Beolco, Angelo

, surnamed Ruzzante, was born at Padua, about 1502, and died in 1542. He applied himself early in life to study the manners, gesture, and language of villagers, and copied every particular that savoured of simplicity, drollery, and the grotesque. He was the Vade of the Italians. His rustic farces, though written in a low and vulgar style, are yet pleasing to people of education, by the correctness with which the countrymen are represented, and by the witticisms with which they are seasoned. He preferred being the first in this species of composition, to being the second in a more elevated line. His principal pieces are, la Vaccaria, PAnconitana, la Moschetta, la Fiorina, la Piovana, &c. These were printed with other poems of the same kind in 1584 in 12mo, under this title, “Tutte le opere del famosissimo lluzzante,” and have often been republished. ³