Machiavelli, Niccolò, 1469-1527. [Plays. English & Italian]
The comedies of Machiavelli / edited and translated by David Sices and James B. Atkinson. — Bilingual ed.
p. cm.
English and Italian.
Includes bibliographical references. ISBN-13: 978-0-87220-901-5 (pbk.)
ISBN-13: 978-0-87220-902-2
Machiavelli, Niccolò, 1469-1527–Translations into English. I. Sices, David. II. Atkinson, James B., 1934- III. Title.
PQ4627.M2A25 2007 808.2’052–dc22
2007020690

eISBN: 978-1-60384-025-5 (e-book)

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‌CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, VII

AN ESSAY ON MACHIAVELLI AND COMEDY JAMES B. ATKINSON, l
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE ON
THE WOMAN FROM ANDROS, 35
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE ON
THE MANDRAKE AND CLJZIA, 39

ANDRIA
THE WOMAN FROM ANDROS
TRANSLATED BY JAMES B. ATKINSON
41

MAND RAGO LA
THE MANDRAKE
TRANSLATED BY DAVID SICES
153

CLIZIA
CLIZIA
TRANSLATED BY DAVID SICES
277

APPENDIXES TO THE MANDRAKE, 399
NOTES, 403
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‌ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to thank all those who, by their criticisms, suggestions, and encouragement, have contributed to the pub­ lication of the present volume. In particular, we are grateful for the aid toward publication of the bilingual text furnished by the Ramon Guthrie Fund, by the office of the Dean of the Fac­ ulty, and by the Committee on Research of Dartmouth Col­ lege. A special expression of thanks is due Errol G. Hill, Willard Professor of Drama and Oratory at Dartmouth Col­ lege, for his role in the inception of the project.
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‌AN ESSAY ON MACHIAVELLI AND COMEDY

The name of Niccolo Machiavelli is not generally associated­ at least by English-speaking audiences-with the drama. Ac­ cording to a tongue-in-cheek prologue written for a recent pro­ duction of The Mandrake,
The man, of course, was known far more For his wicked Prince, and for his Histories, As well as for an Art of War,
But he also mastered theater’s mysteries.
Many readers may be surprised to learn that the author of The Prince is also responsible for a trio of comedies, one of which is considered by Italians to be the earliest-and by knowledge­ able authorities such as dramatists Carlo Goldoni and Luigi Pirandello to be the greatest-of their country’s theatrical clas­ sics. More than half a century before Shakespeare established the tradition of English-speaking comedy that has prospered and endured to the present, The Mandrake was entertaining au­ diences with its racy vernacular language. Audiences marveled at its contemporary character, and the play became a model for dramatic construction and comic characterization. The Man­ drake provoked delight and thoughtful bemusement because of
2 MACHIAVELLI AND COMEDY

its representation of serious-if not seriously treated-ethical questions. These features have continued to inspire admiration more or less uninterruptedly until our day. Indeed, the play’s linguistic and dramatic verve have made it more immediately accessible-and to a wider range of audiences-than are the comedies of Shakespeare.
Machiavelli’s serious dramatic efforts date only from the last ten years of his life. At the beginning of this period he was poverty-stricken, disillusioned, and embittered. His wit and intelligence had won him great political success, proximity to power, and the friendship of strong leaders. When the Medici returned to power in Florence in r 5 r 2, overthrowing the re­ public that Machiavelli had served since its inception in 1498, they were suspicious of his loyalty and kept him on the periph­ ery of power. Although history has cleared t-he record, Machia­ velli was rumored to have been involved in a conspiracy to ex­ pel the Medici and was briefly imprisoned for his alleged complicity. Later, in the r 520s, the Medici relented and re­ stored him to their favor; they granted him several commis­ sions-notably, The Florentine Histories-but theypermitted him no real access to the seats of power.
During the last decade of his life Machiavelli was thus writ­ ing some of his most significant analyses of political and his­ torical events. Nevertheless, he was keenly aware that there was an alternative means for getting his ideas across to others. Machiavelli seized upon comedy as a useful tool for hammering out his political message so that it reached a more immediate audience. Comedy succeeded in a more resounding fashion through what we may call the politics of pleasure: Machiavelli politicizes the laughter he arouses, so that when the laughter dies down, the message can better be grasped by the alert members of the audience. Like Aristophanes, Machiavelli un­ settles his audience with incongruity, distortion, and other techniques bordering on the grotesque. Hence, one cannot de­ rive pleasure from Machiavelli’s plays without also having one’s political values shaken.
MACHIAVELLI AND COMEDY 3

It is not surprising, therefore, that the ideas preoccupying Machiavelli when he writes about politics or history should thrust their way into his explanatory and theoretical state­ ments on the nature of his comedy. The connection on the the­ oretical plane, be it in the prologue to Clizia or in his treatises, is clear. Translating this connection between comedy and poli­ tics so that it comes alive on the stage is a major endeavor. Comedies about love ruled the day-then as now-and one of the givens of the romantic love convention is that the lovers are subject to “unforeseen events.” For someone acutely aware of the problems of fortuna, the abstraction that Latin and medi­ eval thinkers devised to represent the arbitrary forces at work in the universe to impede a person’s use of intelligent foresight, the parallel between the literary and political spheres is in­ structive. Thus, Machiavelli is intrigued with writing about the same type of problem, but in a context different from his customary political one. He makes of love and its attendant issues a testing ground where many of his political and the­ oretical interests can assume a new phase. Moreover, these is­ sues become the point of balance between the traditions of comedy and his practice of the art.
Little needs to be said about Machiavelli’s lesser theatrical
endeavors. He is credited by some of his contemporaries with having adapted Aulularia by Plautus, but verifying this claim involves too tortuous a path to follow here. In 1960 a hitherto unknown holograph copy made by Machiavelli of Eunuchus by Terence was detected in a Vatican codex that also included a copy of De rerum natura by Lucretius. Careful examination of the handwriting suggests that the Terentian play was probably copied early in the 1500s. Because these years are not the pe­ riod of his known theatrical activity, scholars have uncon­ vincingly proposed later dates.
Concerning another of his theatrical ventures there is even more confusion; if we knew anything more substantial about it, the text could prove to be one of his most interesting dra­ matic efforts. Giuliano de’ Ricci, Machiavelli’s literary execu-
4 MACHIAVELLI AND COMEDY

tor, claims to have seen among his uncle’s manuscripts-to paraphrase him-a damaged, imperfect draft of a ragionamento in a comic vein, reminiscent of The Clouds and other Aristo­ phanic comedies. Ricci notes that Machiavelli had called it Le Maschere, “The Masks”; he editorializes, however, that it was so full of reckless accusations, of both ecclesiastics and laymen alike, that he decided not to copy it. He also adds the tantaliz­ ing aside that the people thus slandered were still alive in 1504. Posterity has no way of judging whether or not it was literary taste or political prudence in the face of the Counter Reformation’s militant morality that dictated Ricci’s regrettable decision not to copy it and hence to rob posterity of a poten­ tially fascinating text. Because of the similarity in political and aesthetic views, it would be tempting to construct a theory, based however hesitantly on Ricci’s evidence, about Aristo­ phanic influences on Machiavelli. But rather than to lament what we lack, it is more to the point to examine what we have.

THE WOMAN FROM ANDROS
There are two versions of Machiavelli’s translation of Terence’s charming play Andria. According to handwriting analysts, the first version is found in a hastily prepared manuscript dating from late 1517 or early 1518. Some scholars have suggested that because Machiavelli was in such dire financial straits then, he translated the play solely to make money. The second ver­ sion, contained in a more meticulously prepared manuscript, was probably completed in 1520. In this work, Machiavelli has gracefully and wittily re-created an elegant, formal comedy of manners by lacing it with pungent and fast-paced dialogue. He was especially careful to modernize and localize the deftly executed Latin comedy so that it might more readily appeal to early sixteenth-century Florentine audiences. In his transla­ tion, Machiavelli made clear which Florentine values he be­ lieved his contemporaries needed to improve.
The sparkling patina of Terence’s play glows over a typical
MACHIAVELLI AND COMEDY s

New Comedy plot, -,vith its conflict between an austere, ortho­ dox father ,.vho objects to his son’s intended because of her un­ acceptable social status, and a son whose passion compels him to fly in the face of filial obiigation, A third typical figure is the slave Davus-Davo in Machiavelli’s translation, Through the devices he contrives, Davus tries to earn his stripes as a ser­ v11s cal!idm, a “tricky slave,” a character made popular by Plau­ tus, Yet Terence is not trying to compete with Plautus through this character. Rather, Davus exists to elicit laughter and to intensify the father-son conflict, Because Davus allies himself with the son and devises strategies for him, he finds himself exposed to the father’s reprisals. All three characters act out the dash between social duty and private desire. Another typical element is the recognition scene, ·with its heavy reliance on co­ incidence-that is, fort1ma—to resolve the conflict between the individual, whose values are centered on romantic goals. and the society, whose values are translated on stage by the blocking measures concocted by the father. The recognition scene allows the marriage of the young couple to take place ac­ cording to the demands of society, its conventions and la,JVs. The stability and order of society as a whole are reaffirmed at the same time as the earlier threats to social union, particu­ larized in the interests of the father and son, are harmonized. This reconciliation is an important factor in Machiavelli’s ap­ preciation of Andria: He holds in the highest esteem the com­ munal spirit asserted in Terence’s play. This quality is not the focal point for the two most famous reworkings of the story: Richard Steele’s sentimental comedy The Comciom Lovers ( I 722) and Thornton Wilder’s lambent, gossamer fable The W1oman of
Andrris (1930).
Machiavelli’s play omits Terence’s topical prologue and opens on a street in Athens. Simo, Panfilo’s father, is engaged in a discussion with the elderly freed slave Sosia. Through this con­ versation we learn that Panfilo has been frequenting the house next door, where a woman named Criside, from the island of Andros, has set herself up as a hetaera. Simo is worried that his
plans for Panfilo to marry Filomena, the daughter of his rich friend Cremete, may be foiled by this intimacy. Indeed, he should be worried, because Panfilo has met Glicerio, Criside’s ward, fallen in love with her, and made her pregnant. Gli­ cerio’s relation to Criside is never made clear until the end of the play, but throughout the first several acts the key fact im­ portant to the plot-and thereason behind Simo’s resentment of her-is that Glicerio is a foreigner without any Athenian legal status. Shortly before the play opens, Criside has died. We learn that Criside has handed Glicerio over to Panfilo, who valiantly swears to marry her and to acknowledge publicly that he is the child’s father. A hint at a double plot develops with the entrance of Carino, Panfilo’s friend, who is in love with Fi­ lomena and wants to marry her. Meanwhile her father, Cre­ mete, comes to suspect that Panfilo is in love with Glicerio, and he therefore terminates the wedding agreement. Simo re­ fuses to inform his son of this fact because he wants to discover the depth of Panfilo’s feelings for Glicerio. In addition, he wants to test Panfilo; obedience to paternal commands is one of the play’s important themes. According to the custom, Cre­ mete’s contractual offer of marriage contains a dowry for Filo­ mena, and the motive of greed thus plays among the father’s feelings.
Davo is aware of all of these issues and could easily lead the
play into broad comedy, but his character is kept under control so that the play can depict a wider range of human emotions. Machiavelli, in turn, is mindful of Terence’s original intention and the role of Davus in that play. Davo does not govern as much of the action as we might expect-Simo does that hand­ ily-but his contrivances ensure that Panfilo does not lose Glicerio. Davo deftly manipulates the events around her lying­ in. As matters build to a showdown, Crito enters, on the look­ out for any property of Criside’s that might be lying around unclaimed. Crito’s entrance signals the beginning of the se­ quence of events that will lead to the recognition scene. He turns out to be an old friend of Cremete, but he also knows all
about how Criside adopted Glicerio and, more importantly, who Glicerio’s real father was. With the opportunity at hand, marriage between Panfilo and Glicerio is finally permissible. To complement the sense of symmetry in plot, action, and characters, Carino is also allowed to marry Filomena.
The ultimate emphasis of the play is on masculine values and interests; the father-son relationship serves, not to illus­ trate the contrast between right and wrong, but rather to fur­ ther the education, one might even say the social “initiation,” of Panfilo. The son struggles with the father; rather than de­ feating him, he becomes like him through his acceptance of the father’s values. The play thus presents the duties and re­ sponsibilities that a young Roman man must learn-and these are the values of the society as a whole.
It is impossible to know whether Machiavelli decided on his own to translate this play or the choice was forced on him by need. If the decision was clearly his, then scholars could more easily argue that his purpose was to urge his audience to take stock of its values. We cannot be certain, and, therefore, to determine the author’s goals we must look more closely at how he focuses on the narrative element and how he uses language to localize the story and thereby predispose his audience to re­ act positively to the values the Andria implicitly asserts.
At several points Terence insists that his audience realize that they are in the presence of a fabula. The word is multi­ valent in Latin: it refers to talk or conversation as well as to a narrative story, tale, or fable; by extension, the term can refer to the plot of a drama, specifically, of a comedy. Terence plays on the overtones in the “stuff and nonsense” flavor of the word; he is not above self-consciously dragging in the connotation of plot to get a laugh. Davus cries out, Quae haec est fabula? (v. 747). Similarly, because Machiavelli can achieve an equal degree of multivalence with the Italian word favola, he consis­
tently translates fabula literally (Che favola e questa?). Thus, he
gets precisely the right effect. In English, the subtleties of the play on words in Latin and Italian are blunted; yet a similar
line in English-“What kind of comedy is this?”-would still elicit a laugh. Machiavelli takes a cue from Terence and elabo­ rates a line in order to emphasize his point even more. In act 5, scene 4, Simo ironically comments fabulam inceptat (v. 925) just as Crito is about to launch into a narrative pivotal for the recognition scene. The line means simply “now the pack oflies is about to begin.” But Machiavelli extends that brief phrase to read egli ha ordito una favola da capo (“he has composed a com­ edy from the ground up”); this slight alteration serves to in­ tensify the self-consciousness of the art-that is, the awareness of art calling attention to itself.
In act 3, scene 5, through another addition to Terence’s text, Machiavelli reminds his audience that there is a narrator be­ hind the scenes. Panfilo has just learned from his father that Cremete will allow Filomena to marry him-information that delights the father and depresses the son. Panfilo is prepared to vent his anger on Davo, who mutters in an aside, ‘Tm think­ ing of telling him that I’ve come up with some clever idea” (Machiavelli’s io penso di dire di avere trovato qualche be! tratto translates the skimpy Latin dicam aliquid me inventurum, ”I’ll tell him I’ll think of something” {v. 615}). Although Davo is not an arch manipulator like the typical “tri ky slave” in Plau­ tus, he is nevertheless trying to control the action at this point in the play. He serves as a “narrator” propelling the story for­ ward. Thus, the narrator’s point of view is paramount. Machia­ velli’s amplification of the text gently underlines Davo’s func­ tion, thereby making the audience more acutely aware of the sense of story as well as of a storyteller.
Although Machiavelli persists in translating fabula faith­
fully, he is not above manipulating language-especially by relying on Tuscan idioms-in order to capture a Florentine au­ dience’s attention. The addition of the Italian equivalent of four-letter words occurs in both the original 1517-1518 ver­ sion and the one finished in 1520. His revisions of certain pas­ sages indicate hesitancy about how spicy he ought to be, but
he shows no reluctance to enliven the text scatologically. Fur­ thermore, he is adept at finding equivalents for Terence’s pol­ ished rhetoric. Aware that literary critics would be particularly attuned to this quality, because the Renaissance greatly admired Terence’s rhetorical skill, Machiavelli worked hard on this facet of his translation. His ability to come up with aural puns that highlight grammatically parallel or antithetical clauses is a measure of his success as a translator. Taking his cue from Terence, Machiavelli frequently resorts to figures of speech that emphasize repetition to achieve a play on words. Polyptoton, a reiteration of words derived from the same root, but with dif­ ferent endings or forms; paronomasia, a reiteration of words that sound alike but differ in meaning to create a pun; and antimetabole, a reversal in the order of words in a sentence that produces a reverse in logic, are among his favorite figures. It must be admitted, however, that Machiavelli is no match for Terence in the use of such rhetorical tropes.
By far the most felicitous example of Machiavelli’s use of
language combines this kind of wit with his skill at particu­ larizing and localizing the play so that it emerges from the Ro­ man past into the Florentine present. In the second scene of the first act in the Latin original, Simo berates Davus for being a knavishly poor guide and teacher for his son. Terence thereby accentuates through a negative example his thematic concern with the paternal role. His point is that a surrogate for a fa­ ther-and, by extension, a proper father-should teach the correct values to his son; thus he acts in an exemplary fashion and may, in the son, produce exemplary results. Davus plays dumb and replies, Davos sum, non Oedipus (v. 194). Connecting Simo with the Sphinx, whose enigmatic remarks Oedipus must decipher, would have brought a laugh from a Roman au­ dience. Machiavelli’s search for an equivalent is an interesting illustration of his witty response to the translator’s perennial headache of finding the proper word. Originally he wrote lo son Davo, non propheta vel non el /rate (”I’m Davo, not a prophet,
especially not the Frate”), and thus he took a direct jab at Fra Savonarola, whose prophetic powers had been proven to be se­ verely limited. (Although Charles VIII of France had in fact descended on Italy and wreaked havoc, Savonarola’s predictions of a Florence purified of all evil had failed ro materialize.) Flor­ entine audiences would have appreciated the irony involved. But by the time he came to write the 1520 version, Machiavelli had become more circumspect; he translates the line merely as lo son Davo non propheta. The audience is forced to supply any prophet it wishes, from David the prophet-king to, perhaps, Savonarola. Machiavelli consistently seeks to intensify the au­ dience’s involvement with his writing whether he writes for the stage or for the reader. Nevertheless, the line in the later ver­ sion probably would not get as much of a laugh as the line in the first version might.
The theme of the paternal role that Simo obliquely rein­ forces in this scene is one Panfilo announces broadly three scenes later in the opening line of his first appearance on stage
(I, 5). Machiavelli is prudently literal: E questo cosa umana?
E questo ofizio d’un padre? (“Is this a humane thing? Is this a father’s duty?”). He is railing against his father’s highhanded decision that, like it or not, he will marry Filomena. Machia­
velli painstakingly preserves Panfilo’s ironic expression of the theme fundamental to Terence. In fact, he delicately accentu­ ates it by tampering with the nature of the responsibility Pan­ filo accepts for Glicerio’s child. Terence has his hero say merely nam pollicitus sum suscepturum (v. 40 r; “for I’ve promised to ac­ knowledge the child”). Machiavelli’s perche io ho promesso d’ale­ varlo, through its use of the verb allevare, implies a stronger commitment on Panfilo’s part to raise and care for the child. Although the Greeks and Romans had an official ceremony during which the father decided whether a baby was to be brought up in the family or to be exposed, and the verb suscipio was frequently used in that context to signal the choice of keeping the child, the connotation of nurturing is greater in the Italian. Machiavelli’s choice of words emphasizes the ritual
aspect less and stresses the substantive, human contribution that the daily care of a child necessitates.
The theme of paternity reverberates sharply for Machiavelli. He is probably not as interested as Terence in sounding the in­ terior, psychological depths of the characters. But he is con­ cerned to create a trenchant analysis of two profound types of accountability. Both types inhere in relationships, but one ex­ ists between father and son and moves in a downward direc­ tion, whereas the other exists between son and father and moves upward. Consequently, the “growth” Panfilo undergoes in Andria is not so much that of a boy becoming a man but rather that of a youth coming to terms with the responsibilities of fatherhood. What Machiavelli, given his concerns for civic affairs, sees in this interaction can be expressed in terms of an analogy of vital significance. The analogy helps to clarify some of the reasons motivating the political Machiavelli to read Roman comedy with heightened interest. Just as a father is responsible for a family, so a leader is responsible for a city. Someone with true civic responsibility must see to it that the city nurtures its future leaders while they are still “sons” so that they, in turn, will have the proper values to instill in the citizenry they will eventually lead. Machiavelli saw in the Ro­ man paterfamilias an example of these principles and their ac­ knowledgment by society. It is no wonder, then, that Machia­ velli felt affinities with Roman comedy.
The conflict between the characters over their desires and
responsibilities comes to a head in the third scene of the last act as Simo chides Panfilo for what Simo believes to be actions tan­ tamount to a usurpation of the role of father without his sanc­ tion. Significantly, Cremete, also a spokesman for paternal au­ thority, closes the scene on a conciliatory note: “Even for a major crime, a father can go easy on the punishment.” By this line, Machiavelli deepens the audience’s understanding of the role of authority. Compassion, when appropriate, is a value that authority must know how to demonstrate. This is the mo­ ment-obvious to the dramatist-for the recognition scene.
Machiavelli does not disappoint us: Crito appears to provide the details necessary for a full reconciliation between father and son-and son and father. Thus, the play closes on an ap­ propriate, festive note with not only Panfilo getting Glicerio but Carino getting Filomena. The recognition scene in turn facilitates the long-awaited comedic resolution.
The ending of a Roman comedy conventionally seeks to break the stage illusion of reality and remind the audience of the essentially fictive nature of the play. To do so, one actor usually urges the others to return to the stage for a final set of speeches. Terence respects this convention; he ends the play with a simple appeal to the audience for applause, spoken by a singer-musician-actor. Machiavelli modifies the convention of the ending only slightly. He dispenses with the cantor, thereby throwing all the weight of the ending on Davo’s final speech. Davo urges the audience to go home, confident that all will be well in the ongoing lives of the characters as they return to their separate houses. Furthermore, “everything else that’s wrong will get fixed up inside too.” This alteration brings to light the full impact of the comedic resolution. Moreover, it puts the brunt of the responsibility for the final reconciliation squarely on the audience’s shoulders. The line “May God be with you; enjoy yourselves” is not in Terence; Machiavelli adds it to Davo’s speech in order to press the audience to attend to the comedic conventions. Davo exacts a commitment from the audience to replicate the harmony achieved on stage in their own lives. Thus, the play’s ending coordinates the values inher­ ent in comedy with those Machiavelli would like to see flour­ ishing in society.
Emphasizing values in this way suits Machiavelli’s tempera­
ment. First, the twist at the end accords with his conception of values and, second, it accords with how he believes values should be instilled. Consequently, comedy in general-and Andria in particular-is justified. Machiavelli will go on to pursue the values comedy asserts, not merely by translating them, but by creating them. In the process he will discover
that within the constraints of farce lie values that are even more temperamentally congenial than those he has encoun­ tered in comedy.

