Columbina

This article is about the theatrical character. Columbina is also a genus of doves.

Columbina (in Italian, Colombina, "little dove") is a comic servant character from the Commedia dell'Arte.

She is dressed in a ragged and patched dress appropriate to a hired servant. Occasionally, under the name Arlecchina she would wear a motley similar to her counterpart Arlecchino. She was also known to wear heavy makeup around her eyes and carry a tambourine which she could use to fend off the amorous advances of Pantalone.

She was often the only functional intellect on the stage. Columbina aided her mistress, the inamorata[?] to gain the affections of her one true love by manipulating Arlecchino and counter-plotting against Pantalone while simultaneously managing the whereabouts of the inamorato[?].