Brighella

Brighella (Bergamasque dialect: Brighèla) is a comic, masked character from the Italian theatre style commedia dell'arte.

His early costume consisted of loosely fitting, white smock and pants with green trim and was often equipped with a batocio (also batacchio or battacio, depending on region) or slapstick, or else with a wooden sword.

As in a stereotype of those who have risen from poverty, he is often most cruel to those beneath him on the social ladder; he even goes so far as to kill on occasion.

Pierre Louis Duchartre, in his The Italian Comedy, theorizes that in France, the gentrified Brighella eventually culminated in the character of Figaro, known from the plays and operas.

[4] His character is usually from uptown Milano or Bergamo, and in the original Italian would often speak with the local accent.