THE MANDRAKE
Machiavelli’s reputation as a playwright rests on The Mandrake. Evidence from manuscripts, printed books, and contemporary comments about various performances proves that the play was acclaimed during his lifetime. Yet for all that certainty, we do not know exactly when it was written. Scholars have suggested various dates for the composition of the play, from 1504, the play’s fictive date, to 1520. The more moderate of these voices would place the terminus a quo in the period between 1512 and 1520 because of evidence in the first printed edition. Guessing more narrowly, these voices would place it in the latter part of this period because of indications in an early manuscript of the play. What is now regarded as the first printed edition, in which the play is called Comedia di Callimaco: & di Lucretia, has no date. Nevertheless, the frontispiece provides a lead. It shows Chiron the centaur playing on a stringed instrument; in the center of the spiraled embellishment at the top of the orna­ mental border surrounding this image there seems to be a clumsy representation of six balls-the device of the Medici family. Thus, this edition was probably printed some time after the Medici returned to Florence, that is, after September 1512. An allusion in the fifth quatrain of the play’s prologue would also seem to indicate this period in Machiavelli’s life, one he refers elsewhere to as the post res perditas period. None of this evidence establishes precisely when the play was written, and we must therefore look elsewhere. In addition to our pre­ sumptive evidence, we possess a codex of the works of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Buried in it, and unknown to scholars until the 1960s, is a manuscript version of The Mandrake copied and duly dated in 1519.
The terminus ad quem provided by performance history brings
us closer to this date than to the earlier ones. As with Clizia, in fact, information about performances is more extensive and more precise than that from the printed editions or manu­ scripts. The excitement stirred up by a Florentine production of The Mandrake caused Pope Leo X, the former Giovanni de Medici, to insist that the same scenery and actors used in Flor­ ence be transported to his court in Rome. The evidence for this command performance is not datable, but a letter to Machia­ velli from a friend in Rome, dated April 26, 1520, refers to a forthcoming production of the play; it is generally agreed that this letter refers to the command performance. The evidence for subsequent performances, and thus for proof of the play’s popularity, is ample, although sixteenth-century Italian stan­ dards of success differ considerably from modern-day stan­ dards. There is a diary entry indicating that two performances were given in Venice during the Lenten carnival season in Feb­ ruary 1522. Vasari records that a performance, for which An­ drea del Sarto helped paint the sets, was the high point of an evening’s entertainment at a private party in Florence-prob­ ably late in 1524. If Guicciardini, Machiavelli’s friend and would-be political patron, had had his way-and had both he and Machiavelli not been preoccupied with foreign affairs at the time-there might have been a production in Faenza dur­ ing the carnival season of 1526. We know Machiavelli was anx­ ious for this performance to occur, and for it to be good, be­ cause he composed a canzone on a carpe diem theme for nymphs and shepherds to sing, rhymed a prologue to answer some of Guicciardini’s remarks about the play, and added four short can­ zoni to serve as intermezzos within it. Two of these songs were picked up from Clizia; the other two were written expressly for The Mandrake. Their dulcet musical line runs counter to the caustic irony with which they comment on the scene just com­ pleted. They are appropriately pungent additions to the text. One performance was given-once more in Venice-during the 1526 Lenten festivities. Thus, although no date has been established for the composition of the play, 15 19 seems to be
the likely year. The record of performances indicates that the play’s reputation spread widely and developed quickly through­ out Renaissance Italy.
The tightly constructed plot is one facet of the play’s excel­ lence. For all its lively characterization and dazzling speech, the play is thoroughly classical in its fidelity to the pattern prescribed by Donatus in his fourth-century commentary on Terence’s Andria. The prologue of The Mandrake is followed by a protasis, a statement of the situation, the necessary exposi­ tion, and the start of the action; an epitasis, in which the plot thickens; and a catastrophe, the final comedic resolution. The play opens with the young hero, a merchant named Callimaco, explaining to his servant Siro why he has recently returned to his native Florence after living in Paris for twenty years. Some of Callimaco’s comrades there, in discussing the relative virtues of French and Italian women, made extravagant claims for the beauty oflucrezia, the wife of a Florentine lawyer named Nicia Calfucci-claims that Callimaco has found to be more than justified. The balance sheet Callimaco draws up to evaluate his chances of amorous success with Lucrezia weighs, on the credit side, the stupidity of her husband, the compliant nature oflu­ crezia’s mother, Sostrata, and especially the couple’s desire for children, against such debits as Lucrezia’s reputation for virtue, her ability to rule her husband, and her remoteness from social interaction. Callimaco has cultivated a parasite, Ligurio, who in turn has wormed his way into Nicia’s good graces and is urg­ ing him to take his wife for treatment of her sterility to a warm springs resort, where it would be easier for Callimaco to meet her than in Florence. The first act ends with Ligurio hatching a conspiracy: Callimaco will pretend to be a doctor in order to recommend that the couple visit a certain spa.
In the second act, Ligurio has a better idea: Callimaco will
claim to be the creator of a potion, extracted from the man­ drake root (la mandragola), that will cure Lucrezia’s sterility. The only problem is that the first person to sleep with her after she has taken the draft will inevitably die within a week; there-
fore, a “sacrificial victim” must be found. Callimaco persuades Nicia that even the king of France has resorted to this strange expedient. Nevertheless, as Nicia quickly points out, the task of prevailing upon Lucrezia to go along with this scheme will be a formidable one. Ligurio proposes to overcome Lucrezia’s reluctance through the assistance of her confessor Friar Timo­ teo. Ligurio is confident that the friar can be persuaded to join the conspiracy by “me, money, our villainy and theirs”-and that Lucrezia’s mother will prove willing to be the final link in the seduction plan. These are the kinds of friends surrounding Lucrezia, and it is not an accident that her name recalls Livy’s story of the Roman matron who committed suicide after Col­ latinus raped her, rather than live a life of shame (I, 57-59). Sostrata opens the third act by noting in Machiavellian fash­ ion that “the wise person chooses the lesser of two evils.” Hence, because she wants her daughter to become pregnant, she will bring Lucrezia to the friar. Thus, she exemplifies, as will her daughter, an aspect of Machiavelli’s notion of virtu that consists of readily adapting one’s reactions to fit new situations. Meanwhile, Nicia and Ligurio visit the confessor, after Ligurio requests Nicia to play deaf, in order to keep him from spoiling the delicate negotiations by his stupidity. Ligurio first estab­ lishes with an invented story that, given the proper bribe, the friar can be enlisted in any cause. Once the friar is sure of his remuneration, he never balks at any request. To Lucrezia the friar proffers an enticingly fallacious deduction: Because “your end is to fill a seat in Heaven and to make your husband happy . . . there is no more sin . . . in this case than there is in eating meat on Wednesday.” Lucrezia, little convinced by all the casuistry, gives in, imploring “God and Our Lady” to save her from harm. Nicia declares himself to be “the happiest man in the world,” while the friar predicts, “If I am not deceived,
the doctor is going to give you a fine young son.”
The fourth act reveals Callimaco striking the conventional Petrarchan posture of the lover in the throes of antithetical emotions. Throughout the play he has been ceding his ini-
tiative and control to Ligurio, and he was entirely absent from the crucial third act. Ligurio now informs him of the success of their conspiracy; all Callimaco has to do is to put up the re­ quired amount of money. Ligurio will even get the friar to pre­ tend to be Dr. Callimaco, so that the real one, disguised, can be “caught” and then introduced into Lucrezia’s bed. From the friar’s soliloquy we learn how he has rationalized his involve­ ment in this affair: “I can console myself with the thought that when a thing concerns many people, many people have to take care of it.” Once Callimaco has been captured, the friar can appear alone in the last scene to pique our imaginations about the bedroom activities and to solicit from us a willing suspen­ sion of disbelief at the play’s failure to maintain the unity of time: “And you, dear audience, don’t say that we are not ob­ serving the classical unities; you had better stick around, be­ cause nobody is going to sleep tonight, so the acts will not be interrupted by the passage of time.” (From the perspective of literary history, this is an interesting admonition. Aristotle’s “unities” were not to become widely known in Italy until r 548, with the commentary on the Poetics by Francesco Robortello.) As our attention turns to the bedroom in the last act, the flavor of The Mandrake changes. The humor in the events de­ scribed thus far centers mostly on values we customarily asso­ ciate with comedy; now elements from farce take over the play’s comedic energy. Timoteo’s opening soliloquy sets an arch tone through his preoccupation with lack of sleep: “I couldn’t close my eyes all night long, I have been so eager to hear how Calli­ maco and the others have made out.” Nicia delivers an ironi­ cally voyeuristic description of how the “captive” was prepared and examined, before Nicia, as he puts it, “dragged him after me into the bedroom . . . put him in bed . . . and poked my nose into how things were coming.” When Callimaco then re­ counts his own version to Ligurio, he quotes Lucrezia’s speech of submission to him: “Since your cleverness, my husband’s stupidity, my mother’s silliness, and my confessor’s guile have led me to do what I would never have done by myself, I have to
judge that this comes from a divine providence that willed it so … I therefore take you for my lord, my master, and my guide What my husband has willed for this one night, he
shall have for good and ever.” The play ends with everyone invited back to Nicia’s house for a meal, an invitation that sets a tone of congeniality typical for the end of a comedy. Nicia even provides Callimaco with a house key, so that he “can get back in” whenever he feels like it. Callimaco replies that he “will make use of it whenever the occasion arises.”
If the choice of words is not enough to shift the tone to that of farce, then Friar Timoteo’s final action must suffice, for he officially sanctions the young couple’s adultery. The friar, who has been concerned exclusively with the external forms of reli­ gion, provides-if not blasphemes-the purificatio postpartum rite of the Roman Catholic church that would typically wel­ come Lucrezia back into communion after childbirth.
Despite all the appearances of comedic resolution and the aura of comedic harmony that permeate the ending of The Mandrake, Machiavelli actually resorts to alternative literary conventions to convey his concern for society-be it Florentine or Italian. His manipulation of these conventions, rather than the political allegory that some interpreters have found in it, defines the uniqueness of this play. He realizes that the values asserted by the customary ending of a Roman comedy can be obtained through different catalysts. Before turning to the re­ sources in Roman comedy, perhaps we should recall the ending of Andria for comparison. There, the standard comedic devices reinforce the broader social resolution occurring on stage in which the audience vicariously participates. Hence, at the end of the play, what Terence believes to be the stable virtues of the Roman social ethic are reaffirmed by the restoration of family harmony. The euphoria of reconciliation between father and son, culminating in two marriages-thereby linking the main plot to the subplot-also reminds the audience of the austere responsibilities any paterfamilias faces. Whether on the family level or the societal level, Roman comedy asserts the need for
unity within the body politic so that these duties can be dis­ charged with all due probity.
But surely one must ask what is the nature of a body poli­ tic in which a Friar Timoteo, a Ligurio-even a Callimaco and a compromised Lucrezia-are permitted to triumph? Not only are they allowed to do so, but it would seem that the audience is expected to endorse the society that is to result offstage from the harmony generated onstage during the play. If the audience refuses to examine this fundamental issue, then Machiavelli will have failed. The moral justification behind The Mandrake will be vitiated unless the audience questions the ethical prem­ ises upon which the comedic resolution is based. To encourage the audience to consider these issues, Machiavelli reverts to two durable dramatic techniques. Satire and farce become the hallmarks of his success in this play.
The satiric vein of The Mandrake is clear; the play roots out social corruption and boldly holds it up for our scorn. It should not be surprising that there is a remarkable similarity between the objects of Machiavelli’s satire and those in writings of the classical moralists, Renaissance humanists, or even eighteenth­ century satirists. Laughter is the fundamental weapon in the satirist’s arsenal, and, in the case of Nicia, the satiric butt is often identical with the comic butt. Our laughter at him or at any character who falls short of the ideal is not tantamount to our winking at the evil in the world of the play. On the con­ trary, our laughter and our ridicule jog us into realizing a sig­ nificant aspect of the theatrical experience: that the character under scrutiny lacks an adequate knowledge of himself or her­ self and, by extension, we too may lack this self-awareness.
Machiavelli’s satire makes this absence obvious in the por­ traits of a corrupt friar like Timoteo or even of a novitiate in bawdry like Sostrata, because both of these characters function smoothly only behind the veil of sanctity. The anticlerical sat­ ire, particularly in the scenes with Friar Timoteo and Lucrezia, is keenly felt. Ultimately, it is intellectual chicanery that galls Machiavelli. He regards the sophistry represented by the per-
version of the power of reason in Ligurio and Friar Timoteo as an affront to mankind. Callimaco, in his transports of passion, is only partially humorous; for Machiavelli’s purpose, it is more important that he, too, has betrayed his rational capacities. Nicia is condemned for similar failures. Someone who is gull­ ible enough to trust in a magic potion drawn from the root of a mandrake is irrational enough to be a danger to the commu­ nity. Moreover, Nicia’s pedantry represents a threat to society because he has misconstrued the proper use of education.
Despite the many recognizable types in the cast of The Man­ drake, we are not in the presence of Ben Jonson’s typical kind of comedy of humours. Because we sense that satire for satire’s sake is not the sole reason why Machiavelli puts his characters on stage, we might be tempted to argue that his characters, each with a recognizable satiric valence, exist as mere accesso­ ries to the basic love plot of romantic comedy involving Calli­ maco and Lucrezia. But Machiavelli proceeds more subtly than that. First, he draws on the viciousness of the alazon or im­ poster figure, a character type basic to Greek and Roman com­ edy, so that he may form Ligurio, Friar Timoteo, and Sostrata into compliant agents in his romantic intrigue. Then, he de­ cides to exaggerate their function as types; given their osten­ sible roles, their speeches gradually become more intensely at variance with how they should be acting. Machiavelli height­ ens this sense of disjunction between words and deeds in the soliloquies he assigns to Callimaco, Timoteo, and Nicia in the last two acts. These characters aggressively elbow their way into our consciousness; we become more aware of them not only because of what they say but also because of how fre­ quently they say it. Although they may have started out carry­ ing the play’s satiric weight, that is not the function Machia­ velli wants them to fulfill by the time they appear in the last act. Rather than merely serving the plot’s romantic interest or its satiric impulse, they become the fulcrum upon which rests the play’s delicate balance between comedy and farce. Their highly colored speech and even their very presence as carica-
ture vividly shift the play to one or the other of these modes. The Mandrake toys with our delight at watching delightful, ro­ mantic comedy-will boy get girl?-and with our mirth at watching raucous, boisterous farce. After all, for Callimaco to get Lucrezia, Nicia must be cuckolded and the two lovers must agree to establish their adulterous relationship. Is there any other mode for dealing with these subjects except farce? Thus, elements from farce are the second main dramatic technique that Machiavelli uses to urge his audience to scrutinize the nature of the social fabric formed at the end of the play.
A brief look at farce as a game may help us appreciate how Machiavelli achieves the effects of his final scene. In his chapter on farce in The Life of the Drama, Eric Bentley makes two points that are relevant to this discussion. First, he challenges the ideal embodied in Rudyard Kipling’s couplet “Teach us Delight in simple things, I And Mirth that has no bitter springs” (“The Children’s Song”). Second, with a long glance at Freud on wit and humor, he argues that aggression constitutes an essential ingredient of farce. Given what we know about Machiavelli’s sense of humor and the oblique perspective from which he views most matters, we might predict that he would be moved more by “mirth” than “delight.” Hence, while we might an­ ticipate the delight of a romantic comedy during the first scene of The Mandrake, we should not be surprised when the mirth of farce snares our attention before the first act is completed. Swiftly and deftly, characters and themes aggressively foist themselves upon us. Their farcical boisterousness may make us laugh; their satiric vitriol may make us think-or laugh in uneasy embarrassment. Whether the evidence comes from his life or from his works, it is doubly clear that Machiavelli is poignantly aware that the “bitter springs” of mirth are unavoidable.
Living unheeded in the frustrating solitude of his country
estate at Sant’ Andrea, Machiavelli is prepared to be both im­ patient and angry with the world. Yet The Mandrake proves that although his mood is one of desperation, it is not one of
despair. Further, there is an escape from this maze of compli­ cated and frequently polar sets of emotional and intellectual directions. Because Machiavelli has a desperate faith that his audience will find it, he does not give in to what we might see as warranted despair. Rather, he channels whatever aggression he may feel, in his neglected isolation, into the aggression in­ herent in farce. Adultery was never achieved through passivity. The audience has no alternative but to react to the surging en­ ergy it feels swirling about the stage-not only throughout the play but especially in that highly charged atmosphere of the final “reconciliation.” Because Machiavelli systematically doles out farcical treats to the audience and tantalizes it with deceptions, from practical jokes to mental subterfuge, the au­ dience quickly realizes that it must delve into the ostensible reality of each character, of each situation. Hence, Machiavelli’s use of farce has prepared the audience to unmask the final de­ ception: the last scene.
Comedy proceeds differently. Bentley notes, illustrating his point with Tartuffe, that comedy nurtures appearances too. In­ deed, it hoards them until the climax; then, and only then, can it tell all. Comedy, therefore, seeks to postpone its striptease of understanding until the final moments of the play. For this rea­ son, The Mandrake is not a good representative of the comic mode. Nothing is unveiled at the end. On the contrary, every­ thing is dressed up in garments of reconciliation and resolu­ tion. Without Machiavelli’s meticulous preparations for expos­ ing deception through the elements of farce, the audience might well accept the ending at face value. As Bentley puts it, because farce shatters and reshatters appearances, the audience is alert. It will challenge Machiavelli’s version of the happy ending. Because it has been prepared by farce, the audience is ready to accept the invitation to go home (“as for you, dear audience, don’t expect us to come back out again. The service is a long one”). There, it may construct a resolution to the play that can only occur offstage, in people’s minds. If and when it does so, and in this lies Machiavelli’s optimism, the determina-
tion not to permit the resolution of art to become the actuality oflife may be what saves Machiavelli, Florence, Italy-indeed, humanity. It is the art of farce that triumphs over the art of comedy.

