The Horned Owl [1 ed.] 9780889208636, 9780889201163

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Carleton Renaissance Plays in Translation General Editors: Donald Beecher, Massimo Ciavolella Editorial Advisors: H. Peter Clive, Gordon J. Wood, J. Douglas Campbell, Leonard G. Sbrocchi, Mark Phillips Carleton Renaissance Plays in Translation offer the student, scholar, and general reader a selection of sixteenth-century masterpieces in modern English translations, most of them for the first time. The texts have been chosen for their intrinsic merits and for their importance in the history of the development of the theatre. Each volume contains a critical and interpretive introduction intended to increase the enjoyment and understanding of the text. Reading notes illuminate particular references, allusions, and topical details. The comedies chosen as the first texts have fast-moving plots filled with intrigues. The characters, though cast in the stock patterns of the genre, are witty and amusing portraits reflecting Renaissance social customs and pretensions. Not only are these plays among the most celebrated of their own epoch, but they directly influenced the development of comic opera and theatre throughout Europe in subsequent centuries.

In print: Odet de Turnebe, Satisfaction AH Around (Les Contens) Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Donald Beecher Annibal Caro, The Scruffy Scoundrels (Gli Straccioni) Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Massimo Ciavolella and Donald Beecher Giovan Maria Cecchi, The Owl (L'Assiuolo) Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Konrad Eisenbichler In preparation: Jean de La Taille, The Rivals (Les Corrivaus) Translated with an Introduction and Notes by H.P. Clive Lope de Vega y Carpio, The King and the Farmer (El Villano en su Rincon) Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Adolfo Lozano and Michael Thompson Alessandro Piccolomini, Alessandro Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Rita Belladonna Jacques Grevin, Taken by Surprise (Les Esbahis) Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Leanore Lieblein and Russell McGillivray

Carleton Renaissance Plays in Translation

Giovan Maria Cecchi

The Horned Owl (L'Assiuolo)

Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Konrad Eisenbichler

Wilfrid Laurier University Press 1981

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Cecchi, Giovanni Maria, 1518 - 1587. The horned owl (Carleton Renaissance plays in translation ISSN 0704-4569 ; 3) A play. Translation of: L'Assiuolo, commedia e saggio di proverbj Bibliography: p. ISBN 0-88920-116-1 I. Title. II. Series. PQ4617.C8A8713 852'.4 C81-094502-9 Copyright © Centre for Renaissance Studies and Research, Carleton University & Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Waterloo, Ont. Canada N2L 3C5

Typesetting and lay-out by PGTA Professional Graphics Translation and Advertising Limited No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher.

to the students in Nelles House Victoria College 1975-1980

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Acknowledgments I would like to express my gratitude to the following, whose comments and advice I readily sought and found invaluable: Prof. Michael Ukas, Prof. Don Beecher, Miss Dorothy Pohl, Mr. John Mighton, Mr. Chris Jones, and Mr. Mark Steinacher. This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

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Introduction Biography

Giovan Maria Cecchi was born on March 14, 1518.1 He came from a well-established family which, through the years, had been active in affairs of the republic and could trace its roots back to 1250 and before. Following family tradition, Giovan Maria embarked on a career as a notary (1542-1577) for the Arte de' Pellicciai, one of the seven major trade guilds in Florence. He also served in several public offices which were more honorific than politically active and therefore remained outside the spheres of power. It appears that Cecchi preferred to be an observer rather than a participant in the great political and military affairs of the times. Cecchi was basically a quiet bourgeois, devoted to the Medici family and to the merchant's creed which placed business interests above everything else.2 In 1530 his father was assassinated by a certain Fabrino del Grilla da Castagno. Apparently, the murderer, though known, went unpunished, at least for a while, for in the book of petitions presented to Duke Cosimo in 1537-38, we find Giovan Maria's own plea that justice be carried out. Shortly after his father's assassination, his mother also died and Giovan Maria found himself, at the age of 16, head of his family and tutor to his two younger brothers, Agostino and Bartolomeo. In 1553, at the age of 35, he married Marietta Pagni and had three children: Baccio, Ginevra and Niccolo. His legal business must have been proceeding well, for he was able to alternate his notarial duties with the study of classical authors. Eventually he was also able to enter the wool ix

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trade in partnership with three important Florentine families: the Adimari, the Segni, and the Baldesi. Cecchi acquired a villa in the near-by village of Gangalandi where he contributed generously to local charities. In fact, he restored the local church of Santa Lucia and built a small monastery occupied first by the PP Agostiniani Osservanti, then by the PP Minimi di S. Francesco di Paola. Giovan Maria Cecchi died at the age of 69 in Gangalandi on the evening of October 28, 1587, and was buried in the church of Santa Lucia. His son Baccio recalls that his father died peacefully after a brief bout with catarrh, and was mourned by the entire village. Works

Today, Giovan Maria Cecchi is remembered for his literary production which, though consisting mainly of works for the theatre, is nonetheless sufficiently varied to reflect the numerous interests and capacities of the man. Like most writers of his time, he composed poetry: Capitoli (poems), sonnets in the Petrarchan tradition, occasional poetry, and pastoral eclogues, of which only fragments remain. As a philologist, Cecchi was an enthusiastic admirer of the Florentine language. In his Dichiarazione dei proverbi (date unknown), he listed 64 Florentine expressions and proverbs, giving explanations of their meaning and, sometimes, relevant anecdotes. Some of Cecchi's definitions, for example the eighth and the eleventh, were incorporated into the Vocabolario della Crusca, the first authoritative dictionary of the Italian language. 3 This sensitivity to the idiom of the spoken language is reflected in his plays. Though he claims never to have strayed so far from Florence as to have lost sight of Brunelleschi's dome, Cecchi was interested in foreign lands and customs. In his Compendio di piu ritratti (1575), he became an arm-chair travel writer, providing x

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his readers with facts and figures about France, Germany, Spain, Southern Italy and other regions. His penchant for gathering information resurfaces in the Sommario de' Magistrati della Citta di Firenze (1562), a list of magistrates and their terms of office, of Confraternities and their rights and privileges, of religious congregations, and so forth. This dry, straightforward type of work is counterbalanced by the Lezione o Cicalamento di Maestro Bartolino (1582), a witty venture into burlesque caricature of learned discourses, and by the Ragionamenti spirituali (1558), which remain unpublished. In the latter, Cecchi attempts to render the Gospels and Epistles intelligible to the ordinary reader. It is for the theatre, however, that Cecchi wrote most of his works. His numerous compositions (over 60)4 were written over a period of 43 years, from 1544 to the year of his death (1587). Such a vast output easily classifies him as the most prolific Florentine dramatist of the Cinquecento, an achievement which his contemporaries recognized and which earned him the epithet, il Comico. The plays have been traditionally subdivided into four groups. The commedie osservate are Cecchi's equivalent of the erudite comedy. They have five acts, are modelled after Plautine and Terentian plays and treat secular subjects. The commedie spirituali are usually in five acts and treat of religious matters. The drammi sacri also treat of religious matters, but they sometimes have five acts, other times three. The farces, in three acts, freely mix the profane with the spiritual and the commonplace with the grandiose. There is quite an overlapping and exchange of themes and styles among these groups, so much so that it is difficult to understand the rationale behind the classification of some of the plays. To overcome this problem and simplify matters somewhat, Raffaele Rocchi chose to distinguish only three categories of plays, depending on whether their predominant aspect was the imitation of the classics, the xi

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medieval tradition, or the popular spirit of the century. 5 When this guide-rule proved unmanageable, a simpler solution was sought in which the works were divided into two distinct periods of composition: 6 one dating from 1544 to 1557, in which Cecchi wrote comedies along the lines of the Roman classical comedy; and the other, dating from 1559 to 1587, in which Cecchi mostly wrote plays which echoed aspects of the sacra rappresentazione 7 and showed a moralizing attitude. Such distinctions, however, are not totally correct for, though the subject matter may change, the comic spirit does not; even in his religious theatre Cecchi remains the witty Florentine of his earlier plays. The simplest solution is to be wary of uncompromising subdivisions and clearcut categorizing — Cecchi's works are too numerous and varied to allow for such facile approaches. Because they range over an entire lifetime they should be seen as the product of that lifetime, steeped as it was in the bourgeois, mercantile spirit of Renaissance Florence. History of criticism In the sixteenth century, Giovan Maria Cecchi was held in high esteem by his contemporaries. Antonfrancesco Grazzini (1503-1584), himself an acclaimed dramatist, recognized Cecchi's popularity and lampooned him in a number of burlesque verses. From these it becomes clear that Cecchi was one of the most acclaimed dramatists in Florence.8 In fact, his work was thought worthy of comparison with Machiavelli's, whose Mandragola is now considered the masterpiece of erudite comedy of the Cinquecento. In the Marmi (1552), a collection of dialogues that take place on the steps of the cathedral in Florence between the local people, Anton Francesco Doni (ca. 1513-1574), tells us that La Mandragola and L'Assiuolo were presented in the same hall, the Sala del Papa in the Santa Maria Novella, on the same evening, the acts of one alternating with those of the other, as if each were the other's intermezzo. xii

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The spectators were unable to decide which of the two comedies was the better one. The settings were designed, one by Cecchino [Francesco] Salviati (1510-1563), the other by Agnolo Bronzino (1503-1572), and the entire spectacle was an enormous success.9 Doni himself was so impressed by L'Assiuolo that he wrote a play, Lo Stufaiuolo (1559) in which he borrowed the plot, changed the names of the characters, and sought to introduce a greater amount of morality into the events, but only managed to destroy the natural charm of the original.10 The Florentines enjoyed Cecchi's works. The historian Filippo Baldinucci (1624-1696) tells us that the painter Battista Naldini (ca. 1537-1591) would come out of the solitude in which he lived only on very rare occasions, such as when, at Carnival time, he would have one of Cecchi's plays performed in his house for a few friends. 11 Cecchi's renown was such that it apparently carried as far as Spain: some critics suggest that Lope de Rueda (ca. 1510-1565), who in the second half of the sixteenth century gave Spain its situation comedy, shows in his Armellina that he was well acquainted with Cecchi's Il Servigiale. 12 After his death, Cecchi's fame suffered a serious setback. Until the eighteenth century, critics generally neglected il Comico. Any comments on him were confined to a few laudatory lines and general statements. It was not until the nineteenth century that Cecchi began once more to receive closer inspection. The Abbe Luigi Fiacchi (1754-1825) was the first to renew Cecchi's fame. In a letter to the bibliophile Gaetano Poggiali (17531814), he provided a basic biography and a list of the works; he also selected representative passages from the various works and concluded that Cecchi ought to be studied and read much more widely.13 In the contemporary climate which sought to revitalize the Italian language, Cecchi's style and Florentine idioms were seen as examples to be followed. Fiacchi's interest in Cecchi reflects an attitude which, in the nineteenth xiii

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century, helped to bring about the Cecchi revival: the dramatist was seen as a rich source of Florentine words and idiomatic expressions — a lexical treasure-house. Eugenio Camerini, for example, declares that Cecchi is one of the custodians of the eternal purity, the verginezza of the Italian tongue. 14 At the end of the nineteenth century, Raffaello Rocchi provided an extensive study of Cecchi's religious theatre in his introduction to the two-volume collection Drammi sacri.15 As previously mentioned, he suggested the subdivision of all of Cecchi's dramatic compositions into three groups, according to whether the prevailing aspect of each play was rooted in classical imitation, in the medieval religious tradition, or in the popular spirit of the Renaissance. Looking at the development of Cecchi's art, he remarked that it became progressively freer and more original as he moved away from strict imitation of the classics. Rocchi also attempted a chronology of the plays; after much discussion, he presented a list containing a precise date of composition for thirty-two plays and an approximate one for eleven — unfortunately he did not attempt to date the unpublished plays. The first scholar to dedicate a complete study to Cecchi was Fortunato Rizzi who, in 1904 and 1907, published two books on Cecchi's theatre. 16 In Le Commedie osservate he examined the erudite comedies and sought to trace the element of imitation as well as the originality found in Cecchi and generally in sixteenthcentury comedy, for he viewed Cecchi as the legitimate representative of all the playwrights of the Cinquecento. 17 In Delle Farse e commedie morali, Rizzi pointed out that these plays, though reflecting to a greater extent the times and mores of sixteenth-century Florence, were in many aspects reminiscent of the earlier commedie osservate.18 Although Rizzi divided Cecchi's theatre into two groups in his two-volume analysis, it was evident even to him that there is an intrinsic unity among xiv

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Cecchi's plays: the same characters, the same developments, the same spirit are present in all. Although Ugo Scoti-Bertinelli, in his study on the style of Cecchi's prose comedies, restricts himself to a small, homogeneous and early group of plays, his work is nevertheless noteworthy for its critical depth and rigour.19 Disagreeing with some aspects of Rocchi's chronology, Scoti-Bertinelli suggests possible alternative readings to arrive at more probable dates of composition for the earlier works. Through a survey of Florentine linguistic constructions present in the plays and by comparing them with those present in the works of three of the most respected dramatists of the Cinquecento, Pietro Aretino (1492-1556), Francesco D'Ambra (1499-1558), and Antonfrancesco Grazzini (1503-1584), Scoti-Bertinelli arrives at the conclusion that Cecchi's language is far richer and far more effective than that of his contemporaries. A much more recent study, and the first one in English, is Douglas Radcliff-Umstead's article "Cecchi and the Reconciliation of Theatrical Traditions." 20 Radcliff-Umstead examines four plays which reflect the variety of Cecchi's theatre. La Stiava is seen as an example of Cecchi's earlier work; it attempts to adapt the classical theatre, Plautus's Mercator in this case, to sixteenth-century Italy by infusing it with the mood of Florence's mercantile world, by stressing "the happy outcome to the suffering of two faithful lovers and the merited defeat of a senile passion" (p. 161). L'Assiuolo reflects the "novellistic erotic fury" (p. 161) and contains numerous comic elements drawn from the novella tradition. Though the content is relatively contemporary, the structure of the play remains classical. Il Figliuol prodigo "represents an aesthetic reconciliation of the Tuscan sacra rappresentazione with the erudite comic form" (p. 168); Cecchi adapts the biblical parable to the context of contemporary Florence. Finally, La Romanesca, written near the end of Cecchi's career (1585), "reprexv

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sents the utmost crystallization of the Tuscan farce" (p. 171). In its brevity and its eclecticism, RadcliffUmstead's article goes a long way in introducing Cecchi to English-speaking scholars and in effectively presenting the main aspects of Cecchi's works. The most recent studies are two articles by Jacqueline Brunet. The first, "Le Paysan et son langage dans l'oeuvre theatrale de Giovanmaria Cecchi", although restricted in scope, is invaluable for its originality.21 The peasant, so often overlooked or underestimated by scholars, is brought into focus in order to draw from him allusions to the true state of language and life in the country and in Florence in the sixteenth century. Brunet's second article, "L'Acqua vino: une, deux, (trois?) farce(s) de Giovanmaria Cecchi" examines the extant variants of this work originally written in 1579.22 After a careful and patient compilation of the eight known manuscripts, all variant, Brunet points out that, though some new insights have been gained, numerous questions have arisen or have been left unanswered. In order to overcome the fragmentary knowledge that one still has of Cecchi and his work, a thorough study of the manuscripts and a willingness to confront "quelques tenaces incertitudes" (p. 169) seem indispensable. The amount of attention devoted to Giovan Maria Cecchi has been minimal. After having been ignored for two and a half centuries, his theatre was resurrected by Italian critics who, from Fiacchi to Scoti-Bertinelli, presented it as a linguistic tool in the effort to build a new nation and a new people. This fervour spent itself in just under a century; Italian critics since 1907 have remained generally vague or silent about Cecchi's theatre. Although the four post-war editions of L'Assiuolo suggest renewed interest in at least one of the plays, Italian criticism has been lagging sadly behind. It is abroad that the most exciting work is now being done, by Frenchand English-speaking scholars who are not hampered by the oppressive nineteenth-century Italian obsession xvi

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with Cecchi's fiorentinita. They have been able to place him in a wider literary and social context, thereby pointing the way to a greater understanding of Cecchi's relevance in sixteenth-century studies. An authoritative study of all his works and a comprehensive biography of Giovan Maria Cecchi are still unavailable. Sources In the prologue of The Horned Owl, Cecchi makes a claim for the originality of his play by saying that it is a brand new comedy taken neither from Plautus nor from Terence, but based instead on an event which had recently occurred in Pisa between some students at the university and some local ladies. Being a re-enactment of true events, The Horned Owl is free of contaminatio, that sixteenth-century dramatic technique which consisted of borrowing episodes, plots, and structures from classical Roman or from contemporary comedies to form a "new" comedy. Cecchi's other erudite comedies depend heavily on precisely this technique, and the dramatist himself openly acknowledges it. In fact, in the prologue to his very first play, La Dote (The Dowry), of 1544, Cecchi affirms that it is "a new comedy, taken mainly from Plautus" and then defends the seeming contradiction in a subtle discourse on the differences between imitation and plagiarism. He disassociates himself from "certain petty thieves" who steal not only plots but entire comedies from Plautus and then claim them as their own by virtue of some insignificant original fragment which they have managed to weave into the play. He claims to have taken the plot of The Dowry from Plautus, and says that he will do the same in the future, because he has seen the greatest playwrights do the same, be they modern or ancient. Terence and Plautus borrowed from the Greeks, the moderns do the same from the Romans, and there may conceivably be a time when future writers will pay the same compliment to the Florentines. At this point Cecchi repeats Terence's xvii

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dictum that there is nothing new under the sun, and one is therefore obliged to follow the example of previous writers. The Horned Owl is perhaps the only erudite play in which Cecchi did not borrow heavily from the classics to create his plot. The subject matter itself tends to curtail contaminatio, for neither the Roman nor the Greek stage allowed the representation of adultery; the family was deemed to be a sacred institution and therefore adultery was too strong a taboo to be brought on the stage in a comedy. Its only appearance in the GraecoRoman comic theatre is in Plautus's Amphitryon where Jupiter disguises himself as Alcmena's husband and possesses her under false pretence. Sixteenth-century Italian theatre, on the other hand, abounds in comedies that contain adulterous situations, as for example Ariosto's La Lena, and Machiavelli's La Mandragola. The Horned Owl's plot revolves entirely around the theme of illicit loves which fail to respect family relationships. The two youths, Giulio and Rinuccio, seduce and win the permanent affection of the two married ladies, Oretta and Violante, while Oretta's old husband tries without success to seduce the virtuous widow Anfrosina (Rinuccio's mother). When the servant Giorgetto notices that his machinations have been successful and that sexual encounters have either occurred or have been foiled as planned, he himself goes off to a brothel to gratify his senses, thus underscoring the nature of the other incidents. In other plays, Cecchi utilizes a subplot which does not at all reflect the action of the main plot;TTTFigliuol prodigo (The Prodigal Son, 1569-70) presents the well known parable in the context of sixteenth-century Florence. It also includes a subplot based on the classical topos of the attempts by a penniless youth and his cunning servant to swindle some money out of an avaricious father. This is one of many plays in which Cecchi incorporated classical loci communes into nonxviii

