Editing Pierrot (section)

==19th century==

===Pantomime of Deburau at the Théâtre des Funambules===
[[File:Jean-Gaspard Deburau.jpg|thumb|[[:fr:Auguste Bouquet|Auguste Bouquet]]: ''[[Jean-Gaspard Deburau]]'', {{circa|1830}}]]
The [[Théâtre des Funambules]] was a little theater licensed in its early years to present only mimed and acrobatic acts.<ref>The chief historian of the Funambules is [[Louis Péricaud]].</ref> It was the home, beginning in 1816, of [[Jean-Gaspard Deburau]] (1796–1846),<ref>On Deburau's life, see Rémy, ''Jean-Gaspard Deburau''; on his pantomime, see Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', pp. 7–35, and Nye (2014), Nye (2015-2016), and Nye (2016).</ref> the most famous Pierrot ever. He was immortalized by [[Jean-Louis Barrault]] in [[Marcel Carné]]'s film ''[[Children of Paradise]]'' (1945).

Deburau, from the year 1825, was the only actor at the Funambules to play Pierrot,<ref>Nye (2016), p. 18, n. 12.</ref> and he did so in several types of pantomime: rustic, melodramatic, "realistic", and fantastic.<ref>See Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', pp. 15-23.</ref> His style, according to [[Louis Péricaud]], formed "an enormous contrast with the exuberance, the superabundance of gestures, of leaps, that ... his predecessors had employed".<ref>[[Louis Péricaud|Péricaud]], [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k204363m/f31.image p. 28]; tr. Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', pp. 31–32.</ref> He altered the costume: he dispensed with the frilled collaret, substituted a skullcap for a hat, and greatly increased the wide cut of both blouse and trousers. Deburau's Pierrot avoided the crude Pierrots—timid, sexless, lazy, and greedy—found in earlier pantomime.<ref>On the early Pierrots, see Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', pp. 12–13.</ref>

The Funambules Pierrot appealed to audiences in the faery-tale style which incorporate the ''commedia'' types. The plot often hinged on Cassander's pursuit of Harlequin and Columbine, having to deal with a clever and ambiguous Pierrot. Deburau early—about 1828—caught the attention of the [[Romanticism|Romantics]].<ref>For a full discussion of the connection of all these writers with Deburau's Pierrot, see Storey, ''Pierrot: a critical history'', pp. 104, 110–112, and Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', pp. 7, 74–151.</ref> In 1842, Théophile Gautier published a fake review of a "Shakespeare" pantomime he claimed to have seen at the Funambules.<ref>{{Cite book |chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781400854820.105/html |chapter=IV. Pierrot posthume: Théophile Gautier |date=2014-07-14 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-5482-0 |language=en |doi=10.1515/9781400854820.105|title=Pierrots on the Stage of Desire |pages=105–126 }}</ref> It placed Pierrot in the company of over-reachers in high literature such as [[Don Juan]] or [[Macbeth (character)|Macbeth]].

===Pantomime after Baptiste: Charles Deburau, Paul Legrand, and their successors===
[[File:Pierrot photographe.jpg|thumb|[[Nadar]]: Charles Deburau as Pierrot, 1854]]
Deburau's son, [[Charles Deburau|Jean-Charles]] (or, as he preferred, "Charles" [1829–1873]), assumed Pierrot's blouse the year after his father died.<ref>See, e.g., Gautier in ''Le Moniteur Universel'', August 30, 1858; tr. Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', p. 59.</ref> Another important Pierrot of mid-century was Charles-Dominique-Martin Legrand, known as [[Paul Legrand]] (1816–1898; see photo at top of page). He began appearing at the Funambules as Pierrot in 1845.<ref>Many reviewers of his pantomimes make note of this tendency: see, e.g., Gautier, ''Le Moniteur Universel'', October 15, 1855; July 28, 1856; August 30, 1858; tr. Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', pp. 66–68.</ref>

[[File:Ch.Leandre PierrotEtColombine.png|thumb|[[Georges Wague]] in one of the ''cantomimes'' (pantomimes performed to off-stage songs) of [[Xavier Privas]]. Poster by [[Charles Lucien Léandre|Charles Léandre]], 1899.]]
Legrand left the Funambules in 1853 for the [[Folies-Nouvelles]], which attracted the fashionable set, unlike the Funambules' working-class audiences. Legrand often appeared in realistic costume, his chalky face his only concession to tradition, leading some advocates of pantomime, such as Gautier, to lament that he was betraying the character of the type.<ref>On the Folies-Nouvelles, Legrand's pantomime, and Champfleury's relationship to both, see Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', pp. 36–73.</ref> Legrand's Pierrot influenced future mimes.