CLIZIA
Clizia is the last of Machiavelli’s plays, and also the least re­ garded by audiences and critics. As with The Mandrake, a manuscript helps to establish the date of composition: Quite recently a beautiful manuscript of the play was found in En­ gland. It is surmised that this was a presentation copy, perhaps arranged for by Machiavelli himself, intended as a gift for Lorenzo Ridolfi on the occasion of his betrothal to Maria di Fi­ lippo Strozzi in r 526. The information about the first per­ formance is even ore precise. During his fifties Machiavelli carried on an extended affair with an actress known to her con­ temporaries as Barbara Fiorentina and to history as Barbera Raffacani Salutati. It is believed that he fulfilled a promise to her by accepting an opportunity provided by a rich Florentine politician. He wanted to outdo the success of the private Flor­ entine performance of The Mandrake in r 524 in order to cele­ brate his return to active civic life after a brief exile. Instead of mounting a second production of The Mandrake, Machiavelli dashed off Clizia. (This assumption helps to account for the difference in quality between the two plays.) The festivities for what is presumed to be the first performance, January 13, r 52 5, were garish and raucous in the extreme. They aroused the indignation of contemporaries, but the fame of the play “inspired everyone with the desire to see it,” so that “all the leading citizens” of Florence as well as “the highest ranking members of the government then in power” came to the perfor­ mance-one that, according to Vasari, “was very pleasing to everyone.”
The play opens with a canzone in praise of the story’s “har­
mony,” sung by a nymph and shepherds. As it turns out, the
harmony Machiavelli builds into the comedic resolution of this play raises even more doubts about the nature of order than does the harmony that closes The Mandrake. The ensuing prose prologue nimbly alludes to the play’s sources. The Clizia is in­ spired by-and a few speeches are actually translated from­ Casina by Plautus, a Roman comedy frequently imitated by later sixteenth-century Italian dramatists. Plautus, in turn, had gone to Greek New Comedy for his model, to a play known now only by its title and author: The Lot-Drawers (Kleroumenoi) by Diphilus of Sinope, produced in Athens between 332 and
320 B.C. Machiavelli alludes to this fact in his prologue, not­ ing that mankind is always the same-an idea that he repeats at the beginning of both The Prince and The Discottrses. His comic premise, therefore, is that what once happened in Athens should now have occurred in Florence. The play soon estab­ lishes as its fictive date r 506, during the carnival season.
After the speaker of the prologue has introduced the main characters, the curtain rises on Cleandro revealing his love for Clizia to his friend Palamede, a figure, like Sosia in Andria, whose sole function is to permit Cleandro to fill us in on the background and explain how Clizia became part of the family. The unexpected barrier to his hopes of marrying Clizia is his own father, Nicomaco, who has also fallen in love with her­ so desperately that he has arranged “to marry her off to some­ one who would be willing to share her with him afterward,” namely, the family servant Pirro. Meanwhile, Sofronia has countered her husband’s plan by proposing Eustachio, the steward of the family’s farm. Thus, what initially is a father­ son conflict soon becomes one between husband and wife, with servants as pawns. Today is to be Pirro and Clizia’s wedding day; therefore, whatever means may exist to foil Nicomaco, they must be brought to bear quickly. After the first in a series of plaintive soliloquies by Cleandro, Eustachio arrives and pre­ pares to aid the young hero.
Nicomaco appears on stage in the second act. After he tries to bolster Pirro’s resolve to marry, Sofronia bustles on stage to
berate her husband. She informs us, in a soliloquy, how ca­ pricious and irresponsible her once upright husband has be­ come since he fell in love. Her speech incidentally provides an epitome of middle-class life and values that, in its directness and economy of language, surpasses any analogue in Terence, whose views are similar: her sentiments are certainly not found in Plautus. Throughout this act Machiavelli demonstrates his control of Florentine idiom, but especially in the final scene­ an exchange of insults between Pirro and Eustachio that sur­ passes the Plaurine scene it imitates.
As the third act opens, father and son openly confront each other. Nicomaco resents the threat to his authority that Sofro­ nia’s plan represents: “I intend to be the master in my own house …. Itis a sad house where the hen crows louder than the cock.” From the perspective of the play’s ending, it is clear that such petulance works not only to motivate Nicomaco but also to mobilize the play’s comedic energy. During this act this energy is going to gather enough steam so that it can even­ tually “right” the “wrong” Nicomaco laments, yet not in the way he anticipates. The lovesick Cleandro, who is still conceal­ ing his real feelings for Clizia from his unsympathetic mother, soliloquizes at length about the pain of having a father as a rival. Nicomaco proposes in exasperation that Clizia’s husband should be decided by drawing lots. Sofronia agrees to let chance end the dispute, and the act ends with some sexual punning as Nicomaco and Pirro appear to have won the day.
Act 4 proves that Nicomaco counted his chickens before he knew what plans Sofronia had hatched. Cleandro’s lamentation on the fickleness of fortune has strong reminiscences of the twenty-fifth chapter of The Prince. He has enough presence of mind, however, to overhear the arrangements that Nicomaco and Pirro are making: Nicomaco has leased a house from his neighbor Damone; Pirro will leave the marriage bed under the cover of darkness, and let the eager Nicomaco take over. In response to Pirro’s concern lest Nicomaco be unable to get his “weapon cocked,” the old man lets us know that he “will take
a dose of a potion called satyrion … that would rejuvenate a man of ninety, let alone a man of seventy like me.” Through a servant named Doria, a forerunner of Dorine in Moliere’s Tar­ tuffe, we learn that Sofronia will counterattack, with the help of another servant, Siro: “They took our servant’s clothes off him, dressed Clizia in them, and put Siro in Clizia’s; and they are going to have Siro take Clizia’s place as the bride.” Doria keeps Nicomaco at a safe distance by saying that the maddened Clizia is brandishing a knife and threatening to kill him and Pirro rather than marry the latter. Because of the homosexual twist to the bed trick that Sofronia plays, she feels free to set things up as if they were all going to turn out according to Nicomaco’s plans. The act closes as Nicomaco breathlessly exits to take his place in the marriage bed, and as the lines from the canzone ring, if not in his ears, at least in ours: “How gentle is deception … {It} soothes the blissful dupes we have befriended.”
As in the final act of The Mandrake, the crucial nocturnal activities occur offstage. They are artfully recounted by one of the principals, Nicomaco himself. In this play, the audience is meant less to approve of the account than to laugh at it; the laughter is at Nicomaco’s expense, for he is in tears throughout his burlesque tale of chagrin. Damone finally offers sensible, if unwelcome, advice: “Place yourself completely in Sofronia’s hands, and tell her that from now on you will do whatever she says about both Clizia and yourself.” Nicomaco agrees to relin­ quish all his authority to Sofronia, “as long as nobody knows about this business.” She, in turn, will happily take over Clizia’s affairs. There remains only the question of whether or not Cleandro may marry her. Because Clizia’s birth is still clouded in mystery, both parents agree that Cleandro cannot be paired off with her just yet. After Sofronia tells Cleandro about this distressing decision, he speaks his last soliloquy, in which he frets about his fortune. At that timely point, Clizia’s long-lost father, the Neapolitan nobleman Ramonda, appears. Touched at the honor and respect shown his daughter, he read-
ily agrees to the match with Cleandro. Confirming her control of the situation, Sofronia shoos everyone offstage, then turns to us: “And you, dear audience, can go back home, because we shall not leave the house again until we have arranged this new wedding. And this time it will be man and wife, not man and man, like Nicomaco’s!” As we ready ourselves to obey her, we hear in the closing song an enigmatic remark about there being, beneath “the comic leaven,” other truths too numerous to delve into right now: “So, kind audience, we pray/ You reap the fruit you merit from our play.”
Phrasing the issue in these terms puts the audience on its guard. Shall we rise to the challenge or not? What, in fact, is the nature of the challenge? The meaning attached to the “fruit” and to what we may “merit” is not immediately appar­ ent. What is apparent is the dramatist’s ultimate frustration at never being able to be sure of controlling the audience’s re­ sponses. It shines through this transparent invitation to do our own delving, even though we may unearth the wrong mate­ rial-or even reject the invitation.
Despite the early stage history of the play, most audiences have refused to enter into any kind of give and take with Clizia. Perhaps Machiavelli knew that it was less polished than The Mandrake and tried to compensate for his lack of success by passing the responsibility for interpreting the play onto the au­ dience during the last few minutes. Or the issue here may be that Machiavelli has adhered less strictly not only to the values inherent in Roman comedy, which he followed in Andria, but also to those inherent in Aristophanic comedy, which he al­ luded to in The Mandrake.
The defects of Clizia result from an imperfect blend of liter­ ary traditions. The interpretive signals sent the audience are clear, but the elements borrowed from the two comic tradi­ tions send confusing messages. Thus, they interfere with the reception of those very signals Machiavelli entreats his audi­ ence to heed. If Nicomaco is the butt of the humor, with all the apparatus of farce working throughout the play to make us
ridicule him, then it is hard at the end suddenly to accept him-as Sofronia somehow is able to do-with all the under­ standing and tolerance that is part of the comedic resolution. Machiavelli’s decision to imitate Casina implies a realization that the risks he faces in building toward his ending are analo­ gous to those faced by Plautus. Plautus, too, was trying to maintain an equal emphasis on farce and ethics. Because Plau­ tus frequently uses the former to reinforce the latter, these two aspects of comedy are not mutually exclusive. On the one hand, Plautus is fully aware of the farcical elements in Kleroumenoi; he refers to them obliquely in his prologue. Long before he began writing comedies, the Roman taste for farce had been devel­ oped and richly exploited by the native Atellan farces, with their lively use of slapstick, obscenity, and typical comic butts. Consequently, Plautus could be selective about what farcical elements he borrowed from the Greek tradition-whether from Aristophanic or New Comedy. On the other hand, Casina examines the nature of authority in a Roman family; by exten­ sion, it also explores the theme of social authority. To present this theme successfully, Plautus needs to be in complete con­ trol of all constituent elements. The example of Aristophanes, and perhaps even Diphilus, proves to him that thematic mate­ rial like homosexuality, transvestism, the generation gap, the wedding ceremony turned upside down, and the conflict be­ tween husband and wife can be handled in a farce. But a bal­ ance must be maintained so that the farcical treatment does not outweigh the ethical and social values the play is designed to articulate. That the resolution to the authority dilemma should be provided by the maternal figure is, for a Roman au­ dience, highly ironic. But that a resolution exists, whatever its source, is vital to the final effects-be they social, comic, or
both-that Plautus seeks to create.
Because so much haste was involved in the first performance of Clizia, we cannot be absolutely certain that Machiavelli actually considered the problems inherent in working with Casina in this light. He may merely have had to produce a text

