Editing Pierrot (section)

====North America====
Pierrot and his fellow masks were late in coming to the United States, which, unlike England, Russia, and the countries of continental Europe, had had no early exposure to commedia dell'arte.<ref>It is in part for this reason—that Pierrot was a late and somewhat alien import to America—that the early poems of '''[[T.S. Eliot]]''' that were closely modeled on the Pierrot poems of [[Jules Laforgue]] do not allude to Pierrot by name. See Storey, ''Pierrot: a critical history'', pp. 156-67.</ref> The [[Hanlon-Lees]] made their first U.S. appearance in 1858, and their subsequent tours, well into the 20th century, of scores of cities throughout the country accustomed their audiences to their fantastic, acrobatic Pierrots.<ref>For an exhaustive account of the Hanlons' appearances in America (and elsewhere), see Mark Cosdon, [http://docplayer.net/4059524-A-chronological-outline-of-the-hanlon-brothers-1833-1931-mark-cosdon-allegheny-college.html "A Chronological Outline of the Hanlon Brothers, 1833-1931".]</ref> But the Pierrot that would leave the deepest imprint upon the American imagination was that of the French and English [[Decadent movement|Decadents]], a creature who quickly found his home in the so-called [[little magazine]]s of the 1890s (as well as in the poster-art that they spawned). One of the earliest and most influential of these in America, ''[[The Chap-Book]]'' (1894–98), which featured a story about Pierrot by the aesthete [[Percival Pollard]] in its second number,<ref>"For a Jest's Sake" (1894).</ref> was soon host to Beardsley-inspired Pierrots drawn by E.B. Bird and Frank Hazenplug<ref>See reproductions (in poster form) in Margolin, pp. 110, 111.</ref> (the Canadian poet [[Bliss Carman]] should also be mentioned for his contribution to Pierrot's dissemination in mass-market publications such as ''[[Harper's Magazine|Harper's]]'').<ref>Carman's "The Last Room. From the Departure of Pierrot" appeared originally in the August 1899 number of ''Harper's''; it is reprinted (as "The Last Room") in {{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/balladsandlyric00carmgoog#page/n87/mode/2up/search/columbine|title=Ballads and Lyrics|website=archive.org|access-date=2016-04-20}}</ref> Like most things associated with the Decadence, such exotica discombobulated the mainstream American public, which regarded the little magazines in general as "freak periodicals" and declared, through one of its mouthpieces, ''[[Munsey's Magazine]]'', that "each new representative of the species is, if possible, more preposterous than the last".<ref>Summer issue, 1896; cited in Margolin, p. 37.</ref> And yet the Pierrot of that species was gaining a foothold elsewhere. The composers [[Amy Beach]] and [[Arthur Foote]] devoted a section to Pierrot (as well as to Pierrette, his Decadent counterpart) in two ludic pieces for piano—Beach's ''Children's Carnival'' (1894) and Foote's ''Five Bagatelles'' (1893).

The fin de siècle world in which this Pierrot resided was clearly at odds with the reigning American Realist and Naturalist aesthetic (although such figures as [[Ambrose Bierce]] and [[John LaFarge]] were mounting serious challenges to it). It is in fact jarring to find the champion of American prose Realism, [[William Dean Howells]], introducing ''Pastels in Prose'' (1890), a volume of French [[Prose poetry|prose-poems]] containing a [[Paul Margueritte]] pantomime, ''The Death of Pierrot'',<ref>It also contains a short tale of Pierrot by Paul Leclercq, "A Story in White".</ref> with words of warm praise (and even congratulations to each poet for failing "to saddle his reader with a moral").<ref>Merrill, [https://archive.org/stream/pastelsinprose00merrgoog#page/n10/mode/2up p. vii]</ref> So uncustomary was the French Aesthetic viewpoint that, when Pierrot made an appearance in ''Pierrot the Painter'' (1893),<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1894/02/16/106093868.pdf "Mr. Sargent's Pupils Again"], ''New York Times'', February 16, 1894.</ref> a pantomime by [[Alfred Thompson (librettist)|Alfred Thompson]], set to music by the American composer [[Laura Sedgwick Collins]], ''The New York Times'' covered it as an event, although it was only a student production. It was found to be "pleasing" because, in part, it was "odd".<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1893/12/08/109271203.pdf "Pierrot at Berkeley Lyceum"], ''New York Times'', December 8, 1893.</ref> Not until the first decade of the next century, when the great (and popular) fantasist [[Maxfield Parrish]] worked his magic on the figure, would Pierrot be comfortably naturalized in America.

Of course, writers from the United States living abroad—especially in Paris or London—were aberrantly susceptible to the charms of the Decadence. Such a figure was [[Stuart Merrill]], who consorted with the French [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolists]] and who compiled and translated the pieces in ''Pastels in Prose''. Another was [[William Theodore Peters]], an acquaintance of [[Ernest Dowson]] and other members of the [[Rhymers' Club]] and a driving force behind the conception and theatrical realization of Dowson's ''Pierrot of the Minute'' (1897; see '''[[#England 2|England]]''' above). Of the three books that Peters published before his death (of starvation)<ref>Muddiman,  [https://archive.org/stream/menofnineties00muddiala#page/96/mode/2up p. 97].</ref> at the age of forty-two, his ''Posies out of Rings: And Other Conceits'' (1896) is most notable here: in it, four poems and an "Epilogue" for the aforementioned Dowson play are devoted to Pierrot  (from the mouth of Pierrot ''loquitur'': "Although this pantomime of life is passing fine,/Who would be happy must not marry Columbine").<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/posiesoutofrings00peteiala#page/6/mode/2up|title=Posies out of rings, and other conceits|website=archive.org|year=1896|access-date=2016-07-01}}</ref>

Another pocket of North-American sympathy with the Decadence—one manifestation of what the Latin world called ''[[modernismo]]''—could be found in the progressive literary scene of Mexico, its parent country, Spain, having been long conversant with the commedia dell'arte. In 1897, [[:es:Bernardo Couto Castillo|Bernardo Couto Castillo]], another Decadent who, at the age of twenty-two, died even more tragically young than Peters, embarked on a series of Pierrot-themed short—"Pierrot Enamored of Glory" (1897), "Pierrot and His Cats" (1898), "The Nuptials of Pierrot" (1899), "Pierrot's Gesture" (1899), "The Caprices of Pierrot" (1900)—culminating, after the turn of the century (and in the year of Couto's death), with "Pierrot-Gravedigger" (1901).<ref>All collected in Muñoz Fernández.</ref> For the Spanish-speaking world, according to scholar Emilio Peral Vega, Couto "expresses that first manifestation of Pierrot as an alter ego in a game of symbolic otherness ...".<ref>{{harvnb|Peral Vega|2015|p=19}}.</ref>