Scapino or Scapin is a Zanni character from the commedia dell'arte . His name is related to the Italian word "scappare" ("to escape") and his name translates to "little escape artist" in reference to his tendency to flee from fights, even those he himself begins. He is a Bergamo native, and was popularized by the actor Francesco Gabrielli.
Later versions show his costume with green (or sometimes turquoise) and white stripes, similar to Mezzetino's red and white, but Callot shows Scapino in an outfit similar to the early Brighella's, white with a tabaro and a sword on his belt, and topped with a torn hat adorned with feathers. He is in fact a variant on Brighella, more cowardly and less clever. Some people call him Brighella's brother, some his son.
Scapino tends to make a confusion of anything he undertakes and metaphorically "flees" from one thought, activity or love interest to another, as his name implies, although he usually will return to it – eventually. Self-preservation and self-interest are his main concerns. This is not to say his wits are without merit. In Molière's play Les Fourberies de Scapin , Zerbinette mentions what "a clever servant [Léandre] has. His name is Scapin. He is a most wonderful man and deserves the highest praise." He is a schemer and scoundrel, and takes a certain pride in these facts. He was originally a masked character, although later versions usually have the actor simply powder his face. He is traditionally shown with a hooked nose and a pointed beard.
Like Brighella, Scapino is a Jack of all trades and depends on the needs of the scenario for his occupation.
Scapino is depicted musically in William Walton's 1940 composition, Scapino: A Comedy Overture . A 1974 play of the same name adapted by Jim Dale and Frank Dunlop from Les Fourberies de Scapin by Molière opened at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York in 1974.
From Molière's Les Fourberies de Scapin:
SCAPIN: To tell you the truth, there are few things impossible to me when I once set about them. Heaven has bestowed on me a fair enough share of genius for the making up of all those neat strokes of mother wit, for all those ingenious gallantries to which the ignorant and vulgar give the name of impostures; and I can boast, without vanity, that there have been very few men more skilful than I in expedients and intrigues, and who have acquired a greater reputation in the noble profession. But, to tell the truth, merit is too ill rewarded nowadays, and I have given up everything of the kind since the trouble I had through a certain affair that happened to me.
OCTAVE: How? What affair, Scapin?
SCAPIN: An adventure in which justice and I fell out.
OCTAVE: Justice and you?
SCAPIN: Yes; we had a trifling quarrel.
SILVESTRE: You and justice?
SCAPIN: Yes. She used me very badly; and I felt so enraged against the ingratitude of our age that I determined never to do anything for anybody. But never mind; tell me about yourself all the same.
___
Scapin pretends to be mortally wounded and begs forgiveness for his wrongdoings.
SCAPIN. (to GÉRONTE.) It is you, Sir, I have offended the most, because of the beating with the cudgel which I....
GÉRONTE. Leave that alone.
SCAPIN. I feel in dying an inconceivable grief for the beating which I....
GÉRONTE. Ah me! be silent.
SCAPIN. That unfortunate beating that I gave....
GÉRONTE. Be silent, I tell you; I forgive you everything.
SCAPIN. Alas! how good you are. But is it really with all your heart that you forgive me the beating which I...?
GÉRONTE. Yes, yes; don't mention it. I forgive you everything. You are punished.
SCAPIN. Ah! Sir, how much better I feel for your kind words.
GÉRONTE. Yes, I forgive you; but on one condition, that you die.
SCAPIN. How! Sir?
GÉRONTE. I retract my words if you recover.
SCAPIN. Oh! oh! all my pains are coming back.
Zanni, Zani or Zane is a character type of commedia dell'arte best known as an astute servant and a trickster. The Zanni comes from the countryside and is known to be a "dispossessed immigrant worker". Through time, the Zanni grew to be a popular figure who was first seen in commedia as early as the 14th century. The English word zany derives from this character. The longer the nose on the characters mask, the more foolish the character.
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world literature. His extant works include comedies, farces, tragicomedies, comédie-ballets, and more. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed at the Comédie-Française more often than those of any other playwright today. His influence is such that the French language is often referred to as the "language of Molière".