quickly. If we give him the benefit of the doubt, we can see that Plautus’s play might prompt in a would-be imitator the kinds of reflections we have been considering. Furthermore, for Machiavelli to create a play consistent with the ethical and so­ cial principles that animate Andria and The Mandrake, he must tread carefully the line between farce and ethics. The artistic problems he faces in adapting Casina parallel those Plautus must have confronted when adapting Kleroumenoi. Machiavelli seeks to maintain the necessary balance between farce and eth­ ics by radically altering the characterization of Nicomaco and Sofronia. The changes are designed to govern our interpreta­ tion of the ending. Nicomaco’s analogue in Plautus is the cata­ lyst for the humor, less because of what he does than because of what other people are forced to do in response to him. Machia­ velli retains this catalytic function, but he makes Nicomaco less obsessive. Nicomaco’s passion, furthermore, is heterosex­ ual in nature, not, as in the Plautine prototype, homosexual. What is important for Machiavelli is that as an old man in love, Nicomaco is ridiculous. Because he is enslaved by his passion, he is unable to rule; his household is divided, not united. This much can also be said for Plautus’s character. But Machiavelli permits Nicomaco an aura of dignity-albeit tar­ nished-that Plautus never grants his protagonist. This air of nobility becomes a crucial factor in engaging our sympathy­ or grudging affection-for him at the end of the play.
It is significant that Sofronia attributes this dignity to him during her first soliloquy (II, 4). Nothing like this speech ex­ ists in Plautus, whose matrona figure is considerably more shrewish, and hence less sympathetic. Because Sofronia’s final act of reconciliation with Nicomaco arises from her own virtii, it is essential that she appear-not only at the end but also throughout the play-as someone with compassion and under­ standing. Thus we are meant to interpret her forgiveness of Nicomaco as the result of a genuine concern for him, as well as a change in his character, wrought through her corrective virtii, that is as potentially great for him as it is for us. For

many people in the audience, this realization and acceptance will be impossible, because the signs leading to it are blurred. Sofronia clearly articulates Machiavelli’s moral, ethical, and so­ cial meaning, but the means by which the audience is led to accept this position are not handled deftly.
Perhaps Machiavelli is less successful with this play because his intent at the end of Clizia runs counter to his aim at the end of The Mandrake. The motivating force behind the earlier play is farce. As we have seen, the play permits, even encour­ ages, a feeling of vicarious irresponsibility while the audience savors the delicious ironies of the finale. If the audience reflects on the reasons for its laughter, it may gradually become aware that something is amiss-for example, that each person on stage participating in the comic resolution is, basically, a comic butt. At this point, and only at this point, can the audience resolve this situation through its own active and clear thinking. Machiavelli chooses a potentially less risky solution to the question of comic harmony at the end of Clizia. Again, farce plays a strong role in making people laugh, but the ending ap­ pears to be much more like the customary one of comedy. Sofronia rakes over. Into the comedic resolution she thrusts concepts related to sophrosyne, the Greek word for temperance and moderation from which her name is derived. Sophron means literally ‘soundness of mind’ and refers to a mastery and a self­ control that typify her character and her actions throughout the play. Like Penelope and Andromache, two Greek heroines with this virtue, Sofronia is a good, even exemplary, wife because she is fully aware of herself. Thus, she acts in accordance with her nature and position in life. Because she is self-fulfilling, both in name and in action, she is the model citizen. Hence, she is assigned the speech that reminds Nicomaco of all he is not. It is perfectly right, from an ethical and social point of view, that she does so. But from the point of view of the audi­ ence’s enjoyment, the laughter as the curtain falls carries with it bemusement. Machiavelli hopes that the laughter at the end of Clizia will be tempered by an awareness of the complexities

of the everyday world. The laughter he seeks to elicit is rooted in a tolerance of perplexity, indeed a tolerance of its inevitable impingement upon moments of enjoyment. It is a laughter that accepts the loss of the luxury of a simple response-even to something funny. Machiavelli trusts that the humor of Clizia will prepare the audience for the final resolution because he sees this humor rooted in practical experience and therefore immediately pertinent to alert members of his audience. What Machiavelli wants is the laughter of comedy, not of farce.
Unfortunately, here Machiavelli inspires the laughter of farce. All the lasciviousness and voyeuristic pleasure of The Mandrake exist in Clizia. In fact, because of their shocking quality, they might even be said to be more intensely present in Clizia. Once these emotions have been elicited from the audience, it is not easy to submerge and repress them. Through an emphasis on Sofronia’s soundness, Machiavelli tries to transmute them into a more acceptable representation, but he fails. While the play titillates us on one level, on another level it seeks our ac­ tive support for Sofronia’s triumphant assertion of control. Fur­ thermore, we must respond on both levels at once; we cannot contemplate these issues at our leisure and in our privacy. Our public participation-in the theater for all to see-in theap­ proval of reunion reinforces our civic sense. But it destroys our appreciation and enjoyment of the story. Taking his cue from Sofronia’s assertion of control, Machiavelli proceeds to control us. In Clizia Machiavelli sacrifices art for society. In The Man­ drake he celebrates both art and society-to the detriment of neither.

CONCLUSION
A letter written to Francesco Vettori on January 3 r, r 5 r 5, be­ fore Machiavelli began to write plays, according to the view of most scholars, is a significant document for any assessment of what issues were on his mind and of how he presented them. During the final twelve years of his life, neither his attitude

toward the major philosophical issues nor his style for convey­ ing these attitudes remained exactly the same. Nevertheless, this letter suggests why dramatic writing might be a mode of expression more conducive to his needs at this time in his life:
Whoever was to see our letters, my honorable friend, and saw the differences in them, might be very astonished, because it would seem to him that sometimes we are serious men, totally dedicated to great matters, and that no thought could leave our heads that had not pro­ bity and grandeur in it. But then, turning the page, it would seem to him that those same men were frivolous, fickle, and lewd-dedi­ cated to vanity. This way of carrying on, although it may seem repre­ hensible to some, seems laudable to me, because we are imitating nature, which is variable; whoever imitates nature cannot be blamed. Although we customarily have this variety in separate letters, this time I want to practice it in a single one, as you will see if you read the other side. Now, clear your throat.
In the realm of politics, it has generally been assumed that Machiavelli’s views are best explained as a blending of a knowl­ edge of the classics with experience from the modern world; or, as he puts it in the dedicatory letter to The Prince, “I have found nothing among my resources that I cherish or value as much as my knowledge of the deeds of great men, learned from wide experience of recent events and a constant reading of classical authors.” The ancients were a vital stimulus to him. Thus, as The Discourses would seem to substantiate, he belongs squarely among the Renaissance thinkers and writers who be­ lieved that the cultural rebirth they were experiencing resulted directly from a revival of antiquity. Yet what he says to Vettori seems to imply a different priority: Anyone imitating nature cannot be blamed, for nature is, in a word, “variable.” Because nature is also profuse, it is not odd to have the ridiculous (sex, lust, and vanity) juxtaposed with the sublime (“great matters” of “probity and grandeur,” that is, the rarefied realm of poli­ tics). On the contrary, such contrast is quite normal because variety and multiplicity define nature; by imitating her, Vet-
tori and Machiavelli are only doing what is right and natural. But if Machiavelli agrees to this kind of imitation in his pri­ vate correspondence, is there sanction for such a process in his political and historical writings?
To ask this question is to wonder at the same time why Machiavelli turns to cornedy between r 5 r 5 and r 52 7, a period when he is also producing some of his major theoretical and analytical treatises. An answer may be found through an anal­ ogy with the visual art of his time. The art of this period underwent a “change,” according to Giorgio Vasari in his Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. With some fifty years of perspective, Vasari looks back on the achievements of Mi­ chelangelo; he is convinced that Michelangelo is the supreme ruler among artists because he surpasses not only his quattro­ cento predecessors, “who had almost conquered Nature,” but also the artists from antiquity, “who had unquestionably con­ quered Nature.” The accuracy of this judgment is unimpor­ tant, but its assumptions are crucial. In Vasari’s estimation Michelangelo’s incontrovertible artistic prominence marks a significant development in the history of art. Michelangelo is unique because he welds the previously bifurcated sources of artistic inspiration: nature and antiquity. At the very time Mi­ chelangelo is in the process of achieving these results, Machia­ velli is at work on his comedies.
What Vasari maintains occurs in art suggests the following analogy with Machiavelli. His serious political and historical works reflect his profound commitment to the values of antiq­ uity. But as he acknowledges to Vettori, he is conscious both intellectually and emotionally of harboring another quality, namely, a profound personal commitment to the values of nature. Thus his plays constitute a singular avowal: his will­ ingness and ability to create an art that can combine, and hence contain, a commitment both to nature and to antiquity. Given the terms of this analogy, then, the surface of his plays represents his commitment to nature, while his reliance on the
comic tradition-certainly on Plautus and Terence, and pos­ sibly Aristophanes-demonstrates his commitment to antiq­ uity. His turning to a form that could subsume nature and an­ tiquity tacitly implies that such works as The Prince, The Discourses, The Art of War, and The Florentine Histories could not. Thus his letter to Vettori justifies the practice of comedy as a means to achieve this goal. Let us go and do likewise.
James B. Atkinson
‌TRANSLATOR’S NOTE ON
THE WOMAN FROM ANDROS

Translating a translation poses special problems for the scholar. To whom is the second translator primarily responsible-to the original author or to the first translator? If a reader has selected a collection of Machiavelli’s plays, then the obvious assumption is that Machiavelli is the focus of the reader’s interest. Hence, it would follow that if there is a translation in that collection, the translator’s first responsibility ought to be to rendering Machia­ velli’s text faithfully and readably. But in the case of Andria, the fact that the original play is by Terence shifts the balance of responsibility. Historians of the theater generally attribute more literary distinction to Terence than to Machiavelli, and thus would give greater attention to the older author’s work. One solution to the problem of translating Machiavelli’s ver­ sion of Andria might be to supplement the translation with a scrupulous accounting of all Machiavelli’s conscious, and even unconscious, textual alterations. If a discussion of the decisions that went into the translating process complemented the trans­ lation, then the reader would be in a better position to evaluate the issues of responsibility and loyalty. This would not, how­ ever, be a welcome solution on at least two counts. First, it would produce a lopsided annotation section and thus work against the editors’ aim of delighting and entertaining the
reader. Relishing Machiavelli’s joy at updating a Roman play for a Florentine audience is hard to do in an edition that de­ flects the interest in the text to cumbersome, detailed annota­ tions about choices of diction. Second, in accordance with the Horatian formula, learning from someone else’s remarks about whether or not a given alteration is conscious or unconscious, or even good or bad, is not necessarily a simple matter. In­ structive objectivity may cede to personal interpretation.
My particular conflict arises when I consider that what I am producing in Andria is more a text for reading than a script for acting. This fact sharply contrasts my translation of Andria with the translations of The Mandrake and Clizia included in this volume. Although my preference would be to produce a sprightly script, that goal is better served by translating Terence’s Latin directly-not through an intermediary. Conse­ quently, I conceive of my primary obligation as providing the reader with a readable text of Machiavelli’s translation. Fur­ ther, since what he wrote was intended to be an acting version, my secondary aim is to produce a translation that comes as close as possible to something that would sound right on stage. This objective must perforce fall short of realization. The fact that Terence wrote first is an influence that produces anxiety for both Machiavelli and me; neither one of us can avoid showing him some respect. Machiavelli’s version of Andria permits the reader to judge how he relieves himself of his anxiety and ren­ ders his homage. Acknowledging that my first obligation is to capture the flavor of Machiavelli, not Terence, is my means of freeing myself from Terence’s haunting presence. But it must be obvious that I am not completely absolved of responsibility to Terence. At any rate, knowing his play better is an advan­ tage, even for readers to whom Machiavelli is paramount. Machiavelli’s text is merely a screen through which Terence’s play may be glimpsed, but not studied. When we read Machia­ velli’s Andria, what we actually are scrutinizing is a fledgling playwright in the process of cutting his dramatic teeth. The sense of completeness that such observation allows us is the
THE WOMAN FROM ANDROS 37

raison d’etre for including Andria in this edition in the first place.
In my translation of his translation, I believe that I can best
fulfill my responsibility to Machiavelli as novice by allowing him enough latitude so that his choices of specific words and idioms may range freely. To satisfy my obligation to the reader, I have effected a compromise based on the solution suggested above. Thus, some of the more salient examples of Machia­ velli’s lively use of idiom and of his divergence from strict word-for-word translation are discussed either in the Introduc­ tion or in the Notes. The guidelines I followed during the ac­ tual translation include some additions to and deletions from his text. The additions are mainly in the form of attempts to retain the bite of Machiavelli’s idioms. Terence’s Latin is ele­ gant, but not without a sense of spirited immediacy. Because no translator can render all the idioms of the original-be it in Latin or Italian-I have tried to keep a rough count of Machia­ velli’s idioms and to stay within that range in my translation. Hence, an idiom may exist in English where its Italian equiva­ lent is not idiomatic. The reverse is also true. Furthermore, Machiavelli’s Italian generally uses more slang than does Ter­ ence’s Latin; at the risk of producing a translation of Machia­ velli subject to the vagaries of slang, I’ve tried to find some slang equivalent. What has been removed are some of the doublets common in Renaissance prose, some of the causative words (“so that,” “thus”) frequent in Italian, and some unnec­ essary expletives (usually “oh”).
One final point concerns the text itself. The basic text is the
one established by Mario Martelli, “La Versione Machiavelliana dell’Andria,” published first in Rinascimento, second series, 8 (1968): 203-274, and subsequently reprinted in his Niccolo Machiavelli: Tutte le Opere (Florence: Sansoni, 1971), pp. 847- 867. I follow the modifications in Martelli’s text made by Guido Davico Bonino in his edition of Machiavelli, Teatro (Turin: Einaudi, 1979), pp. 5-61.
James B. Atkinson
‌TRANSLATOR’S NOTE ON
THE MANDRAKE AND CL/ZIA

