Commedia dell'arte region or town represented. Characters would often be passed down from generation to generation, and characters married onstage were often married in real life as well, seen most famously with Francesco and Isabella Andreini. This was believed to make performances more natural, as well as strengthening the bonds within the troupe, who emphasized complete unity between every member. Additionally, each character has a singular costume and mask that is representative of the character's role. "Commedia dell'arte" has four stock character groups: the servants or "Zanni", these are characters such as Arlecchino, Brighella, and Pedrolino; the old men or "vecchi", characters
Pierrot the "complaints" of his first published volume of poems (1885) into "Lord" Pierrot's mouth—and dedicated his next book, "The Imitation of Our Lady the Moon" (1886), completely to Pierrot and his world. (Pierrots were legion among the minor, now-forgotten poets: for samples, see Willette's journal "The Pierrot", which appeared between 1888 and 1889, then again in 1891.) In the realm of song, Claude Debussy set both Verlaine's "Pantomime" and Banville's "Pierrot" (1842) to music in 1881 (not published until 1926)—the only precedents among works by major composers being the "Pierrot" section of Telemann's "Burlesque Overture" (1717–22), Mozart's 1783 "Masquerade" (in