The characters of the Commedia dell'Arte

The zanni
The old men
The capitan


Next to these characters that one meets in all the Italian versions of Don Juan, one remains absent, but also deserves some attention: the Spanish capitan.
His absence might be due to the fact that the Convitato di pietra finds its inspiration in a Spanish play and that many characters remain Spanish in the adaptation of the Commedia dell' Arte. The authors did not judge it necessary to add another character representing the Kingdom of Spain.
The "capitans" do not originally have a precise nationality, but traditionally they were represented as resembling the Spanish occupying power.
Thus they gradually become “ matamoros ” and babble in Castilian. Spain being at the time master of a major part of the Italian peninsula, the captain is a convenient target for mockery.
First wearing the uniform of the army of Charles V, he subsequently dons more and more fanciful costumes. Thus he is laden with a spiky breastplate, plume of feathers, and he is often emblazoned front and back with a porcupine.
His moustaches take on gigantic proportions and he embodies the duped and ridiculous has-been, the soldier who is afraid of his own shadow.
Captain Spavento
 
His language is exaggerated, irritating and blustering and his mask is intended to accentuate the contrast between his dangerous aspect and natural cowardice.
This is how the Commedia dell' Arte exorcises the colonial power.
It is necessary to remember however that the first captains were Italian and of a limitless spinelessness and that Scaramouch, born in Naples, is one of the most popular.
   
Scaramouche
Engravingby Nicolas Bonnart
author's collection
This gallery of portraits, at the same time both fixed and changing, is adaptable to all plots.
It is therefore quite easy for the story of Don Juan to include them.
They are part of the multiple sketches that provide the troupes of the Commedia dell' Arte with a basic plot designed to stage all these characters perfectly known by the public.
Their original traits have gradually been blurred to blend into the cultures of their adoptive lands, but they are all of Italian descent and the reflection of its diversity and complexity.