Il vestito di Arlecchino/Harlequin's dress

Do you know why the dress of Harlequin is made of many color? Read this story and you'll know.

There was once a child, called Harlequin, very poor man who lived with his mother in a humble cottage. For Carnival, the teacher organized a nice party and offered to all children to dress in masks. Harlequin's friends decided to dress in the last day of carnival masks with clothes sewn by their mothers. Harlequin was sad because his mother, who was a widow and poor, could not buy the fabric for his dress. The mothers of the friends of Harlequin gave her scraps of cloth, then so could the mother do the dress to Harlequin . On the morning of Shrove Tuesday, when Harlequin entered the class greeted him with thunderous applause because her dress was not only the most 'beautiful but also' the most original.



Do you want to feel in rhyme? We will tell you with Gianni Rodari

Per fare un vestito ad arlecchino
ci mise una toppa Meneghino,
ne mise un'altra Pulcinella,
una Gianduia, una Brighella.
Pantalone, vecchio pidocchio,
ci mise uno strappo sul ginocchio,
e Stenterello, largo di mano
qualche macchia di vino toscano.
Colombina che lo cucì
fece un vestito stretto così.
Arlecchino lo mise lo stesso
ma ci stava un tantino perplesso.
Disse allora Balanzone,
bolognese dottorone :
"Ti assicuro e te lo giuro
che ti andrà bene il mese venturo
se osserverai la mia ricetta:
un giorno digiuno e l'altro bolletta!".