The Candlestick

Candlestick, The (Il Candelaio)

    Alternative Title: The Candle Bearer; The Candle-Maker

    Author: Giordano Bruno

    First Performance: Unknown, 1st recorded production 1968

    Published: 1582

    First English Translation: 1964

    Genre: Commedia erudita in 5 acts; Italian prose

    Setting: A square in Naples, late 16th c.

    Cast: 15m, 4f

There are three focuses of the action: the first, Bonifacio, is an old lecher who is trying to seduce the courtesan Vittoria. He hires a magician to cast a spell on Vittoria, although the advice he is given by the portrait painter Giovan Bernardo is more useful: that he should give up ‘candles’ (i.e. small boys' penises) and concentrate more on ‘thimbles’ (i.e. sex with women). Bonifacio, believing that Vittoria is under the...

[The entire page is 419 words long]

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