<P> Compagnie, or companies, were troupes of actors, each of whom had a specific function or role . These compagnie traveled throughout Europe from the early period, beginning with the Soldati, then, the Ganassa, who traveled to Spain--never to be heard from again--and the famous troupes of the Golden Age (1580--1605): Gelosi, Confidenti, Accessi . These names which signified daring and enterprise were appropriated from the names of the academies--in a sense, to lend legitimacy . However, each troupe had its impresse (like a coat of arms) which symbolized its nature . The Gelosi, for example, used the two - headed face of the Roman god Janus, to signify its comings and goings and relationship to the season of carnival, which took place in January . Janus also signified the duality of the actor, who is playing a character or mask, while still remaining oneself . </P> <P> Magistrates and clergy were not always receptive to the traveling compagnie (companies), particularly during periods of plague, and because of their itinerant nature . The term vagabondi was used in reference to the comici, and remains a derogatory term to this day (vagabond). A troupe often consisted of ten performers of familiar masked and unmasked types, and included women . </P> <P> Castagno posits that the aesthetic of exaggeration, distortion, anti-humanism (as in the masked types), and excessive borrowing as opposed to originality was typical of all the arts in the late Italian Renaissance . Theatre historian Martin Green points to the extravagance of emotion during the period of commedia's emergence as the reason for representational moods, or characters, that define the art . In commedia each character embodies a mood: mockery, sadness, gaiety, confusion, and so forth . </P> <P> According to 18th - century London theatre critic Baretti, commedia dell'arte incorporates specific roles and characters that were "originally intended as a kind of characteristic representative of some particular Italian district or town ." The character's persona included the specific dialect of the region or town represented . Additionally, each character has a singular costume and mask that is representative of the character's role . </P>

Italian commedia dell'arte had no set text it was improvisational