Amazon.com description: Product Description: In the month of November 1658 _The Blunderer_ was played for the first time in Paris, where it obtained a great and well-deserved success. It is chiefly based on an Italian comedy, written by Nicolo Barbieri, known as Beltrame, and called _L'Inavvertito,_ from which the character of Mascarille, the servant, is taken, but differs in the ending, which is superior in the Italian play. An imitation of the classical boasting soldier, Captain Bellorofonte, Martelione, and a great number of _concetti,_ have also not been copied by Moliere. The fourth scene of the fourth act of _l'Etourdi_ contains some passages taken from the _Angelica,_ a comedy by Fabritio de Fornaris, a Neapolitan, who calls himself on the title-page of his play "il Capitano Coccodrillo, comico confidente." Some of the scenes remind us of passages in several Italian _Commedia del' arte_ between _Arlecchino_ and _Pantaleone_ the personifications of impudence and ingenuity, as opposed to meekness and stupidity; they rouse the hilarity of the spectators, who laugh at the ready invention of the knave as well as at the gullibility of the old man, Before this comedy appeared the French stage was chiefly filled with plays full of intrigue, but with scarcely any attempt to delineate character or manners.