Volume II Part 13 (1/2)

The i were painful I expected soh the onistic Meeting Sacchi nexton the Piazza di San Marco, I asked hie conduct of M

He said that he had certainly been aware of so, but that he could not ascribe it to any cause Then I communicated my suspicion

”The actress,” said I, ” satirised under the character of Don Adone” ”What is her object?”

exclaimed Sacchi ”That I will tell you briefly,” I replied: ”she wants to gain credit with her new friend, to inflict an injury on your troupe, and to cause entleman in question” ”It is not i of the kind But what are your reasons for thinking so?” ”If you had only been attentive to her , when the part of Don Adone was being read, you would not put that question,” I answered ”I ask you, therefore, as a friend, to withdraw my play until the next season Lent will soon arrive The Ricci will go to Paris, and Signor Gratarol to Naples You can he d'Amore_ later on, when its appearance will cause no scandal” After some persuasion, he pro he told me that the play had been suspended

Here the affair would have rested if Signor Gratarol, poisoned by his mistress's report, had not taken a step fatal for his own tranquillity

She returned, as I had i ofto be exposed upon the stage in the person of Don Adone He set all his influence at work to prevent the public exhibition of the comedy The result was that, four days afterwards, Sacchi canor Francesco Agazi, censor of plays for the Magistrato sopra alla Bestehe d'Amore_ A new revision was necessitated by certain coainst the role of Don Adone

”So then,” said I, ”you have given the azi?”

”No,” he answered; ”I was afraid that I entleman that I had lent it to a certain lady[60] He smiled and said that when she had done with it he expected to have it in his hands again In fact, not wishi+ng to be proved a liar in this matter, I took the play to the lady I have mentioned, related the whole story about Gratarol and Ricci, and recommended myself to her protection” Sacchi could not have taken any step ive importance to this incident I said as much to him upon the spot; predicted that the lady, as known to have a grudge against Signor Gratarol, would do her best to circulate the scandal; assured him that the whole toould blaze with ruht find himself in a very aard position ”The tribunals of the State,” I added, ”are not to be trifled with by any of your circureat ossip of an actress, and then setting the machinery of the State in ht to have come at once to me I should have assured hihe d'A any dishonour to either of us

Hisall Venice upon the _qui vive_, and placing an instruainst him in the hands of powerful enemies The noble lady, Caterina Dolfin Tron, to whoh, and read it to her friends, and passed it about aentlemen and ladies None of them found any mark of personal satire in the piece All of them condemned Gratarol for his self-consciousness, and accused hi to deprive the public of a rational diversion, whileheaven and earth to reverse the decision of the censors of the State

In two days the town buzzed of nothing but my wretched drama, Gratarol, and uinary satire Not only Gratarol, but a crowd of gentleht upon the scene A whole theatre, with its pit, boxes, stage, and purlieus could not have contained the ed victihbours laid their heads together, quarrelled, denied, ued, whispered in each other's ears, waxed hot and angry, told impossible anecdotes, contradicted their oords, and, as , everybody drew his infor they held for certain--that I had onist of my satire That became a fixed idea, which it only wanted his own i pretty here the real point of the mischief lay, I deters of Me of her acquaintance for many years But ent of those attentions which are expected from a man of quality I did not pay her the customary visits; and eme with the title of _Bear_ My brother Gasparo, on the contrary, saw her every day, and she bestowed on hi our respective relations, I thought it best to apply to him

I asked my brother, then, to do all he could to induce this powerful lady to oppose the production of h the ainstto create a public scandal, with serious injury to a gentle a curse on eneral and actresses in particular, undertook the office He did not succeed M far too , and that my comedy had passed beyond my control It had become the property of a _capocomico_, and was at the present moment under the inspection of the State

Not many days elapsed before I was suazi, the censor, as I have before observed, for the Signori sopra la Besteisterial robes, and he began as follows: ”You gave a cohe d'Amore_, to the company of Sacchi I perused it and licensed it for the theatre at S Salvatore The comedy has been passed, and must appear You have no control over it Pray take no steps to obstruct its exhibition The nor Gratarol's action in thisthat I had never meant to satirise the man He bade me take no heed of persons like Gratarol, whose heads were turned by outlandish fashi+ons ”I made some retrenchments,” he added, ”in the twelfth scene of the last act of your comedy They amount, I think, to about ten or twelve verses These lines expressed sentiments such as are usually maintained by men of Gratarol's sort You meant them to be understood ironically But our Venetians will not take them so What strikes their ear, they retain in its material and literal sense And they learn much which is mischievous, unknown to theentleht to speak?--I repeat to you that the istracy which I serve does not err; and I repeat the decree which has been passed” Having spoken these words, Signor Agazi bowed, and left me for his business

What passed between me and the censor I repeated to friends of mine, ill bear me witness that I found myself estopped in nor Gratarol owed this annoyance to his having powerful enemies

Unfortunately he did his best to exasperate these ene his words, went about libelling hest rank, whorossest scurrility were hurled at eminent people by their names ”If Gratarol has committed himself in this way to an actress,” said I in my sleeve, ”what must he not have let fall to other friends and acquaintances? Such indiscretion marks him out as little fitted for the post of ambassador at Naples or elsewhere”

I have said that I had lost all authority over my wretched drama I only wanted to see it well hissed on its first appearance, and to bury the annoyances it caused ed to be present at rehearsals At the first which I attended, I noticed that two of the roles had been changed I had given Don Adone to an actor called Luigi Benedetti, and the jealous Don Alessandro to Giovanni Vitalba

Sacchi reversedthat Benedetti was better fitted to sustain the character of a furious lover than Vitalba, as somewhat of a stick This seemed to me not unreasonable; and I was so accustomed to have my plays cut and hacked about by the actors, that I accepted his decision

At the second rehearsal, Mently if I knehy this alteration had been made I answered that Sacchi had explained it todoubtless that I ell acquainted with certain e than I

At last the piece appeared--it was the night of January 10, 1777--at the theatre of S Salvatore I went there in good tied with a vastfor seats, and the whole house was crammed They told ht have swelled another playwright's heart with pride I, on the contrary, was extre h the press, which encuainst the walls, I reached the _coulisses_ withfor places anywhere at any price ”What the deuce is theof this extraordinary concourse?” I exclaimed The Ricci answered me at once with: ”Don't you know? The town has come to see your satire on a certain person” I put her down by saying bluntly that o she heard my play, and knew that there was no personal satire in it It was not ues and a succession of blunders had given it a false complexion She dropped her eyes I turned e in a box I had upon the third row of the theatre

Going up the staircase, I caught sight beforeto certain gentlemen she e” These words of the poor deserted wohtened me as to the expectation of the public Yet as the whole house so intoxicated? why did a wife look forward to the spectacle of her husband's caricature? I can only explain this phenoe Women seduced and left to shi+ft for themselves, rivals supplanted in their love-affairs, jealous husbands, wives abandoned and heart-broken, forhe d'Amore_ under the notorious circumstances of its first appearance

Sacchi joinednor Gratarol with a handsome woman at his side He had come to air his philosophy, but I trereat spirit All the actors did their best