Título: Pierrot
Seção: "Shakespeare at the Funambules" and aftermath
Background: Pierrot (French pronunciation:  [pjeRo]) is a stock character of pantomime and commedia dell'arte whose origins are in the late seventeenth-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comedie-Italienne; the name is a diminutive of Pierre (Peter), via the suffix -ot. His character in contemporary popular culture--in poetry, fiction, and the visual arts, as well as works for the stage, screen, and concert hall--is that of the sad clown, pining for love of Columbine, who usually breaks his heart and leaves him for Harlequin. Performing unmasked, with a whitened face, he wears a loose white blouse with large buttons and wide white pantaloons. Sometimes he appears with a frilled collaret and a hat, usually with a close-fitting crown and wide round brim, more rarely with a conical shape like a dunce's cap.

Conteúdo: In 1842, Deburau was inadvertently responsible for translating Pierrot into the realm of tragic myth, heralding the isolated and doomed figure--often the fin-de-siecle artist's alter-ego--of Decadent, Symbolist, and early Modernist art and literature. In that year, Gautier, drawing upon Deburau's newly acquired audacity as a Pierrot, as well as upon the Romantics' store of Shakespearean plots and of Don-Juanesque legend, published a "review" of a pantomime he claimed to have seen at the Funambules.  He entitled it "Shakespeare at the Funambules", and in it he summarized and analyzed an unnamed pantomime of unusually somber events: Pierrot murders an old-clothes man for garments to court a duchess, then is skewered in turn by the sword with which he stabbed the peddler when the latter's ghost lures him into a dance at his wedding. The pantomime under "review" was a fabrication (though it inspired a hack to turn it into an actual pantomime, The Ol' Clo's Man [1842], in which Deburau probably appeared--and also inspired Barrault's wonderful recreation of it in Children of Paradise). But it importantly marked a turning-point in Pierrot's career: henceforth Pierrot could bear comparisons with the serious over-reachers of high literature, like Don Juan or Macbeth; he could be a victim--even unto death--of his own cruelty and daring.  When Gustave Courbet drew a crayon illustration for The Black Arm (1856), a pantomime by Fernand Desnoyers written for another mime, Paul Legrand (see

user: What was the relation between Pierrot and Shakespeare at the Funabules?

assistant: In 1842, Deburau was inadvertently responsible for translating Pierrot into the realm of tragic myth,

user: Does he have any other work mentioned?

assistant: CANNOTANSWER

user: Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?

assistant: In 1842, Deburau was inadvertently responsible for translating Pierrot into the realm of tragic myth, heralding the isolated and doomed figure

user: What other things does he perform at the event?

assistant: In that year, Gautier, drawing upon Deburau's newly acquired audacity as a Pierrot, as well as upon the Romantics' store of Shakespearean plots and of Don-Juanesque legend,

user: Which person does he work with?

assistant: CANNOTANSWER

user: Which other people were mentioned in the story and what was their role?

assistant: Pierrot murders an old-clothes man for garments to court a duchess, then is skewered in turn by the sword with which he stabbed the peddler

user: Was he taken responsible for the murder?

assistant: The pantomime under "review" was a fabrication (though it inspired a hack to turn it into an actual pantomime,