History
Commedia productions date back to Italy around the year 1560, making the origin for Pantalone's character quite difficult to determine. The most common explanation for the name "Pantalone" comes from the Italian phrase pianta leone, translated as "plant the lion." The lion may, in fact, refer to the emblem of the Republic of Venice, and Venice's conquests around the globe where Venetians had literally "planted the lion" flag. Another explanation is that the name comes from Saint Pantaleon (in Italian Pantaleone), a saint venerated in Venice. Pantalone's character is always a Venetian old man, "a rich and almost miserly old merchant, always decrepit and stumbling." Pantalone is thought to be greatly based on the old Venetian merchants of the time, known for their stingy and less-than-pleasant personalities.
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