Volume II Part 10 (2/2)
All I could extort was a promise to keep Coralli, if some other player happened to retire Yet I knew that, after I had once expressed a wish that he should stay, Sacchi would have ratify me In fact, the man was only forced to leave at last because of his own knavish trickery After learning froood and sier , and that he had better, for his own repute, anticipate this nation When Barsanti proceeded to do so, Sacchi wormed the secret out of hi you Go to Conte Gozzi, tell hi for his protection That will teach hily arrived, and stupefied enuity I need not add that Coralli disappeared at the end of the Carnival I got a letter fro hurtin the conora Ricci, and had nothing particular to notice in her conduct Only I observed that gondoliers used often to coes from ladies who desired her company in the boxes That they were not ladies, but a very different sort of persons, I discovered in course of ti frohbourhood of the theatre, which opened on a frequented street, to another at soe of standing in a little lonely alley This step exposed her to a renewal of the worst reports about her private character and conduct It also severely taxed her purse for the expenses of removal and installation
When she left Venice at the end of the Carnival, she placed her little girl, o and see this excellent little creature in her mother's absence For the rest, our correspondence by letters continuedas before
LII
_Fresh benefits conferred upon the playing coes won by ht_
I feel that this long story of my liaison with an actress cannot fail to be tedious Yet I aed to continue it in detail, inasmuch as events to which the public attached considerable importance, and which exposed ht by reference to this piece of private history[49]
It ht to have withdrawn from Sacchi's troupe when I detected the evil spirits which weremischief there To this I reply that I had found recreation and amusement in their society formy plays acted by such clever artists, and also that my temper inclines me to endure many inconveniences rather than break old habits For example, I have always borne with vicious inattentive servants, tailors who cheated me and spoiled my clothes, shoe handiwork, barbers who flayed my chin with their razors, hairdressers who snipped my ears with their scissors, and other tiresome folk of the same sort, to who expostulations as ht the actors back to Venice, Sacchi was disagreeably surprised by a piece of nehich threatened him with ruin Before the theatres open for the season, they are examined by official architects, who report upon their substantiality and safety The theatre of S
Salvatore was condemned this year by the experts, and an order fronor Vendramini and the players were in despair Thirty and , saw themselves thrown out of work Steps were immediately taken to put the house in repair, and render it fit for the reception of the public During two-and-twenty days, while this as going on, the company took not a penny Yet Sacchi continued to pay his hired actors at their stipulated rates This seeenerous on his part, and I tried to persuade Teodora Ricci that she ought to be grateful She took no notice ofher old complaints about her salary Her husband, who had coer occupied the saht
Meanwhile the rival theatres triumphed over our discomfiture At S Gio
Grisostomo a new Truffaldino appeared, whom the fickle Venetians dubbed a better Zanni than their old friend Sacchi Satirical sonnets began to circulate against es, and they replied with pasquinades This wordy warfare filled the toith dirty libels I begged Sacchi's associates to keep their te their prestige by a new piece I was at work on This was entitled _Il Moro di Corpo Bianco, ossia lo Schiavo del Proprio Onore_[50]
At last the repairs were finished, and received the surveyor's approval
An official edict appeared to the effect that the theatre Vendra Carnival This limited announcement did not restore the confidence of the public, who still feared that the house ly, the first ten or twelve nights saw a desert in our theatre The Venetians had two other houses for plays and three for operas open; and they persisted in regarding S Salvatore as a trap for the destruction of the huot my drama finished We read it aloud to the whole coiven in the Wild Man Inn[51] The enthusiastic applause of the actors made me feel sure of its success I made them a present of it, and the piece was mounted with the least possible delay The playbills drew a large audience Everybody was burning to knohat the deuce a Moor with a white body could possibly be; this taught me that the prospect of a new excitement will drive the fear of death out of the heads of hts, all the other theatres were drained of their spectators, and the opera-houses cursed my _Moro di Corpo Bianco_
The reputation of S Salvatore was fully re-established, and we heard nothing s
Teodora Ricci had scored a great success by her brilliant acting
Intoxicated with popular plaudits, she began to gruement unless her salary were raised Under these circued me to draw up articles between the actress and the troupe, by which she should commit herself to five years of fixed service He left the settlement of her appointments to me, but stipulated that a fine of 500 ducats should be exacted fro parties broke the bond I undertook this negotiation with some reluctance, and concluded it, to nora Ricci and her husband were to receive 850 ducats a year, they engaging to serve the company five years, under the above-reened by Ricci and her husband I fancied I had done as right and equitable for both parties, and took the articles with some pride to Sacchi That brutal old fellow thankedhis spectacles upon his nose, he began to read the document; and when I wished to explain it, he burst into a torrent of oaths, banging the table with his fists as though I had just atteical operation upon his tenderest parts I reht tear the paper up: it was all the sanature to the docu all the while that neither fines nor penalties would bind that woman to her word, and that he reckoned upon ht path Then I took the contract back to the Signora, who murmured some words between her teeth about the hard condition of her five years' service
The i, was bound to come to a head at last and burst It is now my business to relate what made the final rupture between me and Teodora Ricci unavoidable
The actors left Venice for their summer tour, and many letters passed between her and rieved with Sacchi, and more than ever puffed up with the flatteries of lovers I read and pondered her correspondence, and came to the conclusion that before a year was out we must cease to be friends
When she returned in the autumn, on the occasion of my first visit, she expressed some surprise at the alteration of my manner It so happened that at this very moment her servant Pavola handed her a letter which had just arrived fro a strong desire to be able to strike the wo the letter in irl done a that I am inquisitive about your correspondence If one of the lovers, whom you actresses always leave behind you, has written you a _billet-doux_, I have no right to interfere in such concerns of wholly private interest” ”This is no affair of lovers,” she replied with heat, opening and casting her eyes over the pages When she had read the letter, she hesitated a little, and then handed it tofro to do with love” I replied that I did not care to read it, being sure from her behaviour to the servant that it contained some secret which she wished to conceal from me ”Well, then,” she said, ”I must inform you that I made the acquaintance at Turin of a lady called Mme Rossetti, whose husband lives at Paris This lady expressed her regret atwretched Italian coed ave h her husband's assistance The writer of this letter in otiates the matter, and is a very able diplo settled to my wishes”
I pointed out that, if she intended to accept an engagement at Paris, it was her duty to inform Sacchi, and to pay the penalty of 500 ducats
”No,” she replied, ”that is precisely what I want to avoid doing” ”So then,” I retorted, ”you mean to transact your business secretly, and to swindle the poor actors to whoed here! Be open, tell Sacchi the truth, and I will engage to e matters so that you shall not have to pay the fine” ”Sacchi,” she rejoined, ”ets wind of these negotiations, he will engage another leading actress; and should my treaty fail, I shall be dismissed and thrown upon the street What an excellent friend and gossip you are, forsooth, at a pinch like this! We actors and actresses are not accustoht to rely on h any difficulties, and that I could only reco in the matter ”However,” I added, ”if you prefer to take the tortuous path and work by intrigue, I promise to keep the secret which you have disclosed”
Having passed my word, I let her do what she liked in this affair, and asked no further questions But I was more than ever resolved to withdraw as prudently and quietly as possible from the complicated position in which I found myself placed I wished to avoid open scandal; but I little reckoned on the people I had to deal with You cannot disengage yourself so easily fro the composition and production of he d'Anor P A Gratarol_