Origin of the name

Further information: Herla, Erlking, and Alichino (devil)

The name Harlequin is taken from that of a mischievous "devil" or "demon" character
in popular French passion plays. It originates with an Old French term herlequin,
hellequin, first attested in the 11th century, by the chronicler Orderic Vitalis,
who recounts a story of a monk who was pursued by a troop of demons when wandering
on the coast of Normandy (France ) at night.[5][6] These demons were led by a
masked, club-wielding giant and they were known as familia herlequin (var. familia
herlethingi). This medieval French version of the Germanic Wild Hunt, Mesnée
d'Hellequin, has been connected to the English figure of Herla cyning ("host-king";
German Erlkönig).[7] Hellequin was depicted as a black-faced emissary of the devil,
roaming the countryside with a group of demons chasing the damned souls of evil
people to Hell. The physical appearance of Hellequin offers an explanation for the
traditional colours of Harlequin's red-and-black mask.[8][9] The name's origin
could also be traced to a knight from the 9th century, Hellequin of Boulogne, who
died fighting the Normans and originated a legend of devils.[10] Cantos XXI and
XXII from Dante's Inferno there is a devil by the name of Alichino.[5][11] The
similarities between the devil in Dante's Inferno and the Arlecchino are more than
cosmetic and that the prank like antics of the devils in the aforementioned antics
reflect some carnivalesque aspects.[11]

The first known appearance on stage of Hellequin is dated to 1262, the character of
a masked and hooded devil in Jeu da la Feuillière by Adam de la Halle, and it
became a stock character in French passion plays.[12]
History

A scene from the commedia dell'arte played in France before a noble audience in
1571 or 1572 (Museum of Bayeux). Pantalone is front and center, while just to the
right and slightly behind is Harlequin in motley costume, "the oldest known version
of Harlequin's costume."[13][14]

The re-interpretation of the "devil" stock character as a zanni character of the

commedia dell'arte took place in the 16th century in France.[15] Zan Ganassa, whose
troupe is first mentioned in Mantua in the late 1560s, is one of the earliest known
actors suggested to have performed the part,[4] although there is "little hard
evidence to support [it]."[16] Ganassa performed in France in 1571, and if he did
play the part there, he left the field open for another actor to take up the role,
when he took his troupe to Spain permanently in 1574.[17]

Among the earliest depictions of the character are a Flemish painting (c. 1571-
1572) in the Museum of Bayeux[13][14] and several woodblock prints probably dating
from the 1580s in the Fossard collection, discovered by Agne Beijer in the 1920s
among uncatalogued items in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm.[18]
Tristano Martinelli's Harlequin costume as depicted in his Compositions de
rhétorique, 1601

Tristano Martinelli is the first actor definitely known to have used the name
'Harlequin' (or 'Arlequin') from French folklore and adapted it for the comic
secondo zanni role, and he probably first performed the part in France in (or just
before) 1584 and only later did he bring the character to Italy, where he became
known as Arlecchino.[19] The motley costume is sometimes attributed to Martinelli,
who wore a linen costume of colourful patches, and a hare-tail on his cap to
indicate cowardice. Martinelli's Harlequin also had a black leather half-mask, a
moustache and a pointed beard. He was very successful, even playing at court and
becoming a favourite of Henry IV of France, to whom he addressed insolent
monologues (Compositions de Rhetorique de Mr. Don Arlequin, 1601).[20] Martinelli's
great success contributed to the perpetuation of his interpretation of the zanni
role, along with the name of his character, after his death in 1630, among others,
by Nicolò Zecca, active c. 1630 in Bologna as well as Turin and Mantua.[21]

The character was also performed in Paris at the Comédie-Italienne in Italian by

Giovan Battista Andreini and Angelo Costantini (c. 1654–1729) and in French as
Arlequin in the 1660s by Dominique Biancolelli [it] (1636–1688), who combined the
zanni types, "making his Arlecchino witty, neat, and fluent in a croaking voice,
which became as traditional as the squawk of Punch."[4] The Italians were expelled
from France in 1697 for satirizing King Louis XIV's second wife, Madame de
Maintenon,[22] but returned in 1716 (after his death), when Tommaso Antonio
Vicentini ("Thomassin", 1682–1739) became famous in the part.[23] The rhombus shape
of the patches arose by adaptation to the Paris fashion of the 17th century by
Biancolelli.