Volume I Part 5 (2/2)
The next scene disclosed the chahable caricature of an invalid's costuainst a table, piled with medicine-bottles, ointments, spittoons, and other furniture appropriate to hisvoice he lamented his misfortunes, the various treatments he had tried with no success, and the extraordinary symptoms of his incurable malady The eminent actor, who sustained this scene alone, kept the audience in one roar of laughter by his exquisite burlesque and natural drollery Then Truffaldino entered, and tried to h The extempore performance of this duet by two of the best comic players of our day afforded excellent ly while Truffaldino exhibited his pranks But nothing could bring a s to his illness, and asking Truffaldino's advice Truffaldino entered into a labyrinth of physiological and hly humorous and spiced with satire He smelt the Prince's breath, and swore that it stank of a surfeit of undigested Martellian verses The Prince coughed, and asked to spit Truffaldino brought him the vessel, examined the expectoration, and found in it a mass of rancid rotten rhymes This scene lasted above a quarter of an hour, to the continual amusement of the audience
Instru the festivities in the great court of the palace Truffaldino wanted to conduct the Prince to a balcony frolia protested that this was ie, threw all the medicines, cups, and ointments out of hile the Prince squealed and wept like a baby At last Truffaldino carried hi massacred, and bore him on his shoulders to enjoy the show
The third scene was laid in the courtyard of the palace Leandro entered, and declared that he had carried out the King's coer to refresh their spirits, were all masked; he had taken precautions to uises, in order to augment the Prince's ates to the populace
Morgana then entered, in the travesty of a ridiculous old woman Leandro expressed his astonishment that such an object should have obtained entrance before the gates were opened Morgana discovered herself, and said she had couise to work the Prince's swift destruction Leandro thanked her, and styled her the Queen of Hypochondria Morgana drew to one side, and the gates were throide
On a terraced balcony, in front of the spectators, sat the King, and Prince Tartaglia, uards, and afterwards Leandro The spectacles and games were precisely such as are related in the fairy story The people flocked in There was a tournaed burlesque encounters for the knights At every turn, he addressed hi of his hed The Prince only shed tears, co that the air hurt him, and the noise made his head ache He entreated his royal sire to send him back to his warm bed
There were two fountains, one of which ran with oil, the other ine Round these the rabble hustled, disputing with vulgar and plebeian violence But nothing ana hobbled out to fill her cruse with oil Truffaldino assailed the hag with a variety of insults, and finally sent her sprawling with her legs in air
[These trivialities, taken from the trivial story-book, amused the audience by their novelty quite as much as the _Massere_, _Campielli_, _Baruffe Chiozzotte_, and all the other trivial pieces of Goldoni] On seeing the old wohter Truffaldino gained the prize The people, relieved of their anxiety about the Prince's health, laughed uncontrollably All the court was glad Only Leandro and Clarice shory faces
Morgana, raising herself froround in a spas awful malediction in the true style of Chiari at his devoted head:[79]
”Open thine ears, barbarian! let my voice assail thy heart!
Nor wall nor mountain stay the soundthunderbolts descend and split the solid rock, So may my curses split thy breast with their tre triu still lead thee by the nose
Oh awful curse! oh direful doom! To hear it is to die, Like quadrupeds within the sea, or fish on flowers that lie!
I call on Pluto, glooed I pray, That thou with the Three Oranges may'st fall in love to-day
Threats, tears, entreaties now are nought, leaves shaken by the breeze; Haste to the horrible acquist of the Three Oranges!”
Morgana disappeared The Prince suddenly conceived a fires He was led away amid the confusion and consternation of the court
What nonsense! What a mortification for the two poets! The first act of the fable ended at this point with a loud and universal clapping of hands
ACT THE SECOND
In one of the Prince's apartments, Pantalone, beside hi'scould be done to calm him down He had asked his father for a pair of iron shoes, to walk the world over, and discover the fatal Oranges The King had commanded Pantalone, under pain of the Prince's displeasure, to find hiency [This htly satire on the draue]
Pantalone retired, and the Prince entered with Truffaldino Tartaglia expressed i him the iron shoes
Truffaldino asked a nulia declared his intention of going to find the Three Oranges, which, as he heard frorandmother, were two thousand antic witch Then he called for his armour, and bade Truffaldino array himself in mail, for he meant him to be his squire A scene of excellent buffoonery followed between these highly co on corslets, hel swords, with burlesque uards One of the latter carries a pair of iron shoes upon a salver This scene was executed by the four principal perforravity which edy and theatrical majesty the father dissuaded his son from this perilous adventure He entreated, threatened, relapsed into pathos The Prince, like a man possessed, insisted His hypochondria was sure to return, unless he was allowed to set forth At last he burst into coarse threats against his father The King stood rooted to the ground with arief Then he reflected that this want of filial respect in Tartaglia arose from the bad example of the new comedies [In one of Chiari's comedies a son had drawn his sword to kill his father Instances of the same description abounded in the dra would silence the Prince, till Truffaldino shod him with the iron shoes The scene ended with a quartet in dralia and Truffaldino took their leave The King fell fainting on a sofa, and Pantalone called aloud for arohella ca Pantalone for the cla in a fainting fit, a Prince gone off on the dangerous adventure of the Oranges, it was only natural to kick up a row Brighella answered that such matters weretopsy-turvy without reason The Kingin true tragic style He bewept his son for dead; ordered the whole court to wear ; and shut hiht of this crushi+ng affliction Pantalone, vowing that he would share the King's laled tears in one pocket-handkerchief, and bequeath to coument for interminable episodes in Martellian verse, withdrew in the train of his liege
Clarice, Leandro, Brighella gave way to their gladness, and extolled Morgana to the skies Whi to conditions before she raised Leandro to the throne In time of war she was to command the armies Even if she suffered a defeat, she was sure to subdue the victor by her charms; when he was drowned in love, and lulled by her blandishments, she meant to stick a knife into his paunch
[This was a side hit at Chiari's _Attila_] Clarice further reserved to herself the right of distributing court-offices Brighella, as the reward of his services, begged to be appointed Master of the King's Revels The three personages now disputed upon the choice of different theatrical diversions Clarice voted for tragic draes who should throw the their necks, and such-like miraculous accidents (_id est_, the plays of Chiari) Leandro preferred cohella recommended the _Commedia dell' Arte_, as very fit to yield the public innocent ae What did they ith stupid buffooneries, rancid relics of antiquity, unseean a pathetic speech, co it by nah He deplored the ood service in their day, but were nontrodden, and forced to behold the affections of the public they adored, and whom they had for many years amused, withdrawn from thehly understood the real drift of his discourse
The next scene opened in a wilderness Celio the wizard was discovered drawing circles As the protector of Prince Tartaglia, he summoned Farfarello, a devil, to his aid Farfarello appeared, and with a formidable voice uttered these Martellian lines:
”Hullo! who calls? who drags me forth from earth's drear centre dark?
A wizard real art thou, or wizard of the stage, thou spark?
If only of the stage thou art, I need not tell thee then That devils, wizards, sprites, are out of fashi+on a men”
[Allusion was here icians, and fiends in writings for the stage] Celio answered in prose that he was a real wizard Farfarello continued:
”Well, be thou what thou wilt; yet if thou of the stage ht'st respond in verse Martellian to me”
Celio swore at the devil, and told hi prose Then he inquired whether Truffaldino, who of Diaed to laugh, and had lost his hypochondria The devil answered: