THREE RENAISSANCE COMEDIES: Ariosto’s Lena Ruzante’s Posh Talk Aretino’s Talanta

This volume collects three Italian Renaissance comedies not readily available to the English-speaking reader and director: Ariosto's Lena (never before translated into English); Ruzante's Posh Talk (also never translated from the Paduan and Bergamask dialects); and Aretino's Talanta. Of contrasting styles, they share some characteristics, which mirror the advance of all Italian literature from humanism to the Counter-reformation, from Bembo to Sperone Speroni and from rudimentary or symbolic staging to a comparatively sophisticated realism in the treatment of stage space. With illustrations.