The School for Scandal is a comedy of manners written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It was first performed in London at Drury Lane Theatre on 8 May 1777.
The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (MSG) is a paraphrase of the Bible in contemporary English. Authored by Eugene H. Peterson and published in segments from 1993 to 2002.
The tradition of humor in Judaism dates back to the Torah and the Midrash from the ancient Middle East, but generally refers to the more recent stream of verbal and often anecdotal humor of Ashkenazi Jews which took root in the United States over the last hundred years, including in secular Jewish culture. European Jewish humor in its early form developed in the Jewish community of the Holy Roman Empire, with theological satire becoming a traditional way of clandestinely opposing Christianization.
Russian jokes are short fictional stories or dialogs with a punch line, which commonly appear in Russian humor. Russian joke culture includes a series of categories with fixed settings and characters. Russian jokes treat topics found everywhere in the world, including sex, politics, spousal relations, or mothers-in-law. This article discusses Russian joke subjects that are particular to Russian or Soviet culture.
Hans Hermann von Katte was a Lieutenant of the Prussian Army, and a friend, tutor and possible lover of the future King Frederick II of Prussia, who was at the time the Crown Prince. Katte was executed by Frederick's father, the Prussian King Frederick William I, when Frederick plotted to escape from Prussia to Britain. It was possible that Frederick intended to defect to the service of the British King George II and possibly return to Prussia to depose his father.
Manon Lescaut is an Italian-language opera in four acts composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1889 and 1892 to a libretto by Luigi Illica, Marco Praga and Domenico Oliva, based on the 1731 novel Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux, et de Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prévost. The opera was first performed in 1893 in Turin, at the Teatro Regio.
Woe from Wit is Alexander Griboyedov's comedy in verse, satirizing the society of post-Napoleonic Moscow, or, as a high official in the play styled it, "a pasquinade on Moscow."
Le Médecin malgré lui is a farce by Molière first presented in 1666 at le théâtre du Palais-Royal by la Troupe du Roi. The play is one of several plays by Molière to center on Sganarelle, a character that Molière himself portrayed, and is a comedic satire of 17th century French medicine. The music composed by Marc-Antoine Charpentier is lost.
Wit at Several Weapons is a seventeenth-century comedy of uncertain date and authorship.
Scapin the Schemer is a three-act comedy of intrigue by the French playwright Molière. The title character Scapin is similar to the archetypical Scapino character. The play was first staged on 24 May 1671 in the theatre of the Palais-Royal in Paris.
"Octavarium" is a song by American progressive metal band Dream Theater, from the album of the same name.
"How Long, Not Long" is the popular name given to the public speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. on the steps of the State Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered this speech after the completion of the Selma to Montgomery March on March 25, 1965. The speech is also known as "Our God Is Marching On!"
Le médecin malgré lui is an opéra comique in three acts by Charles Gounod to a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré after Molière's play of the same name. The work premiered at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris on 15 January 1858.
Ranjit Bolt OBE is a British playwright and translator. He was born in Manchester of Anglo-Indian parents and is the nephew of playwright and screenwriter Robert Bolt. His father is literary critic Sydney Bolt, author of several books including A preface to James Joyce, and his mother has worked as a teacher of English.
Einar Sissener was a Norwegian stage actor, film actor, stage producer, film producer and theatre director.
Vasily Shibanov is a poem by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, written in the late 1840s and first published in the September 1858 issue of The Russian Messenger magazine. The poem, a folk ballad in both structure and tone, deals with a real episode in the history of the 16th century Russian Empire, namely the deflection of Prince Kurbsky to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the way he sent the damning letter to Ivan the Terrible with his servant Shibanov, which meant imminent death for the latter.
Scapino, also written Scapino!, is a 1974 play adapted by Jim Dale and Frank Dunlop from Les Fourberies de Scapin by Molière opened at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. A production by the Young Vic, it starred Jim Dale, Denise Coffey and Ian Trigger and was directed by Frank Dunlop. The production later moved to the Ambassador Theatre in New York.
Scapino is a short work for large orchestra by William Walton, described by the composer as a "comedy overture". It was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and was first performed in 1941. A revised version was premiered in 1950.