HARLEQUIN

harlequin, in modern pantomime, the posturing and acrobatic character who gives his name to the "harlequinade," attired in mask and parti-coloured and spangled tights, and provided with a sword like a bat, by which, himself invisible, he works wonders. it has generally been assumed that harlequin was transferred to france from the "arlecchino" of italian medieval and renaissance popular comedy; but dr driesen in his _ursprung des harlekins_ (berlin, 1904) shows that this is incorrect. an old french "harlekin" (herlekin, hellequin and other variants) is found in folk-literature as early as 1100; he had already become proverbial as a ragamuffin of a demoniacal appearance and character; in 1262 a number of harlekins appear in a play by adam de la halle as the intermediaries of king hellekin, prince of fairyland, in courting morgan le fay; and it was not till much later that the french harlekin was transformed into the italian arlecchino. in his typical french form down to the time of gottsched, he was a spirit of the air, deriving thence his invisibility and his characteristically light and aery whirlings. subsequently he returned from the italian to the french stage, being imported by marivaux into light comedy; and his various attributes gradually became amalgamated into the latter form taken in pantomime. harless (originally harles), gottlieb christoph (1738-1815), german classical scholar and bibliographer, was born at culmbach in bavaria on the 21st of june 1738. he studied at halle, erlangen and jena. in 1765 he was appointed professor of oriental languages and eloquence at the gymnasium casimirianum in coburg, in 1770 professor of poetry and eloquence at erlangen, and in 1776 librarian of the university. he held his professorship for forty-five years till his death on the 2nd of november 1815. harless was an extremely prolific writer. his numerous editions of classical authors, deficient in originality and critical judgment, although valuable at the time as giving the student the results of the labours of earlier scholars, are now entirely superseded. but he will always be remembered for his meritorious work in connexion with the great _bibliotheca graeca_ of j. a. fabricius, of which he published a new and revised edition (12 vols., 1790-1809, not quite completed),--a task for which he was peculiarly qualified. he also wrote much on the history and bibliography of greek and latin literature. his life was written by his son, johann christian friedrich harless (1818).