This translation of Machiavelli’s Mandrake was written in the winter of 1976, when Professor Errol G. Hill of the Dart­ mouth College Drama Department asked me to serve as “dra­ maturg” for a production of the comedy, under his direction, by the Dartmouth Players. When I had examined the transla­ tions then available, I determined to try my hand at one of my own, hoping to endow it with the qualities that I had enjoyed in teaching the play to undergraduate students of Italian litera­ ture, and that the existing versions did not seem to me to ex­ press in full measure. I leave to the judgment of the reader whether I succeeded in attaining them myself. Those qualities that I especially sought to achieve included: a close adherence to the Italian text, as embodied specifically in the recent edi­ tion of the comedies edited by Guido Davico Bonino, taking account of the important modern textual revisions suggested by Roberto Ridolfi and Mario Martelli; an approximation, in modern English, of the lively vernacular in which Machiavelli’s characters speak, avoiding both anachronism and archaism as far as possible (although the former stricture was occasionally broken, for the sake of an irresistible joke or an untranslatable one); fidelity to the spirit of the original, particularly with ref-
erence to humor, to linguistic characterization of the individ­ ual characters, to wordplay, and to speech rhythms, in both monologues and exchanges; “speakability” of the lines and ex­ changes for the actors playing the work; and finally, in the case of verse forms (the opening chorus; the prologue, and the four songs intercalated between the acts), fidelity to the original rhyme schemes and meters, particularly so as to suit the latter to the music that the madrigalist Philippe Verdelot wrote for the I 526 Faenza production commissioned by Francesco Guic­ ciardini, and that Professor Hill included in his lively and imaginative staging.
Whether or not it was thanks in some part to the realization of my own aims in this translation, the success of the Dart­ mouth Players production-which received excellent notices, played to appreciative audiences, and was revived for a second run during the following summer’s repertory season-encour­ aged me to undertake a similar effort with Machiavelli’s Clizia. This play, although it is far less well known than The Man­ drake, struck me as having many of its excellent points, and as deserving wider currency among theater people and lovers of good comedy. I will be happy, indeed, if the present volume contributes to that end.
David Sices
‌ANDRIA
THE WOMAN FROM ANDROS

TRANSLATED BY
JAMES B. ATKINSON

CJIXIIXliXXIIXiiiillillXXXXXIXIXIIIXXX:
CHARACTERS
SIMO: an elderly gentleman, father of Panfilo
SOS IA: Simo’s elderly freed slave
DAvo: Simo’s slave
PANFILO: a young man, Simo’s son
CARINO: a young man in love with Cremete’s daughter
CREMETE: an elderly gentleman, a friend of Simo
BIRRIA: a slave of Carino
MISIDE: a serving maid to Glicerio
DROMO: Simo’s slave; a bodyguard and whip handler
LESBIA: a midwife from the island ofLesbos
CRITO: an elderly gentleman from the island Andros; a friend of Cremete

tlXIXXIXXIXIIXXIXIXIIIIIIJIIIIXIIXIIXI)
ATTO PRIMO
SCENA PRIMA
Simo, Sosia.
SIMO: Portate voi altri drento queste cose, spacciatevi!
Tu, Sosia, fatti in qua: io ti voglio parlare un poco.
SOSIA: Pai canto d’avermi parlato; tu vuoi che queste cose s’acconcino bene.
SIMO: Io voglio pure altro.
SOSIA: Che cosa so io fare, dove io ti possa servire meglio che in questo?
SIMO: Io non ho bisogno di cotesto per fare quello che io voglio, ma di quella fede e di quello segreto che io ho conosciuto sempre essere in te.
SOSIA: Io aspetto d’intendere quello che tu vuoi.
SIMO: Tu sai, poi che io ti comperai da piccolo, con quanta clemenza e giustizia io mi sono governato teco, e di stiavo io ti feci liberto, perche tu mi servivi liberal­ mente, e per questo io ti pagai di quella moneta che io potetti.
SOSIA: Io me ne ricordo.
SIMO: Io non mi pento di quello che io ho fatto.
SOSIA: Io ho gran piacere, se io ho fatto e fo cosa che ti piaccia: e ringrazioti che tu mostri di conoscerlo: ma
questo bene mi e molesto, che mi pare che, ricordandolo
ora, sia quasi un rimproverarlo ad uno che non se ne ricordi. Che non di’ tu in una parola quello che tu vuoi?
SIMO: Cosi faro. E innanzi ad ogni cosa io t’ho a dire questo: queste nozze non sono, come tu credi, da dovero.
SOSIA: Perche le fingi adunque?
SIMO: Tu intenderai da principio ogni cosa, ea questo modo conoscerai la vita del mio figliuolo, la deliberazione
ACT ONE
SCENE ONE
Simo, Sosia.
SIMO: You, there, take these things inside; get a move on. You, Sosia, wait here; I want to speak to you a moment.
SOSIA: I know what you have to say-you want me to do a good job with this stuff.
SIMO: I want something else, too.
SOSIA: What else do I know how to do? How can I serve you better than I’m doing?
SIMO: I don’t need anything like what you know how to do for you to do what I have in mind. I need the fidel­ ity and discretion that I have always known you had.
SOSIA: I’m eager to hear what it is you want.
SIMO: Ever since I bought you as a little boy, you know I’ve treated you with leniency and justice. I got you freed from slavery because you served me generously; so I paid you with what coin I could.
SOSIA: I remember that.
SIMO: I don’t regret it.
SOS IA: It gives me great pleasure if I’ve done, or if I continue to do, anything that pleases you, and I’m grateful that you acknowledge it. But one thing certainly troubles me: it seems to me that by bringing it up now it’s almost as if you were reproaching me for overlooking it. Why don’t you tell me straight out what you want?
SIMO: I shall. First of all, I have this to say: this mar­ riage is not, as you suppose it is, for real.
SOSIA: Then why pretend it is?
SIMO: I’ll tell you the whole story from the beginning, so then you’ll know my son’s way of life, my decision, and

mia e quello che io voglia che tu facci in questa cosa. Poi che ‘l mio figliuolo usci di fanciullo e che ei comincio a vivere piu a suo modo (impero che chi arebbe prima potuto conoscere la natura sua, mentre che la eta, la paura, il
maestro, lo tenevono a freno?)…
SOSIA: Cosi e.
SIMO: … di quelle cose che fanno la maggior parte
de’ giovanetti, di volgere l’animo a qualche piacere, come
e nutrire cavagli, cani, andare allo Studio, non ne seguiva
piu una che un’altra, ma in tutte si travagliava mediocre­ mente; di che io mi rallegravo.
SO SIA: Tu avevi ragione, perche io penso nella vita nostra essere utilissimo non seguire alcuna cosa troppo.
SIMO: Cosi era la sua vita: sopportare facilmente ognu­ no; andare ai versi a coloro con chi ei conversava; non essere traverso; non si stimare piu che gli altri; e chi fa cosi, facilmente sanza invidia, si acquista laude e amici.
SOSIA: Ei si governava saviamente, perche in questo tempo chi sa ire a’ versi, acquista amici, e chi dice il vero, acquista odio.
SIMO: In questo mezzo una certa femmina, giovane e bella, si pard da Andro per la poverta de’ parenti, e venne ad abitare in questa vicinanza.
SOSIA: Io temo che questa Andria non ci arrechi qualche male.
SIMO: Costei in prima viveva onestamente, guadagnan­
dosi il vivere col filare e con il tessere; ma poi che venne ora uno, ora un altro amante promettendole danari, come
egli e naturale di tutte le persone sdrucciolare facilmente
da la fatica a l’ozio, l’accetto lo invito; ea sorte, come accade, coloro che allora l’amavano, cominciorno a menarvi il mio figliuolo; onde io continuamente dicevo meco mede-

what I want you to do about it all. Ever since my son grew out of his adolescence and began living his own life (for, while he was still being held in check by his youth, his timidity, and his tutor, who could have known what his nature was then)…
SOSIA: Indeed.
SIMO: … he has behaved as do the majority of young men and has been turning over in his mind some diversion or other-like raising horses or dogs, or attending the uni­ versity. Yet, he didn’t pursue any one of these to the exclu­ sion of the rest; in all things he strove for moderation. I was pleased.
SOSIA: You were right; in our lives I think pursuing “nothing in excess” is extremely useful. 1
SIMO: That describes his way of life: he was tolerant of everybody, humored whomever he talked with, never crossed people, or never considered himself better than others. Anyone behaving like that easily wins praise and friends without arousing envy.
SOSIA: He handled himself wisely; these days humor­ ing people wins friends, telling the truth wins hatred. 2
SIMO: In the meantime, a certain woman, young and beautiful, left Andros, because of her relatives’ poverty and neglect, and came to this neighborhood to settle down.
SOSIA: I’m afraid this person from Andros is the cause of some kind of trouble.
SIMO: At first she lived modestly, earning her live­ lihood by spinning and weaving; but later, first one lover and then another arrived promising her money. Because it is natural for anyone to slide easily from hard work into leisure, she accepted the offers. It turned out that by chance some of the men who were in love with her at that time began taking my son to her house. Consequently, I kept

simo:-Veramente egli e stato sviato! egli ha auto la sua!­ E qualche volta, la mattina, io appostavo i loro servi, che andavano e venivono, e domandavogli:-Odi qua, per tua fe: a chi tocco iarsera Criside?-perche cosi si chiamava quella donna.
SOSIA: Io intendo.
SIMO: Dicevano:-Fedria, o Clinia,·o Nicerato­ perche questi tre l’amavano insieme.-Dimmi: Panfilo che fece?-Che? Pago la parte sua e ceno.-Di che io mi rallegravo. Dipoi, ancora l’altro di io ne domandavo, e non trovavo cosa alcuna che apartenessi a Panfilo. E veramente mi pareva un grande e rado esemplo di continenza, perche chi usa con uomini di simil natura, e non si corrompe, puoi pensare ch’egli ha fermo il suo modo del vivere. Questo mi piaceva, e ciascuno per una bocca mi diceva ogni
bene, e lodava la mia buona fortuna, che avevo cosi fatto figliuolo. Che bisognano piu parole? Cremete, spinto da questa buona fama, venne spontaneamente a trovarmi, e offed dare al mio figliuolo una unica sua figliuola con una gran dote. Piacquemi, promissigli, e questo di e deputato a le nozze.
SOSIA: Che manca, dunque, perche le non sono vere?
SIMO: Tu lo intenderai. Quasi in quegli di che queste cose seguirono, questa Criside vicina si mod.
SOSIA: Ho! io l’ho caro! Tu m’hai tutto ralegrato: io avevo paura di questa Criside.
SIMO: Quivi il mio figliuolo, insieme con quegli che amavono Criside, era ad ogni ora: ordinava il mortoro, malinconoso, e qualche volta lacrimava. Questo anche mi piacque; e dicevo cosi meco medesimo:-Costui per un poco di consuetudine sopporta nella morte di costei tanto dispiacere: che farebb’ egli, se l’avessi amata? che farebb’

saying to myself, “Surely he’s being led astray, he’s fallen for her.” Sometimes I used to waylay those men’s slaves in the morning, during their comings and goings, and demand of them, “Listen here, boy, whose turn was it with Criside last night?” (That was the woman’s name.)
SOSIA: I see.
SIMO: Fedria, they would say, or Clinia, or Nicerato­ because all three were her lovers simultaneously. “Tell me, what about Panfilo?” “Who, oh he paid his share and ate dinner.” That made me happy. Later, on some other day, I asked about it again and still I found out nothing about Panfilo. He really seemed to be a great and rare model of moderation. Because, if anyone consorts with men of such natures and is not corrupted by them, you can bet that he has decided upon his way of life. That pleased me; every­ body to a man told me all kinds of good things. They praised my good fortune in having a son endowed with such character. To make a long story short, Cremete, spurred on by this good reputation, came of his own voli­ tion to seek me out and to offer his only daughter in mar­ riage to my son-and with a substantial dowry. I liked the match and betrothed him; today is the day we agreed upon for the ceremony.
SOSIA: What’s stopping it, then, from taking place?
SIMO: You shall hear. Several days after these arrange­ ments were made, this neighbor of ours, Criside, died.
SOSIA: Oh, I’m glad about that, you’re cheering me up; this Criside was making me nervous.
SIMO: Then my son, together with Criside’s lovers, was constantly over there making the funeral arrange­ ments; he was melancholy and sometimes he wept. This behavior also pleased me: I said to myself, “If so brief an acquaintance with her produces such great sadness in the

egli, s’io morissi io?-E pensavo queste cose essere indizio d’una umana e mansueta natura. Perche ti ritardo io con molte parole? Io andai ancora io per suo amore a questo mortoro, non pensando per ancora alcun male.
SOSIA: Che domin sara questo?
SIMO: Tu il saprai. Il corpo fu portato fuora, noi gli andamo dietro: in questo mezzo, tra le donne ch’erano quivi presenti, io veggo una fanciulletta d’una forma ..
SOSIA: Buona, per avventura!
SIMO: … e d’un volto, o Sosia, in modo modesto e in modo grazioso, che non si potrebbe dire piu, la quale mi pareva che si dolessi piu che l’altre. E perche la era piu che l’altre di forma bella e liberale, m’accostai a quelle che le erano intorno, e domandai chi la fussi. Risposono es­
sere sorella di Criside. Di fatto, io mi senti’ raviluppare l’animo: ha! ha! questo e quello! di qui nascevono quelle lacrime! questa e quella misericordia!
SOSIA: Quanto temo io, dove tu abbi a capitare!
SIMO: Intanto il mortoro andava oltre: noi lo seguita­ vamo e arrivamo al sepolcro; la fu messa nel fuoco; pian­ gevasi. In questo tanto, questa sua sorella che io dico, si accosto alle fiamme assai imprudentemente econ periculo. Allotta Panfilo, quasi morto, manifestando il celato e dis­ simulato amore, corse e abbraccio nel mezzo questa fan­ ciulla, dicendo:-0 Glicerio mia, che fai tu? perche vai tu a morire?-Allora quella, accio che si potessi vedere il loro consueto amore, se gli lascio ire adosso, piangendo molto familiarmente.
SOSIA: Che di’ tu?