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classical material. The Horned Owl, however, does not employ such stratagems. Any debt to Plautus or to Terence remains far too vague and distant to be given serious consideration; the foolish servant Giannella may have Roman antecedents for his bungling, for his braggart claims or for his enormous appetite, and Giorgetto's cunning may call to mind several classical servants who mastermind the play's ingenious swindles, but little more can be said of it. Although free of contaminatio, The Horned Owl is not free of borrowings. Its richest source is to be found closer to home: Boccaccio's Decameron. Cecchi does not acknowledge it in the prologue, perhaps because he felt Boccaccio's world was his own and that they both described the same reality. There are several references in The Horned Owl to Boccaccian characters and incidents. Madonna Verdiana seems to have been extracted intact from Dec. V,10, where she first appeared, closely associated with the name Cecchi gave her and with a strikingly similar characterization: an old beldam, that shewed as a veritable Santa Verdiana, foster-mother of vipers, who was ever to be seen going to pardonings with a parcel of paternosters in her hand, and talked of nothing but the lives of the holy Fathers, and the wounds of St. Francis, and was generally reputed a saint.23 Though there are numerous procuresses in the classical theatre, the mixture of pretended saintliness and actual sinfulness which Cecchi's Madonna Verdiana displays renders her a sister figure to more recent literary antecedents such as the old woman in Boccaccio's novel, or Alvigia in Aretino's La Cortigiana [The Courtesan, 1526). Boccaccio's novelle also contributed incidents to the plot of the play. When Messer Ambrogio is locked up in Madonna Anfrosina's courtyard and left there to cool off his sexual passions, the parallel Boccaccian episode in xix

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Dec. VIII,7 comes to mind; the scholar Rinieri is locked up and left to shiver all night in the lady's courtyard while she in turn enjoys the warmth of her lover's affection. The same excuse, that is, the unexpected arrival of the son or of the brother, is used in both cases to persuade the aspiring lover to wait in the courtyard. When Rinuccio sneaks into bed and unknowingly makes love to the wrong woman, he has an antecedent in the Canon of Fiesole who, desirous to enjoy the embraces of a certain lady, arranges with her a secret rendezvous only to discover afterwards that he has enjoyed the servant's and not the lady's favours (Dec. VIII,4). Madonna Oretta's desire to teach her husband a lesson unwittingly leads her to satisfy her secret admirer's pleasures; in Dec. III,6 Ricciardo manages to fulfill his sexual desires with Catella in exactly the same manner, since she believes she is lying with her husband and will soon unmask his deception, but instead finds her own admirer in her arms. Caught in flagrante delicto, Madonna Oretta still manages to make herself appear blameless and to send her husband's accusations boomeranging back on his own head. Such ingenuity was demonstrated in a very similar manner by Monna Sismonda when her husband discovered her extramarital affairs and confronted her with the evidence in front of her brothers (Dec. VII.8). There are close ties between Giovan Maria Cecchi and other sixteenth-century dramatists. Cecchi's contemporaries were undoubtedly aware of his affinity with Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), the great statesman, historian and political theorist of the Renaissance, when they readily associated The Horned Owl and La Mandragola (see above, p. xii) . The similarities between the two plays exist on both the exterior and interior levels. In the first group one may mention the presence on the stage set of a church. Machiavelli was the first dramatist to incorporate a church into the classical stage, and to use it as an integral element in the progress xx

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of a morally questionable ruse. Fra Timoteo steps out of a building where religion is equated with tidy altars, lit candles, and financial offerings, and where virtuous wifes are misled into adultery. Cecchi's church is not very different, since it is here that Giorgetto and Giulio meet to discuss the progress of the attempted seduction. Madonna Verdiana is the lay representative of the religion administered by Fra Timoteo, a curious blend of inbred veniality and superficial piety. Another exterior element which accentuates the parallel between the two plays is Madonna Oretta's plea to Messer Giulio to respect her and to help her conceal her recent failing (V,l,). It echoes very clearly Madonna Lucrezia's plea to Callimaco in La Mandragola V,4; they both occur at the same time and are based on the same arguments. When the honesty of a woman is undermined by her husband's stupidity, her adviser's turpitude and her lover's cunning, it must be heaven's wish that she succumb, and therefore she accepts wholeheartedly the law of force majeure. On the interior level, the resemblances are more striking since they reflect a similar outlook on social order and morality in sixteenth-century Florence. This outlook is evident in the dramatists' variations on classical structure and in their depiction of the society they know. The standard ending for classical and erudite comedy was a marriage of the adulescentes but, as Cecchi himself indicates in the prologue, this is not to be the case in The Horned Owl. Because amorous adventures arise from two young men's pursuit of married women, a final wedding is an impossibility from the very start. Therefore, after the consummation of their love outside the bounds of matrimony and the disruption of the moral norms of society that such a consummation implies, the lovers are unable to redress the wrong they have done by marrying the women they have seduced (marriage is the "honourable" solution). As a result, the xxi

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ruse has been played not only on the duped husband, but also on a duped society. It is not the technical aspect of the ending itself that is of paramount importance in this variance from established practice. What the dramatist eventually depicts is a social atmosphere congenial to marital infidelity. Extramarital encounters are not only allowed to occur, but also to continue and to prosper — the young men's one-night stands with their ladies acquire a permanency which, ironically, is blessed by the deceived husbands themselves. Both Cecchi and Machiavelli imply that the rationale responsible for the establishment of such a modus vivendi stems from the irrationality of the marriage situation that has been allowed to develop. An independent and intelligent young woman cannot be expected to be the virtuous wife of a senile old man. The husband's own obsession is a further element of irrationality that fosters his wife's infidelity: Messer Nicia longs to be a father despite his advanced age, and Messer Ambrogio would rather chase other women than keep his wife satisfied. Religion, which is intended to protect society from moral laxity, is depicted in both plays as one of the forces actually contributing to the breakdown of morality. Both Fra Timoteo and Madonna Verdiana act as go-betweens and pocket financial rewards for their troubles while purporting to be religious and morally upstanding. They become representative of a rupture between the externals and the internals of religion: while lacking the integrity of a firm moral stand, they present themselves as pious Christians by lighting candles and muttering Hail Marys. Madonna Oretta and Madonna Lucrezia, previously the virtuous objects of desire, are faced with the hidden corruption of figures of domestic and religious authority, and with the enterprising spirit of a younger, more vital element. They undergo a metamorphosis which expands their views and liberates them from imposed social restrictions. The principle of fidelity to a senile or to xxii

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a disinterested husband is abandoned and the women become individuals in their own right. There is a movement in both plays towards a new social situation, a "new society," as Northrop Frye calls it in his Anatomy of Criticism. 24 In some ways, however, The Horned Owl's and La Mandragola's new order is a disquieting one. Love, rather than being revealed and restored to its rightful place in society, continues in its illicit manifestation. Adultery is condoned and given some assurance of continuation. The classical topos of the marriage of the two young people who loved each other all along and their re-integration into the "corrected" social structure as its new leaders is not present in either play. In its place, subterfuge continues. The old society seems to carry on as before, but the spectator is aware that another deception is in force, for the centre of power has switched to a group that is unwilling to "correct" the irrationality present at the beginning of the play. Rather, weaknesses in the structure are retained for the personal pleasure of the more adept manipulators. Instead of reform and return to justice, the comedy leads to another form of exploitation. The alazon, or blocking character, has merely been circumvented; he has neither been disposed of nor converted. The play itself might end, but the beffa, and the irrationality which gave it reason to exist, continue both in The Horned Owl and in La Mandragola. Within the context of sixteenth-century theatre, The Horned Owl is then of particular interest, for it reveals traces of all the major influences acting upon the erudite comedy of the time. Contemporary tastes in dramaturgy are evident in the classical form given to the comedy, whether with respect to the architecture, the unities, or some of the character types. The subject matter shows a degree of originality which, however, is not Cecchi's alone, for there are strong connections with contemporary Italian comedy as a whole. In fact, it is the novella tradition in general, and Boccaccio's legacy in xxiii

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particular which support and nourish the play. Characters, incidents, even references, recall the mercantile, enterprising world of the Decameron, a world to which Cecchi must have been particularly attached and which, in the middle of the century, was experiencing the decline of Florentine power. The spirit of his age is reflected in the depiction, intentional or not, of social mores. It is in line with the picture drawn by Machiavelli, the keen observer of human affairs, and presents us with the view of a world in which cunning and daring are able to capitalize on good fortune without much consideration of ethical problems. The Horned Owl is perhaps Cecchi's most original play. Unlike his other erudite comedies, it does not employ multiple plots that lead into a massive confusion resolved by a more or less credible series of recognitions. Its plot is linear, uncomplicated, and its outcome inevitable. And although the play rests firmly on several traditions (classical, novellistic, contemporary), it is able to weave the different strands into a lively new work that stands on its own. Stage Setting In the tradition of Renaissance erudite comedy, The Horned Owl employs the single, unchanging set of Graeco-Roman comedy in which the stage depicts a street scene in front of the houses of the principal characters. The architect and architectural theorist Sebastiano Serlio (1475-1554) had drawn fascinating stage sets for the genres of comedy, tragedy, and pastoral. The set for classical comedy, as devised by him in 1545, is a miniature Italian piazza flanked by Renaissance palazzi, all done in perspective. Actors come and go through a variety of doors and streets.25 Cecchi's play is meant for such a set. The houses of the two principal groups should be near-by, separated by no more than a street or a small square. A church should be included in the set, perhaps between the two xxiv

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houses, to allow for Giorgetto's exits. There should be some space between the buildings so that Messer Ambrogio has room for his little walks in front of Madonna Anfrosina's house. His own house should have functioning windows at a higher level, from which Madonna Agnola and Madonna Oretta will look out in Act V. When The Horned Owl was presented in the Sala del Papa in the Palazzo Vecchio, its acts alternating with those of Machiavelli's La Mandragola, the stage settings devised for the two plays by Agnolo Bronzino and by Cecchino Salviati were probably as elaborate and as impressive as Serlio's conceptions. For other performances, especially for those by private acting companies such as those of the Monsignori, a more modest setting would be envisaged. Notes on the Translation

Although Giovan Maria Cecchi wrote his first plays in prose for the Gabriel Giolito de' Ferrari edition of 1550 in Venice, he soon switched to verse and composed the rest mainly in the endecasillabo sciolto, the unrhymed eleven-syllable line also used by Ludovico Ariosto, whom he admired greatly. Later in life, Cecchi recast his first prose comedies into verse and had them published again, this time by the Giunta press in Venice (1585). The Horned Owl, however, remained unversified. For this reason the present translation is also in prose. The reader should keep in mind that this is an exception in Cecchi's plays. Apart from the usual difficulties of translation, compounded in this case by an extensive cultural and temporal distance, Cecchi's plays offer their translator a linguistic dilemma. 26 Cecchi was and still is praised for his use of the Florentine language: idiomatic expressions, proverbs, local references, a certain 'Florentinity" in the turn of his phrases. But any attempt to render him into English cannot maintain these special qualities xxv

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which had such directness for sixteenth-century audiences. Since an exact translation would not have been suitable and furthermore would have been weighted down by an excessive amount of footnotes, it was decided that idiomatic, spoken sixteenth-century Florentine would best be served by idiomatic, spoken t w e n t i e t h - c e n t u r y English. Contemporary speech, devoid of anachronisms, was therefore selected. To accommodate the sentence structure, which in Renaissance Italian was often rather lengthy, to the contemporary idiom, numerous extended speeches have been liberally sprinkled with commas and periods. On occasion the original text demanded complex, elevated forms in order to create a certain effect, as for example in the Prologue, or in Madonna Oretta's soliloquy on the fate of womankind (IV, 3, pp. 60-61); in cases such as these, the complex sentence structure was retained whenever possible. Although references to local characters, places or events were sometimes retained, they have been usually replaced in the text with more suitable English idioms. In either case, however, a footnote explains the reference and, when the translation omitted it, provides the reader with the Italian original. Expletives likewise posed a dilemma. They are, by nature, spontaneous outbursts and should be translated as such. However, different cultures have different complexes, and for this reason the peculiar colourfulness of an expression such as "Cacasangue!" has had to suffer some uninspired and inaccurate renditions. 27 The ease and flair with which an Italian will send someone to the devil has been translated by "Damn you!", again a somewhat simple and inaccurate solution. Puns and word games abound in Cecchi's language. They have been adapted to English as closely as possible, although occasionally they have had to fall by the wayside. A smoothly flowing exchange was considered more xxvi

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desirable than a highly annotated series of Florentine word games. There are no stage directions in Cecchi's The Horned Owl;T the action is deduced or derived entirely from the speeches. To permit a fuller and freer reading the most indispensable directions have been added in parentheses. Act and scene divisions have been retained as in the original. The text used for the translation is the authoritative 1863 Daelli edition on which all subsequent editions have been based. I have at the same time, however, kept a careful eye on the original 1550 edition by Giolito de' Ferrari and on the more recent edition by Nino Borsellino in the volume Commedie del Cinquecento (Milano: Rizzoli, 1962). Chronology of Giovan Maria Cecchi's Works 1544 La Dote (The Dowry) 1545 La Moglie (The Wife) 1545-46 II Corredo (The Trousseau) 1546 La Stiava (The Slave-girl) 1547 Gl'Incantesimi (The Enchantements) 1548 I Dissimili (Two Unlike Brothers) 1549 L'Assiuolo (The Horned Owl) 1549 Lo Spirito (The Ghost) 1550 TTDonzello (The Man-servant) 1550-51 La Maiana (The Girl from Maiana) 1555 L'Ammalata (The Sick Girl) 1556 Il Servigiale (The Servant) 1556 I Rivali (The Rivals) 1557 Il Medico (The Doctor) 1558 Gli Sciamiti (The Coffers) 1558 Ragionamenti Spirituali (Religious Discourses) 1559 La Morte del re Acab (King Acab's Death) 1561 Il Martello (The Hammer) 1562 Sommario de' Magistrati (A List of Magistrates) 1567 Le Pellegrine (The Pilgrim Women) xxvii

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1569

La Coronazione del re Soul (The Coronation of King Saul) 1569-70 Il Figliuol prodigo (The Prodigal Son) 1573 Atto recitabile per alla Capannuccia (One-act Play at the Manger) 1574 La Serpe ovvero la mala nuora (The Snake or the Evil Daughter-in-law) 1574-79 Le Cedole (The Promissory Notes) 1579 L'Acqua-vino (The Water-wine) 1580 Il Tobia (Tobias) 1580 L'Esaltazione della croce (The Exaltation of the Cross) 1581 La Conversione della Scozia (The Conversion of Scotland) 1581 L'Eduina (The Conversion of King Edwin of Scotland) 1582 Sant'Agnese (Saint Agnes) 1582 Lezione ovvero Cicalamento . . . (Lesson or Rigmarole . . .) 1583 Santa Cecilia (Saint Cecilia) 1583 Li Contrassegni (The Tokens) 1584 La Dolcina (Dolcina) TTSamaritano (The Good Samaritan) 1584 1585 Le Maschere (The Masks) 1585 La Romanesca (The Roman Woman) 1585 TTDiamante (The Diamond) [Remake of Il Medico] 1580-87 Duello della vita attiva e contemplative (The Duel between Active Life and Contemplative Life) 1580-87 Duello del disprezzo dell'amore e belta terrena (The Duel of the Rejection of Love and Earthly Beauty) 1580-87 Cleofas e Luca (Cleofas and Luke) 1580-87 Lo Sviato (The Misled Youth) 1580-87 Il Cieco nato (The Man Born Blind) 1580-87 La Gruccia (The Crutch) 1580-87 Il Putto risuscitato (The Resurrection of the Dead Boy) xxviii

TTTTTTTTTTTTYYY

1580-87 L'Acquisto di Giacobbe (Jacob's Purchase) 1580-87 I Malandrini (The Robbers) 1580-87 Datan e Abiron (Datan and Abiron) no date Le Venture non aspettate (The Unexpected Adventures) no date TT Riscatto (The Ransom) no date Serpe ovvero suocera e nuora (Serpent, or Mother-in-law and Daughter-in-law) no date L'amicizia (Friendship) no date La Pittura (The Painting) no date L'Andazzo (The Current Trend) no date Gli Aggirati (The Swindled Ones) Editions of L'Assiuolo 1550 L'Assiuolo (. . .). Vinegia: Gabriel Giolito de' Ferrari. 1750 in Teatro comico fiorentino. Firenze: n.p. 1850 in Commedie di G. M. Cecchi. Ed. by Silvestri. Milano: Tip. di G. Silvestri. 1863 L'Assiuolo (...). Ed. by L. Fiacchi. Milano: G. Daelli e comp. 1883 in Commedie. Ed. by Orlando Guerrini. Milano: E. Sonzogno. 1923 reprint of 1883 edition. 1946 in Commedie giocose del Cinquecento. Vol. I. Ed. by A.G. Bargaglia. Roma: Colombo. 1955 in Teatro italiano. Le origini e il Rinascimento. Ed. by S. D'Amico. Milano: Nuova Accademia Editrice. 1959 in Commedie del '500. Vol. I. Ed. by Aldo Borlenghi. Milano: Rizzoli. 1962 in Commedie del '500. Vol. I. Ed. by Nino Borsellino. Milano: Rizzoli.

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Bibliography

Brunet, Jacqueline. "L'Acqua vino: une, deux (trois?) farce(s) de Giovanmaria Cecchi." Culture et Religion en Espagne et en Italie aux XV e et XVI e Siecles. Paris: Imprimerie F. Paillart, 1980. pp. 141-74. Brunet, Jacqueline. "Le Paysan et son langage dans l'oeuvre theatrale de Giovanmaria Cecchi." Ville et campagne dans la litterature italienne de la Renaissance. I. Le Paysan travesti. Etudes reunies par Andre Rochon. Paris: Universite de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, 1976. pp. 179-267. Camerini, Eugenio. "Intorno alle commedie di G.M. TTTTTTTTTTTTTTUUUU ." In G.M. Cecchi, L'Assiuolo. Milano: G. Daelli, 1863. pp. 1-38. Also in E. Camerini, Profili letterari. Firenze: G. Barbera Editore, 1870. pp. 363-400. Ferraro, Bruno. "Giovanni Maria Cecchi. The Commedie Osservate and the Commedia Erudita in SixteenthCentury Italy." Unpublished Dissertation, Flinders University of South Australia, 1974. Fiacchi, Luigi. "Dei Proverbi toscani." In G.M. Cecchi, L'Assiuolo. Milano: G. Daelli, 1863. pp. 39-53. Fiacchi, Luigi. "Lettera sulla vita e le opere di G.M. Cecchi." In G.M. Cecchi, Commedie. Firenze: Pagani, 1818. pp. xi-xxix. Guerrini, Olindo. "Prefazione." In G.M. Cecchi, Commedie. Milano: Edoardo Sonzogno, 1883. pp. 5-16. Lombardi, A. "Il Prologo degli Incantesimi e La Dolcina di G.M. Cecchi." Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana, III (1884). pp. 74-78. Mazzi, Curzio. "Un catalogo degli scritti di G.M. Cecchi." Rivista delle biblioteche e degli archivi, Anno VII, nn. 9-12. pp. 157-70.

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Radcliff-Umstead, Douglas. "Cecchi and the Reconciliation of Theatrical Traditions." Comparative Drama, IX, 2 (1975). pp. 156-75. Rizzi, Fortunato. Le Commedie osservate di Giovan Maria Cechi e la commedia classica del sec. XVI. Rocca S. Casciano: Licinio Cappelli, 1904. Rizzi, Fortunato. Delle farse e commedie morali di G.M. Cecchi. Rocca S. Casciano: Licinio Cappelli, 1907. Rocchi, Raffaello. "Prefazione." In G.M. Cecchi Drammi spirituali inediti di Giovanmaria Cecchi, notaio fiorentino del secolo XVI. Vol. I. Firenze: Successori Le Monnier, 1895. pp. iii-xcix. Scoti-Bertinelli, Ugo. Sullo stile delle commedie in prosa di Giovan Maria Cecchi. Citta di Castello: Lapi, 1906.

Notes to the introduction 1. For a biography of Giovan Maria Cecchi, the best readings are: (a) Luigi Fiacchi's letter to Poggiali, printed in the collection Commedie which he edited (Firenze: Pagani, 1818. pp. xi-xxix). Baccio Cecchi's Ricordo is included in the letter; it gives his first-hand report of his father's life and death. (b) Eugenio Camerini's introduction to the Daelli edition of L'Assiuolo (Milano: 1863. pp. 3-38), later reprinted in his Profili letterari (Firenze: G. Barbera, 1870. pp. 363-400). (c) Raffaele Rocchi's preface to the collection Drammi spirituali inediti di Giovanmaria Cecchi (Firenze: Le Monnier, 1895. Vol. I, pp. xii-xcix). Subsequent scholars have generally repeated the information contained in these. 2. Olindo Guerrini, in G.M. Cecchi, Commedie (Milano: Edoardo Sonzogno Editore, 1883), p. 7. 3. Luigi Fiacchi, op. cit., p. xviii. The dictionary was first published in Venice in 1612 by Giovanni Alberti, with Bastiano de' Rossi editor.

xxxi

THE HORNED OWL 4. Baccio Cecchi lists fifty compositions in numerical order, and then continues with eight more entries of a general nature. 5. Raffaele Rocchi, op. cit., pp. x-xii. 6. Luigi Tonelli, Il Teatro italiano dalle origini ai giorni nostri (Milano: Modernissima, 1924), pp. 135-36. This subdivision is implicit in Rizzi's studies as well, for he first examines the commedie osservate and then, in his subsequent book, the farces and drammi sacri. 7. The sacra rappresentazione was a religious drama of popular origin written in eight line stanzas (ABABABCC) and performed in churches or public squares by amateur actors. Its heyday was the fifteenth century and, though its writers were generally anonymous, they also included men of the calibre of Feo Belcari (1410-1484) and Lorenzo de' Medici (1449-1492). During the sixteenth century, with the resurgence of classical tastes in the theatre, the sacra rappresentazione gradually disappeared. 8. Antonfrancesco Grazzini, Rime burlesche di A.F. Grazzini. Edited by C. Verzone (Firenze: G.C. Sansoni Editore, 1882). Poem XCII (p. 422) describes how Cecchi has become the toast of the town, especially with his female admirers: A giudizio del popol fiorentino e delle donne, che piu pesa e grava, il Cecchi ha vinto e superato il Cino che prima era un poeta a scaccafava; or, come avesse spirito divino, se ne va altero e sgonfia e sbuffa e brava, dato avendo al Buonanni anco la stretta, e il Lasca sguizza e Frosino sgambetta. Ponete mente a Lotto calzaiuolo, com'egli e malcontento e sbigottito; e Lionardo Salviati muor di duolo, per che il suo Granchio fu tanto schernito. Ser Tarsia se ne va ramingo e solo che proprio pare un comico fallito; dappoi che quest'ingegni loschi e sordi mettono il Cecchi nel ciel de' balordi. See also poem CII (p. 430) which mentions the effect on Florentine dramatists of the arrival in town of a troupe of Commedia dell'Arte actors (Zanni).

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9. Anton Francesco Doni, I Marmi. Edited by Ezio Chiorboli (Bari: Gius. Laterza & Figli, 1928), Vol. I, p. 51. 10. The full title is Lo Stufaiolo o I'avaro, and it seems that Moliere drew at least some of his inspiration for his Avare from this play. 11. Filippo Baldinucci, Notizie dei professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua (Firenze: V. Batelli e Compagni, 1846), Vol. III, p. 518. 12. Fortunato Rizzi, Le Commedie osservate di Giovan Maria Cecchi e la commedia classica del sec. XVI (Rocca S. Casciano: Licinio Cappelli, 1904), p. 12, n. 1. 13. See note 1. 14. Camerini, op. cit., p. 36. 15. See note 1. 16. The two books are: Le Commedie osservate di Giovan Maria Cecchi e la commedia classica del sec. XVI (Rocca S. Casciano: Licinio Cappelli, 1904) and Delle farse e commedie morali di G.M. Cecchi (Rocca S. Casciano: Licinio Cappelli, 1907). 17. Rizzi, Le Commedie osservate, p. 3. 18. Rizzi, Delle farse, pp. 21-82. 19. Ugo Scoti-Bertinelli, Sullo stile delle commedie in prosa di Giovan Maria Cecchi (Citta di Castello: S. Lapi, 1906). The first six published plays are also the prose comedies that Scoti-Bertinelli examines. They are La Dote, La Moglie, I Dissimili, Gl'Inca-ntesimi, La Stiava, L'Assiuolo, and were published by Gabriel Giolito de' Ferrari in Venice in 1550-51. 20. Comparative Drama, IX, 2 (1975), 156-175. 21. Ville et campagne dans la litterature italienne de la Renaissance I. Le Paysan travesti. Centre de Recherche sur la Renaissance Italienne. Etudes reunies par Andre Rochon. Universite de la Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris: 1976), pp. 179-267. 22. Culture et Religion en Espagne et en Italie aux XVe et X V I e Siecles. Documents et travaux de l'equipe de recherche Culture et Societe au XVe Siecle. Tome III (Paris: F. Paillart, 1980), pp. 141-74. .

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23. In the translation of the Decameron by J.M. Rigg (London: G. Routledge, 1921), Part II, p. 63. 24. Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971), pp. 163 ff. 25. Sebastiano Serlio, II Secondo Libro d'Architettura (Paris, 1545), pp. 63-74. See the front cover of this volume for a reproduction of Serlio's ideal set for comedy. 26. See George Steiner's illuminating remarks on the difficulties of translation across temporal distance and the barriers of social stratification in After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation (London: Oxford University Press, 1975), pp. 28-46. 27. "Cacasangue!" translates literally as "May you shit blood!" which is tantamount to wishing the hearer a severe case of haemorrhoids.

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Characters of the story: MESSER GIULIO

young students

MESSER RINUCCIO MESSER AMBROGIO

old man, doctor of law (lawyer)

MADONNA ORETTA

his wife

MADONNA VIOLANTE

her sister

GIORGETTO

servant to MESSER GIULIO

GIANNELLA

attendant to the lawyer

MADONNA VERDIANA

hypocrite

AGNOLA

servant

UGUCCIONE

brother of MADONNA ORETTA The scene is set in Pisa.

2

Prologue Well then, what will you say of the new Monsignori? 1 Do you doubt they'll show themselves to be as splendid and as full of largesse as the day warrants, or rather as the title of magnificent, which they have assumed, seems to warrant? If you do, you'll soon stop doubting. The Monsignori are not bothered by any lack of means or by any other trivial worries, because they want to show everyone that their spirit is not any less in the doing than it was in the taking of the name. They want to present a brand new comedy, written for the occasion by one of their group, for their pleasure and yours too. It's taken neither from Terence nor from Plautus, but as you'll hear, from something which happened recently in Pisa between some young students and gentlewomen. In fact, the event is such that, if I'm not mistaken, it will seem pleasant and worthy of your attention. And don't anyone think that this comedy originates from the Sack of Rome, or from the Siege of Florence, or because persons became displaced, or families had to flee, or some other such event. 2 Nor does it finish with marriages, as the majority of comedies usually do. In our comedy you will not hear anyone complain that he's lost sons or daughters because, as I've told you, no one has lost anybody. No one will be married off, because one of this group's good points, or rather happy rules, is that they cannot get mixed up in marriage, be it their own or that of others. If then you ask what does this comedy deal with, I'll tell you: an event which occurred in ten hours or less, one which you will hear about right away, if you will give us that welcome attention which one seeks at such shows and which you have granted to 3

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other comedies by this same author. And if, by chance, it seems slightly more licentious either in words or in action than his other plays, you must excuse him because, wanting for once to get away from marriages and discoveries of long-lost children, there was nothing he could do about it. But that's enough excuses for him and for the other members of the Monsignori because they know that with all of you who are their friends and partisans, excuses would be superfluous. And they would be wasted on the malicious, because they wouldn't want to hear them. They don't want to make excuses to the envious because they think that they would be lowering themselves too much to take into consideration such a vile race of men, if you can call them men. There's no doubt that wise men will praise them for the fact that, being young, they take pleasure in honest pastimes that befit the young. In short, let anyone say what he will; if the Monsignori are doing something, they're doing it on their own. They only ask everyone to be so kind as to listen to this Horned Owl of theirs in silence until it's over. Afterwards, everyone is free to censure or praise as he likes, because censure will not infuriate the Monsignori and praise will not make them arrogant. But look, here they come. Listen to them.

ACT I SCENE I

MESSER GIULIO, a student, and his servant GIORGETTO.

GIULIO: If my father, my mother, and all of Florence with them were to arrive in Pisa, they couldn't help me as much as you'll be able to. GIORGETTO: Glad to be of use. GIULIO: In the two months you've been away from Pisa, I tell you, I've been the most distressed student at this university. GIORGETTO: Is it because of all your new friends? Or are you studying too much? Let me remind you, sir, this is your first year. There's no need to graduate right away, so take it easy. You must come back at least for another year. GIULIO: Easy you say? Good God! Let me tell you something else, but keep it to yourself, you hear. I don't think that in all this time I've spent four hours on my books. How's that for taking it easy? GIORGETTO: Can't say you've been studying too much. GIULIO: How can I study when I'm so madly in love I can't settle down, day or night? GIORGETTO: That's another matter altogether. And is the love all on your side or is it shared? GIULIO: It's all on my side, and it is shared as well — more than I'd care to. When I look at her I feel all alone, without a chance in the world. But when I look around, I see myself sharing my love with another, because I'm in competition with Messer Rinuccio 5

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Gualandi, our host. We're rivals and he's not even aware of it. But what bothers me most is that he's confided in me about his love for her and he continually keeps me up to date in all the developments, and wants me to help him out. GIORGETTO: That's to your advantage. You know all his moves and he doesn't know any of yours. But how does he stand with her? Has he gone to see her yet? GIULIO: He's taking it slow. I don't think he's let her know his feelings yet. He seems to think it's enough for the moment to have made friends with the servant in the house. GIORGETTO: And what about you? Have you spoken with her or have you let her know your feelings? GIULIO: Not yet. GIORGETTO: You've been in love with her for two months and you haven't let her know yet? What a good-fornothing! By God, you really hand it to Ghetto Martelli, that fool. 3 GIULIO: Such matters must follow their own course. GIORGETTO: Had I been in your shoes, she would have been a month and a half on her course (he gestures to indicate pregnancy). GIULIO: What? You think she's some easy slut I can go and sleep with for a few coins? She's one of the most noble ladies of Pisa. GIORGETTO: You're young, and that should be all that matters. When it comes to good appearance and pretty phrases, there's no one to top you, but then in the end you aren't worth a handful of peanuts. As they say, you'd sooner make a hundred men jealous than one man a cuckold. Wait and see if I don't bring this situation to a head, if I don't make you come out on top with the prize. Go ahead and tell me who she is. 6

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I.i.

GIULIO: I'll tell you, but listen Giorgetto, I ... GIORGETTO: Look at that! He'd like me to stay out of it. 4 Haven't you dealt with me long enough to know who I am? GIULIO: I know you're trustworthy and true. I just wanted to remind you of it, because if this thing were to become known I'd be utterly ruined. GIORGETTO: Don't you worry about it. Just go ahead and tell me who she is. GIULIO: The wife of a certain Messer Ambrogio da Cascina, a lawyer here in Pisa. Her maiden name was Oretta de' Sismondi. They live here, in this house. GIORGETTO: Then the woman is your neighbour. GIULIO: And what good does that do me? GIORGETTO: What do you mean, what good? Don't they say that the best loving is near-by? If nothing else, you can still see her anytime. GIULIO: On the contrary. For all my waiting, I see her once every fifteen days. GIORGETTO: Is she so frightened of fresh air that she won't even come to the window? GIULIO: No, never. She doesn't come to the door or to the window because the poor woman is held like a prisoner by Messer Ambrogio, who is insanely jealous of her. I've heard that he used to practise law at the Commissioner's and Provisioner's Court, 5 as other lawyers 6 do. Now he's shut himself up and never goes out. GIORGETTO: He must have made his money. GIULIO: Yes, he's filthy rich. GIORGETTO: Let him drown in the filth, and let me inherit it.

7

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GIULIO: There's more. He keeps an attendant just to guard the door, so that no one will come into the house. GIORGETTO: Oh well, if there's an attendant, the cat's in the bag. GIULIO: Don't count your chickens. Besides being his master's right eye, he's the biggest ass and idiot in the world. GIORGETTO: It's difficult to fool the vicious, but as for idiots, the bigger they are the easier to fool them. GIULIO: Still, you'd better count on something else and not on him. GIORGETTO: What is it the French say — 1'argent fait tout? 7 Trust me, master. Seeing that she's got a jealous husband and that she's in the charge only of maids and servants, you can be sure I can get you in to see her within the week. GIULIO: It's plain to see you don't know what you're up up against. GIORGETTO: It's plain to see you still don't know me. Look, here comes your Messer Rinuccio. GIULIO: And he's got Madonna Oretta's servant with him. GIORGETTO: Things are starting to look good. Go talk to them, find out what you can and then report back to me. I'll wait for you here in the church. (Giorgetto enters the church) SCENE II

MESSER RINUCCIO, a student, with MADONNA AGNOLA, a servant, and MESSER GIULIO.

RINUCCIO: What are you worried about? AGNOLA: I don't want anybody to see me with you because right away they'd think the worst. RINUCCIO: The worst? We'd really be in a mess if every time one saw a young man and a woman talking 8

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I.ii.

together one immediately jumped to the worst conclusions. AGNOLA: Don't be like this, Messer Rinuccio. There are too many evil tongues nowadays. If my master came out and saw me with you, poor me! RINUCCIO: How could he? He never comes out after nine. (Agnola has stopped by the corner leading into the piazza and does not wish to proceed any further with Messer Rinuccio) Come along, I tell you. GIULIO: (Aside) What the devil is that fool afraid of? She doesn't seem to want to come out into the piazza. RINUCCIO: So what is this good news you claim to be bringing me? AGNOLA: It's such good news that, if you're the proper gentleman I think you are, you'll give me a good tip for it. RINUCCIO: You can certainly count on me for that. AGNOLA: God bless you. GIULIO: (Aside) She's become more confident. I think I'll go and see them now. AGNOLA: Oh dear, there's someone coming. I'd better be off. (She runs back to the corner and lingers there) RINUCCIO: Where are you off to? (Seeing Giulio) Oh, Messer Giulio! (To Agnola) Come back here, listen, don't be afraid. Messer Giulio and I are more than brothers; you can speak freely, he knows everything about this matter. GIULIO: If I'm in the way, I can leave. RINUCCIO: No, don't. Who else should I trust in this matter if not you? (To Agnola, who has returned) Go ahead and tell me this good news, Agnola, and hurry up. AGNOLA: You must understand that I'll be telling you some very important secrets, and if it ever gets out that . . . 9

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RINUCCIO: After all I've told you, I would think you'd trust me with much bigger secrets than these. AGNOLA: He who loves, fears. GIULIO: Madonna Agnola, go ahead, speak up. And don't worry; as far as I'm concerned it will all be buried with me. AGNOLA: Yesterday, my mistress Madonna Oretta and her sister Madonna Violante went to the convent to see a comedy.8 RINUCCIO: Is that right? I didn't know anything about it. AGNOLA: I was quite surprised I didn't see you following us. RINUCCIO: O God! If only I had met you. AGNOLA: Well, my poor fellow, there's not much you could have managed to do. She was closely guarded all the way there and back again. RINUCCIO: At least we could have caught a glimpse of each other. AGNOLA: That's true. But to put out a fire, you throw on water, not sulphur. RINUCCIO: Who was with her? AGNOLA: That witchdoctor Messer Ambrogio and Giannella, who's as crazy as a Sienese.9 And you know, they led her right up to the courtyard of the convent, and if they could have gone in they would have. But since they couldn't, because men aren't allowed in, they made like the doctor's mule and waited outside until the show was over. Then, when she came back out, they put her between the two of them and brought her back home. GIULIO: See how damned jealous that man is, that ass I should say! AGNOLA: As chance would have it, your mother also went to see the comedy, and sat next to my lady. RINUCCIO: God, if only I could have been in her clothes! 10

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AGNOLA: You rascal! Does one do this sort of thing in a convent? GIULIO: There you go, thinking the worst already. AGNOLA: I know my chickens. RINUCCIO: Madonna Agnola, don't take me for a dishonest person. GIULIO: Messer Rinuccio would treat your lady as if she were his wife. AGNOLA: And you, Messer So-and-so, what would you do? GIULIO: I'd do the same or better, if one could do better. And if it were not to her liking, I would compel myself to do it all over again until she said she was satisfied. RINUCCIO: Go on with your story. All this other stuff is nothing but idle talk. 10 AGNOLA: So they struck up a conversation, as women do, chatting about this and that. I was sitting right behind them, paying full attention, so I could hear everything they were saying. RINUCCIO: They must have talked about me. AGNOLA: Nothing that amounted to anything. The point of the discussion was that Madonna Anfrosina, your mother, told my lady how Messer Ambrogio is so madly in love that he's going insane. RINUCCIO: Messer Ambrogio in love? With who? AGNOLA: With Madonna Anfrosina, your mother. RINUCCIO: How can that be? AGNOLA: Very easily, because it's true. GIULIO: It's no wonder every morning and evening he spends hours on end walking back and forth between your house and his. I thought he was doing it for the exercise, and all the time he was looking after the fish and the cat.11 11

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RINUCCIO: (Laughing) There's a good one. Love makes people act like children and good-for-nothings. It's made this old tomcat go on the prowl till he gets himself clawed up badly enough. But on with your story. AGNOLA: And she said that he's repeatedly employed that sourpuss hypocrite to test her honesty, the one who's forever going in and'out of churches muttering Our Fathers and Hail Marys. 12 GIULIO: Who do you mean? Madonna Verdiana? AGNOLA: Yessir, that cassock-kissing hypocrite. RINUCCIO: Well, I'll be! He's managed to get further with my mother, and in a shorter space of time, than I've been able to get with his wife in the four months I've been in love with her. GIULIO: We may surpass these old men in strength, but they really do surpass us in ingenuity. AGNOLA: If only he had as much strength as ingenuity. If he had the least amount, he'd tend to his own wife, instead of looking for better things. Isn't she enough to keep him satisfied? RINUCCIO: Damn it! If only everybody could have as much to satisfy them. GIULIO: I tell you, he's had too much of a good thing. AGNOLA: What about Madonna Verdiana, acting like a saint! Is it right she should get herself mixed up in this kind of business — ferrying news between these old people who should have put an end to such games by now and started worrying about their souls? And to think how she carries on with special devotions to this or that Saint all the while! GIULIO: She's the type of person you have to watch out for. AGNOLA: Personally, I think she's committing a great sin. (To Rinuccio) I think if she did a little favour for a 12

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young man like you — a few words to a young lady — that wouldn't hurt. GIULIO: (Interjecting) On the contrary, it would benefit, because it could be the first step in bringing another soul into the world, to praise and serve Almighty God. The most a couple of old people could do would be to let someone else earn a bit of money for being their go-between. AGNOLA: I, for one, would prefer to die of starvation. God spare me from ever getting mixed up in such things. I tell you, for charity's sake I'd do anything to save a well brought-up young man and an unfortunate young girl from despair, but never for evil ends. GIULIO: Oh, it's plain to see that your intentions are beyond reproach. RINUCCIO: But tell us the rest of this wild talk about falling in love. AGNOLA: Just imagine how upset my lady was when she heard all this. They talked about it at length, and then the two of them decided to give the old man just what he was looking for. And here's how! RINUCCIO: It's the funniest thing I've heard all year. AGNOLA: They realized that if Madonna Oretta complained about it to old Ambrogio, or to her brother, 13 he would immediately deny it all. Her brother, who doesn't know what Messer Ambrogio is really like, would never believe her. He'd say it was woman's jealousy. So they decided that before it all came out into the open, they had to have so much evidence on hand that Ambrogio could never deny it. RINUCCIO: Very wise. AGNOLA: And for this reason, they've decided that Madonna Anfrosina should lead the old man on, giving him hope, by letting him know that she wants 13

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to be alone with him at the first opportunity she can find. GIULIO: A woman's promise, eh? AGNOLA: And sometime, when the both of you are out, she could send for him at night and put him in bed in your first-floor room. But first she would have to let Madonna Oretta know about it and she must send her enough of your .clothes so that she can disguise herself. Then, dressed like a man, she will come to your house and, in the darkness, enter the bedroom where the old man will be. After she has been with him for a while, she'll reveal who she really is and she'll tell him exactly what she thinks. This way, she'll rid him of all his wild fancies, without giving him a chance to deny it, and avoid any confrontation between him and her brother. She'll embarrass and confuse him all by herself, and in front of Madonna Anfrosina who will have come running at all the noise. RINUCCIO: By God, it's been a while since I last heard a more subtle trick than this one. GIULIO: It's true, women have one up on the devil. AGNOLA: And so they agreed. (Spying someone offstage) Oh, I must talk to that woman. (Leaving) Good-bye. RINUCCIO: (Calling her back) Madonna Agnola, come back here. GIULIO: I'll be! She's left us standing here like two fools. Looks like she's in a hurry. RINUCCIO: What do you think about it, Messer Giulio? Do you think I could get anything out of all this? GIULIO: It's all playing right into your hands. I think this is your chance to get your way. If I were in your shoes in some other business I have, I would think of myself as very happy and soon to be satisfied. 14

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RINUCCIO: Well, my dear brother, tell me how you'd proceed in this situation. GIULIO: I'll tell you. But first you'd better follow this servant and see if she has anything else she wants to tell you in private, because her quick get-away makes me think she does. RINUCCIO: Really? GIULIO: I'm quite certain. RINUCCIO: Where will I find you afterwards? GIULIO: Here in the church; I want to have a word with someone who is waiting for me there. RINUCCIO: And you wait for me, please. GIULIO: You'll find me for sure. Either there in the church or here in the house, or around here somewhere. RINUCCIO: Without you I'd be as good as dead. GIULIO: You'd be better off. (Rinuccio leaves) I'm going to go and tell Giorgetto all about this. He's as tricky as the devil and he just might figure out if this is going to be of any use to me in the end. End of the first act.

15

ACT II SCENE I

MESSER AMBROGIO, old man, alone.

AMBROGIO: I just can't get away from here. In fact, when your heart is set on something, you can't help but keep coming back to it. Since I fell in love with Madonna Anfrosina I can't seem to settle down. I think about her day and night. If instead of living near-by she lived far away from me, I'd be the most wretched man in all of Pisa; come what may, I would go by her house hoping to catch a glimpse of her, and so I would have to leave my own house. And I couldn't do this without running quite a risk, because someone with as beautiful a wife as mine must, after all, look after her himself. Especially here in Pisa, with all these reckless young students with plenty of money and no respect for anything. And you can't leave her to the care of servants or attendants; it'd be like letting the geese look after the lettuce. But I think I can trust Giannella. Still, the only way to look after your things is to look after them yourself. SCENE II

MADONNA VERDIANA, hypocrite, and MESSER AMBROGIO.

VERDIANA: (Aside) Even though I have to deal with the most miserly man in all of Pisa, still I bring him such good news that he ought to buy me a drink. AMBROGIO: (Aside) Is that Madonna Verdiana? It looks like her. Couldn't be ... Wait a second, it is! I must admit, my eyes certainly aren't what they used to be. 16

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VERDIANA: (Aside) The one good thing about it is that I don't have to go looking all over Pisa to find him. AMBROGIO: (Aside) It must be her, she's going towards my house. VERDIANA: (Aside) Oh, the door's open. That's a miracle. AMBROGIO: What do you want, over there? VERDIANA: I want to speak to ... O, Messer Ambrogio, I was just looking for you. God grant you peace. AMBROGIO: You could grant me peace if you wanted to. VERDIANA: And I'm bringing it to you right now. What are you looking at? AMBROGIO: Move away from the door a bit. VERDIANA: You jealous man! What are you afraid of? AMBROGIO: Of what could be slapped back in my face. VERDIANA: You have so little trust in me? AMBROGIO: It's difficult, but it's the only way to live. VERDIANA: You want my advice? First you make sure she's satisfied, then you can go and satisfy yourself.14 AMBROGIO: In the meantime, I make sure she doesn't have the chance to ... VERDIANA: You think she won't? If there's nothing else available and she wants it, she can always rely on the gardener. AMBROGIO: Let her! The gardener hasn't been around the house for a while now. VERDIANA: Don't you keep up the garden? AMBROGIO: I'd have to be badly off to depend on the produce from the garden. VERDIANA: What? You think the produce from a garden like yours is nothing? Our friars have one that's much worse than yours, and they keep the entire convent and all of us lay sisters supplied with it. 17

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Besides, when they plant carrots, they grow real quick, you know. AMBROGIO: I don't care for carrots and I'm not a friar so I don't need these little things to entertain devout women with.15 I have to keep an eye on who comes to my house. That's what matters. VERDIANA: You have Giannella; he could do that, couldn't he? AMBROGIO: Yes. Giannella is more trustworthy than the Lord's Prayer. Besides, I think he's impotent. If I didn't think so, either he would not come to my house or I would castrate him. But let's change the subject. What news do you bring me from my Madonna Anfrosina? Does that traitorous woman want me to die of vexation like a dog? VERDIANA: Messer Ambrogio, you've promised me time and time again "At the first good news I'll reward you, I'll reward you." Now the time has come, but before I give you the good news, I want to know what this reward is going to be. AMBROGIO: Don't you trust me? VERDIANA: I trust everybody, but may I remind you that I'm a poor little woman and I must eke out a living from my own work and from the favours that good people do for me. AMBROGIO: Well, since you must know, I'll tell you plainly. At the first good news I'll give you a pair of my old slippers. VERDIANA: A pair of your old slippers? AMBROGIO: What more do you want? Well then, these that I've got on now, which are nearly new. Hey, don't turn your head like that! At the second bit of good news, I'll give you these socks, but you must see to it that I can at least speak to her. At the third, and that's when I'll get into bed with her, this lined cap. What do you say now? 18

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VERDIANA: I say that you either lack experience or are a miser. There's not a youth at this university using my services who doesn't give me more than double the value of what you promise me in three instalments when I bring him a little rose from his lady. And that's nothing compared to the news I'm bringing you now. AMBROGIO: Madonna Verdiana, young men can always find someone who will keep them in pocket money. When I give advice, I too would like to take ten scudi16 if the other man would give them to me. But if he gives me half a scudo I take it. What you leave you lose, especially in those businesses in which you deal in words and services. You and me, Madonna Verdiana, must get along nicely, hand in hand, and support each other. VERDIANA: That's right. According to you I should keep on being poor and you rich. AMBROGIO: You're not going to get rich at my expense! VERDIANA: That's for sure. AMBROGIO: (Aside) She's standing her ground. — Well, let's see. What do you want me to give you then? VERDIANA: First, I don't deal in used clothing, so I don't need your old things. I want to settle this business in cold cash. AMBROGIO: Then cold cash it will be. But let's be reasonable. VERDIANA: For what I have done up to now, you'll give me four gold ducats. 17 AMBROGIO: Good God, Madonna Verdiana! You're scalping me like a bad barber. Ten grossi18 will be enough for you. VERDIANA: Yes,' ten grossi and the plague! Messer Ambrogio, I've got things to do. This is a letter from Madonna Anfrosina. Good-bye. I'm taking it back 19

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to her and I'm going to tell her of your generosity. (She begins to depart) AMBROGIO: Come back here Madonna Verdiana. (Aside) What a damned old bitch! — Listen, I tell you, come back here. VERDIANA: (Returning) May I die without this holy habit 19 upon me if I ever again get mixed up in your business. AMBROGIO: Come now, no swearing. You will get mixed up in it again, and you will do me a favour, and I'll give you what I can. From now on, the first time anyone moves a suit against you, you come to me and I'll offer you all the legal advice you need free of charge. VERDIANA: Oh, now we're getting to the "free of charge"! Big help that's going to be! If I'm going to waste my time on you, I want more than free advice out of it. AMBROGIO: I'll make sure you're satisfied. Let me know the price of your next errand and let's leave it at that. What's past is past. VERDIANA: I'm not about to lose out now. As for the future, I'll worry about it myself when I get to it. This is a letter from Madonna Anfrosina, in her own handwriting. If you want it, I'll hand it over to you for ten ducats. AMBROGIO: Good God!

VERDIANA: Please! No swearing! AMBROGIO: I'm not swearing. That's too much, I don't earn ten ducats in six months. VERDIANA: If it's not full of good news I won't take any money from you. AMBROGIO: (Somewhat reJieved) Your first demand was enough to kill me. A letter from Calcutta or from Peru wouldn't pay as much postage. 20 But let's do this,. Madonna Verdiana — come inside with me, I 20

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don't have my glasses here with me anyway, and there I'll satisfy you. Besides, I see someone coming this way and I don't want to be interrupted. VERDIANA: Fine with me. (Aside) But if you want to call the tune, you're going to have to pay the piper, you old miser. SCENE III

MESSER RINUCCIO and MESSER GIULIO.

RINUCCIO: This seems to me like a very good plan; one that will work easily and without danger. GIULIO: There's no doubt it will work. Where did she tell you to wait for her? RINUCCIO: Here. She won't be long now. GIULIO: You'll do better on your own. I'll take this opportunity to go look after some business of my own. RINUCCIO: Remember to come back home early so that if I need you I won't have to come looking for you. GIULIO: You can expect me home for five o'clock. RINUCCIO: It must be nearly four now. GIULIO: That's right, but don't worry about me. You just talk to that woman, find the old man, and that's all. But remember to send the servant afterwards to tell the old man to come. RINUCCIO: I'll do everything, but first I've got to find Madonna Agnola. (Giulio exits) SCENE IV

MESSER RINUCCIO, alone.

RINUCCIO: Now I'm finding out how useful a true friend is. I always thought that he was a great help, but I never would have thought him to be this much help. Who could have counselled me better in this matter than Messer Giulio? Who could have set the trap so quickly, and given me the means to catch this ugly 21

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old owl of a lawyer. He's certainly got a bright and keen mind. So much like a Florentine! Blessed be the hour and the minute he decided to stay at my house, and I agreed to it. Apart from the benefit I derive from him, his kindness and advice have given me life six times over. And this is certainly one of those times. Just look, he's capitalizing on the fact that the old man happens to be my lawyer, and he'll see to it that I catch the big fish with a little lure. In short, the more I think about it, the more I feel happy inside. Well, here she comes. SCENE V

MESSER RINUCCIO and MADONNA AGNOLA.

RINUCCIO: Madonna Agnola, I'm over here. AGNOLA: I was just looking for you. Did I keep you waiting long? RINUCCIO: Not at all. I'm at your disposal. AGNOLA: That woman had so many things to tell me I thought she wouldn't finish till nightfall. RINUCCIO: That's women for you. AGNOLA: Did you figure anything out? RINUCCIO: I did. And if I can rely on you everything will work out very well. AGNOLA: Messer Rinuccio, if I didn't think that to boast and to repeat what I have done for you so far would be superfluous . . . RINUCCIO: Certainly! Words are superfluous between you and me. I'm familiar with what you can do. There's only one thing about you that I deplore. AGNOLA: Dear me, tell me, what? RINUCCIO: This ugly old dress you've got on. Here, keep these three ducats. See to it that I don't see it any 22

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more, because I don't think I could stand to look at you. AGNOLA: O Messer Rinuccio, you're too kind! Thank you. I accept them to show you that I listen to you and also because I need them. But if you hadn't given them to me, I would still have helped you just the same. I'm not doing it for payment, you know. RINUCCIO: What payment? The payment will be of another sort. Anyway, if I gave you all I've got in the world, it still wouldn't be sufficient. AGNOLA: I'm paid anytime I please you. But let's change the subject. What did you figure out? RINUCCIO: I'll tell you. I'm going to go and tell the old man that tonight I'm going out of town on business. Then I'll send a letter to him that will appear to have been written by my mother in which she'll notify him of my departure and say that tonight at nine he is to go to her, by the back courtyard door. AGNOLA: That's good. RINUCCIO: Messer Giulio will be there behind the door, dressed like a maid, and will let him in and lock him up in the courtyard. There he'll have room enough to bang around and shout as much as he likes. No one will hear him because my window is the only one that looks out on it. AGNOLA: And how long do you want him to stay there? RINUCCIO: Hold on a minute! In the meantime, I'll go out the front door, and come to your house. At what time does your lady go to bed? AGNOLA: At about ten. And tonight even earlier perhaps, because tomorrow she wants to get up early to go to the convent. RINUCCIO: So much the better. You say you haven't talked to her about me yet?

23

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AGNOLA: No sir, because, as I told you the day before yesterday, I started several times to hint about amorous matters and lovers and I found her to be further from these matters than January from roses. So, not wanting to ruin anything, I didn't even begin to talk about you. RINUCCIO: Good then. Since you haven't told her, it's my plan to tell her of my love myself. And if my plan works out, I'm going to see to it that she can judge me by my actions before she judges me by my words. AGNOLA: God grant it. But how? RINUCCIO: It'll be easy if you'll be on my side. After I've locked up the old man, and assured myself that he can't get out and ruin everything, I'm going to come over here, very carefully. As soon as you see your lady in bed and think she's asleep, you give me the signal and open the door. I'll come into the house as if I were the old man, go into Madonna Oretta's bedroom, and lie down beside her. Once there, I'll play it by ear. Perhaps I'll reveal myself to her, and perhaps not. And perhaps when it's near dawn I'll tell her that I want to go and research a case — he's a lawyer after all — and I'll get up and come out to take Messer Ambrogio out of his enclosure and he will go back home freezing cold. AGNOLA: If you followed my advice you wouldn't reveal yourself to her because I know that as soon as she recognizes you, there's going to be hell to pay. RINUCCIO: That's something I don't want to think about until I get to it. I'll play it by ear, as I said, so let's make sure I get that far. AGNOLA: That's the problem. It's more difficult than you think. RINUCCIO: HOW SO?

AGNOLA: I'll tell you. Even if the old man goes out at night, which I don't think he will, but let's just 24

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suppose he will, he's going to leave that ass Giannella in the house, and he usually sleeps right by the door. But you can rest assured that tonight, as long as the master is out, he's not going to sleep at all. RINUCCIO: Couldn't I come in by some way other than the front door? AGNOLA: No sir. The master has had all the sky-lights nailed tightly shut, and all the street-level windows bricked up. RINUCCIO: Over the garden wall? AGNOLA: It'd be difficult. And then when you're in the garden, if you want to come into the house you must get by that damned Giannella. RINUCCIO: Could we hope to silence him with money? AGNOLA: I think we'd have problems shutting him up with a knife, even if we shoved it down his throat. Don't trust him at all. It would spell out ruin for you, for my lady and for myself. RINUCCIO: I'll make it clear in the letter that he should bring Giannella along. AGNOLA: He won't. RINUCCIO: I'll write in such a way that he will. AGNOLA: And if he will, he'll lock up the door from the outside. RINUCCIO: A crow-bar will do the trick. Madonna Agnola, let me know when to come and I'll take care of the rest. AGNOLA: Gladly. If you want, as soon as my lady is in bed I'll hang a towel out the window. Will you see it? There's still light in the evening. RINUCCIO: Yes, I'll see it very well. AGNOLA: And if by chance Giannella is in the house, I'll leave the shutters open. 25

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RINUCCIO: Excellent! AGNOLA: Dear me! Our door is opening. Quick, go away! RINUCCIO: It's the old man and his Madonna Apollonia. 21 I'll be off. Good-bye. (Exit) 2 2

SCENE VI

MESSERAMBROGIO, MADONNA VERDIANA and MADONNA AGNOLA.

AMBROGIO: Now that I've paid the piper, Madonna Verdiana, I want you to see to it that I also get to dance. VERDIANA: You'll dance, and how! Don't you worry. AGNOLA: God grant you a good evening. AMBROGIO: Where are you coming from at this hour? AGNOLA: From the bridge. I went there to buy the salad. AMBROGIO: Let me see, what have you got there? (He reaches for her) AGNOLA: Nothing much. Hey, rip my kerchief, why don't you! AMBROGIO: What's under your hat? (He removes her h a t ) AGNOLA: Now I've seen it all. Mess up my hair too! AMBROGIO: I'd rather mess up your hair than have you mess me up, do you hear? And what's in here? (He checks her shopping bag) AGNOLA: The salad. AMBROGIO: And in your pocket? VERDIANA: What in heaven's name do you think she might have? AMBROGIO: Some letter, some present, that's what! AGNOLA: Here we go again. Well, I've had it. (She goes into the house) VERDIANA: You're far too distrustful. I've already told you: First you make sure she's satisfied . . . When 26

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the road is not sure, messages are carried by the tongue. 23 AMBROGIO: One day I'll make sure of that too. VERDIANA: How are you going to do that? AMBROGIO: I'll cut off her tongue. What do you mean how am I going to do that! VERDIANA: I wouldn't be your servant if you paid me twice as much. AMBROGIO: And I wouldn't have you if you paid me. But let's forget house matters between you and me and talk about those outside the house. See to it that these six golden scudi I've given you . . . (He sighs) Oh God, that's certainly a tidy sum. VERDIANA: You old miser! See if that sigh didn't come straight from the heart. You're not saying that, besides all these services, I'll also visit the Martyr's Shrine for you.24 AMBROGIO: The Martyr's indeed. That's what you've made me. See to it that I find myself with Madonna Anfrosina while I'm still alive. VERDIANA: As soon as her son goes out of town. AMBROGIO: And if he never goes, I will have spent all that money just to be left out in the cold. I don't want this business to go on for too long. VERDIANA: It won't, I tell you. Rest assured. (Exit) AMBROGIO: It's going to be difficult to rest assured, seeing my money decrease and my worries increase. All I know for sure is that I've received a letter full of promises and nothing else. The important thing is to have the goods, seeing that I've already had to pay Madonna Verdiana, that thief. She hit me with it so quickly I had no time to think about it, and now I'm going to feel the blow in my wallet for weeks.

27

Il.vii.

SCENE VII

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MESSER RINUCCIO and MESSER AMBROGIO.

RINUCCIO: I trust your excellency is well. AMBROGIO: O bene veniatis, domine. 25 May I be of assistance? RINUCCIO: I was coming to ascertain if my attorney had been by, and to see how my case was proceeding. AMBROGIO: Yes, he was by this morning, but I have not seen him since. There are many difficult points to your case, and they need a great deal of time in order to examine them carefully, which I will do quite willingly, since it pertains to you. If it were another person I would not say the same unless I heard the cum quibus. 26 RINUCCIO: I thank your excellency. And although I will never be able to repay you according to your merit, I will nevertheless try to do whatever I can. AMBROGIO: I have nothing to complain about from you. RINUCCIO: I came to talk with you because it happens that I must leave Pisa this very evening and go to Florence for a while with Messer Giulio, my tenant, for some business of his. We may stay there one or two weeks, if my suit here allows it. AMBROGIO: Feel free to do so. As you know, the civic holidays start in two days here and, until Lent, the courts will be closed, as far as cases are concerned. RINUCCIO: That is what I thought. Anyway, I would not have left without first letting your excellency know of it. AMBROGIO: And you did very well, because one of the things that a case needs is someone to press it constantly. RINUCCIO: In the meantime, your lordship will be so kind as to study and resolve the difficulties of the case. 28

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As part of the acknowledgement of your troubles, please accept this scudo. AMBROGIO: It wasn't necessary. (He takes the money) Now you'll have one scudo less. RINUCCIO: Does your excellency wish anything else? AMBROGIO: Only that you have an enjoyable Carnival in the company of the Florentine ladies. RINUCCIO: You can rest assured we will. (Aside) You old fish, you've started to bite. (Exit) AMBROGIO: I'm not going to complain any longer. He's given me money and the chance I was waiting for. That's a good omen. Now we'll see if Madonna Anfrosina's words are true or false, and how much I can count on her. If she carries out all that she promises in the letter, I'll probably spend a better Carnival in Pisa than those young rascals in Florence. If only he had come a little earlier. Then I could have sent Madonna Verdiana right away to arrange the time and place with Madonna Anfrosina, and I could have avoided giving her a second tip. Now I'm going to have to pay her again. Where could I find her now? She must run this errand for me! Well then, I better go and look for her if I want to get this done. Giannella, Giannella, Giannella. SCENE VIII

GIANNELLA, attendant, and MESSER AMBROGIO.

GIANNELLA: Master, master, sir, what do you want? AMBROGIO: Bring me my coat and hat. Quickly. You ass, what are you looking at? (Giannella tries to remove the coat and hat Ambrogio is wearing) What are you trying to do? GIANNELLA: Bring these in the house.

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AMBROGIO: What the devil! You want to leave me here bare-headed and in my housecoat? First go for the coat, devil take you. (Giannella exits) What a fool this man is. Still it's better to have this one, stupid as he is, than a bright and subtle one who would turn the tables on me. GIANNELLA: (Returns) Here you are. AMBROGIO: Let me have them. (Begins to change hat and coat) Now listen, Giannella. I have to go out to look after a matter of great importance to me. You must not leave the house until I get back. Go in there. (Giannelia goes back into the house) Where are you going, you ass? What are you doing in there? GIANNELLA: (Comes back o u t ) I don't know. AMBROGIO: That's because you're an idiot. You must bolt the door shut from the inside and not open it, nor let anyone go out of the house until I get back. Do you understand? GIANNELLA: (Going back inside) Now you'll hear it lock. (Bolts the door) Did you hear that? AMBROGIO: That's the way. Leave it as it is. (Aside) Now I can go in peace. If I didn't have this ass around the house I would really be stuck. End of the second act.

30

ACT III SCENE I

MESSER GIULIO and GIORGETTO who has a bundle of clothes in his arms.

GIULIO: And so you understand, Giorgetto. There's no doubt that Messer Rinuccio will enjoy his love before morning and I will be left empty-handed. GIORGETTO: Thanks to your having given him the means. Complain about yourself. By himself he wouldn't have been able to work things out so well. If you had kept quiet you could have gone yourself, just as he's going now. GIULIO: You're right, but this is the way I am. If a friend asks my advice, at the cost of my life I must give him the best I have. Just my luck. You'd promised to wait for me in the church. Why the devil did you leave? If you had been there, perhaps I wouldn't have done him this favour. GIORGETTO: Don't regret having done something good, or having pleased a friend like him. GIULIO: I'm sorry to have done damage to myself. Damn the hour and the moment I set foot in this city. And to top it off, I barely finished telling you about it and you ran off, disappeared before my eyes, and didn't return till now. You could have helped me think of something. GIORGETTO: Listen, master, I've been thinking. Just answer what I ask you and that will be enough for me. Do you want Messer Rinuccio to have Madonna Oretta tonight — yes or no? GIULIO: Let's talk of something else. 31

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GIORGETTO: Answer me. Do you want him to have her or do you want to have her yourself? Look me in the eyes. GIULIO: You old crow! GIORGETTO: Crow? From now on, if I don't see to it that tonight you sleep with Madonna Oretta, I won't say kill me or throw me in jail — such threats don't mean anything because they're never carried out — but I will say you don't ever have to talk to me again. GIULIO: Before I believe you, let's hear how you're going to do it. That way, I won't appear too gullible. GIORGETTO: Gladly. Oh, here, take this letter and read it. I want you to know what sort of servant Giorgetto is. Look at the address. GIULIO: "To Madonna Oretta Sismonda, whom I love as a daughter, wife of Messer Ambrogio da Cascina. At her home." GIORGETTO: Doesn't that give you, in detail, the entire family tree? And now read where it comes from. GIULIO: "Yours, as a mother, Anfrosina de' Gualandi. At home." But whose handwriting is this in fact? Who wrote this? GIORGETTO: I did, said the crow! Read it, go on and read it. Did you really think that earlier, when I left you standing there, like a bump on a log, 27 I was going out chasing butterflies? There's more than stuffing in this head. (Touches his own head) Read it out loud, I want to hear it myself. I haven't re-read it yet. GIULIO: "Since my son" GIORGETTO: Wait a minute! I want it from the top, please. GIULIO: Well then, I'll start all over again. "My dearest, you are like a daughter to me. The time has come, if you are willing, to take revenge on your good husband, just as we had planned. Since my son and his friend left on horseback for Florence this very 32

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evening, I've sent word to your Messer Ambrogio that tonight at nine he must be at my garden door without fail. I will let him in and show him into the first floor room. For now, I'm sending you the clothes that you asked for, and I'll wait for you at my front door. Be there for certain: a chance like this doesn't come every day. Be well. Dated on February 24, 1549. Your Anfrosina etc. etc. And above all make sure that your maid does not see you, for the sake of propriety." GIORGETTO: Do you understand what that "for the sake of propriety" means? GIULIO: No, and I don't understand what you want to do, either. GIORGETTO: I understand what I want to do and that's enough. If this little letter and these clothes end up in Madonna Oretta's hands, you'll see. GIULIO: I had in fact seen this bundle under your arm and had not thought to ask you what you were up to. Show me. Hey, these are my clothes! GIORGETTO: So, what do you have to say about it after all? GIULIO: You're bent on ruining everything I have. And this is the beard I got from the hairdresser. GIORGETTO: She's the one who'll get the beard. What more do you want? These things are going to be the lure that draws this fish away from Messer Rinuccio's line and gets it caught on yours. Give me the letter and I'll seal it. Now go in the house so that no one sees you, or else you'll ruin the whole trick. GIULIO: And so I'm not supposed to know what you're up to? GIORGETTO: Trust me, if you can. In the meantime, stay out of sight, go where I've told you. You know very well who I am and all I'm capable of. 33

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GIULIO: I'll do as you say, even though people would think me crazy if they ever found out that I'm letting myself be led along like this. GIORGETTO: It's the old man who's going to be led along. Do as Gradasso 28 did and let me take care of it. GIULIO: Make sure I don't end up being a joke that all Pisa will laugh at. GIORGETTO: I'll look after your interests. (Giulio exits) Now then, who can I send this letter and these clothes with, so they'll reach the right person? I'll take them myself. I'm not well known, so I'll be like the smugglers who carry the cabbage out in the open and keep the capon hidden underneath. I'll carry the clothes right out in the open and I'll say that my lady is sending them to Madonna Oretta, who is collecting them for a convent. In the meantime, I'll keep the letter hidden until I find the right opportunity to give it to her. Oh, how many deceptions are carried out under the guise of lending clothes to a convent! How many Madonna Apollonias go along with them. I know that the old man is not at home because I saw him just now along the lung'Arno.29 I can go knock at his door immediately and not worry about him. SCENE II

GIANNELLA and GIORGETTO. (Giannella remains inside throughout the scene)

GIANNELLA: Who's there? GIORGETTO: Friends. Open up, Giannella. GIANNELLA: Go to hell, horsethief! GIORGETTO: (Aside) By God, this chap sure is a devil; he recognized me without seeing me. Either that or he's recognized me by my smell, the way dogs do. — Hey, Giannella, open up, come on. GIANNELLA: I'll open up the plague for you!30 34

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GIORGETTO: Same to you! (Aside) That's a good one, instead of opening up he props the door shut. That crazy idiot must think I'm going to force it open with a battering ram. — Hey, open up, devil take you! I've got some clothes here for your lady. She needs them for the play. GIANNELLA: The lady? And how are you going to get them to her? For the lady, eh? Go to hell! GIORGETTO: (Aside) Just listen to him howl. If only he'd break his neck! Just wait and see — the old man is going to come back before this raving lunatic lets me in. I won't be able to do what I want, then. What's that? (A bell sounds six o'clock) Six o'clock! I can tell I'm going to have problems. SCENE III

MADONNA VIOLANTE, sister of MADONNA ORETTA, GIORGETTO, GIANNELLA and

two of MADONNA VIOLANTE'S maids (mute characters). VIOLANTE: (Speaking to her servant) First this, and then that, and now it's already six and we're still on the streets. GIORGETTO: (Aside) Who are those women coming this way? VIOLANTE: (As above) Luckily we're nearly there. GIORGETTO: (Aside) They're coming straight here. VIOLANTE: (To Giorgetto) Good evening. GIORGETTO: Good evening, your ladyship. (Violante moves as if to knock at the door) Don't trouble yourself with knocking, milady. (She knocks) GIANNELLA: ( I n s i d e ) You damned bastard! 31 If you don't get away from this door I'm going to break your skull with a stick.

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VIOLANTE: Now we're stuck here like flies in amber. 32 The idiot is at the door and the old man is probably not at home. GIORGETTO: That's right, milady, he's out. VIOLANTE: We'll be here for a while! Giannella, open up! It's Madonna Violante, Madonna Oretta's sister. Open up, my dear Giannella. GIANNELLA: Disguising your voice isn't going to help you. (He mimics a woman's voice using nonsense syllables) Oh, go away, get! I'm not going to let you in. GIORGETTO: This animal is so crazy he'd make anybody laugh. He's already made me wait here for three hours, and I have some clothes here that my lady sends to Madonna Oretta. She needs them for some nuns, I think. VIOLANTE: O yes, it's for our nuns who are putting on a play tomorrow morning. That's why I came to stay the night with Madonna Oretta. You can give them to me, if you don't want to wait, and I'll give them to her when I get in. You can count on me. GIORGETTO: I know that, but I also wanted to give her a certain letter that my lady sends her. VIOLANTE: Who is your lady? GIORGETTO: ( W h i s p e r i n g ) M a d o n n a A n f r o s i n a de' Gualandi. VIOLANTE: Who did you say? Speak up! GIORGETTO: (Slightly louder, but still whispering) Listen, it's Madonna Anfrosina de' Gualandi. I have to whisper because she told me to make sure the maids don't overhear. She is lending her these clothes without her son knowing about it. She also entrusted me to give her this letter in person. VIOLANTE: O, I think I know what that's all about. You can trust me with it, don't worry. You can tell her: 36

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"I gave it to Violante, her sister" and that will be enough. GIORGETTO: Here they are. She also told me to make sure that the old man does not see it at all, and so I'll say the same to you. VIOLANTE: Absolutely. I'm well aware that he must not see it. My good man, give these clothes to my maid. (To her maid) Take them. (To Giorgetto) Go on with your business and give my best to your lady. GIORGETTO: I'll gladly do that. She also told me to remind Madonna Oretta that she must do what the letter says, no matter what. VIOLANTE: There's no doubt she'll do everything. GIORGETTO: Does your ladyship wish anything else? VIOLANTE: Go along, and God be with you. (Giorgetto exits) Well then, Giannella, you're not going to make me stay out here all night long, are you? GIANNELLA: (Inside) If you don't get the hell out of here I'm going to throw bricks at you! VIOLANTE: A plague on you and your master. Well, here he comes, that crazy jealous old man.

SCENE IV

MESSER AMBROGIO, MADONNA VIOLANTE,

GIANNELLA and the two maids (mute). AMBROGIO: (Aside) Now I can say she's burning with love, just like I am. If not more so. No sooner had her son left than she sent me word to go there this very night. And so tonight it will be! VIOLANTE: (Aside) Hurry up! Oh, just look at how slowly he walks. He's been married to Oretta for just a few months and already he's thinking of other women. AMBROGIO: (Aside) I stopped by the druggist and got myself a pinch of a special electuary 33 and a piece of 37

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nut cake to comfort and strengthen my manhood, so that when it comes to jousting the lance may be at the ready. VIOLANTE: Well, my dear brother-in-law, is this the time to come home? AMBROGIO: Oh, Violante, I hadn't seen you. How are you? VIOLANTE: Well, and yourself? AMBROGIO: Very well. I'm back from the barber's. Do I look better? VIOLANTE: You certainly do. He must have thought you either young or in love. AMBROGIO: Why do you say that? VIOLANTE: Because he's covered you in perfume. AMBROGIO: What can you do! This is the way he's fixed me up. But what brings you here? VIOLANTE: I was coming to stay with Oretta and, if you don't mind, I was hoping to take her to the convent tomorrow morning to see a comedy the nuns are putting on. AMBROGIO: Comedies, comedies, comedies. I've grown tired of them, you and your nuns. If they really must, and they say they do, they should tend to other things and not comedies. Is this the time to put on comedies, eh? They should let the Duke's company or the Cardinal's put on comedies, 34 and they should stick to weaving. VIOLANTE: Good God, Messer Ambrogio. The poor girls are made of flesh and bones just like us and they must have some relaxation after all. What do you want them to do? AMBROGIO: I was about to tell you. (Catching sight of the bundle of clothes) What's this? VIOLANTE: Clothes I bought for them.

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AMBROGIO: Here, show me. Goodness! There's even men's coloured stockings, and look, breeches. And you're taking these things to a convent? VIOLANTE: What? Would you want us to take them to the jesters? AMBROGIO: I'm afraid there's more insanity than jest in them. VIOLANTE: That's something! You immediately jump to the worst conclusions. AMBROGIO: That's the way I think. (Turning to the door) Giannella, open up! GIANNELLA: (Inside) Bastard! Damn you, if I come o u t . . . AMBROGIO: Open up, you ass, it's me, Messer Ambrogio! GIANNELLA: (Inside) Go to hell! Just how many voices can you mimic, anyway? VIOLANTE: You'll get the same treatment I received. AMBROGIO: So you don't want to open up, eh, you crazy fool? GIANNELLA: (Inside) Just hold on a minute. VIOLANTE: Has he changed his mind? GIANNELLA: (Enters on stage wielding a stick and proceeds to beat Ambrogio) Take that, you rascal! AMBROGIO: O my God! O me! VIOLANTE: Stop! Stop!

GIANNELLA: (Recognizes Ambrogio and stops beating him) O master, forgive me, I didn't recognize you. Did I hurt you? AMBROGIO: Let's say you didn't do me any good! Damn you and your temper. VIOLANTE: You poor old man! What more did you need! AMBROGIO: Violante, go upstairs and tell Oretta to have those fat pigeons cooked, if she hasn't already done

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so, and to have the table set. I want to have supper early tonight, because afterwards I've got something to do in town. VIOLANTE: Well then, it's all clear now. (To her maid) Here, give me these clothes, you. Go straight home, the both of you, and don't stop on the way. Tomorrow morning come to get me early. (The maids exit. To Ambrogio) Do you want me to shut the door? AMBROGIO: No, no, leave it open. (Violante exits.) SCENE V

MESSER AMBROGIO and GIANNELLA, by

the door.

AMBROGIO: Giannella, Giannella, where the devil did you go? GIANNELLA: (Comes back out and stands by the door) Sir, sir, I went to put the stick away. AMBROGIO: Come here, get away from the door; you look like you're nailed to it. GIANNELLA: You told me not to go away from it. AMBROGIO: Giannella, you know that I like you, and that I've often told you that if I die (lowering his voice) I would help you out, on my word. And by the same token, if I live long and I'm healthy, I have it in my mind to make you a man of worth. GIANNELLA: I feel reassured by your good intentions. AMBROGIO: And because I know that you know, and if you don't know I'll tell you so that you may learn it, that just as omni labor optat proemium, so omnis proemium praesupponit laborem 35 . . . GIANNELLA: Messer Ambrogio, you know I haven't gone far enough in the Psalter you use to teach me to have reached the part about premium and labour you just mentioned. So tell me please what you want 40

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me to do, but don't say it in Greek or Hebrew. It would drive me insane in no time. AMBROGIO: Well then, I'm pleased, because reason dictates that to a thick skull one should feed thick soup. GIANNELLA: That's it! I'd rather have a thick soup than a premium. AMBROGIO: What I meant to say is this: since you have so many good intentions from me, you must still work hard for me and take some risks. GIANNELLA: Risks? For you, I'd go to a cemetery at night and work like six porters. AMBROGIO: And you know how much I care about you. GIANNELLA: And God knows, I care about you too. And even though tonight I gave you a beating, I did it because I care about you and also because I didn't think it was you. AMBROGIO: Let's forget what is past, and let's talk of what is to come. Tonight I need your help, but look, it's necessary that you have a heart like a lion. GIANNELLA: Do we have to beat somebody up? AMBROGIO: Yes and no. I'll tell you, Giannella, but see here, make sure you don't talk about it with anyone. GIANNELLA: Don't worry, I'll be as dumb as a fish. AMBROGIO: Tonight I've received an invitation from a lady who lives near here. I'm to be there at eight o'clock, but because I have some doubts, I'm going to bring you along so that, if I need you, you can help me out. GIANNELLA: What do I have to help you with? AMBROGIO: Didn't you hear? To defend me if I'm assaulted. And because I don't want us to be recognized, I thought we'd disguise ourselves. It'll be easier that

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way. Then, with our daggers underneath, we'll get to work. GIANNELLA: Do I get to work too? AMBROGIO: No, you only listen to what's said, and that's all. GIANNELLA: Why? I had my heart set on helping you out in this too. AMBROGIO: The devil you will. No, no, you can leave this to me. I'll go in her house, which isn't far from here. You'll stay by the door and be ready to come to my rescue when I call you. GIANNELLA: That's if I hear you. AMBROGIO: I'll call loudly. GIANNELLA: What the devil! You're not going to call me by name, I hope. We'd both be recognized and thrown in jail. You'd better give me a signal. AMBROGIO: Good thinking. It'll be much better to give you a signal. Well then, if I want you I'll say "Alb chia chia".36 Or would you rather I whistled? GIANNELLA: I don't like either of these. One hears these sounds every night in Pisa and I could mistake someone else for you and do something crazy. AMBROGIO: Wait then, I'll call out as they used to at night in Florence back in '32: "Chies aglia?"37 GIANNELLA: What? That's too sophisticated; even an abacus couldn't remember it. It won't do for me at all. Do this instead: if you want me to come, call out three times: "Whooo. Whooo. Whooo." AMBROGIO: That's the call of an owl! GIANNELLA: What's it to you? It's something I'll understand very well. So what does it matter if it's the call of an owl? AMBROGIO: Well then, "Whooo" it will be. GIANNELLA: But, master, what will your Madonna Oretta 42

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say if she sees you going out at night, when you hardly go out of the house by day? AMBROGIO: I've thought of everything. I'll tell her that the Lord High Commissioner has sent for me to deal with a matter that must be resolved and presented to His Illustrious Excellency this very night. GIANNELLA: The point is, will she believe it? AMBROGIO: I'll say it so she'll be convinced. GIANNELLA: It's not going to work if she sees you in disguise. AMBROGIO: You're more empty-headed than Giotto's O.38 Do you think I'm going to get all dressed up in front of her? She's going to stay upstairs in the lounge with her sister, and the two of us, saying that we have to look at some papers, will disguise ourselves downstairs in the study. GIANNELLA: And what will we put on? AMBROGIO: If nothing else, some rags that I had fixed up for two page-boys of mine when they sent me as mayor to Forlimpopoli. 39 Let's go and have supper. It must already be past seven o'clock. GIANNELLA: We might as well fill ourselves up so that, if we have to die we may die with a full stomach. AMBROGIO: I don't want to stuff myself too much because if I have to do some jousting I want to be in shape. And I'd advise you to do the same. GIANNELLA: I'm never in good shape unless my skin is as taut as the top of a drum. AMBROGIO: Let's go so you can fill it up. This way, if you're called upon to show some valour, you just might succeed. GIANNELLA: God bless this woman! If only she'd do this every night. End of the third act. 43

ACT IV SCENE I

MESSER RINUCCIO, alone.

RINUCCIO: It's past eight o'clock. It can't be long now before Messer Dotard 40 comes out of the house. I'd better stay around here until he comes out, that way I won't make any mistakes. And if by chance he doesn't take that spiteful Giannella with him, I'll see to it that he doesn't get into my house. I'm not about to shut the old man up if this other one doesn't come out of his hole. What miseries a lover must bear! A scoundrel of an attendant whose life isn't worth two cents can make me either very happy or else very unhappy simply by coming out of the house or not. Still, I'm hoping for the best. I can't help but think that Fortune is going to smile upon my love, especially seeing that it's already started to help me out. It made that senile old man with one foot in the grave fall in love with my mother. You can be sure that if such an opportunity had not arisen, this old man's jealousy would have made it easier for me to fly like a bird than to find myself in the company of Madonna Oretta. What's that? The door is opening! By God, it's the old man in disguise. (Rinuccio hides) SCENE II

MESSER AMBROGIO and GIANNELLA in

disguise, MESSER RINUCCIO, hidden. AMBROGIO: Did you bring the dagger and the shield? GIANNELLA: Yessir. Damn it, this cap is too big for me! 44

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RINUCCIO: (Aside) Giannella is with him. Things are looking good. AMBROGIO: Bolt the door shut. RINUCCIO: (Aside) What the devil have they got on? AMBROGIO: Did you shut it well? GIANNELLA: Yessir. (Giannella is fumbling with the weapons) Damn the daggers! AMBROGIO: Shake the latch. Pull it towards you so that we don't make any mistake. RINUCCIO: (Aside) I'd better be off so he doesn't see me and become suspicious. I think I'll go tell Messer Giulio that the old fool is falling right into the trap. (Exit) AMBROGIO: Why the devil are you shaking the door so much? GIANNELLA: To see if it's shut well. AMBROGIO: Don't shake it any more. Do you want Agnola to come to the window and see us dressed like this? GIANNELLA: To tell you the truth, I can't get it shut. AMBROGIO: But you said you shut it. GIANNELLA: I can't seem to get the bolt to fall in, and I can't reach it. Maybe it's better I stay here and guard the door. AMBROGIO: I'll be damned if you stay here, you ass! Get away from there. I don't know what's keeping me from sticking this dagger right into you. GIANNELLA: O, I rattled it so much that it fell into place. There, it's locked. AMBROGIO: Move aside, I said. I'm not going to trust anyone anymore. (He tries the lock) GIANNELLA: What else could it ha"ve been? It was the bolt falling in place! (Sarcastically) You can be sure she's got all her lovers here, lined up one after the other, ready to come and fondle her latch-catch. 45

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AMBROGIO: Now that I've tried it out myself I can breathe more easily. Anyway Giannella, just to make sure, it would be better to do this: as soon as you've accompanied me where I want to go, and that's not too far from here, and I'm hidden inside, you come back here and make sure that there's no one around. Until I get back, your job will be to go back and forth between my lady's door and this one. This way you'll be able to discover any traps either here or there. And you won't get cold! GIANNELLA: I'm already getting cold. I still think it would have been better to bring my big coat. AMBROGIO: What big coat? If anything happens, just make sure you show your true colours and use your fists. GIANNELLA: And my legs too, if need be! Leave it to me. AMBROGIO: Do you think anyone could tell who we are? GIANNELLA: The devil himself wouldn't recognize us. I almost don't recognize myself. If we had masks on we'd look like clowns. AMBROGIO: Clowns or no clowns, it doesn't matter. As long as no one recognizes us, that's all I care about. Besides, this is Carnival time. You go ahead and see if the coast is clear. GIANNELLA: After you. You're my master. AMBROGIO: You coward! You're shaking in your boots! I can tell. GIANNELLA: I'm shaking because I'm scared . . . (Quickly correcting himself) because I'm cold! AMBROGIO: Either way I believe you; don't bother trying to convince me. And to think that you're carrying a dagger at that! How would you feel if someone stuck it inside you. GIANNELLA: Let's get going please. Just like Rosso, you're worrying about things that don't matter anymore. 41 46

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I'm freezing cold with just this little thing on. If you're going to stand there much longer I'm going to go home and leave you on your own. (The clock begins to ring nine o'clock) Listen, it's nine o'clock already. AMBROGIO: You couldn't ask for better timing. Let's go, I hear someone coming this way. GIANNELLA: It doesn't matter who it is; we're minding our own business. (They exit) SCENE III

MADONNA ORETTA, disguised as a man, alone.

ORETTA: Anyone can come to know in part how poor and unhappy a woman's lot is if he considers how many inconveniences we are subjected to, how many pleasures we are deprived of, and under what cruel tyranny we must live our lives. When men have to take a wife, they nearly always take whoever they please. We, on the contrary, must take whoever is given us. Sometimes, and I for one can vouch for it, poor me, we must take one who, to say nothing of his age which would make him our father rather than our husband, is so rough and inhuman that one can sooner call him a two-legged beast than a man. But let's not talk of the bad luck other girls have had, and let's speak of me, the most unlucky one of all. I find myself married to Messer Ambrogio, who could be my grandfather! He's rich, yes. But this doesn't mean I eat any better! Besides having a husband who's old, there's the problem of having one who's jealous, wrongly jealous. And there's no one who's more jealous than him. So, because of his jealousy I'm deprived of pleasure outside the house, and because of his age, of pleasure inside the house. As if it wasn't enough for Fortune to saddle me with all these problems, now she's decided to make a fool of 47

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me, to have still greater sport with me by making this crazy old man fall madly in love with someone else. Now he's lost all his mental faculties, as well as his physical ones. Poor Oretta, what more did you need? Stuck for life with a husband who's old, jealous, philandering and senile. And so, to bring him back to his senses, I have to scale the garden wall dressed as a man at ten o'clock at night in order to get out, go through Pisa in disguise, enter into other people's homes and perhaps have myself labelled something I've never been, nor ever had the intention of being. If I didn't think this was the best medicine to cure the folly in this old man's head without too much noise, I'd have handled it differently. Did I hear a noise at Madonna Anfrosina's door? I did! (A maid appears at the door and gestures to Oretta to come inside) Her maid is beckoning me. Let's go then, the bird must be in the cage! (To the maid) Good evening. Has the good man arrived? (They enter into the house)

SCENE IV

GIANNELLA, alone.

GIANNELLA: I went with the master and saw to it he got safely to his lady's house. And he didn't have to fight with anybody, which I thought was a piece of good luck. I'm glad I heard two things tonight I never thought could happen: one, that the master could be in love and the other that Madonna Anfrosina went in for . . . uh ... this sort of thing. I thought the old man had so much available at home he never would have been bothered by temptations of the flesh. And Madonna Anfrosina, I thought she was half way to becoming a saint! Just goes to prove the rest of her must be the devil. Say all you want, when it comes to sex you can never be sure. 42 When you get the itch, you'll find a way to scratch it or have it 48

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scratched for you. If only I could do the same! Instead I'm led around Pisa at ten o'clock at night, dressed in these rags, and told to stand guard. While the master is banging on someone else's door, I must look out his own door doesn't get ruined. And it's not as if he didn't deserve it!

SCENE V

MESSER RINUCCIO and GIANNELLA.

RINUCCIO: (Aside) I've seen Messer Dotard get in. Now I must check . . . why is this ugly old bird pacing back and forth around here? GIANNELLA: (Aside) Damn it! I'm dying of cold and the master is enjoying himself. RINUCCIO: (Aside) By God, it's Giannella guarding the sepulchre. Just you wait. GIANNELLA: (Aside) And I'm stuck here for a while. (Rinuccio attacks h i m ) O my God! O me! It's not me! RINUCCIO: On guard, you scoundrel! GIANNELLA: Mercy! I give up! At your bidding! 43 (Flees) RINUCCIO: He's cleared the field and dropped his dagger. By God, the attendant is good at arms, just as his master must be a worthy knight in bed. What's that I see? Yes, the towel at the window! Madonna Agnola has decked the window out like a feast-day. Out with the crow-bar (He pries the door open) There, I've opened it! The day is ours! Into the fray, the enemy is beaten! SCENE VI

GIORGETTO, alone.

GIORGETTO: While the master is doing hand to hand combat on the old man's grounds, I'm going to stand on guard so that he's not suddenly attacked by 49

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Messer Rinuccio coming back empty-handed from the old man's house. He's gone there looking for a good time, but he won't find it, and so he'll soon be coming back this way. He won't like it, but he'll have to accept it. Now my master has seen my worth. I've shut Messer Dotard in the yard, and put his wife in bed with my master. It was dark in there, so I couldn't see much, but I heard enough. If need be, I can now vouch that he's gotten to know her very well. And you know, all it took was a few words and a lot of good deeds. Madonna Oretta will note that sleeping with Messer Giulio is not like sleeping with her old baboon, who probably keeps a calendar by his bedside and, like Messer Ricciardo da Chinzica 44 considers every day a day of abstinence. My master, on the other hand, has lost his calendar and never knows what the fasting days are, so that for once they'll be able to say: "What a nice spread!" Why am I saying "for once"? Do I think this night is to be their only one? I say this to the old man: even if he were to get the devil to help him make his wife true to him, 45 these two young ones are going to put more horns on him than the goddess Artemis ever put on her husband Actaeon when she turned him into a stag. 46 After having had to put up with meagre helpings, do you think she'll want to go back to them, now that she's tasted plenty? (Joining his hands as if in prayer) Will she stay with her hands joined and her mouth shut? If you think so, you're a bigger fool than this old goat who's getting horns out to here. 47 And all the time he's shut up in the courtyard, hooting like an owl as best he can. I nearly died laughing when I heard him singing so sweetly. And he was giving it all he had!

50

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IV.vii.

GIANNELLA and GIORGETTO.

GIANNELLA: (Aside) Good God! I've run so much I'm nearly dead. GIORGETTO: (Aside) By God, he's out. He must have pried the door open. GIANNELLA: (Aside) It'll take me four months to pull myself together again. (Begins to search around on the ground) GIORGETTO: (Aside) Is that him? No, it's not! What do you know, it's crazy old Giannella. What the devil is he looking for on the ground? GIANNELLA: (Aside) O God, if only I could find my dagger again. GIORGETTO: Hey, what are you looking for over there? GIANNELLA: O no! Don't beat me up! It's not me! GIORGETTO: Come here, you ass. Do I look like I want to beat you up? What are you looking for? GIANNELLA: My dagger. It dropped somewhere around here a short time ago. GIORGETTO: What kind of soldier are you? Are you from condottiere Colleoni's time, a hundred years ago?48 You big chicken! You'd make a good meal for a wolf, you would. GIANNELLA: I dropped it when I was attacked by more than 150 persons. GIORGETTO: Get away from here. (Giannella misinterprets the exclamation and literally runs away) Where are you running off to? Coward! He's already out of sight. Messer Rinuccio is certainly taking his time coming back. Either he's not there, or he can't get out. But the bolt is unhinged, so he must be inside. If he's there, let him stay there, and just to make sure he doesn't come out I'll lock him up. (Bolts the door shut from the outside) And now I'll be off to the 51

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whorehouse. There's no reason why these young scoundrels must be the only ones to enjoy Carnival time tonight. All this hustle and bustle stirred up somebody who's been asleep too long. (Exit) SCENE VIII

GIANNELLA, alone.

GIANNELLA: (Aside) Dagger, sheath, everything's gone. Devil take the master, his loves, and anyone who's on his side. I've had a bad time of it and nearly got myself cut to pieces. What's that? Sounded like a signal! O God! It is! Wouldn't you know it, the master needs my help just when I don't have my weapons. What will I do? If only I had the key to the house! He's getting louder, the poor man. (Calling out towards the source of the signal) Ask God to help you; I for one can't do anything for you now. What's that? Sounds like a whole troop running this way. Here comes another beating for me. SCENE IX

MESSER AMBROGIO and GIANNELLA.

AMBROGIO: (Aside) Oy, oy, oy, o* me! Home, home. GIANNELLA: (Aside) Now I'm in trouble, it's the master. — Dear master, what's the matter with you? AMBROGIO: O me, Giannella. Oy, oy, oy, I'm dying of cold. GIANNELLA: What happened to you? AMBROGIO: The hell with everybody, men or women! Oy, oy, oy. I'm sure I've caught a cold. (Sneezes loudly several times) 4 9 GIANNELLA: Just listen to that. You've caught a bad one, alright. Weren't you in bed with Madonna Anfrosina? AMBROGIO: God damn her, the bitch! In the courtyard, all night long, to catch a cold, that's where she put me. Oy, oy, oy.With all the time in the world to hoot like 52

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an owl for you, and a dead duck too, and croak, for all the help you were. Oy, oy, oy. GIANNELLA: Eh, master, we each had our troubles. I was attacked by more than 300 armed men who surrounded me and knocked me around. I feel like a sieve. You want to know something else? In that scuffle I dropped your dagger. AMBROGIO: Did you lose it? GIANNELLA: No sir, I believe those men took it with them. AMBROGIO: Get away, you and the plague! Ruin doesn't want misery. I've ruined and broken my dagger too, trying to pry the lock on the door of the courtyard. But that saved me. If I hadn't been able to click that lock I would be frozen solid by now, thanks to that traitorous woman. If I survive this, I'm going to take my revenge. If nothing else, I'll see to it they lose the lawsuit I'm defending for them. Oy, oy, oy. GIANNELLA: That's it! To be honest, master, I would like us to forget about this business of going out at night for women. Just let me guard the front door, from the inside, and keep the door locked. Then you'll see, I'll be a raging bull, another Morgcmte furioso. 50 AMBROGIO: I've had to learn at my own expense. (Notices that the bolt of his own front door has been tampered w i t h ) O my! This bolt's been tampered with! That's it, I'm done for! This door's been opened! Men have come in. O no! GIANNELLA: Didn't you keep the key yourself? AMBROGIO: O no! Someone's been here, with his tools!51 Poor Ambrogio, in your old age . . . GIANNELLA: Maybe it's not as bad as you think. AMBROGIO: Where it's a question of honour, life itself is brought into question. Giannella, stay here and lock the door from the outside, so no-one can get out.

53

GIANNELLA: Be c a r e f u l n o t h i n g happens to you. (Ambrogio enters and Giannella bolts the door shut from the outside) This way I'm safe, because no matter who comes, he's not getting out here without first having to break down the door. Just look at the mess we're in tonight, and all for wanting to be with women. Doesn't the master have a nice one at home? At night, in the dark, they're all the same after all. I must be strong now, I hear someone coming down the stairs. Just you wait, you scoundrels, you're going to have a surprise.

SCENE X

MESSER AMBROGIO and GIANNELLA.

AMBROGIO: (Inside) Giannella, open up, open up quickly. GIANNELLA: Who are you? What's your name? AMBROGIO: (Inside) Messer Ambrogio. GIANNELLA: Easy now, I don't believe you. Give me a sign. AMBROGIO: (Inside) Your dagger's been stolen. GIANNELLA: That's not enough for me. What signal were you supposed to give me? AMBROGIO: (Inside) Whooo, whooo, whooo. GIANNELLA: That's it. Now I know it's you. (Opens the door) AMBROGIO: (Coming out of the house) Good heavens! What a world! Could it be what I heard is true? Poor Ambrogio! All you ever feared is hitting you right in the face. GIANNELLA: What's the matter? AMBROGIO: This, to me, eh? This, to me. Oy, oy, oy. GIANNELLA: Did the cold bring out your back pains? AMBROGIO: What am I to do? What about my honour? GIANNELLA: Force yourself to fart a bit.

54

AMBROGIO: I want her brother to know the honour she's bringing on him and on me when I'm not home. Having her beau come to the house. GIANNELLA: What! One could say you've been made a cuckold. AMBROGIO: I don't know what kept me from going in there and cutting both their throats. Lock this door up! GIANNELLA: Where's the key? AMBROGIO: How do I know? Bolt it shut, if you must. Anyway there's someone who knows how to unlock it. Stay here and make sure no one comes out. (Begins to exit) GIANNELLA: (Aside) Damned if I do. I'll end up getting another beating, j u s t like before. (He follows Ambrogio) AMBROGIO: (Turning around from a distance) Get back there, I say. GIANNELLA: I want to come with you. AMBROGIO: Get back there, it's the best you can do. GIANNELLA: I don't want to do that at all. If I got killed everyone would say: "Serves him right", and I'd be the one to suffer. AMBROGIO: Everything is falling apart on me. Damn it all. (They exit) End of the fourth act.

55

ACT V SCENE I

MADONNA ORETTA and MESSER GIULIO.

ORETTA: Because his insanity, my jealousy and your cunning have led me to do what I, by myself, would never have done, I can say nothing more than it must have been willed this way by the One who can dispose of us as He will. And since one must not resist His will, I do not want to oppose it. Nevertheless, I beg of you, Messer Giulio, consider the state in which I find myself and come to my assistance, so that I may not lose in public what you have made me lose in private. GIULIO: Madonna Oretta, you can consider me the most disloyal lover that ever lived if I'm not prepared to lay down my life to save your honour and your life. ORETTA: How are we going to manage if, by chance, the old man has come back? Look, someone is opening the window. Who's that climbing out of it? GIULIO: Stay here. I'll go and see right now. Keep hidden. ORETTA: God save me from this disgrace.

SCENE II

MESSER GIULIO, MESSER RINUCCIO, and MADONNA ORETTA.

GIULIO: Who goes there? 52 RINUCCIO: Who goes there? GIULIO: By God, it's Messer Rinuccio. Hey there! RINUCCIO: Who's that? 56

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GIULIO: Messer Rinuccio? RINUCCIO: O Messer Giulio, have you seen Madonna Oretta? GIULIO: I'm quite aware you risked your neck, waiting for her in the house. But what took you so long in there, with nothing at all to do? RINUCCIO: You'll hear it all in due time. Where is she? GIULIO: Near here, why? RINUCCIO: I must talk to her. Let's go and look for her. GIULIO: Here she is. Milady, come near, it's Messer Rinuccio. ORETTA: (Coming out of hiding) O Messer Rinuccio, good night. RINUCCIO: And a good night to you. Madonna, do you flee from your humble servant in such a disguise? ORETTA: Messer Rinuccio, if I had suspected it was all a plot hatched by you and Messer Giulio, I never would have set foot outside my house, and you would never have come in. As God has wanted it, we're here and all has turned out for the best. But why did you climb out of the window? RINUCCIO: Because of your husband. He came back home and found the door unbolted, heard me in the bedroom with your sister, and thinking that I was with you went back out and locked the door. I think he's now gone over to your brother's house. ORETTA: O no! Wretched me. What am I do do? (Cries) RINUCCIO: Madonna Oretta, don't cry, don't worry, and I'll be happy. Let me be in your good graces because your sister and I have found a way out of everything. ORETTA: What way OUt?

RINUCCIO: Come with me, I'll open the door. What a miracle, it's unbolted. Go in the house and do what Madonna Violante tells you to. Don't worry. ORETTA: I beg of you, for the love of God. 57

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GIULIO: Madonna, be in good spirits. Before anything comes to upset you it will have to step over my dead body, and Messer Rinuccio's. And nothing will harm us as long as we're in your good graces. ORETTA: Messer Giulio, Messer Rinuccio, if I come out of this present misfortune of mine with my family at peace, which I think is impossible, I will always be yours as I am now. RINUCCIO: How I love to hear that! ORETTA: I'm yours, so I entrust myself to you. GIULIO: We're your servants, and bow to your wishes. (He bows gallantly) RINUCCIO: That's enough of that! There'll be time for ceremonies and conversation later. Now you'd better go inside. ORETTA: Good night. (Exit) RINUCCIO: (To Oretta, as she closes the door) Bolt the door shut from the inside. GIULIO: Messer Rinuccio, the time has come to risk life and limb to save this woman. RINUCCIO: Don't worry, Messer Giulio, no one is going to harm a hair on her head. (Leading him towards the front door of their own house) Let's stay here by our own front door and wait for the old man. If you're not about to have a good laugh, tomorrow morning I'll buy you a glass of Greek wine. GIULIO: If I didn't know you for a wise and careful fellow, I'd laugh right now, at you, seeing what our situation is and hearing what you're saying. RINUCCIO: There's no need to doubt me. GIULIO: No need, the danger is certain. One doubts when there's some uncertainty. RINUCCIO: Tonight was my turn to doubt, being led around by the nose like that! But I'm not complaining. Anyway, I've had more good luck than 58

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good sense. Messer Giulio, while we're on the subject, why don't you tell me how it all came about so that I'll know better next time. I might not always land standing up, you know. And I promise you right now to tell you a story afterwards that'll be just as good. This way, we'll pass the time until the old man gets back. GIULIO: You won't get mad if I tell you the truth? RINUCCIO: Tell the truth and I won't get mad. From this very moment I forgive you everything, fair enough? GIULIO: To tell you the truth, ever since I came to this town I've been in love with Madonna Oretta. I didn't show it because I thought since you had confided in me your love for her, I would be doing you an injustice and damaging myself. I had secretly tried several ways of getting to see her privately, but since none had worked out I was quite desperate. RINUCCIO: What do you know! Just like Giorgio Scala, I was counting on the wrong people. 53 GIULIO: I was never as desperate as today, when I saw just how easily and quickly you were about to get your way. RINUCCIO: Then why did you give me the advice and find such an easy way for me to carry out my intentions. GIULIO: Because you asked me for advice as a friend, and I would sooner give it to my own disadvantage and against my own heart than fail in my duties as a true friend of yours. RINUCCIO: I always thought you to be a trustworthy friend, but this time I must give you the credit of being totally trustworthy. GIULIO: Finding myself in this difficulty, I got rid of it by entrusting the entire situation to my servant Giorgetto. As you know, I confide in him all my secrets. I was later standing by the garden gate, not even thinking about what I had told Giorgetto. I was 59

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disguised as a maid, waiting for the old man to arrive, and he came just as he had been told. RINUCCIO: I saw the old man come. How did you manage to lock him up in the garden? GIULIO: After I let him into the courtyard, I bolted shut the gate-shutters so that he couldn't get back out. Then I said: "Messer Ambrogio, we're done for! Messer Rinuccio and Messer Giulio have come back and are in the house." When the old man heard this, he began to shake like a leaf. I tried to reassure him saying: "They are giving orders for going out again. Wait for me here. As soon as they're gone I'll come back for you." RINUCCIO: You said all this and he didn't recognize you? GIULIO: I disguised my voice and sounded like a woman. Besides, he doesn't know me except for having seen me with you. I don't think I ever spoke with him. Besides, when he arrived he was already half out of his wits with love and then when I told him we were home he went completely out of his mind with fear. So I left him locked him up in the courtyard. RINUCCIO: This story is better than Boccaccio's tale of Messer Rinieri, who was left out in the snow all night by his mistress.54 GIULIO: As soon as I locked the door, Giorgetto came towards me, all smiles, and said: "Messer Giulio, take your clothes off right away and go into the bedroom. Madonna Oretta is waiting for you." "You, of all people, shouldn't try to make me feel worse," I said to him. "By God," he said, "I've just led her there for you. Go in the bedroom with her, but try to look like the old man. See if you can tame her with more than just sweet words." RINUCCIO: Isn't that something! GIULIO: I took off the maid's clothing and went in there, not sure if it was all a joke or not. No sooner was I 60

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inside than someone threw her arms around my neck. RINUCCIO: This must all have happened in the dark. GIULIO: That's right, in the dark. After this, and after having touched her face, which I found to be very delicate, I immediately wanted to get down to business. So, half dressed and half undressed we went over to the bed. I was really confused; in order not to be recognized, she spoke so softly I could not understand her. I couldn't be sure if it was Madonna Oretta or not. I was more inclined to think she was some other woman Giorgetto had brought me. I didn't dare ask her "Who are you?", nor did I speak any louder because I kept telling myself, "If in fact she is Madonna Oretta, which is quite possible, I don't want her to recognize me." RINUCCIO: Tell me truly now, how's the merchandise, seeing that you've tried it out? GIULIO: Excellent. We can consider ourselves lucky. All we have to do is weather the present storm. RINUCCIO: Devil take you, speak for yourself! But I've got nothing to complain about either. GIULIO: Nor will you complain when you hear that the merchandise will be mutually owned. I've looked after your interests as well. As it is, if for the moment I've had the greater share, next time you'll just take more and we'll be even. RINUCCIO: I don't think we'll need arbitrators in this dispute. Go on with your story. GIULIO: After I had been with her for a while and the mortal thrusts had been dealt, thinking that I was her husband . . . RINUCCIO: Yes, as if there's no difference between her husband's love-making and yours. Believe me, Messer Giulio, those women who don't . . . either 61

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can't find someone to do it with or else don't see the fun in it. GIULIO: Could be. Still, I think she thought I was her husband all the time, because she came out with such a scolding saying: "Is this what you do, you crazy old man, eh? In the house you pass yourself off as the pestilence itself just so you can go out like a fresh knight. Who do you think you've enjoyed yourself with, you old fool? See if you know me. Am I Madonna Anfrosina or Oretta? I've had better hounds on your trail than you ever thought. Is this the business you had with the Commissioner? Look at the man I care for so much! Look at the man I've been true to, instead of going out and finding my pleasure elsewhere, like you do! Do you think I couldn't find somebody to satisfy me?" RINUCCIO: What a scolding! That's when you were sure it was her? GIULIO: Yes, and after I let her vent herself for a while, still holding her tight so that she wouldn't get out from under me . . . RINUCCIO: You couldn't have made her leave if you'd beaten her with a stick. GIULIO: Actually, she did want to run away. RINUCCIO: She wouldn't have been the first one to say she wasn't hungry and ended up eating enough supper for seven. GIULIO: I don't know what she thought, but I know this, that when I told her who I was and how much I loved her, she tried to get out, first by trying to run away from me and then by begging me to let her leave. But I didn't want this to be the first and last time, so I held her back and, thinking that you would return, poured out such a sermon that it converted her to love both you and me with all her heart. After this, in peace and accord, we started another assault 62

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while waiting for your return, when we would all laugh together about your useless trip. Among other things we had the heavenly pleasure, while we were together, of listening to the old man in the courtyard, constantly hooting like an owl. I don't know what got into him. RINUCCIO: Who let him out then? GIULIO: I don't know how the devil he did it, but he poked around so much that he jumped the lock and got out, ruining all our pleasures. We immediately got up, got dressed and came here to see if I could get her back into the house before he got home. But I wasn't able to, and this worries me more than anything else. RINUCCIO: There's nothing to worry about, believe me. Now listen to my story. I left the house and saw the towel at the window; I opened the door with the crowbar, went up to the bedroom, opened the door just the same, took off my clothes and got into bed. GIULIO: And found nobody there. RINUCCIO: Easy now. I heard: "Who's there?" Trying to imitate her husband's voice, I said: "Your Messer Ambrogio" and laid down besides the young woman who I really thought was Madonna Oretta. GIULIO: Who was she? RINUCCIO: Madonna Oretta's sister. She told me she had come to spend the night with her sister, so as to make it easier to go to the convent tomorrow morning to see I don't know what play. GIULIO: What was she doing in that bed? RINUCCIO: I'll tell you. Madonna Oretta had to come away at my mother's bidding, so she thought, in order to catch her husband in the act. Now I realize that it was at Giorgetto's bidding, who was taking her away from me and giving her to you. They have a three-year-old son who is their only child and who 63

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the old man always keeps in bed with them. So, because Madonna Oretta had to leave, she let her sister sleep in that bed to take care of the child. GIULIO: She too must have had a good night. I think she must have needed it as much as Madonna Oretta because her husband looks to be as worthy a knight as Messer Ambrogio. RINUCCIO: I wouldn't doubt it. Now, thinking her to be Madonna Oretta, I rolled over near her and started to express my intention to consummate the marriage. She, a bit on the shy side, started to move away saying: "Please, Messer Ambrogio, don't do that, I don't want to," and so with this "don't do" and "don't want", she ended up wanting, doing, and redoing. GIULIO: Good for you. But are you trying to tell me she thought you were Messer Ambrogio? RINUCCIO: Yes, she said so herself. She put up with it so that he wouldn't realize she wasn't Madonna Oretta. I believe this because she spoke very softly. Actually, she confessed to me that she was surprised the old man appeared to be so virile. GIULIO: Where did she think Madonna Oretta was? RINUCCIO: She thought that, on the excuse of going to the old man, Madonna Oretta had gone elsewhere to enjoy the Carnival. After I had been with her for some time and thought I had tamed her enough, I told her a few gallant things saying: "The love I have borne and still bear you, Madonna Oretta, has brought me here and I am your Rinuccio Gualandi." That was the gist of it. But I got the opposite reaction from yours, Messer Giulio. While your woman wanted to flee when you revealed yourself, mine embraced me even more as soon as she heard who I was. GIULIO: That was a better sign.

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RINUCCIO: And embracing me tightly she said: "Messer Rinuccio, the fear of slander has for several months kept me from showing you the love I have borne and still bear you. But now that against all my hopes and yours, the occasion has arrived, I will not undermine myself. I am not Madonna Oretta as you think, but Violante, her sister and your servant," and so on. And after a beautiful speech she ended up by saying she couldn't go on without me. GIULIO: What more could you ask? RINUCCIO: Now you understand what hindered my return. After I discovered who she was and she discovered who I was, I found this merchandise to be to my taste and did not care to look for better. I would have been there till morning if the old man's arrival hadn't disturbed us. When he locked us up in the house I had to become adept at climbing out of windows. What's this light I see? It's the old man, by God, with our lady's brother. Let's keep silent and hide over here so that they don't see us. (They hide) SCENE III

MESSER AMBROGIO, UGUCCIONE and

GIANNELLA with a lit torch. AMBROGIO: I disguised myself like this in order to catch them in the act. After I caught my bird I came to you and I want you, Uguccione, to see with your very own eyes her deeds and the fine honour she's doing you and me. UGUCCIONE: I can't say anything until I see and hear the other side of the story. AMBROGIO: You'll see them both, him and her, if they haven't escaped. (To Giannella) Go open the door, Giannella. (To Uguccione) I wouldn't want you to do otherwise. 65

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GIANNELLA: (Finds the door locked) Master, it can't be opened, they've shut themselves in. AMBROGIO: They've realizd I'm back. It won't do them any good. Knock. I'll get in if I have to climb in through the window or break down the door. Knock again, harder. GIANNELLA: In the meantime, God helps them that help themselves. SCENE IV

MADONNA AGNOLA, servant, MESSER AMBROGIO, UGUCCIONE, and GIANNELLA.

AGNOLA: (At the window) Who's there? AMBROGIO: Can't you see, you old whore. AGNOLA: (At the window) You must be a bunch of drunkards. Go and wear off your wine elsewhere — go on. AMBROGIO: If I get into the house I'll give you the wine you deserve. GIANNELLA: Open up, Agnola, it's me, Giannella. AGNOLA: (At the window) Go entertain the girls in the whorehouse with your tricks and disguises. Leave decent people in peace. If the master were home, if only . . . AMBROGIO: (Looking around for a stone to throw at her) Where's a stone around here? UGUCCIONE: (To Ambrogio) Don't do anything foolish, she's right. (To Agnola) Open up, Agnola, it's me, Uguccione, Madonna Oretta's brother. AGNOLA: (At the window) O Uguccione, forgive me, I didn't recognize you. I'll be right down. (Withdraws from the window) UGUCCIONE: (To Ambrogio) There, see how a few good words fix everything up. 66

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V.iv.

GIANNELLA: She's taking off the bolt! (To Ambrogio) This is it! (Forcing the door open with his shoulder) Inside, inside! AMBROGIO: (Joining Giannella in forcing the door open) Inside, inside! AGNOLA: (From inside, as she is caught in Ambrogio's and Giannel/a's onslaught) What now, what's going on? UGUCCIONE: (Restraining Giannella) Get away from there, you fool. Stay here with this torch and don't move. (To Ambrogio) You sir, stay here and don't do anything violent. (To Agnola, who has bolted the door shut again.) Agnola, open up, open up, don't worry. AGNOLA: (Coming o u t ) What drunkards, just look at them! UGUCCIONE: Good evening. Where's Oretta? AGNOLA: Upstairs, sewing. (She locks the door behind her) AMBROGIO: She must be using a big needle. UGUCCIONE: (To Ambrogio) O keep quiet, if you can. (To Agnola) Let me go speak to her. AGNOLA: Messer Uguccione, you must understand. When the master is away, he doesn't allow us to let anyone in. GIANNELLA: Here's the master. AGNOLA: What master? This is some trickster. AMBROGIO: Who in heaven's name do you think you're looking at? AGNOLA: I'm not going to argue with wine. AMBROGIO: I'm going to have to break down this door. UGUCCIONE: Calm down, you're too rough! You give orders for your servants not to let anyone in and then you think it strange when they obey them. 67

V.vi. SCENE V

THE HORNED OWL MADONNA ORETTA, MESSER AMBROGIO and UGUCCIONE.

ORETTA: (At the window) Who's down there? O, it's you brother, welcome. AMBROGIO: There she is, Uguccione, the respectable woman. ORETTA: (At the window) Who's that fool? AMBROGIO: You really took me for a fool, didn't you, and made me a cap for it, you wretch. Where's the lecher you had in your room with you just a little while ago? ORETTA: (At the window) Oh, are you my husband, Messer Ambrogio? Thank God! Tonight my brother is going to see just who it is he's married me to. The lecher is upstairs, in the house. Come Fabio, come on down. (She disappears from the window) SCENE VI

MADONNA ORETTA, MADONNA VIOLANTE

dressed as a man, MESSER AMBROGIO, UGUCCIONE and GIANNELLA. ORETTA: (Coming o u t ) Come Fabio. (To Ambrogio) Here he is. Is this the one? VIOLANTE: What's going on, you crazy old man? AMBROGIO: Hell, that's what! You rascal! What are you doing in my house? VIOLANTE: The same thing you yourself, dressed up in this crazy outfit, wanted to do in the house of Madonna Anfrosina de' Gualandi, you gallant lover! GIANNELLA: (Aside) What the devil! It's all coming out in the open. AMBROGIO: (To Vioiante) I won't have anything to do with you. (To Uguccione) I'll talk to you, Uguccione. Look here, wasn't I right? Here's your sister's lover. 68

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V.vi.

Isn't she without shame, showing him to us? Look and see for yourself what kind of woman she is. ORETTA: My dear brother, since he's showing you who I am, I'll show you what he is. This valiant man, at his age and in his position, should be the mirror of virtue for all Pisa. Instead, he goes and falls in love here and there, and stays out all night, dressed up like that. I could no longer put up with his antics, so tonight, knowing he was to go to a lady's house, I sent for this lover of mine. I arranged it so that when he returned home he would hear me in the bedroom with him and then, mad with spite, he would come running on his own to you, dressed like this, in the outfit he wears on his nightly escapades. I wanted you to see with your own eyes something you never would have believed if I had told you. Now you see how he treats me. And just to show you who this lover of mine really is, look. (To Violcmte) Here, give me this beard. (To LJguccione) See if you don't recognize your sister and mine. (To Ambrogio) Do you see now, you learned lawyer, who my lover is? GIANNELLA: By God, it's Madonna Violante. UGUCCIONE: Messer Ambrogio, things are quite different from what you were telling me. The one who's at fault and deserves to be punished is you. You should be ashamed of yourself, you doting old fool! AMBROGIO: I know I heard the bed creak, and some heavy breathing too. VIOLANTE: It took a lot of effort to set everything up and lead you to this. If my sister had listened to me, I would have chastised you some other way. (To LJguccione) My dear brother, it's your turn now to make sure that this poor unfortunate is no longer tortured by this slobbering old man. AMBROGIO: (Pointing to Giannella) This man here is a reliable witness. 69

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ORETTA: Fine with me, let him be a witness. (To GicmneJIa) Now tell me Giannella, did you see anyone come into the house? GIANNELLA: Not me, not me, Madonna, not at all. ORETTA: Don't you stand here, day and night, guarding the door? GIANNELLA: Yes Madonna, and I wouldn't let anyone come in. AMBROGIO: Didn't I come back and find the door unbolted? Didn't I go upstairs and find someone in the bedroom with her? GIANNELLA: Master, I think the door was as you had left it. Remember you wouldn't let me shut it and did it yourself. I didn't see anyone in the house. VIOLANTE: And then, if you heard us, you heard me. What am I, some sort of beast? AMBROGIO: So then, everyone is against me. What's going on here? ORETTA: (To Ambrogio) Calm down. (To GianneJla) Now tell me, Giannella, did you go tonight, dressed like this, to accompany him to some lady's house? GIANNELLA: Master, should I tell her? I really don't want to lie because it's a sin. (To Oretta) Yessir, I mean yes Madonna. And we were badly dealt with, too. I was beaten up and he was shut up all night in a courtyard, outside. VIOLANTE: God bless her! She gave him what he deserved. What do you think about it, Uguccione? Who's got the right to complain and raise his temper? Him or this unfortunate woman? (Oretta begins to cry) Yes, cry, let it out, you poor thing. The first girl who wants to marry an old man should be hung. Old men are like a gardener's dog: it never eats the lettuce nor lets anyone else eat it.

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V.vii.

UGUCCIONE: I'm so mad I can hardly talk. Why . . . you old loaf . . . if I get my . . . (Steps threateningly towards Ambrogio) ORETTA: (Stepping in between the two m e n ) Please, Uguccione, for my sake, forgive him. viOLANTE: No, not at all! (To Uguccione) Fix him, once and for all. That will teach him to slander decent women. UGUCCIONE: (To Oretta) Get your clothes and things, right away, and come with me. (The women go inside) AMBROGIO: My dear brother-in-law . . . UGUCCIONE: Get away from me, bastard!

SCENE VII

MESSER RINUCCIO, MESSER GIULIO, UGUCCIONE, MESSER AMBROGIO, and GIANNELLA.

RINUCCIO: (Aside to Messer Giulio) It's time to help the old man. (Stepping o u t ) Good evening Messer Uguccione, what's going on? UGUCCIONE: Messer Rinuccio, (To Giulio) Messer. (To Rinuccio) Nothing much. (To Ambrogio) Go inside, you. AMBROGIO: My dear Messer Rinuccio . . . RINUCCIO: (To Uguccione) Who is this man in disguise? (To Ambrogio) Is it you, Messer Ambrogio? AMBROGIO: I wish it weren't. GIULIO: A man of your position, dressed like this. That's quite something. AMBROGIO: The Devil blinded me. Messer Rinuccio, for the love of God, I need your help with my brother-

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in-law. Because of a silly little mistake I made, he now wants to see me dead. RINUCCIO: Messer Uguccione, one shouldn't hold a grudge amongst relatives. UGUCCIONE: The wretch has the gall to ask others to help him out? RINUCCIO: He can count on me for much more. (To Ambrogio and Giannella] Go in the house, the two of you. It's not proper to be dressed like this at this hour, and especially not in the squares of Pisa. (To Ambrogio and Uguccione) If you wish, I'll listen to your story and see to it that whoever is in the wrong fixes everything, and that past insults are forgotten. From now on live in peace as family members should. GIANNELLA: Education is such a wonderful thing! UGUCCIONE: You can count on me, as long as he treats my affairs as he ought. RINUCCIO: It's his duty. Please go in. (Uguccione enters the house) AMBROGIO: O my son! God bless you. You're a God-send. I'm completely in your hands. Giuno: (Aside) That's it, we got it! RINUCCIO: Go in, don't worry. I'll see to it that everyone will be completely satisfied and happy. (Ambrogio enters the house) You come inside too, Messer Giulio. (Enters the house) GIULIO: Gladly. (Seeing Giorgetto) There's Giorgetto. (To Giannella) Giannella, you can go in and put out the torch in the house. GIANNELLA: I was waiting in order to follow you and light your way. GIULIO: No, no, thank you very much, you can go in and look after your own business. Leave the door open and that will be enough. (Gianneila enters the house) 72

THE HORNED OWL SCENE VIII

V.viii.

GIORGETTO and MESSER GIULIO.

GIORGETTO: (Aside) That was him, after all. What was he doing here with the torch? GIULIO: Giorgetto, you're the best man in the world. If I wanted to reward you according to your merit . . . GIORGETTO: No pleasantries, master. I'm always rewarded by you. What came of it? GIULIO: My bliss at your hands. I myself couldn't have wished for half the things I got. But come with me into Messer Ambrogio's house. Messer Rinuccio is already there. You'll see and hear what bliss he and I have found. GIORGETTO: It's alright to go into the old man's house? GIULIO: Perfectly alright, totally alright. GIORGETTO: And Giannella? And the bolt? GIULIO: Everything's off. The old man is like the farmer who lost his bulls; when it's time to station some guards, he takes them away. See for yourself. Messer Rinuccio is now busy arbitrating between Madonna Oretta, her husband, and her brother. If nothing goes wrong, I'm going to be in there too. GIORGETTO: What's their argument? GIULIO: Whatever the argument, this will be the settlement. Messer Ambrogio must no longer be jealous, must remove both the bolt and Giannella from the front door, swear he has the most faithful wife in all of Pisa, and allow her to go and stay wherever she pleases, without him to spy on her. But it will be enough if he lets Madonna Agnola look after her. She's on our side. GIORGETTO: Anything else? GIULIO: He must ask Uguccione, Madonna Oretta and her sister for forgiveness. Messer Rinuccio and I will be godparents to the first child the old man will 73

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have which, if I'm not wrong, will be in exactly nine months. GIORGETTO: Some godparents you will be! I've heard enough. By God, if Pisa had enough asses like Ambrogio around, she could use their fat to make better candles than those they make in Arezzo.55 GIULIO: You've heard nothing yet. Come on into the house if you really want a good laugh. (Enters into the house) GIORGETTO: Let's go. (To the audience) Well friends, you can tell any old man who wants to take a young wife that we suggest he ask our Messer Ambrogio for advice. This way, if he makes the first mistake by taking her, he won't make the second one of being jealous of her. In the end, it will all turn out the same and the poor man will have the same problems. If you liked our comedy, show your pleasure and give thanks to Love who does this sort of thing at night in the dark. THE END

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Notes 1. La Brigata dei Monsignori e dei Fantastichi, to which Giovan Maria Cecchi belonged, was the name of the group presenting the play. It seems that The Horned Owl marked a comeback for the Monsignori, who had been idle for a period. During Carnival time, companies such as this one often presented plays which on occasion were written by one of their number. 2. Catastrophic events such as natural disasters or man-made tribulations such as wars, raids, sacks, were often crucial elements of the antefactum of sixteenth-century plays. During the course of the play some of the main characters would eventually discover that they were somehow related to one another — fathers would find long-lost children, twins separated at birth would meet each other after many years of searching for one another. The Sack of Rome, whose political and social repercussions were quite extensive, occurred in 1527 at the hands of the Imperial German troops. Benvenuto Cellini, the famous goldsmith, lived and fought through it; the siege that preceded it and his actions in defense of Rome and the Pope are depicted by him, not without a certain flair, in his autobiography. The Siege of Florence (Oct. 1529-Aug. 1530) was staged by the Imperial Spanish troops. It marked the end of the Florentine republic, led to the re-entry into Florence of the Medici, and to the establishment of the Duchy. 3. The identity of Ghetto Martelli is obscure. He was probably a fool whose name was proverbial in Florence. 4. In the original there is a play on words involving "no" and "nona" (three o'clock in the afternoon): "O vedi, a che otta suona nona in questo paese!" Nino Borsellino interprets the idiom to mean "Look at the circumstances under which he says no!", a sarcastic comment on Giorgetto's part about Giulio's attempt to keep him out of the matter. 5. In the Florentine political system, the Commissioner oversaw civil matters while the Provisioner was in charge of economic matters. 6. Throughout the play, Messer Ambrogio is referred to as "dottore", for he is a doctor of law. The expression, how75

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7. 8.

9. 10. 11. 12.

13.

14.

15. 16.

ever, is quite stilted in English, and therefore has been changed to "old man." Occasionally, when the context allowed it, "lawyer" or "husband" have also been used. Money opens every door. "Argiens fa il tott" is the rendition in the original ("money makes everything"). Plays were often performed in convents by nuns or by novices, both as a form of relaxation and as diversion from the daily routine. During the middle of the century, performances in convents elicited a strong reaction from the Catholic hierarchy which sought to ensure that a certain amount of sobriety was maintained at such affairs. After the Council of Trent (1545-1563), performances in convents were generally of a religious nature. Cecchi himself stopped writing secular comedies in the 1560's and devoted the last thirty years of his life (1559-1587) to writing religious plays for nuns, school-children, and lay confraternities. Florentines, as early as Dante's time, considered the Sienese crazy (see Purgatorio, XIII, 151). In the original the phrase is "parole da vegghie," words for wakes. Ambrogio was trying to have his cake and eat it too. Madonna Verdiana is constantly muttering prayers under her breath ("sempre biasciando pissi pissi") so as to give the impression that she is a devout woman. "Pissi pissi" is onomatopoetic. The name and the main elements of the characterization of Madonna Verdiana derive from the old bawd in Boccaccio's Decameron, V,10. Cecchi has written "fratelli" (brothers, in the plural), but in Act V only one brother appears and there is no reference to any others. I have chosen to correct the original to read "brother" in the singular. Without naming her, the conversation has now turned to Madonna Oretta, and Madonna Verdiana is telling the old man Ambrogio that to keep his wife true to him he must also keep her sexually satisfied. The preceding was a series of double entendres on the supposed chastity of monks. A scudo was a silver or gold coin. 76

THE HORNED OWL 17. A ducat is -a gold coin (1.8 grams of gold) worth about seven soldi. It replaced the Florentine florin in 1531. 18. A grosso was a silver coin of little value. 19. Madonna Verdiana wears the grey habit of a lay religious order. 20. At that time, the recipient of a letter would give a tip to the carrier; hence, Ambrogio sees it as postage to be paid. 21. Madonna Apollonia is a proverbial name for bawds. 22. Throughout the play, the standard salutation is "buona sera, e buon anno." Since a literal translation would not sound appropriate, the second part of the phrase has been constantly ignored. 23. When written messages can be intercepted, then it is best to have them delivered orally. 24. On a saint's feastday, the devout visit the shrine or the church of that saint in order to offer devotions. Madonna Verdiana has apparently reached an agreement with Messer Ambrogio whereby she is to perform such devotions on his behalf. 25. "Welcome!" Messer Ambrogio is making a show of his formal education by greeting the university student in Latin, the language of all academic discussion and research at the time. 26. The tip, or payment for services to be rendered. 27. The original expression reads "to be left like Noferi's bulls," that is, without buyers. 28. A reference to the impetuous king of Sericana in Ariosto's Orlando furioso, XXVII, 66. 29. The riverbank in Pisa, and the name of the street which runs along it. 30. It was very common, when cursing someone, to wish a plague upon him. See, for example, Mercutio's "A plague o' both your houses" in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, III,i. In this translation curses based on the plague have been rendered with more contemporary idioms. 31. The original reads "By the body of the Antichrist." The Antichrist, another common component of Renaissance

77

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32.

33.

34. 35. 36. 37.

38.

39.

40. 41.

expletives, has also been replaced by more contemporary idioms. Violante implies that they will have to stand there and wait until the situation is resolved by someone else. They are "stuck" in it. A medicine, consisting of a powder or other ingredient mixed with honey, jam, or syrup (O.E.D.). Messer Ambrogio has bought himself a number of items, considered to have strong aphrodisiac powers. The Duke's and Cardinal's were other companies which, like the Monsignori, put on plays. "As every labour deserves a reward, so every reward presupposes a labour." "A16 chia chia" is a series of nonsense syllables. Slang corruption of the Spanish "Quien es alia?" (Who goes there?), which must have been very common in all major Tuscan towns after the Imperial Spanish troops conquered Florence (1530) and stayed on to support the newly re-established Medici rulers. Some versions of the play give the date as '23, but I have chosen to follow Nino Borsellino in his correction of it to '32, on the grounds that it makes much more sense historically. There is nothing inside an O but space. Giotto's ability to draw freehand perfectly round O's had become proverbial. A near-by town of little importance, hence an insignificant political assignment which Messer Ambrogio recalls with pride. Messer Dotard is a reference to Messer Ambrogio who has become a doting old man. To take Rosso's troubles is to waste time or to worry about matters of no consequence to the person involved. The saying derives from the following anecdote which Cecchi retells in his Proverbi toscani (No. 51, in the Daelli edition on p. 72): Rosso was a fellow who, while being carried on a cart to the scaffold to be hung as a thief, and feeling the cart bounce on the broken pavement of the road, called the chief of police and begged him to ask the officials of the Tower, who were in charge of road maintenance, to repave 78

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42.

43.

44.

45.

46.

47. 48. 49.

that one because it was embarrassing that whosoever was being taken to the scaffold to be executed had to have his innards shaken so much by the rough road. The original reads: "in these things of the tail there's no firm ground," meaning that one can never be certain of the ground one stands on when trying to come to a conclusion about sexual matters. The original reads "servidore," thus voicing Giannella's immediate subservience and willingness to obey Giorgetto. The expression betrays a strong Spanish influence, which suggests that Giannella mistakes Giorgetto for a Spanish soldier or bully and attempts to appease him in his own language. Ricciardo da Chinzica is a character from the Decameron (11,10). More interested in boys than in his wife, Ricciardo kept a calendar which registered every day as a feast-day and therefore, on the excuse of respecting the sanctity of the day, he was able to abstain from "unions" with her. The original reads "even if he constantly wore that ring the devil gave the painter." The allusion is obscure. I have chosen to interpret it as a magical ring that either kept the painter's wife faithful to him as long as he wore it, or else made him invisible and allowed him to keep a constant watch on her. One version of the Actaeon myth says that he was changed into a stag by the goddess Artemis for boasting that he wished to marry her. The more common account had him suffer the same fate for having seen the goddess bathing nude. The horns to which Giorgetto refers are those of a cuckolded husband. The original reads "they're giving him horns three levels high." The implication is that Messer Ambrogio is going to be cuckolded several times. Bartolomeo Colleoni was a famous condottiere ("freelance" military leader with his own troops) of the fifteenth century. The original Italian reads "hac, hue," which are probably onomatopoetic stage directions for a coughing or sneezing attack. 79

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50. An amusing confusion between Morgante, the giant in Pulci's epic poem by the same name, and Ariosto's Orlando furioso. 51. The original reads "there's been someone who's had too much key," thus punning on the Italian vulgar term for intercourse "chiavare" (to key). 52. The original Italian had a series of nonsense syllables for the first two speeches of V,ii. 53. The allusion is obscure. The original reads "I was building on things like Giorgio Scala," but even the name is obscure. 54. Rinieri was the student in the Decameron VIII, 7 who was left out all night in the snow by the widow he loved. 55. The city of Arezzo was famous for its candles.

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