Parerga sull’onomastica di alcune figure di «parassiti» nei volgarizzamenti e nelle commedie e tragicommedie del Cinquecento

Abstract

This paper examines the names given to theatrical characters representing «the parasite» in several vernacular translations of Plautus’ comedies (reference is also made to works by Terence) and in a number of Neolatin and Italian comedies and tragicomedies between the sixteenth and seventeenth century. The first part looks at Greek and Latin sources, and the Humanistic and Renaissance developments of the name Pamphagus, while the second considers non-Italian works with diverse dramaturgical features, in order to illustrate the typological and onomastic differences of the characters, whose names naturally follow the outcomes of the articulated creative processes of reuse and adaptation of classical models to contemporary historical situations and events.