boy at her death, then what would he do had he loved her, and what would he do were I to die?” I thought such
sympathies were indicative of a humane and gentle nature. Why am I holding you up by talking so long? Even I went to the funeral for his sake-still oblivious of anything being wrong.
SOSIA: What does this mean?
SIMO: You’ll see. The body was carried outside and we followed. In the meantime, I noticed, among the women who were present, a young girl whose figure was…
SOSIA: Shapely, by any chance?
SIMO: … and whose expression, Sosia, was so modest and so gracious-nothing could be more so. It seemed to me that her grief was greater than anyone else’s. Because she was more beautiful and distinguished than the other women, I approached those who were attending her and asked who she was. They replied that she was Criside’s sister. Immediately I felt my spirit tighten up: aha, that’s it! That’s why his tears, 3 that’s why his compassion!
SOSIA: I dread what this is leading up to!
SIMO: Meanwhile, the funeral procession was moving ahead. We were following it and arrived at the grave. They hoisted her onto the burning funeral pyre and the weeping began. While this was going on, the sister, whom I men­ tioned, carelessly got dangerously close to the flames. At that moment Panfilo, frightened to death-revealing his concealed, his disguised love-ran up and caught the girl around the waist, crying, “Oh my Glicerio, what are you doing, why are you trying to kill yourself?” Then, you could see that they had become comfortable with one an­ other’s love; the woman fell into his arms crying hard, the way close friends might.
SOSIA: What do you mean?
SIMO: Io mi diparti’ di quivi adirato e male contento; ne mi pareva assai giusta cagione di dirgli villania, perche ei direbbe:-Padre mio, che ho io fatto? che ho io meri­ tato? o dove ho peccato? Io ho proibito che una non si getti nel fuoco e la ho conservata: la cagione e onesta!
SOSIA: Tu pensi bene, perche, se tu di’ villania a chi ha conservata la vita ad uno, che farai tu a chi gli facessi danno e male?
SIMO: L’altro di poi venne a me Cremete gridando avere udito una cosa molto trista, che Panfilo aveva tolto per moglie questa forestiera; io dicevo che non era vero; quello affermava ch’egl’era vero. In summa io mi parti’ da lui al tutto alieno da il darci la sua figliuola.
SOSIA: Allora non riprehendesti tu il tuo figliuolo?
SIMO: Ne ancora questa cagione e assai potente a riprehenderlo.
sosIA: Perche? dimmelo!
SIMO: Tu medesimo, o padre, hai posto fine a queste cose: e’ si appressa il tempo che io aro a vivere a modo d’altri; lasciami in questo mezzo vivere a mio modo!
SOS IA: Quale luogo ci e rimaso adunque per riprenderlo? s IM o: Se per amor di costei ei non volessi menare
donna, questa e la prima colpa che debbe essere corretta. E ora io attendo che, mediante queste falze nozze, nasca una vera cagione di riprehenderlo, quando ei neghi di
menarla. E parte quel ribaldo di Davo consumera, s’egli ha fatto disegno alcuno, ora che gl’inganni nuocono poco: il quale so che si sforza con le mani e co’ pie fare ogni male, piu per fare iniuria a me, che per giovare al mio figliuolo.
SIMO: I left angry and very much disturbed. Yet, it seemed as if I had no real reason to give him a hard time, because he would say, “But father, what have I done? Why do I deserve that? Where have I gone wrong? I stopped that woman from throwing herself in the fire and I’ve saved her life. It was for a good cause!” 4
SO SIA: You’re right, for if you insult someone who has saved a life, what will you say to someone who causes harm or pain?
SIMO: The next day Cremete comes bawling at me that he has heard some horrible thing-that Panfilo had married this foreign woman. I said it wasn’t true and he insisted that it was. In short, when I parted from him, he was absolutely opposed to the offer of his daughter in marnage.
SOSIA: Didn’t you upbraid your son then?
SIMO: Even this wasn’t compelling enough reason.
SOSIA: Why, explain that to me!
SIMO: “You yourself, father, have set a limit on this sort of thing. The time is coming when I shall have to adjust my life to the ways of other people; in the mean­ time, let me live it my own way.”
SOSIA: What basis is there left, then, for taking him to task?
SIMO: If out of love for this woman he shouldn’t want to marry Cremete’s daughter, then this is the first fault that ought to be corrected. Now, by means of this phony wed­ ding, I’m expecting that a real reason for criticizing him will arise-if he refuses to marry her. Meanwhile, if that rascal Davo has any of his schemes planned, let him carry them out now when his tricks will do little harm. I know that he will do his darnedest5 to cause trouble-more to hurt me than to help my son.
SOSIA: Per che cagione?
SIMO: Domandine tu? Egli e uomo di cattiva mente
e di cattivo animo, il quale veramente, se io me n’av- veggo… Ma che bisognano tante parole? Facciamo di trovare in Panfilo quel ch’io desidero, che per lui non man­
chi. Restera Cremete, il quale dipoi aro a placare, e spero farlo: ora l’ufizio tuo e simulare bene queste nozze e sbigot­
tire Davo e osservare quel che faccia il mio figliuolo e quali consigli sieno i loro.
SOSIA: E’ basta; io aro cura ad ogni cosa. Andiamone ora drento.
SIMO: Va’ innanzi; io ne verro.

SCENA SECONDA
Simo, Davo.
SIMO: Sanza dubbio il mio figliuolo non vorra moglie, in modo ho sentito temere Davo, poi ch’egli intese di queste nozze… Ma egli esce fuora.
DA vo: Io mi maravigliavo bene che la cosa procedessi cosi, e sempre ho dubitato del fine che avessi avere questa umanita del mio patrone; il quale, poi ch’egli intese che Cremete non voleva dare moglie al suo figliuolo, non ha detto ad alcuno una parola e non ha mostro d’averlo per male.
SIMO: Ei lo mosterra ora, e, come io penso, non sanza tuo gran danno.
DA vo: Egli ha voluto che noi, credendoci questo, ci stessimo con una falsa allegrezza, sperando, sendo da noi rimossa la paura, di poterci come negligenti giugnere al sonno, e che noi non avessimo spazio a disturbare queste nozze. Guarda che astuzia!

SOSIA: Why?
SIMO: You can ask? He’s a man with an evil mind and an evil heart, really; if I find out that he … But why talk so much about it? Let’s try to find in Panfilo what
I’m counting on, unless it’s missing because of Davo. That leaves Cremete: in the long run, I’ll have to calm him down; I hope I can do it. For the moment, your job is to fake this wedding perfectly, to make Davo become discour­ aged, and to keep an eye on my son’s doings and on what he and Davo are plotting.
SOSIA: Fine, I’ll take care of everything. Let’s go inside now.6
s IM o: Go ahead. I’ll be right there.

SCENE TWO
Simo, Davo.
SIMO: (It’s obvious that my son doesn’t want to get married. I noticed how Davo started when he heard about the wedding. But, here he comes.)
DA vo: (I certainly am amazed that things are going along the way they are. I’ve always suspected what the end result of my master’s humankindness would be. Ever since he learned that Cremete didn’t want to provide a wife for his son, he hasn’t said a word to any of us or seemed to be a bit upset.)
SIMO: (But he will now, and not without causing a great deal of trouble for’ you, I think.)
DA vo: (This is what he wanted: for us to be trusting and thus to be led on by a false sense of security; once all our fears were laid to rest, he hoped to catch us napping so that we’d have no opportunity to thwart this wedding.
Watch out for such cunning!)
SIMO: Che dice questo manigoldo?
DA vo: Egli e il padrone, e non lo avevo veduto.
SIMO: 0 Davo!
DAVO: O! Hu! Che cosa e?
SIMO: Vieni a me!
DAVO: Che vuole questo zugo?
SIMO: Che di’ tu?
DA VO: Per che cagione?
SIMO: Domandine tu? Dicesi egli che ‘l mio figliuolo vagheggia?
DA v o: Il popolo non ha altro pensiero che cotesto.
SIMO: Tiegli tu il sacco o no?
DA vo: Che! Io cotesto?
SIMO: Ma domandare ora di queste cose non sta bene ad uno buono padre, perche m’importa poco quello ch’egli ha fatto innanzi a questo tempo. E io, mentre che ‘l tempo lo pativa, ne sono stato contento, ch’egli abbi sfogato l’animo suo. Ora, per lo avvenire, si richiede altra vita
e altri costumi: pero io voglio, e, se lecito e, io ti priego, o Davo, che ei ritorni qualche volta nella via.
DA vo: Io non so che cosa si sia questa.
SIMO: Se tune domandi, io tel diro: tutti coloro che sono innamorati hanno per male che sia dato loro moglie.
DA vo: Cosi dicono.
SIMO: Allora, se alcuno piglia a quella cosa per suo maestro uno tristo, rivolge il piu delle volte l’animo in­ fermo alla parte piu cattiva.
DA v o: Per mia fe, io non ti intendo.
SIMO: No, he?
DA vo: Io son Davo, non profeta.
SIMO: (What’s the scoundrel saying?) DA vo: (The master; I didn’t see him!) SIMO: Davo!
DAVO: Yes, what is it?
SIMO: Come here!
DA vo: (What’s the prick want?) 7
SIMO: What did you say?
DAVO: About what?
SIMO: What about? Aren’t people saying that my son is in love?
DAVO: People don’t have anything else to think about.
SIMO: Are you in cahoots with him?
DA vo: Would I do a thing like that?
SIMO: For me to probe into this business now is not the right thing for a good father to do; what he did up until now is of little interest to me. So long as circum­ stances permitted, I was happy for him to have free reign for his inclinations. From this moment on, a different way of life and a different character are required. Therefore, I insist and, if I may be allowed, I beg you, Davo, that he come back into line now.
DA vo: I don’t know what this is all about.
SIMO: As long as you’re asking about it, I’ll tell you: every man who has a mistress is distressed at being given a wife.
DA vo: So they say.
SIMO: Then, if he chooses a rogue to be his guide in such matters, more often than not, his addled brain gets redirected on a more harmful course.
DAVO: Honestly, I don’t get you.
SIMO: Oh, no?
DA vo: I’m Davo, not David. 8
SIMO: Quelle cose, adunque, che mi restono a dirti, tu vuoi che io te le dica a lettere di speziali?
DAVO: Veramentesl.
s IM o: Se io sento che tu ordini oggi alcuno inganno in queste nozze, perche le non si faccino, o che tu voglia mo­ strare in questa cosa quanto tu sia astuto, io ti mandero ca­ rico a morte di mazzate a zappare tutto dl in uno campo: con questi patti, che, se io te ne cavo, che io abbia a zap­ pare per te! Ha’ mi tu inteso o non ancora?
DA vo: Anzi ti ho inteso appunto, in modo hai parlato la cosa aperta e sanza alcuna circunlocuzione.
SIMO: Io sono per sopportarti ogni altro inganno piu facilmente che questo.
DAVO: Dammi, io ti priego, buone parole.
SIMO: Tu mi uccelli? Tu non mi inganni di nulla; ma io ti dico che tu non facci cosa alcuna inconsideratamente, e che tu non dica anche, poi:-E’ non mi fu predetto!­ Abbiti cura.

SCENA TERZA
Davo solo.
DAVO: Veramente, Davo, qui non bisogna essere pigro ne da poco, secondo che mi pare avere ora inteso peril parlare di questo vecchio circa le nozze: le quali, se con astuzia non ci si provede, ruineranno me o il padrone; ne so bene che mi fare, se io aiuto Panfilo o se io ubbidisco
al vecchio. Se io abbandono quello, io temo della sua vita; se io lo aiuto, io temo le minaccie di costui: ed e difficile
ingannarlo, perche sa ogni cosa circa il suo amore e me
SIMO: So, whatever I have left to say to you, you want me to spell it out?9
DAVO: Right.
s IM o: If I hear of you devising any of your tricks today so that this wedding doesn’t come off, or if you want to show off how clever you are about this, I’ll have you whipped within an inch of your life and packed off to dig ditches with the understanding that if ever I let you out of there, I’ll be the one who digs ditches in your stead. Have I made myself understood? Not yet?
DA vo: Oh, yes, I’ve understood you perfectly; you’ve
spoken clearly, without any roundabout phrases.
SIMO: I’m prepared to put up with deceit more readily in any situation but this one.
DAVO: I beg you, give me your word on that.
SIMO: Are you mocking me? You’re not taking me in, not for a moment; but I’m telling you now, don’t do any­ thing rash and, later on, never say, “But nobody warned me!” Watch your step!

SCENE THREE
Davo alone.
DA vo: Well, Davo, I understood what the old man was saying just now about the wedding; this is no time to
be short on energy or wit. If plans aren’t formulated clev­ erly, then it will mean the end of me or the master. I’m not sure what to do-whether I should help Panfilo or whether I should obey the old man. If I desert Panfilo, I fear for his life. If I help him, I’m afraid of Simo’s threats. It’s hard to deceive Simo because he knows everything about this love affair and he keeps his eye on me so that
osserva perche io non ci facci alcuno inganno. S’egli se ne avvede, io sono morto; e, se gli verra bene, e’ troverra una cagione per la quale, a torto o a ragione, mi mandera a
zappare. A questi mali questo ancora mi si agiugne, che questa Andria, o amica o moglie che la si sia, e gravida di Panfilo; ed e cosa maravigliosa udire la loro audacia; e
hanno preso partito, da pazzi o da innamorati, di nutrire cio che ne nascera, e fingono intra loro un certo inganno,
che costei e cittadina ateniese, e come fu gia un certo vec­
chio mercatante che ruppe apresso a l’isola d’Andro e quivi mori; dipoi il padre di Criside si prese costei ributtata dal mare, piccola e sanza padre. Favole! Ea me, per mia fe, non pare verisimile: ma a loro piace questo trovato. Ma ecco Miside ch’esce di casa; io me ne voglio andare in mer­ cato, accio che il padre non lo giunga sopra questa cosa improvisto.

SCENA QUARTA
Miside ancilla.
MISIDE: Io ti ho intesa, Archile: tu vuoi che ti sia me­ nata Lesbia. Veramente ella e una donna pazza e obliaca e non e sufficiente a levare il fanciullo d’una che non abbi
mai partorito; nondimeno io la merro. Ponete mente la importunita di questa vecchia! solo perche le si inobliacano insieme. 0 Idio! io ti priego che voi diace faculta a costei di partorire, e a quella vecchia di fare errore altrove e non in questa. Ma perche veggo io Panfilo mezzo morto? Io
non so quel che sia; io lo aspettero per sapere donde nasca ch’egli e cosi turbato.
I can’t pull off any tricks. If he finds me out, I’m a dead man. If he chooses to, he’ll find a pretext, right or wrong, for packing me off to dig ditches. To boot, as if these weren’t problems enough, Panfilo has gotten this woman from Andros-wife, mistress, or whatever-pregnant. It’s amazing to hear their outlandish talk: like lunatics or lovers, they’ve decided to raise the child themselves, what­ ever it may be. Between them they are fabricating some tall tale about how Glicerio is an Athenian citizen: “Once upon a time there was an old trader who was shipwrecked and died near the island of Andros.” At that point Criside’s father took in the merchant’s little fatherless girl who had been washed up on shore. Bull! It certainly doesn’t seem
to me to be a very likely story, but they are delighted with their contrivance. Oops, there’s Miside coming out of the woman’s house. I’d better get out of here and go to market so that Panfilo’s father won’t take him by surprise with
this news.

SCENE FOUR
Miside alone
MISIDE: I heard you, Archile; you want me to bring Lesbia to you. Lesbia really is a crazy drunk; she isn’t fit to act as a midwife for someone who has never been in labor-nevertheless, I’ll bring her. (Look at that old bag’s
pestering, just because they get drunk together. Oh, God, grant Glicerio the power to have an easy delivery and grant that bag the power to make her mistakes elsewhere-not here. But why do I see Panfilo looking like something the cat dragged in? I don’t know what’s the matter; I’ll wait and find out why he’s upset.)

