the Italian term for 'professional comedy', a form of improvised comic performance popular between the 16th and 18th centuries in Italy, France, and elsewhere in Europe, acted in masks by travelling companies of professional actors each of whom specialized in a "stock character". The plots involved intrigues carried on by young lovers ["Innamorati"] and their servants ["Zanni"] against the rich father ["Pantalone" or "Dottore"]. [...] This form of comedy had an important influence on later forms of "farce", "pantomime", and light opera, as well as on some major dramatists including Moliere and Goldoni. (Baldick, 2001, p. 46)
