"Finita la comedy!": What does the famous phrase mean

"The show is over!" - we say with irony, if some unseemly, doubtful business has come to the end. Even more often in this case, we use a phrase that has long become winged: "Finita la comedy!" What is its origin, what sorts of connotations does it contain in itself and how often it is used? We'll talk about this.

Real sound

This is a tracing paper, that is, a copy written in Russian letters, without translating the meaning of the phrase finita la commedia, which is attributed to the Italian language - "finita la comedy." The translation sounds like this - "comedy is over". However, according to the grammatical rules of the Italian language, it is more correct to say: La commedia e finita. That's exactly what the phrase "finita la comedy" sounds in Italian.

End of intrigue!

As this expression became stable in the Russian language, philologists refer it to the category of phraseological units. The meaning attached to this phraseology is semantically related to another stable expression: "break comedy" - which means pretense, an attempt to mislead. If someone did not honor, covered up bad deeds with bad slogans, and this came to an end, it would be appropriate to say: "Finita la comedy!" - which means: "The game is over, now everything will fall into place, and the truth will be revealed" .

Set the point

There is another lexical tone in this phraseology. Suppose someone participated in events in which he was given a role worthy of blame. Or he is involved in a reprehensible situation as its participant and victim. Then, at the conclusion of these events, this person can exclaim: "Finita la comedy!" - which means: "Enough, point, basta!" The last word, incidentally, also came to us from Italian, to be exact - from his predecessor, the Latin language. The word basta means "enough, enough".

When the phrase came into use

It is believed that the famous saying "Finita la comedy!" Came into use after the opera "Pagliacci" appeared (author - Ruggero Leoncavallo). However, this thesis is not confirmed chronologically: the fact is that the Russian reader saw this phrase in the novel by Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov "The Hero of Our Time". Frazeologizm sounded from the mouth of Pechorin, after he shot in the duel of his friend Grushnitsky. The novel was written no later than 1840, and the premiere of the opera "Pagliacci" took place almost half a century later, in 1892.

"Clowns"

The opera begins unconventional: during the musical prologue before the closed backstage the clown suddenly appears on the stage and warns the audience that the opera is inspired by life itself and its theme is genuine feelings and passions. Then the curtain opens and the show begins. The plot is based on the fact that in real life and in the theatrical game of the actors of the wandering troupe, love, jealousy and death are intertwined. Clown Tonio is in love with the comedian Neddu, the wife of the actor and host of the Canio troupe. She rejects the courtship of the clown, giving preference to the young peasant Silvio. The injured Tonio informs the husband of the unfaithful woman about this, and the latter rushes in fury to the traitor with a knife. But it's time for the show, and we have to go on stage. "It's time to start, it's time to put on a suit!" - one of the most famous arias in the world opera.

In the costume of Colombina Nedda, in the story of the comedy played out for the peasants, admits the lover Harlequin to him, whispering to him the same words that Kanio had recently heard from the van, where Silvio and Nedda had arranged for a love meeting. Kanyo, in the role of Pagliacci, beside herself with passion and jealousy, proceeds to Colombine-Nedda with the demand to discover the name of her lover, who tries to laugh off and play the comedy further, concealing the horror that seized her. But for Canio, this is not a performance, but life. He does not release his wife from the stage and in a fit of rage stabs her with a knife. Dying, Nedda calls his beloved, he jumps off the spectator's bench, Pajatz kills him. When the shocked Kanio drops a knife from his hand, the clown turns to the audience with the words: "Comedy is over".

What did Pechorin mean?

The character of this character, whose surname contains a reference to another characteristic for his epoch and also an unordinary hero - Onegin (Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin"), is distinguished by individualism and great spiritual potential. A sharp mind, a rich inner world and wonderful impulses laid in Pechorin, did not find any response and application, and therefore "squeaked", poisoned the soul of this man with bitterness. Shooting in Grushnitsky, whose image is created as the complete opposite of the figure of Pechorin, the protagonist challenges all his life. It is noteworthy that the character makes a remarks not in French, as was customary among the nobility in that era. This shows that in his words Pechorin invested sincere feelings - irony and pain. By the way, the phrase "finita la comedy" in French sounds like this: compacte la comédie.

Where did the hero of Lermontov take these words

Researchers believe that Pechorin parodied the words of the Roman Emperor Augustus, who he said on his deathbed: do not they find that he perfectly played the comedy of his life? The ruler used a quote from the Italian comedy of masks (commedia dell arte).

Comedy del-art is a folk theater that shows performances in public squares of the city. Specifically, it was the presence of the same masks, putting them on, the actors were transformed into permanent characters - Harlequin, Pantalone, Columbine, Tartal, etc. Another important feature of the theater was improvisation: the scenes were played out according to a given conditional story scheme, which the performers performed impromptu.

Lermontov wrote that, according to legend, the great French writer of the Renaissance Francois Rabelais said almost the same words as Augustus before his death, wanting to emphasize that all life was a theater: "Comedy is played, lower the curtain". Pechorin, as an educated and well-read person, certainly could know about these historical episodes.

Formula for the genre

Another explanation of why the hero of Lermontov's work could say the phrase "Finita la comedy!" Is the assumption of literary scholars that the novel itself is being constructed as a dramatic act. This is especially true of the story "Princess Mary", in which these words were uttered. Here Pechorin, writing in the diary the most secret and subtle observations and emotional movements, acts as the creator and performer of his own play. Thus, the words "Finita la comedy!" - this is a certain leitmotif that determines the meaning and plot of the story.

Epitaph

When he meets Pechorin on the waters Grushnitsky tells him in French his credo - so as not to despise people, he hates them, otherwise life would become a disgraceful farce. Fars is a medieval squared comedy, rude and not complicated by a great sense. So Grushnitsky expressed an impatient desire to excel people and a sharp fear of contempt. Pechorin recognized his egocentrism and posturing. And it was he who turned out to be the person who did not fit into Grushnitsky's model of relations with the world, and became on his way. That's why he shouted, standing on the edge of the cliff, that there was no place for them on the ground, and now he said that he despised himself, but he hated Pechorin. Shot Pechorin put an end to this farce, the performance of the life of the failed hero, who sank from arrogance to the realization of his insignificance: "Finita la comedy!" Without a doubt, he applied this statement to himself. But we can not say that the genre of the play, which is played out in the life of Pechorin himself, is a farce. Therefore, the meaning of the phrase he said deepens to the meaning of the epitaph "on the grave" of all the distorted and false way of existence.

Who likes Italian words

To meet the phrase "Finita la comedy!", The meaning of which fits into the above-mentioned semantic framework, it is possible in many literary works. It is said by Dr. Astrov on the day of the departure of Professor Serebryakov and his wife, ironically emphasizing the absurdity of the hobby of the professor's wife Elena Andreevna (Chekhov's play "Uncle Vanya"). A decade earlier Chekhov used this phrase in the play "Fatherlessness".

This expression is in the headline of the detective Irina Melnikova about disclosing terrible and mysterious crimes. It sounds in the epilogue of Albert Likhanov's novel "The Broken Doll" as a desperate cry about the degradation and devastation of human souls. Konstantin Paustovsky uses this phraseology in the documentary novel "The Book of Life. Distant years. " Writer Mamin-Sibiryak loved this expression, we meet him in the novels "Bread", "Features from the life of Pepko", "Privalovskie Millions." There is it in the works of Pisemsky, Leskov, Ogarev, Bulgakov.

Especially the phraseology this one fell to the liking of journalism. He was used by the writers of the past (F. Bulgarin, L. Shestov, etc.), they are readily decorated with articles and headlines by modern journalists.