SCENA QUINTA
Panfilo, Miside.
PANFILO: E questo cosa umana? E questo ofizio d’un padre?
MISIDE: Che cosa e questa?
PANFILO: Per la fede di Dio e degli huomini, questa che e, se la non e iniuria? Egli ha deliberato da se stesso di darmi oggi moglie: non era egli necessario che io lo sapessi innanzi? Non era egli di bisogno che me lo avessi comuni­ cato prima?
MI SIDE: Misera a me! che parole odo io?
PANFILO: Cremete, il quale aveva denegato di darmi la sua figliuola, perche s’e egli mutato? Perche vede mutato me? Con quanta ostinatione s’affatica costui per svegliermi da Glicerio! Per la fede di Dio, se questo avviene, io morro
in ogni modo. E egli uomo alcuno che sia tanto sgraziato e infelice quanto io? E egli possibile che io per alcuna via
non possa fuggire il parentado di Cremete in tanti modi schernito e vilipeso? E non mi giova cosa alcuna! Ecco che io sono rifiutato e poi ricerco; il che non puo nascere da altro, se non che nutriscono qualche mostro, il quale per­ che non possono gittare adosso ad altri, si volgono a me.
MISIDE: Questo parlare mi fa per la paura morire.
PANFILO: Che diro io ora di mio padre? Ha! doveva egli fare tanta gran cosa con tanta negligenzia che, passan­ domi egli ora presso in mercato, mi disse:-Tu hai oggi a menar moglie: aparechiati, vanne a casa.-E proprio parve che e’ mi dicessi:-Tira via, vanne ratto, e impkcati!-Io rimasi stupefatto. Pensi tu che io potessi rispondere una parola o fare qualche scusa almeno inetta o falsa? Io am­ mutolai. Che, se io l’avessi saputo prima … che arei

SCENE FIVE
Panfilo, Miside.
PANFILO: Is this a humane thing? Is this a father’s duty?
MISIDE: (What’s this?)
PANFILO: For the love of God and man, if this isn’t outrageous! He’s decided all by himself that I was to be married today. Shouldn’t he have gotten in touch with me about it first?
MI SIDE: (Oh dear me, what do I hear?)
PANFILO: Why did Cremete, who had refused to marry his daughter to me, change his mind? Because he realizes that I have changed mine? How hard he works to tear me away from Glicerio! For the love of God, if this happens, I’ll absolutely die! Was there ever a man as
wretched, as miserable as I am? Is there any possibility for me to escape being a part of Cremete’s family-despised and vilified, and in so many different ways? Nothing does me any good. First, I’m turned down, then I’m sought out. There can be only one reason for this: they’re harbor­ ing some beast they can’t dump on anybody else, so they want me.
MISIDE: (This kind of talk scares me to death.)
PANFILO: What shall I say about my father? Ha!
Should he have treated such an important matter so off­ handedly? Just now in the marketplace he walked by me and said, “Today you are to be married; hurry on home, now, and get ready.” He might as well have said, “Run along quickly and hang yourself!” I was stunned. Do you think I could utter a single word or find some excuse, however crude or false? I was speechless. If I had known about it in advance, what would I have done? If somebody
fatto? Se alcuno me ne domandassi, arei fatto qualche cosa per non fare questo. Ma ora che debbo io fare? Tanti pen­ sieri m’impediscono e traggono l’animo mio in diverse parti: l’amore, la misericordia, il pensare a queste nozze, la reverenza di mio padre, il quale umanamente mi ha infino a qui conceduto che io viva a mio modo . . . Ho io ora a contrappormegli? Heime! che io sono incerto di quello abbi a fare!
MISIDE: Miser’a me! che io non so dove questa incer­ titudine abbi a condurre costui! Ma ora e necessariissimo o che io riconcilii costui con quella o che io parli di lei qual­
che cosa che lo punga: e mentre che l’animo e dubio, si dura poca fatica a farlo inclinare da questa o da quella parte.
PANFILO: Chi parla qui? Dio ti salvi, Miside!
MI SIDE: Dio ti salvi, Panfilo!
PANFILO: Che si fa?
MI SIDE: Domandine tu? La muore di dolore; e per questo e oggi misera, che la sa come in questo di sono ordinate le nozze; e pero teme che tu non la abbandoni.
PANFILO: Heime! sono io per fare cotesto? Sopportero io che la sia ingannata per mio conto? che mi ha confidato l’animo e la vita sua? la quale io prenderei volentieri per mia donna? Sopportero io che la sua buona educazione, costretta de la poverta, si rimuti? Non lo faro mai.
MI SIDE: Io non ne dubiterei, s’egli stessi solo ate; ma io temo che tu non possa resistere alla forza che ti fara tuo padre.
PAN FILO: Stimimi tu pero si da poco, si ingrato, si inumano, si fiero, che la consuetudine, lo amore, la ver-
were to ask me, I should have done something so as not to be doing this. But now what should I do? So many thoughts are holding me back and tugging my heart in
opposite directions: love, sympathy, worry about the wed­ ding, respect for my father, who-up until now-has been so civilized about allowing me to live in my own way.
Must I now oppose him? Oh, what on earth am I going to do!
MISIDE: (Oh, dear, I don’t know where that “on earth” might take him. But it’s absolutely necessary either that
I reconcile him to her or that I say something about her that will sting him. As long as he’s in a state of doubt, the slightest effort is enough to make him lean one way or the other.)
PANFILO: Who’s that talking there? Greetings, Miside.
MI SIDE: Hello, Panfilo.
PANFILO: How is she doing?
MISIDE: You can ask? She’s laboring in pain; for that reason she’s miserable today because she knows it’s the day that’s been set for the wedding and so she’s afraid that you may abandon her.
PANFILO: What! Am I the kind of person who would do that? Would I let her be deceived on my account after she has trusted me with her heart and life, when I would gladly marry her? Would I let her, with her excellent upbringing, be forced by her poverty to be turned topsy­ turvy again? No, never!
MI SIDE: If everything were up to you alone, I shouldn’t worry about it; but I’m afraid you won’t be able to resist the pressure your father will bring to bear.
PANFILO: Do you imagine, then, that I’m so worth­ less, so ungrateful, so brutish, so barbaric that intimacy,
gogna non mi commuova e non mi amunisca ad osservarle la fede?
MI SIDE: Io so questo solo, che la merita che tu ti ri­ cordi di lei.
PANFILO: Che io me ne ricordi?0 Miside, Miside, ancora mi sono scritte nello animo le parole che Criside mi disse di Glicerio! Ella era quasi che morta, che la mi chiamo; io me le accostai; voi ve ne andasti, e noi rima­ nemo soli. Ella comincio a dire:-O Panfilo mio, tu vedi la bellezza e la eta di costei; ne ti e nascoso quanta queste dua cose sieno contrarie e alla onesta e a conservare le cose sua. Pertanto io ti priego per questa mano destra, per la tua buona natura e per la tua fede e per la solitudine in
la quale rimane costei, che tu non la scacci date e non l’abandoni. Se io t’ho amato come fratello; se costei ti ha stimato sempre sopra tutte le cose; se la ti ha obedito in ogni cosa; io ti do a costei marito, amico, tutore, padre; tutti questi nostri beni io commetto in te e a la tua fede gli raccomando.-E allora mi messe intro le mani lei,
e di subito mod: io la presi e manterrolla.
MISIDE: Io lo credo certamente. PANFILO: Ma tu perche ti parti da lei? MISIDE: Io vo a chiamare la levatrice.
PANFILO: Va’ ratta … Odi una parola: guarda di non ragionare di nozze, che al male tu non agiugnessi questo.
MI SIDE: Io ti ho inteso.
love, or honor would not move-nay enjoin-me to keep my word?
MISIDE: I know only this: she deserves to be remem­ bered by you.
PANFILO: Remembered! Oh Miside, Miside, the words
Criside said to me about Glicerio are still written on my heart. She was almost dead when she called for me; you all went out and only we stayed. She began, “Oh my Panfilo, see the girl’s beauty and youth; you are not unaware of how much these two qualities are incompatible with the need
to protect her honor and her property. Consequently, I implore you by your right hand, your good nature, your honor, and by the loneliness in which she remains, do not dismiss her or abandon her. As I have always loved you like a brother, as she has always valued you more than anything else, and as she has submitted to you in all matters, so I give you to her as husband, friend, guardian, father. 10 All our property I bestow on you and commit to your trust.” She then joined our hands, and at that moment died. I took Glicerio and I shall keep her.
MISIDE: I certainly believe it. PANFILO: But why are you leaving her? MISIDE: I’m going to call the midwife.
PANFILO: Hurry! … But listen, take care not to mention the wedding so that you don’t add that to her suffering.
MI SIDE: I understand what you mean.
ATTO SECONDO
SCENA PRIMA
Carino, Birria, Panfilo.
CARINO: Che di’ tu, Birria? maritasi oggi colei a Panfilo?
BIRRIA: Cosi e.
CARINO: Chene sai tu?
BIRRIA: Davo, poco fa, me lo ha detto in mercato.
CARINO: 0 misero a me! Come l’animo e stato, in-
nanzi a questo tempo, implicato nella speranza e nel ti­ more, cosi, poi che mi e mancata la speranza, stracco ne’ pensieri, e diventato stupido.
BIRRIA: Io ti priego, o Carino, quando e’ non si puo quello che tu vuoi, che tu voglia quello che tu puoi.
CARINO: Io non voglio altro che Filomena.
BIRRIA: Ha! quanto sarebbe meglio dare opera che questo amore ti si rimovessi da lo animo, che parlare cose
per le quali ti si raccenda piu la voglia.
CARINO: Facilmente, quando uno e sano, consiglia bene chi e infermo: se tu fussi nel grado mio, tu la inten­
deresti altrimenti.
BIRRIA: Fa’ come ti pare.
CARINO: Maio veggo Panfilo; io voglio provare ogni cosa prima che io muoia.
BIRRIA: Che vuole fare costui?
CARINO: Io lo pregherro, io lo suplichero, io gli nar­ rero il mio amore: io credo che io impetrerro ch’egli stara qualche di a fare le nozze; in questo mezzo spero che qual­
che cosa fia.
BIRRIA: Cotesto qualche cosa e nonnulla.
CARINO: Chene pare egli ate, Birria? Vo io a trovarlo?
ACT TWO
SCENE ONE
Carino, Birria, Panfilo.
CARINO: What’s that you’re saying, Birria? Filomena is to marry Panfilo today?
BIRRIA: That’s right.
CARINO: How do you know?
BIRRIA: Davo told me a little while ago in the market.
CARINO: Oh, that’s awful! Until now I’ve been so mixed up that my heart’s been torn between hope and fear: now that hope’s been taken away, my mind’s worn out and numb.
BIRRIA: Oh Carino, I beg you, if you can’t have what you want, want what you can have.
CARINO: I don’t want anything but Filomena.
BIRRIA: Ha. You’d be better off devoting your energy to getting this passion out of your system rather than say­ ing things that stir up your desire even more.
CARINO: When one is healthy, it’s easy to give good advice to a sick man; if you were in my shoes, you would think differently.
BIRRIA: Do as you like.
CARINO: But I see Panfilo; I want to try everything before I give up.
BIRRIA: (What’s he going to do?)
CARINO: I’ll beg him, I’ll implore him, I’ll tell him the story of my love for her. I think I can get him to delay the wedding for a few days. In the meantime, something will turn up-I hope.
BIRRIA: (“Something,” nothing, more likely!)
CARINO: What do you think, Birria? Shall I go and meet him?

BIRRIA: Perche no? Se tu non impetri alcuna cosa, che almeno pensi avere uno che sia parato a farlo becco, se la mena.
CARINO: Tira via in mala ora con questa tua sospi­ zione, scelerato!
PANFILO: Io veggo Carino. Dio ti salvi!
CARINO: 0 Panfilo, Dio ti aiuti! Io vengo ate doman­ dando salute, aiuto e consiglio.
PANFILO: Per mia fe, che io non hone prudenza da consigliarti ne faculta da aiutarti. Ma che vuoi tu?
CARINO: Tu meni oggi donna?
PANFILO: E’ lo dicono.
CARINO: Panfilo, se tu fai questo, e’ sara !’ultimo di che tu mi vedrai.
PANFILO: Perche cotesto?
CARINO: Heime! che io mi vergogno a dirlo. De! di- gliene tu, io te ne priego, Birria.
BIRRIA: Io gliene diro.
PANFILO: Che cosa e?
BIRRIA: Costui ama la tua sposa.
PANFILO: Costui none della opinione mia. Ma dimmi: hai tu auto a fare con lei altro, Carino?
CARINO: Ha! Panfilo, niente.
PANFILO: Quanto l’arei io caro!
CARINO: Io ti priego, la prima cosa, per l’amicizia e amore nostro, che tu non la meni.
PANFILO: lo ne faro ogni cosa.
CARINO: Mase questo non si puo e se queste nozze ti sono a cuore . . .
PANFILO: A cuore?
CARINO: … almeno indugia qualche di, tanto che io ne vada in qualche luogo per non le vedere.
PANFILO: Ascoltami un poco: io non credo, Carino,
BIRRIA: Why not? If you don’t get something, at least he’ll know that there’s someone ready to make him a cuck­ old if he marries her.
CARINO: Goto hell with your suspicions, you scoundrel!
PANFILO: There’s Carino. Good morning.
CARINO: Oh, Panfilo, God be with you; I’m here to ask you for salvation, assistance, and advice.
PANFILO: Heavens, I’ve neither the wisdom to advise you nor the power to assist you. What do you want?
CARINO: Are you getting married today?
PANFILO: So I’m told.
CARINO: Panfilo, if you do, you’ll never see me again.
PANFILO: Why is that?
CARINO: Oh me, oh my; I’m ashamed to tell you.
Birria, you tell him about it-I beg you.
BIRRIA: I’ll tell him.
PANFILO: What is it?
BIRRIA: This man is in love with your bride-to-be.
PANFILO: I don’t share his opinion of her. But tell me, Carino, have you had anything else to do with her?
CARINO: Oh, Panfilo-nothing!
PANFILO: Oh how I wish I you had!
CARINO: For the sake of our friendship and our love, I beg you-above all else-not to marry her.
PANFILO: I’ll do everything I can not to.
CARINO: But if that’s impossible or if this wedding is dear to your heart . . .
PANFILO: Dear to my heart?
CARINO: At least postpone it for a couple of days so that I can go off somewhere and not have to see it.
PANFILO: Listen to me a minute, Carino, I don’t think
che sia ofizio d’uno uomo da bene volere essere ringraziato d’una cosa che altri non meriti: io desidero piu di fuggire queste nozze che tu di farle.
CARINO: Tu m’hai risucitato.
PANFILO: Ora, se tu e qui Birria potete alcuna cosa, fatela, fingete, trovate, concludete, accio che la ti sia data; e io faro ogni opera perche la mi sia tolta.
CARINO: E’ mi basta.
PANFILO: Io veggo appunto Davo, nel consiglio del quale io mi confido.
CARINO: E anche tu, per mia fe, non mi rechi mai innanzi cose, se non quelle che non bisogna saperle. Vatti con Dio in mala ora!
BIRRIA: Molto volentieri.

SCENA SECONDA
Davo, Carino, Panfilo.
DA vo: 0 Idio, che buone novelle porto io! Ma dove troverro io Panfilo per liberarlo da quella paura nella quale ora si truova e riempiergli l’animo d’alegrezza?
CARINO: Egli e allegro, ne so perche.
PANFILO: Niente e; ei non sa ancora il mio male.
DAVO: Che animo credo io che sia il suo, s’egli ha udito a avere a menar moglie?
CARINO: Odi tu quello che dice?
DA vo: Di fatto mi correrebbe dietro tutto fuora di se.
Ma dove ne cerchero io o dove andro?
it’s right for a gentleman to get thanks for something he doesn’t deserve. I long to get out of this marriage more than you long to get into it.
CARINO: You’ve saved my life.
PANFILO: Now, if you or Birria here can do some­ thing, do it; think something up, invent it, arrange it so that Filomena can marry you and I’ll do everything I can to prevent her marrying me.
CARINO: That’s enough for me.
PANFILO: I see Davo coming-just at the right mo­ ment; I rely on his advice.
CARINO: As for you, by God, you’ve never given me any advice, unless it was something I didn’t need to know. Get the hell out of here.
BIRRIA: Very happily.