===Pantomime and late 19th-century art===

====France====
;Popular and literary pantomime
[[File:Sarah Bernhardt as Pierrot.jpg|thumb|Atelier Nadar: [[Sarah Bernhardt]] in [[Jean Richepin]]'s ''Pierrot the Murderer'', 1883. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.]]
[[File:Poster for Hanlon-Lees' "Superba".jpg|thumb|Anon.: Poster for Hanlon-Lees' ''Superba'', 1890–1911. Theatre Collection of the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center.]]
[[File:Léon Hennique - Pierrot sceptique.jpg|thumb|[[Jules Chéret]]: Title-page of Hennique and [[J.-K. Huysmans|Huysmans]]' ''Pierrot the Skeptic'', 1881]]
[[File:Paul Cézanne, 1888, Mardi gras (Pierrot et Arlequin), oil on canvas, 102 x 81 cm, Pushkin Museum.jpg|thumb|[[Paul Cézanne]]: ''Mardi gras (Pierrot and Harlequin)'', 1888, [[Pushkin Museum]], Moscow]]
In the 1880s and 1890s, the pantomime reached a type of apogee, and Pierrot became ubiquitous.<ref>On late 19th-/early 20th-century French pantomime, see Bonnet, ''La pantomime noire'' and ''Pantomimes fin-de-siècle''; Martinez; Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', pp. 253–315; and Rolfe, pp. 143–58.</ref> Moreover, he acquired a female counterpart, Pierrette, who rivaled Columbine for his affections. A [[Cercle Funambulesque]] was founded in 1888, and Pierrot (sometimes played by female mimes, such as [[Félicia Mallet]]) dominated its productions until its demise in 1898.<ref>See Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', pp. 284–294.</ref> [[Sarah Bernhardt]] even donned Pierrot's blouse for [[Jean Richepin]]'s ''Pierrot the Murderer'' (1883).

