Download or read book Performance and Literature in the Commedia Dell'Arte written by Robert Henke and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-12-12 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the commedia dell'arte: the Italian professional theatre in Shakespeare's time. The actors of this theatre usually did not perform from scripted drama but instead improvised their performances from a shared plot and thorough knowledge of individual character roles. Robert Henke closely analyzes hitherto unexamined commedia dell'arte texts in order to demonstrate how the spoken word and written literature were fruitfully combined in performance. Henke examines a number of primary sources including performance accounts, actors' contracts, and letters, among other documents.