Re: MR: Pulcinella

["Ed Hopkins" <Ed.Hopkins@MCI.Com>]

Poster: "Ed Hopkins" <Ed.Hopkins@MCI.Com>

Apparently the name "Pulcinella" comes from the Napolitan dialect
word for a young turkey cock, on account of his nose being curved
like a turkey's bill.

The earliest reference in English is "Punchinello" in Samuel Pepys
diary in 1666, and I don't think the puppet existed in Italy more
than a decade or so before that (but I'm just guessing).

BTW, for quite a while in the 17th century he puppet show was
called "Punch and His Wife"; she got the name "Judy" later.

"Gonella", in modern Italian at least, means "skirt"; it might
be related to the English word "gown".

Someone wrote privately to point out that Pulcinella and Gonella
weren't any stranger than Luca , Andrea, Nicola, Mattia; all
I can say is you don't have men's names ending in "a" in
Spanish (except for "Jose Maria" which is a special case).

I should have mentioned before that the food at Pulcinella in
Durham was very good.  The penne was al dente, not mushy like
most restaurant pasta tends to be.  The service was a little slow;
I think they could use another waitron.

-- Alfredo el Bufon


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