Literay Fact Literay Fact 2541-8297 2542-2421 IWL RAS https://www.doi.org/10.22455/2541-8297-2017-5-225-235 Articles What Was the Harlequinade Alexander Benoit Watched in a Slapstick Comedy? Albin Konechny editor@litfact.ru 2017 A. Benoit pantomime harlequinade cultural history memoirs Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 The article is devoted to the reconstruction of the historical and cultural context of the essay by A. Benois “Pancake week”, which later entered the chapter “Balagany” of his memoirs. A brief history of the appearance of the pantomime-harlequin in St. Petersburg is described. None of the pantomimes of Egarev corresponds to the arlecinade, which Benoit recalls so closely. The fact is that the majority of memoirists in the descriptions of harlequin used printed sources and stories of contemporaries, or were under the influence of the myth of the former harlequinade. 1. Benua Aleksandr. Moi vospominaniia. 5 books in 2 vol. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1980. (In Russ.) 2. Gnedich P. P. Kniga zhizni: Vospominaniia, 1855–1918, ed. V.F. Botsianovsky. Leningrad, Priboi Publ., 1929. 371 p. (In Russ.) 3. Mints Z.G. “V smyslovom prostranstve ‘Balaganchika’”. Semiotika prostranstva i prostranstvo semiotiki. Trudy po znakovym sistemam. Issue XIX. Tartu, 1986, pp. 44–53. (In Russ.) 4. Konechnyi A.M. “Peterburgskie narodnye gulian'ia na maslenoi i paskhal'noi nedeliakh”. Peterburg i guberniia: Istoriko-etnograficheskie issledovaniia. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1989, pp. 21–52. (In Russ.) 5. Konechnyi Al'bin. “Peterburgskie balaganshchiki”. Peterburgskie balagany. St.-Petersburg, Giperion Publ., 2000, pp. 14–21. (In Russ.)