The Fake Husband, A Comedy

Rosalind Kerr offers the first translation into English of Flaminio Scala’s Il finto marito (The Fake Husband), first produced in 1618/1619. She provides a tremendous service to scholars and students of the commedia dell’arte by adding this important attempt by Scala at a Baroque play that raises the topics of female-to-female love and cross-dressing. Valuing commedia dell’arte as a “living, breathing, imitation of life” capable of moving the audience emotionally, and understanding the importance of literary forms in creating a lasting legacy for the achievements of theatrical performance, Scala turned again and again to publication, so that the expressive power of commedia dell’arte might be conveyed to a widening audience.

—Erith Jaffe-Berg
Professor, Department of Theatre, Film and Digital Production, University of California Riverside

"Rosalind Kerr offers the first translation into English of Flaminio Scala’s Il finto marito (The Fake Husband), first produced in 1618/1619. She provides a tremendous service to scholars and students of the commedia dell’arte by adding this important attempt by Scala at a Baroque play that raises the topics of female-to-female love and cross-dressing. Valuing commedia dell’arte as a 'living, breathing, imitation of life' capable of moving the audience emotionally, and understanding the importance of literary forms in creating a lasting legacy for the achievements of theatrical performance, Scala turned again and again to publication, so that the expressive power of commedia dell’arte might be conveyed to a widening audience." ~Erith Jaffe-Berg, University of California Riverside