But French mimes and actors were not the only figures responsible for Pierrot's ubiquity: the English Hanlon brothers (sometimes called the [[Hanlon-Lees]]), gymnasts and acrobats who had been schooled in the 1860s in pantomimes from Baptiste's repertoire, traveled (and dazzled) the world well into the 20th century with their pantomimic sketches and extravaganzas featuring riotously nightmarish Pierrots. The [[Naturalism (literature)|Naturalists]]—[[Émile Zola]] especially, who wrote glowingly of them—were captivated by their art.<ref>See Cosdon, p.49.</ref> [[Edmond de Goncourt]] modeled his acrobat-mimes in his ''The Zemganno Brothers'' (1879) upon them; [[J.-K. Huysmans]] (whose ''[[À rebours|Against Nature]]'' [1884] would become [[The Picture of Dorian Gray|Dorian Gray]]'s bible) and his friend [[Léon Hennique]] wrote their pantomime ''[[s:fr:Pierrot sceptique (pantomime)|Pierrot the Skeptic]]'' (1881) after seeing them perform at the Folies Bergère (and, in turn, [[Jules Laforgue]] wrote his pantomime ''Pierrot the Cut-Up'' [''Pierrot fumiste'', 1882]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.laforgue.org/Pierrot.htm|title=Pierrot fumiste (Jules Laforgue)|website=www.laforgue.org|access-date=2016-07-05}}</ref> after reading the scenario by Huysmans and Hennique).<ref>On the influence of the Hanlons on Goncourt and Huysmans and Hennique, see Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', pp. 182–188, 217–222; on the influence of Huysmans/Hennique on Laforgue's pantomime, see Storey, ''Pierrot: a critical history'', p. 145, 154.</ref> It was in part through the enthusiasm that they excited, coupled with the [[Impressionism|Impressionists]]' taste for popular entertainment, such as the circus and the music-hall, as well as the new bohemianism that then reigned in artistic quarters such as [[Montmartre]] (and which was celebrated by such denizens as [[Adolphe Willette]], whose cartoons and canvases are crowded with Pierrots)—it was through all this that Pierrot achieved almost unprecedented currency and visibility towards the end of the century.
;Visual arts, fiction, poetry, music, and film
He invaded the visual arts<ref>See Lawner; Kellein; also the plates in Palacio, and the plates and tailpieces in Storey's two books.</ref>—not only in the work of Willette, but also in the illustrations and posters of [[Jules Chéret]];<ref>For posters by Willette, Chéret, and many other late 19th-century artists, see Maindron.</ref> in the engravings of [[Odilon Redon]] (''The Swamp Flower: A Sad Human Head'' [1885]); and in the canvases of [[Georges Seurat]] (''Pierrot with a White Pipe [Aman-Jean]'' [1883]; ''The Painter Aman-Jean as Pierrot'' [1883]), [[Léon Comerre]] (''Pierrot'' [1884], ''Pierrot Playing the Mandolin'' [1884]), [[Henri Rousseau]] (''A Carnival Night'' [1886]), [[Paul Cézanne]] (''Mardi gras [Pierrot and Harlequin]'' [1888]), [[Fernand Pelez]] (''Grimaces and Miseries'' a.k.a. ''The Saltimbanques'' [1888]), [[Pablo Picasso]] (''Pierrot and Columbine'' [1900]), [[Guillaume Seignac]] (''Pierrot's Embrace'' [1900]), [[Théophile Steinlen]] (''Pierrot and the Cat'' [1889]), and [[Édouard Vuillard]] (''The Black Pierrot'' [c. 1890]). The mime "Tombre" of [[Jean Richepin]]'s novel ''Nice People'' (''Braves Gens'' [1886]) turned him into a pathetic and alcoholic "phantom"; [[Paul Verlaine]] imagined him as a gormandizing naïf in "Pantomime" (1869), then, like Tombre, as a lightning-lit specter in "Pierrot" (1868, pub. 1882).<ref>For a full discussion of Verlaine's many versions of Pierrot, see Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', pp. 230-52.</ref> [[Jules Laforgue|Laforgue]] put three of the "complaints" of his first published volume of poems (1885) into "Lord" Pierrot's mouth—and dedicated his next book, ''[[L'Imitation de Notre-Dame la Lune|The Imitation of Our Lady the Moon]]'' (1886), completely to Pierrot and his world (Pierrots were legion among the minor, now-forgotten poets: for samples, see Willette's journal ''The Pierrot'', which appeared between 1888 and 1889, then again in 1891). In the realm of song, [[Claude Debussy]] set both Verlaine's "Pantomime" and [[Théodore de Banville|Banville]]'s "Pierrot" (1842) to music in 1881 (not published until 1926)—the only precedents among works by major composers being the "Pierrot" section of [[Telemann]]'s ''Burlesque Overture'' (1717–22), [[Mozart]]'s 1783 "Masquerade" (in which Mozart himself took the role of Harlequin and his brother-in-law, [[Joseph Lange]], that of Pierrot),<ref>{{harvnb|Deutsch|1966|p=213}}. The score, which is fragmentary, exists as K. 446.</ref> and the "Pierrot" section of [[Robert Schumann]]'s ''Carnival'' (1835).<ref>Debussy may have added the operetta ''Mon ami Pierrot'' (1862) by [[Léo Delibes]], whom he admired, to this list. He probably would have excluded [[Jacques Offenbach]]'s ''Pierrot Clown'', a theater score of 1855.</ref> Even the embryonic art of the motion picture turned to Pierrot before the century was out: he appeared, not only in early celluloid shorts ([[Georges Méliès]]'s ''The Nightmare'' [1896], ''The Magician'' [1898]; [[Alice Guy]]'s ''Arrival of Pierrette and Pierrot'' [1900], ''Pierrette's Amorous Adventures'' [1900]; Ambroise-François Parnaland's ''Pierrot's Big Head/Pierrot's Tongue'' [1900], ''Pierrot-Drinker'' [1900]), but also in [[Emile Reynaud]]'s [[Praxinoscope]] production of ''[[Pauvre Pierrot|Poor Pierrot]]'' (1892), the first animated movie and the first hand-colored one.

====Belgium====
In Belgium, [[Félicien Rops]] depicted a grinning Pierrot who witnesses an unromantic backstage scene (''Blowing Cupid's Nose'' [1881]). [[James Ensor]] painted Pierrots obsessively, in various poses from prostrate to bowing his head in despondency, sometimes even with a smiling skeleton. The Belgian poet and dramatist [[Albert Giraud]] also identified with the Zanni: the fifty [[Rondel (poem)|rondels]] of his ''[[Pierrot lunaire (book)|Pierrot lunaire]]'' (''Moonstruck Pierrot,'' 1884) inspired generations of composers (see '''''[[#Pierrot lunaire|Pierrot lunaire]]''''' below), and his verse-play ''Pierrot-Narcissus'' (1887) offered a definitive portrait of the poet-dreamer. The choreographer [[Joseph Hansen (dancer)|Joseph Hansen]] staged the ballet ''Macabre Pierrot'' in 1884 in collaboration with the poet [[Théodore Hannon|Théo Hannon]].

