Commedia dell'Arte: Stock characters

Pantalone: Old man, who was usually more dense(slower) than the other characters, very talkative, very much into food and women, as well as temperamental and gullible. Usually at the wrong end of a joke, and made a fool by someone close to him.
Doctor: Old man, who came from an educated background of some sort. Not always a doctor but sometimes philosopher, professor, astrologer, etc... Usually misquoted Latin during the show, he was thought of as conceited.
Capitano: Young man,adventurous, outgoing, who usually spoke in spanish and wore a cape and a sword. The idea was "dressed to kill" as dueling was very popular for this character. Usually more cowardly than brave, liked to talk himself up. It was not uncommon for this character to have some intimacy with a woman during the show.
Zanni: Jester like servants/slaves to the Doctor and Pantalone. Somewhat absent minded as well, they can be found making love to the servant women during the shows. They are knavish at times.
Punchinello: Hunchback with a long nose and three pointed hat. Although a handful at times this character was not overly talkative. His appearance, however, led to obvious assumptions of the character.

It is important to note that most of these stock characters were played by the same actor over and over again. So even though the actors did many shows, essentially it was the same character. This made their job a lot easier, as improvisation was a large portion of their shows.