Page:Punch and judy.djvu/46

 (36) CHAPTER IV.

NATURE OF PUNCH'S PERFORMANCES.

was the dialogue of any of the pieces in which Pulcinella originally performed, soon after his invention, cannot now be distinctly ascertained. We have already seen that they were called commedie à soggetto and commedie all'improviso, or impromptu and extempore comedies, the plot and arrangement of which were first communicated to the actors, who afterwards filled up the dialogue according to their own notions, as their wit or invention might serve them. The schemes, or, as the Italians call them, canevas and scenarie, of some pieces of this description were printed early in the 16th century, by Flamineo Scala, and others, appeared in 1661, but not a syllable of what passed between any of the characters is there supplied. Hence almost everything must depend upon conjecture; but the probability certainly is, that actors of this class, accustomed repeatedly to perform together, would, ere long, come to a perfect understanding with each other, and the interlocutions thus acquire a certain degree of permanence, until some change took place in the company. At different places the same