Volume I Part 7 (1/2)
”Hard destiny! Of thirst to die! I'! I am dead!”
Then she breathed her last, and the other continued:
”I' head?”
Then she too breathed her last Truffaldino wept abundantly, and murmured over them words of ie in the hope of saving both girls alive While he was upon the point of doing this, Tartaglia entered in a rage and stopped hi on the grass
The stupor of this grotesque Prince, the inimitable reflections he poured forth over the rinds of the two Oranges and the dead bodies of the girls, soar beyond the powers of language The masked actors of our _Commedia dell' Arte_, in situations like this, invent scenes so droll and yet of such exquisite grace, with gestures, htful, that no pen can reproduce their effect, and no poet could surpass theht sight of two country bu by, ordered the corpses to be decently buried, and bade the fellows carry thee To his utter ae now as the biggest pu Celio's injunctions inthe fruit open This he did with his long sword; and there stepped forth a tall and lovely damsel, attired in robes of white, who fulfilled the conditions of her part in the story-book by speaking as follows:
”Who drewcore? Ah God! Of thirst I die!
Give me to drink at once, or else vain tears you'll shed for aye!”
The Prince understood upon the spot theof Celio's precepts But he was e water The case did not admit of ceremony So he unbuckled one of his iron shoes, ran to the lake, filled it ater, anda thousand excuses for the improvised cup, presented it to the fair daour, thanking him for his tihter of Concul, king of the Antipodes; Creonta, by enchantether with her two sisters, in the rinds of three Oranges, for reasons which were as probable as the circu followed, at the close of which Tartaglia promised to make her his wife
The capital was close at hand The Princess had no decent clothes to wear The Prince bade her take a seat upon the stone beneath the tree, while he went off to fetch costly raiment and summon the whole Court to attend her That settled, they parted with sighs
Smeraldina, astounded by what she had been witness to, now entered She saw the form of the fair maid reflected in the lake Of course she proceeded to do everything dictated for the Moorish woman in the story-tale She dropped her Italianate Turkish Morgana had put a Tuscan devil into her tongue Thus armed, she defied all the poets to speak withPrincess, whose naan to coax and flatter, offered to arrange her hair, caic pins was proirl's head Ninetta took the form of a dove and fleay Smeraldina seated herself upon the stone and waited for the Court
These ether with the childish simplicity of the successive scenes, and the burlesque humour of the action, kept the audience, instructed as they had been by their grandmothers and nurses in the days of babyhood, upon the tenter-hooks of curiosity They followed the plot with serious attention, and took the profoundest interest in watching each step in the develope of such a trifle
Then, to theof Diamonds entered, with the Prince, Leandro, Clarice, Pantalone, Brighella, and the Court On beholding Smeraldina in the place of the bride wholia flew into the wildest astonishana's artifice that no one recognised her, swore she was the Princess Ninetta Tartaglia continued to make a burlesque exhibition of histhe real source of the ravely andhis princely word andthe Moor The Prince subrief Then the band struck up, and the procession filed away to celebrate the e in the palace
Truffaldino e of which Tartaglia had appointed hies He was preparing the nuptial banquet, when a new scene opened, which is perhaps the boldest in this jocose parody
[The rival partisans of Chiari and Goldoni, ere present in the theatre, and saw that a strong stroke of satire was about to fall, did their best to excite the indignation of the audience, and to stir up a commotion They did not succeed, however I have already said that Celio represented Goldoni, and Morgana Chiari The forentlemen had served his apprenticeshi+p at the Venetian bar, and his style smacked of forensic idiohts of poetry; but I may submit, with all respect, that there never was a tumid and irrational author of the seventeenth century who surpassed hiant conceits and boana, aniether in this scene, which I will transcribe literally, just as the dialogue was spoken I must first remind my readers that parodiesthis in view, I beg theotten by jesting huainst torthy individuals]
CELIO (_entering with veheana_) ”Wicked enchantress!
I have discovered all your base deceits But Pluto will assist me
Infamous beldame, accursed witch!”
MORGANA ”What do you ive you a rebuff in Martellian verses, which shall ”
C ”To et tit for tat from me I defy you in Martellian verse Here's at you![80]
”It shall be always held a vain injurious assault, Fraudulent, without proper grounds, in justice real at fault; To wit these, and whatever else, ana cast, with all etceteras basely wrought: And as these premises declare, what bane may hence ensue Is cancelled, quashed, estopped, made void, condemned by order due”
M ”Oh, the bad verses! Coician!
”First shall the glorious rays of gold which beaar lead, and East becoh, her silver bea stars, and lose the e roll along their crystal bed, With Pegasus aloft shall fly, and on the clouds be spread; But thou, base slave of Pluto's power, shall never have the force To scorn the sails and rudder of my pinnace in her course”
C ”O fustian fairy, blown out like a bladder!
”On the raph I'll win the verdict in this suit, Which by the first preaed by you into a dove, shall be Reconstituted in her rights and due estate by raph, which follows from the first, Clarice and Leandro shall sink into want accursed; While S froive the people sport”