Giordano Bruno’s Candelaio and Possible Echoes in Shakespeare and Ben Jonson

Hilary Gatti

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Renaissance Literature and Culture Renaissance and Early Modern Studies Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism

Abstract

Giordano Bruno’s only play, a renaissance comedy entitled Candelaio (Paris 1582), is proposed here as a possible source for the gulling scenes of Malvolio in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (1600–1601), as well as for numerous episodes in Ben Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair (1614). In neither case have the critics so far succeeded in finding convincing source material for these celebrated moments of Elizabethan and Jacobean comedy. A possible intermediary between the English dramatists and their Italian-language source material could have been John Florio, a close friend of Bruno’s during his years in London between 1583 and 1585, as well as a documented “ayde” to Jonson’s muse for his use of Italian characters and settings in many of his comedies. Above all, however, the proposal is supported by a close reading of all three comedies, particularly in their use of the themes of vice and punishment.

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