The Italian Taylor and His Boy or what Robert Armin did to Straparola

Abstract Robert Armin is well known as the last of Shakespeare's great stage clowns, the actor who inspired the creation of characters like Touchstone, Feste and Lavatch in Shakespeare's plays. He is less known as a pamphleteer, poet and playwright, despite the fact that he seems to have been quite productive in his time. This paper analyses in particular one of his most neglected works, entitled The Italian Taylor and His Boy (1609) in relation to its source, a novella of the collection ‘Le Piacevoli Notti’ [The Pleasant Nights'] (two volumes, 1550‐1553) by the Italian author Giovan Francesco Straparola. First, I give reasons for Armin's choice, arguing that the story of Maestro Lattanzio and Dionigi might have attracted the actor's attention for its points in common with his own life. Then, I show how Armin does not produce a mere ‘translation’ of Straparola, as has sometimes been implied, but he improves the source in many ways: changing the finale and adding to the text a captivating dramatic quality, refined imagery, learned allusions and references to his own background. Finally, I consider the literary and intellectual context that influenced the writing of the poem.