Fedele and Fortunio, the Two Italian Gentlemen

An adaptation of an Italian anti-comedy into an English formulaic-comedy. Fedele and Fortunio is an exercise in adapting Luigi Pasqualigo's Italian Il Fedele: Comedia del Clarissimo (1576) into an idealized version of British cultural purity. Pasqualigo had rebelled against preceding tropes of Italian comedy by showcasing murderous and wildly promiscuous and unfaithful ladies and gentlemen, and rebellious servants. Perhaps because Percy was desperate in his youth to create extremely proper ...