[Rugantino e i Pulcinelletti] - Gaetano Santangelo (alias Ghetanaccio)

[Rugantino e i Pulcinelletti]

Gaetano Santangelo (alias Ghetanaccio)
Characters
Rugantino, Rosetta, I Pulcinelletti
Acts count
1
Note

In Il Volgo di Roma (1890), a collection of anecdotes of folk life in Rome, Francesco Sabatini (1852-1928) dedicated a chapter to Ghetanaccio, written by Filippo Chiappini (1836-1905), a poet who composed in the local dialect. Based on oral testimonies he collected, Chiappini relates short comic dialogues improvised by the glove-puppeteer, who was a famous performer in the streets and squares of the city.

Abstract

A husband is forced to recognise children that are not his

Rugantino comes back from a long journey and finds his home filled with Pulcinelletti (small Pulcinellas). He asks his wife where these come from, but she replies that they are their own children. Rugantino goes and sees a judge, who asks him to imagine that he owns a field and that a neighbour, crossing this field, lets wheat seeds fall on it: to whom does the wheat belong, he asks Rugantino? To me, since the field belongs to me, Rugantino answers. The judge then makes him observe that this also stands for his wife’s children. Rugantino goes back home, accepts to recognise the children, and the curtain falls as the Pulcinelletti all shout and call him “Daddy”.

Composition date
Beginning of the 19th century

First performance

Rome, Italy, Beginning of the 19th century

Publications and translations

Publication

Filippo Chiappini, Gaetanaccio, memorie per servire alla storia dei burattini, in Francesco Sabatini (dir.), Il volgo di Roma. Roma: Ermanno Loescher & Co, 1890, p. 20-22.

Language
Italian
Literary tones
Farcical
Animation Techniques
Glove-puppet
Audience
Not specified
License
Public domain

Keywords

Theatrical techniques

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