ACCESI, COMPAGNIA DEGLI

company that performed commedia dell'arte (improvised popular Italian comedy) in the early 1600s. The name means "the stimulated." Leadership was provided by Tristano Martinelli (famous for his portrayal of Arlecchino, the mischievous servant) and Pier Maria Cecchini (known as the leading interpreter of the character Fritellino, as well as the author of valuable texts on the proper performance of commedia dell'arte). The Accesi joined for a time with the Fedeli, another great Italian company under the direction of Giovambattista Andreini, but the wives of Cecchini and Andreini quarrelled, and the companies separated. The Accesi was one of the commedia troupes that became popular with European royalty and was known as the troupe of the duke of Mantua. The company was well received in the Habsburg empire at both Linz and Vienna and appeared several times in France, playing in Fontainebleau and such locations as the Htel de Bourgogne.