Volume I Part 6 (1/2)
”He laughed; recovered health; but then, Morgana, thy great foe, With ht a double woe
With fury winged and breathless he, both burning cheeks on fire, Is after the Three Oranges, inflamed with fierce desire
With Truffaldin the Prince is sped; Morgana sends a sprite To wait upon the pair and blow theht
A thousand one, and soon they will descend, Here by Creonta's fort, half-dead, at their long journey's end”
[Illustration: BRIGhellA (1570)
_Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Iised against his lia and Truffaldino when they should arrive at the castle of Creonta on the quest of the fatal Oranges Then he retired to h reat social utility
[Celio, who stood for Goldoni in this piece of nonsense, ought not to have protected Tartaglia and Truffaldino I admit the error, which deserves to be condemned, if a mere dramatic sketch of such a trivial kind comes within the scope of criticism At that tiana and Celio to caricature their opposite draainst censure by lia and Truffaldino entered ar at a tremendous pace They had a devil with a pair of bellows following behind, and blowing their backsides to round The devil ceased to blow and disappeared They sprawled on the grass at the sudden cessation of the favouring gale
[I anor Chiari for this burlesque conception, which produced a very excellent effect upon the stage In his dramas, drawn fro journeys within the space of a single action, and without the assistance of h he pedantically insulted everybody else who broke the rules, allowed hiedy of _Ezelino_, after the tyrant's downfall, a captain is sent to beleaguer Treviso, and reduce Ezelino's garrison
This takes place in one scene In the next scene the sa ridden more than thirty miles, captured the town, and butchered the tyrant's troops He delivers a rhetorical oration, ascribing this lia and Truffaldino had to perform a journey of two thousand miles, and my device of the devil with the bellows explained their exploit better than Chiari's charger]
The two coround, half-stunned and astonished at the raphical description of the countries, mountains, rivers, and oceans they had passed, was cralia concluded that the Three Oranges ry, asked the Prince whether he had brought a good stock of cash or bills Tartaglia spurned such low considerations and idle questions Spying a castle on a hill, and judging it to be Creonta's, he set ed behind in the hope of finding food
Meanwhile Celio entered, and sought in vain to dissuade the Prince from his perilous adventure He described insuperable obstacles fraught with danger on the way They were exactly the saed upon thenified the ate rusted with ti, a well-rope rotten with da no broos The Prince, unterrified by these appalling objects, deter his ic oint, and a bundle of broo out in the sun to dry Then he added that, if by lucky chance they should acquire the Oranges, they were to leave the castle at once, and be es except in the ihbourhood of some fountain Finally, he promised, if they escaped the perils of their theft, to send the saain Then he recolia and Truffaldino, carrying the articles provided by Celio, went forward on their journey
Here a tent was lowered, which represented the pavilion of the King of Diaularity!--Nay, what misapplied criticishella, rejoicing over the loss of Tartaglia; the other with Morgana, who bade Brighella infor the Prince This she had learned frohinazzo Then she bade Slia and Truffaldino would certainly arrive if they escaped Creonta's clutches Soht then be devised to entrap them The parley broke up in confusion
The next scene disclosed a courtyard in Creonta's castle [I was able to observe, upon the opening of this scene, with the grossly absurd objects it contained, what an iate constructed with an iron grating, a fa which howled and roamed around, a ith a coil of rope beside it, a baker's ept her oven with two enor breasts, kept the whole theatre in silent wonder and attention quite as effectually as thescenes in the works of our two poets] Outside the grating appeared Tartaglia and Truffaldino, engaged in ses Greatbarked and leapt upon them They threw him the bread and he was still Great portent! Truffaldino, treave the baker's wife her brooain, capering for joy and holding the three enor accidents of this scene did not end so suddenly The sky darkened, the earth quaked, and loud claps of thunder were heard
Tartaglia handed the Oranges to Truffaldino, who kept tre like an aspen leaf Then there issued from the castle an awful voice, which was Creonta's own She spoke as the story-book dictates:
”O baker's wife, O baker's wife, abide not my just ire!
Take those two fellows by the feet, and cast the the fable with equal fidelity, replied thus:
”Not I! How many months have passed, how many months and years, While with my milk-white breasts I sweep, and waste le brooht a bundle; let theo in peace; I will not heed”
Creonta cried:
”O rope, O rope! hang up the knaves!”
And the rope, still observing the text, answered:
”Hard heart! hast thou forgot Those many years, those many months, thou left'stin dao forth in peace, I say”