====England====
[[Image:Aubrey Beardsley - Death of Pierrot.jpg|thumb|[[Aubrey Beardsley]]: "The Death of Pierrot", ''[[The Savoy (periodical)|The Savoy]]'', August 1896]]
Pierrot figured prominently in the drawings of [[Aubrey Beardsley]], and various writers referenced him in their poetry.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dobson|first=Austin|author-link=Henry Austin Dobson|chapter=After Watteau|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/collectedpoems01dobsgoog#page/n490/mode/2up|title=Collected Poems|year=1913|page=476|edition=9th|publisher=[[E.P. Dutton & Company]]|location=New York|via=[[Internet Archive]]|access-date=2016-07-01}}  Poem first published in December 1893 number of [[Harper's Magazine]].</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Symons|first=Arthur|author-link=Arthur Symons|chapter=Pierrot in Half-Mourning|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/silhouettes00symogoog#page/n116/mode/2up|title=Silhouettes; and, London nights|year=1896|publisher=[[Leonard Smithers]]|location=London|page=90|edition=2nd|via=Internet Archive|access-date=2016-07-01}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Custance|first=Olive|author-link=Olive Custance|chapter=Pierrot|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/TheYellowBookAnIllustratedQuarterly/YellowBookAnIllustratedQuarterly1897bVolXiii.April#page/n127/mode/2up|title=The Yellow Book, An Illustrated Quarterly|year=1897|volume=XIII|page=121|via=Internet Archive|access-date=2016-07-01}}</ref> Ethel Wright painted ''Bonjour, Pierrot!'' (a greeting to a dour clown sitting disconsolate with his dog) in 1893. The Pierrot of popular taste also spawned a uniquely English entertainment. In 1891, the singer and banjoist [[Clifford Essex]], resolved to create a troupe of English Pierrot entertainers,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.prom-prom.com/tony-lidington/radio/pierrot-hero-clifford-essex/ |title="Pierrot Hero: The Memoirs of Clifford Essex". |access-date=1 June 2019 |archive-date=1 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190601070749/http://www.prom-prom.com/tony-lidington/radio/pierrot-hero-clifford-essex/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> and called them the [[Concert Party (entertainment)|seaside Pierrots]] who, as late as the 1950s, performed on the piers of [[Brighton]], [[Margate]], and [[Blackpool]].<ref>See Calvert, Pertwee.</ref> They inspired the Will Morris Pierrots, named after their [[Birmingham]] founder. They originated in the [[Smethwick]] area in the late 1890s and played to large audiences in [[the Midlands]]. [[Walter Westley Russell]] committed these performers to canvas in ''The Pierrots'' (c. 1900).

Pierrot's mask claimed the attention of the great theater innovator [[Edward Gordon Craig]].<ref>Craig, p. 89.</ref> Craig's involvement with the figure grew with time. In 1897, Craig, dressed as Pierrot, gave a quasi-impromptu stage-reading of [[Hans Christian Andersen]]'s story "What the Moon Saw" as part of a benefit performance for theater artists in need.<ref>[[Martin Shaw (composer)|Martin Shaw]], [http://www.martinshawmusic.com/articles/egc_how_we_met.html ''How We Met&mdash;Edward Gordon Craig and Martin Shaw''].</ref>

====Austria and Germany====
Although he lamented that "the Pierrot figure was inherently alien to the German-speaking world", the playwright [[Franz Blei]] introduced him enthusiastically into his playlet ''The Kissy-Face: A Columbiade'' (1895), and his fellow-Austrians [[Richard Specht]] and [[Richard Beer-Hofmann]] made an effort to naturalize Pierrot—in their plays ''Pierrot-Hunchback'' (1896) and ''Pierrot-Hypnotist'' (1892, first pub. 1984), respectively—by linking his fortunes with those of [[Goethe]]'s Faust.<ref>Vilain, pp. 69, 77, 79.</ref> Still others among their countrymen simply sidestepped the issue of naturalization: [[Hermann Bahr]] took his inspiration for his ''Pantomime of the Good Man'' (1893) directly from his encounter with the exclusively French [[Cercle Funambulesque]]; Rudolf Holzer set the action of his ''Puppet Loyalty'' (1899), unapologetically, in a fabulous Paris; and [[Karl Michael von Levetzow]] settled his ''Two Pierrots'' (1900) in the birthplace of Pierrot's comedy, Italy.<ref>Toepfer, [https://karltoepfer.com/2019/06/30/germanic-pantomime-pierrot-in-vienna/ "Germanic Pantomime: Pierrot in Vienna"], n.p. (pp. 731-32, 742-44 in PDF download)</ref>

[[File:Paul Hoecker-Pierrot mit Pfeifen.jpg|thumb|[[Paul Hoecker]]: ''Pierrots with Pipes'', {{circa|1900}}. Location unknown.]]
In Germany, [[Frank Wedekind]] introduced the ''[[femme-fatale]]'' of his first "Lulu" play, ''[[Earth Spirit (play)|Earth Spirit]]'' (1895), in a Pierrot costume. In a similar spirit, the painter [[Paul Hoecker]] put cheeky young men into Pierrot costumes to ape their complacent burgher elders in ''Pierrots with Pipes'' ({{circa|1900}}) and swilling champagne in ''Waiting Woman'' ({{circa|1895}}).

====Italy====
Canio's Pagliaccio in the famous [[Pagliacci|opera]] (1892) by [[Leoncavallo]] is close enough to a Pierrot to deserve a mention here. Much less well-known is the work of two other composers—[[Mario Pasquale Costa]] and [[Vittorio Monti]].  Costa's pantomime ''L'Histoire d'un Pierrot'' (''Story of a Pierrot''), which debuted in Paris in 1893, was so admired in its day that it eventually reached audiences on several continents, was paired with ''[[Cavalleria Rusticana]]'' by New York's Metropolitan Opera Company in 1909, and was premiered as a film by [[Baldassarre Negroni]] in 1914.<ref>Sansone, n.p.</ref> Its libretto, like that of Monti's "mimodrama" ''Noël de Pierrot'' a.k.a. ''A Clown's Christmas'' (1900), was written by Fernand Beissier, one of the founders of the [[Cercle Funambulesque]].<ref>Storey, ''Pierrots on the stage'', p. 286</ref> (Monti would go on to acquire his own fame by celebrating another spiritual outsider much akin to Pierrot—the [[Romani people|Gypsy]]. His ''[[Csárdás (Monti)|Csárdás]]'' [c. 1904], like ''[[Pagliacci]]'', has found a secure place in the standard musical repertoire).

The portrait and [[Genre painting|genre]] painter [[Vittorio Matteo Corcos]] produced ''Portrait of Boy in Pierrot Costume'' in 1897.

====Spain====
In 1895, the playwright and future [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel]] laureate [[Jacinto Benavente]] wrote rapturously in his journal of a performance of the [[Hanlon-Lees]],<ref>{{harvnb|Peral Vega|2015|pp=17–18}}.</ref> and three years later he published his only pantomime: ''The Whiteness of Pierrot''. A true [[fin de siècle]] mask, Pierrot paints his face black to commit robbery and murder; then, after restoring his pallor, he hides himself, terrified of his own undoing, in a snowbank&mdash;forever. Thus does he forfeit his union with Columbine (the intended beneficiary of his crimes) for a frosty marriage with the moon.<ref>{{harvnb|Peral Vega|2015|p=18}}</ref>

====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>

====Central and South America====
Inspired by the French [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolists]], especially Verlaine, [[Rubén Darío]], the Nicaraguan poet widely acknowledged as the founder of Spanish-American literary [[modernism]] (''modernismo''), placed Pierrot ("sad poet and dreamer") in opposition to Columbine ("fatal woman", the arch-materialistic "lover of rich silk garments, golden jewelry, pearls and diamonds")<ref>{{harvnb|Sarabia|1987|p=78}}.</ref> in his 1898 prose-poem ''The Eternal Adventure of Pierrot and Columbine''.

====Russia====
In the last year of the century, Pierrot appeared in a Russian ballet, ''[[Les Millions d'Arlequin|Harlequin's Millions]]'' a.k.a. ''Harlequinade'' (1900), its libretto and choreography by [[Marius Petipa]], its music by [[Riccardo Drigo]], its dancers the members of St. Petersburg's [[Mariinsky Ballet|Imperial Ballet]]. It would set the stage for the later and greater triumphs of Pierrot in the productions of the [[Ballets Russes]].