You may have wondered what the “Pantaloon” in “Pantaloon in Black” refers to. Pantaloon is the name of a stock character in the Italian comedic mode “commedia dell’arte,” which dates from the 15thC and features a number of stock characters. Pantalone (the Italian name) is typically an old, hunch-backed man, so the correspondence is far from perfect. Faulkner’s point seems to be that Rider’s actions and motives can only be comprehended by whites through the disfiguring lens of reductive racial typology. The story, then, gives the “comedy” a sick twist, making the conventions themselves the object of our attentions rather than the ostensible “comedy.” Here are some images of Pantaloon: