pp. 17–18.
  65. ^Peral Vega 2015,p. 18
  66. ^It is in part for this reason—that Pierrot was a late and somewhat alien import to America—that the early poems ofT.S. Eliotthat were closely modeled on the Pierrot poems ofJules Laforguedo not allude to Pierrot by name. See Storey,Pierrot: a critical history,pp. 156-67.
  67. ^For an exhaustive account of the Hanlons' appearances in America (and elsewhere), see Mark Cosdon,"A Chronological Outline of the Hanlon Brothers, 1833-1931".
  68. ^"For a Jest's Sake" (1894).
  69. ^See reproductions (in poster form) in Margolin, pp. 110, 111.
  70. ^Carman's "The Last Room. From the Departure of Pierrot" appeared originally in the August 1899 number ofHarper's;it is reprinted (as "The Last Room" ) in"Ballads and Lyrics".archive.org.Retrieved20 April2016.
  71. ^Summer issue, 1896; cited in Margolin, p. 37.
  72. ^It also contains a short tale of Pierrot by Paul Leclercq, "A Story in White".
  73. ^Merrill,p. vii
  74. ^"Mr. Sargent's Pupils Again",New York Times,February 16, 1894.
  75. ^"Pierrot at Berkeley Lyceum",New York Times,December 8, 1893.
  76. ^Muddiman,p. 97.
  77. ^"Posies out of rings, and other conceits".archive.org.1896.Retrieved1 July2016.
  78. ^All collected in Muñoz Fernández.
  79. ^Peral Vega 2015,p. 19.
  80. ^Sarabia 1987,p. 78.
  81. ^This is the case in many works by minor writers of thefin-de-siècle—e.g., Léo Rouanet,The Belly and Heart of Pierrot(1888), summarized in Storey,Pierrots on the stage,pp. 299–300.
  82. ^See Green and Swan.
  83. ^Kerrigan 2015,p. 66.
  84. ^"Pierrot-like tone": Taupin, p. 277. Cf. the words of criticArthur Symons:"His [i.e., Laforgue's] laughter, whichMaeterlinckhas defined so admirably as 'the laughter of the soul', is the laughter of Pierrot, more than half a sob, and shaken out of him with a deplorable gesture of the thin arms, thrown wide. He is a metaphysical Pierrot, aPierrot lunaire... "(p. 304). Eliot read these words in his 1908 edition of Symons'Symbolist Movement in Literature,whichintroduced himto Laforgue.
  85. ^"The form in which I began to write, in 1908 or 1909, was directly drawn from the study of Laforgue...": Eliot, in his Introduction to theSelected Poemsof Ezra Pound; cited in Storey,Pierrot: a critical history,p. 156.
  86. ^Lecture at the Italian Institute in London, 1950; cited in Storey,Pierrot: a critical history,p. 156.
  87. ^See Storey,Pierrot: a critical history,pp. 163-66.
  88. ^See Storey,Pierrot: a critical history,pp. 167-93.
  89. ^"Pierrot was Faulkner's fictional representation of his fragmented state": Sensibar, p. xvii.
  90. ^Green and Swan, p. 52.
  91. ^Dick, pp. 69-80.
  92. ^"Wherever we look in the history of its reception, whether in general histories of the modern period, in more ephemeral press response, in the comments of musical leaders such asStravinskyorBoulez,in pedagogical sources, or in specialized research studies, the overwhelming reaction toPierrothas been an awestruck veneration of its originality ": Dunsby, p. 1.
  93. ^Clayton 1993,p. 137; see also "Two Clowns: Pierrot meets Petrushka"by the Israeli Chamber Project.
  94. ^"... [A]s one of the greatest ballets [Petrushka] remains unassailed ": Robert, p. 231.
  95. ^For direct access to these works, go to the footnotes following their titles inPlays, playlets, pantomimes, and revuesbelow.
  96. ^Chaplin 1966,p. 224.
  97. ^Clayton 1993,p. 145.
  98. ^Cited in Green and Swan, p. 91.
  99. ^Hall 2015,pp. 72–77.
  100. ^The Opera Quotannis production (with Christine Schadeberg) was premiered in 1995; Tetley'sballet(Archived2015-10-08 at theWayback Machine) was first performed in 1962; Koestenbaum's tenPierrot Lunairepoems appeared in hisBest-Selling Jewish Porn Films(New York: Turtle Point Press, 2006).
  101. ^Klee's portrait dates from 1924; Stevenson is the author of the novelPierrot Lunaire(London: Sceptre, 1995); Bruce LaBruce's Canadian/German filmPierrot Lunairewas released in 2014; and in 2011 Dodé published the first volume of his projected trilogy,Pierrot Lunaire.
  102. ^The character made his first appearance in issue #676:Batman R.I.P.: Midnight in the House of Hurt(2008); he resumed his role in ten other issues.
  103. ^From the albumVolume Two.

Bibliography

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Further reading

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