Commedia dell'arte in the mid-18th century. Curiously, "commedia dell'arte" was equally if not more popular in France, where it continued its popularity throughout the 17th century (until 1697), and it was in France that "commedia" developed its established repertoire. "Commedia" evolved into various configurations across Europe, and each country acculturated the form to its liking. For example, pantomime, which flourished in the 18th century, owes its genesis to the character types of the "commedia", particularly Harlequin. The Punch and Judy puppet shows, popular to this day in England, owe their basis to the Pulcinella mask that emerged in Neapolitan versions of the
Pierrot helped steer the pantomime away from the old fabulous and knockabout world of fairy-land and into the realm of sentimental—often tearful—realism. In this he was abetted by the novelist and journalist Champfleury, who set himself the task, in the 1840s, of writing "realistic" pantomimes. Among the works he produced were "Marquis Pierrot" (1847), which offers a plausible explanation for Pierrot's powdered face (he begins working-life as a miller's assistant), and the "Pantomime of the Attorney" (1865), which casts Pierrot in the prosaic role of an attorney's clerk. Legrand left the Funambules in 1853 for what was to become his chief