r Extemporal or Improvised
Comedies.

"_Lazzi_," mentions Riccoboni, in his "_Histoire du Theatre Italien_,"
is a term corrupted from the old Tuscan _Lacci_, which signifies a knot,
or something that connects. (Both the _Lazzi_ and the Extemporal
Comedies were all derived from the one original source, that of the
Satirical drama of the Greeks, and perpetuated in the _Fabulae
Atellanae_ or _Laudi Osci_ of Italy.)

Riccoboni continues: "These pleasantries, called _Lazzi_, are certain
actions by which the performer breaks into the scene, to paint to the
eye his emotions of panic or jocularity; but as such gestures are
foreign to the business going on, the nicety of the art consists in not
interrupting the scene, and connecting the _Lazzi_ with it; thus to tie
the whole together."

_Lazzi_ is what we might term "bye play," which, by gesture and action,
could not detract, but rather added to the effectiveness of the scene in
progress.

In Broom's "Antipodes," which was performed at the Salisbury Court
Theatre, London, in 1638, a _by-play_, as he calls it, is represented in
this comedy--"A word (explains Malone) for the application of which we
are indebted to this writer, there being no other term in our language
that I know of, which so properly expresses that species of Interlude
which we find in our poet's 'Hamlet,' and other pieces."

Riccoboni, in describing some _Lazzi_, says that Harlequin and Scapin
being in a famished condition, Scapin, in order to bring their young
mistress out, asks Harlequin to groan. Scapin explains to her the
reason, and while they are talking, Harlequin is performing his _Lazzi_.
This consists of eating an imaginary hatful of cherries, and throwing
the stones at Scapin; or catching imaginary flies, and chopping off
their wings.

"_Lazzi_," we are told, "although they seem to interrupt the progress of
the action, yet in cutting it they slide back into it, and connect or
tie the whole."

When Riccoboni and his company first appeared in France, though being
unable to speak nothing but Italian, their audiences, though not being
able to understand the _words_, yet the performers were such
past-masters in the Mimetic Art that their representations were just as
intelligible and as expressive as if they had been with words.

Gherardi, in his treatise, "_Theatre Italien_," speaks of a Scaramouch,
who, waiting for his master, Harlequin, seats and plays on the guitar.
Suddenly, by Pasquariel, h