«Senza buffonerie sciocca è la scena»: Margherita Costa tra commedia e poesia

The article analyses the comedy Li buffoni (1641) by Margherita Costa, a multifaceted 17thcentury poetess, highlighting both the comic aspect linked to the figure of the jester and the discreet but central presence of the female authorial voice. Through the figure of Tedeschino, a court jester inspired by her lover Bernardino Ricci, the work explores the comic and political function of the jester in court culture. At the same time, the female characters ñ in particular Marmotta ñ reflect Costaís authorial consciousness, which echoes the themes and tones of her lyrical work, including irony, sarcasm and the assertion of identity. Finally, the article highlights the intertextual link between the play and the authorís poetic compositions, which reveal a strong awareness of the female role and a desire to construct an alternative discourse to the dominant one, albeit within the margins allowed by paradoxical writing.