A Translation from "Pavan" into English of Angelo Beolco's Parlamento de Ruzante, qual giera stò in campo / Ruzante's Discourse on Coming Back from the Battlefield

The present study is divided into three parts, the first of which is an in-depth introduction by Carlo Fanelli to the authors and problems of 16th century Renaissance Italian dialect comedy and the relevance of a playwright such as Angelo Beolco (RUZANTE). Particular attention is paid to the comedy from the point of view of the social problems presented by veterans or deserters after long and socially disastrous wars.

The second part is a short introduction to the manuscript history of RUZANTE’s dialect comedy El Parlamento prior its printing by Stefano Alessi at Venice in 1551. The Verona Codex 36 is datable to 1524, the Marciana (Venice) IT.XI,66 (in worse conditions as a manuscript) is of a later period (1526-1542), the first probably used by the playwright to prepare the comedy for staging: Verona Codex 36 is here presented in the third part with suggested modifications and a possible theatrical translation into modern English. Parts 2 and 3 are by John B Trumper.