SCENE TWO
Davo, Carino, Panfilo.
DA vo: (Lord, what good news I have! But where can I find Panfilo so that I can take away the anxiety he’s in now and fill his heart with joy?)
CARINO: He’s pleased, but I don’t know what it’s about.
PANFILO: It’s nothing; he doesn’t yet know about my bad news.
DAVO: (If he’s heard that he’s about to be married, I can
imagine what his state of mind is like.)
CARINO: Do you hear what he’s saying?
DAVO: (In fact, he’s at his wit’s end-probably hunting all over for me. Where shall I look for him, where shall
I go?)
CARINO: Che non parli?
DA vo: Io so dove io voglio ire.
PANFILO: Davo, se’ tu qui? Fermati!
DA vo: Chi e che mi chiama?0 Panfilo, io ti cercavo! o Carino! voi sete apunto insieme: io vi volevo tutti a dua.
PAN FILO: 0 Davo, io sono morto!
DAVO: Che? De! stammi piu tosto ad udire.
PANFILO: Io sono spacciato.
DAVO: Io so di guello che tu hai paura. CARINO: Lamia vita, per mia fe, e in dubio. DAVO: E anche tu so guello vuoi.
PANFILO: Io ho a menar moglie.
DAVO: Io me lo so.
PANFILO: Oggi.
DA vo: Tu mi togli la testa; perche io so che tu hai paura di averla a menare, e tu ch’e’ non la meni.
CARINO: Tu sai la cosa.
PANFILO: Cotesto e proprio.
DA vo: E in guesto non e alcun periculo: guardami in viso.
PANFILO: Io ti priego che, il piu presto puoi, mi liberi da guesta paura.
DAVO: Ecco che io ti libero: Cremete non te la vuole dare.
PANFILO: Che ne sai tu?
DA vo: Sollo. Tuo padre, poco fa, mi prese e mi disse che ti voleva dare donna oggi, e molte altre cose che none ora tempo a dirle. Di fatto, io corsi in mercato per dirtelo, e, non ti trovando guivi, me n’andai in uno luogo alto e
CARINO: Why not speak to him? DAVO: (I’ve got my feet on the ground.) PANFILO: Davo, is that you? Stop!
DA vo: Who’s calling me? Oh, Panfilo, I’ve been look­ ing for you. Oh Carino, you’re together, as it happens. I wanted you both.
PANFILO: Davo, it’s all over for me. DAVO: What? Ah! Hear what I have to say. PANFILO: I’m done for.
DAVO: I know what you’re afraid of.
CARINO: Upon my honor, my life’s in danger.
DA vo: And I even know what’s eating you.
PANFILO: I’ve got to get married.
DAVO: I know.
PANFILO: Today.
DA vo: Don’t bore me with such chatter-I know that you are afraid you will have to marry Filomena and you are afraid you won’t.
CARINO: You know it.
PANFILO: That’s it exactly.
DAVO: There’s no danger of that “exactly.” Look me in the eye!
PANFILO: I beg you, take a load off my mind as fast as you can.
DAVO: Consider it done: Cremete doesn’t want you to marry his daughter.
PANFILO: How do you know?
DAVO: I know. A little while ago your father nabbed me and told me that he wanted you to get married to­ day-and lots of other things that I don’t have time to go into now. I raced right off to the market to tell you. Not finding you there, I went to a high spot and looked all around, but I didn’t see you. But it so happened that I saw
guardai atorno; ne ti vidi. Ma a caso trovai Birria di costui; domanda’lo di te, risposemi non ti avere veduto: il che
mi fu molesto, e pensai quello che fare dovevo. In questo mezzo, ritornandomi io a casa, mi nacque della cosa in se qualche sospizione, perche io vidi comperate poche cose, ed esso stare maninconoso; e subito dissi fra me:-Queste nozze non mi riscontrono.
PANFILO: Ache fine di’ tu cotesto?
DA vo: Io me n’andai subito a casa Cremete, e trovai davanti a l’uscio una solitudine grande, di che io mi rallegrai.
CARINO: Tu di’ bene.
PANFILO: Seguita.
DAVO: Io mi fermai quivi, e non vidi mai entrare ne uscire persona; io entrai drento, riguardai: quivi non era alcuno aparato ne alcuno tumulto.
PANFILO: Cotesto e uno gran segno.
DA vo: Queste cose non riscontrono con le nozze.
PANFILO: Non pare a me.
DAVO: Di’ tu che non ti pare? La cosa e certa. Oltre a di questo, io trovai uno servo di Cremete, che aveva com­ perato certe erbe e uno grosso di pesciolini per la cena del vecchio.
CARINO: Io sono oggi contento, mediante l’opera tua.
DAVO: Io non dico gia cosi io.
CARINO: Perche? None egli certo che non gliene vuol dare?
DAVO: Uccellaccio! Come se fussi necessario, non la dando a costui, che la dia ate! E’ bisogna che tu ti af­ fatichi, che tu vadia a pregare gl’amici del vecchio e che tu non ti stia.
this guy’s slave, Birria. I asked him about you, but he said he hadn’t seen you. That bothered me, so I thought about what I ought to do next. In the meantime, I was on my way back to the house when something about the way things were struck me as being suspicious. I noticed that no one had purchased very many things and that the mas­ ter was gloomy. Suddenly I said to myself, “This marriage business doesn’t check out.”
PANFILO: What are you driving at?
DAVO: I went straight to Cremete’s house. There wasn’t a soul around the front door, which made me happy.
CARINO: You’re right.
PANFILO: Go on.
DA vo: I hung around a while: I saw no one enter or leave. I went inside and looked around-not a single deco­ ration or any noise.
PANFILO: That’s an important sign.
DAVO: All these things don’t jibe with a wedding.
PANFILO: Doesn’t seem so to me.
DAVO: “Doesn’t seem so” to you? It’s for sure. Further­ more, I ran across a servant of Cremete’s who had pur­ chased some vegetables and a penny’s worth of small fish for the old man’s dinner.
CARINO: Thanks to your efforts, today I’m a happy man.
DA vo: I shouldn’t say that just yet.
CARINO: Why? Isn’t it clear that he doesn’t want to
give his daughter to him?
DAVO: Dumbo! As if it necessarily follows that, ifhe doesn’t give her to Panfilo he’ll give her to you! You’ve got to get on the stick: go around and ask the old man’s friends to help you-don’t hang around here.
CARINO: Tu mi amunisci bene: io andro, benche, per mia fe, questa speranza m’abbi ingannato spesso. A Dio!

SCENA TERZA
Panfilo, Davo.
PANFILO: Che vuole adunque mio padre? Perche finge?
DAVO: Io tel diro: se egli t’incolpassi ora che Cremete non te la vuole dare, egli si adirerebbe teco a torto, non avendo prima inteso che animo sia il tuo circa le nozze. Ma se tu negassi, tutta la colpa sara tua: e allora andra sotto­ sopra ogm cosa.
PANFILO: Io sono per sopportare ogni male.
DA vo: 0 Panfilo, egli e tuo padre ed e difficile oppor­ segli. Dipoi, questa donna e sola: e’ troverra del detto al fatto qualche cagione per la quale e’ la fara mandar via.
PANFILO: Che la mandi via?
DAVO: Presto.
PANFILO: Dimmi adunque quello che tu vuoi che io faccia.
DA vo: Di’ di volerla menare.
P,ANFILO: Heime!
DA VO: Che cosa e? PANFILO: Che io lo dica. DAVO: Perche no?
PANFILO: lo non lo faro mai!
DAVO: Non lo negare.
CARINO: That’s good advice. I’ll go, although, by heaven, that kind of hope has often deceived me. Good­ bye!

SCENE THREE
Panfilo, Davo.
PANFILO: What does my father want, then? Why is he pretending?
DA v o: I’ll tell you. If he were to lay the blame on you, now that Cremete doesn’t want you to marry his daughter, he would be in the wrong to fly into a rage at you; and he’d be wrong, too, because he hasn’t even found out how you feel about the marriage. But, should you refuse, all the blame will be on you. At this point everything will be utter chaos.
PANFILO: I’m ready to put up with any kind of trouble.
DA vb: Oh, Panfilo, he’s your father; it’s difficult to
stand up to him. Furthermore, Glicerio is alone: he’d find some pretext in what she said or did for sending her on her way.
PANFILO: He’d send her away?
DA VO: Immediately.
PANFILO: Tell me, then, what you want me to do.
DAVO: Tell him you want to marry Filomena.
PAN FILO: Oh, no!
DA vo: What’s the matter? PANFILO: I should say that? DAVO: Why not?
PANFILO: I’ll never do it.
DAVO: Don’t say that.

PANFILO: Non mi dare a intender questo.
DA vo: Vedi di questo quello che ne nascera.
PANFILO: Che io lasci quella e pigli questa!
DA VO: E’ non e cosl., perche tuo padre dira in questo
modo:-Io voglio che tu meni oggi donna-. Tu rispon­ derai:-Io sono contento-. Dimmi quale cagione ara egli
d’adirarsi teco! E tutti i suoi certi consigli gli torneranno sanza periculo incerti: perche, questo e sanza dubio, che
Cremete non ti vuole dare la figliuola: ne tu per questa cagione ti rimuterai di non fare quel che tu fai, accio che quello non muti la sua opinione. Di’ a tuo padre di volerla, accio che, volendosi adirare teco, ragionevolmente non possa. E facilmente si confuta quello che tu temi, perche nessuno dara mai moglie a cotesti costumi: ei la dara piu tosto ad uno povero. E farai ancora tuo padre negligente a darti moglie, quando ei vegga che tu sia parato a pigliarla; ea bell’agio cerchera d1un’altra: in questo mezzo qualcosa nascera di bene.
PANFILO: Credi tu che la cosa proceda cosi?
DAVO: Sanza dubio alcuno. PANFILO: Vedi dove tu mi metti. DA vo: De! sta’ cheto.
PANFILO: Io lo diro: ei bisogna guardarsi che non sap­ pia che io abbi uno fanciullo di lei, perche io ho promesso d’alevarlo.
DA vo: 0 audacia temeraria!
PANFILO: La volle che io gli dessi la fede, che sapeva che io ero per osservarliene.
DA vo: E’ vi si ara avvertenza. Ma ecco tuo padre: guarda che non ti vegga maninconoso.
PANFILO: lo lo faro.
PANFILO: Don’t try to get me to do that.
DAVO: See what comes of it.
PANFILO: I should abandon this girl and take the other?
DAVO: That won’t happen because your father will say something like, “I want you to get married today.” You’ll answer, “Sure.” Tell me what reason he’ll have to fly into a rage at you then? All his definite plans will become indefi­ nite-and with no risk to you. Because there’s no question that Cremete doesn’t want you to marry his daughter. But don’t let that get in your way, or else your father might change his mind. Tell him you want her so that, even if he does want to fly into a rage at you, he can’t reasonably do so. Don’t worry, nobody will ever give a wife to someone with your character-he’d sooner wed her to a beggar.
Once your father realizes that you’re prepared to marry her, he’ll become less insi tent about getting you a wife. He’ll take his time looking for another one. Meanwhile, some­ thing good will turn up.
PANFILO: Is that what you think will happen?
DAVO: Without a doubt.
PANFILO: What are you getting me into!
DAVO: Oh, relax!
PANFILO: I shall tell him. He musn’t find out that I have a child, because I’ve promised to raise it. 11
DA vo: That was foolhardy and rash!
PANFILO: Glicerio wanted me to give her my promise on that score so that she’d know I’d keep my word.
DAVO: It shall be taken care of. But, here’s your father; be careful not to look sad.
PANFILO: I shall.

SCENA QUARTA
Simo, Davo, Panfilo.
SIMO: Io ritorno e vedere quel che fanno o che partiti pigliano.
DAVO: Costui non dubita che Panfilo neghi di menarla, e ne viene pensativo di qualche luogo solitario, e spera avere trovata la cagione di farti ingiuria; pertanto fa’ di stare in cervello.
PANFILO: Pure che i6 possa, Davo.
DA vo: Credimi questo, Panfilo, che non fara una parola sola, se tu di’ di menarla.

SCENA QUINTA
Birria, Simo, Davo, Panfilo.
BIRRIA: II padrone mi ha impasto, che lasciata ogni altra cosa, vadi osservando Panfilo, per intendere quello che fa di queste nozze; per questo io l’ho seguitato, e veggo ch’egli e con Davo: io ho un tratto a fare questa faccenda.
SIMO: E’ sono qua l’uno e l’altro.
DAVO: Abbi l’occhio!
SIMO: 0 Panfilo!
DAVO: Voltati ad lui quasi che allo improviso.
PANFILO: 0 padre!
DAVO: Bene.
SIMO: Io voglio che tu meni oggi donna, come io ti ho detto.
BIRRIA: Io temo ora del caso nostro, secondo che costui risponde.
PANFILO: Ne in questo ne in altro mai sono per man­ care in alcuna cosa.
BIRRIA: Heime!

SCENE FOUR
Simo, Davo, Panfilo.
SIMO: (I’m coming back to see what they’re up to and what decisions they’ve made.)
DA VO: He hasn’t a doubt that you’ll refuse to marry Filomena. He’s coming here after ruminating in some soli­ tary place; he hopes that he has found an opportunity to make trouble for you. So keep your head on your shoulders.
PANFILO: If only I can, Davo.
DA vo: You can trust me on this, Panfilo. If you say you’ll marry Filomena, your father won’t say a single word.

SCENE FIVE
Birria, Simo, Davo, Panfilo.
BIRRIA: (My master has ordered me to drop everything else and keep an eye on Panfilo to find out what his inten­ tions are about this marriage. That’s why I’ve been fol­ lowing him. I see him with Davo. I’ve only got a moment to do the job in.)
s IM o: (There they both are.) DAVO: Keep your eyes open. SIMO: Oh, Panfilo.
DAVO: Turn around and pretend you haven’t seen him.
PANFILO: Oh, father!
DAVO: Fine!
SIMO: I want you to get married today, as I said.
BIRRIA: (I’m afraid for our side, now, depending upon what his answer is.)
PANFILO: I’ll never disappoint you in anything-not on this score or any other.
BIRRIA: (Well!)
DAVO: Egli e ammutolato.
BIRRIA: Che ha egli detto?
SIMO: Tu fai quello debbi quando io impetro amorevol­ mente da te quel che io voglio.
DA vo: Ho io detto il vero?
BIRRIA: Il padrone, secondo che io intendo, fara sanza moglie.
SIMO: Vattene ora in casa, accio che, quando bisogna, che tu sia presto.
PANFILO: lo VO.
BIRRIA: E egli possibile che innegli uomin\ non sia
fede alcuna? Vero e quel proverbio che dice che ‘ognuno vuole meglio a se che ad altri. Io ho veduta quella fanciulla e, se bene mi ricordo, e bella; per la quale cosa io voglio men male a Panfilo, s’egli ha piu tosto voluto abracciare lei che il mio padrone. Io gliene andro a dire, accio che per questa mala novella mi dia qualche male.

SCENA SESTA
Simo, Davo.
DA vo: Costui crede ora che io gli porti qualche in- ganno e per questa cagione sia rimaso qui.
SIMO: Che dice Davo? DAVO: Niente veramente. SIMO: Niente, he?
DAVO: Niente, per mia fe!
SIMO: Veramente io aspettavo qualche cosa.
DA vo: Io mi avveggo che questo gli e intervenuto fuori d’ogni sua opinione. Egli e rimaso preso.
SIMO: E egli possibile che tu mi dica il vero?
DAVO: Niente e piu facile.
DAvo:That took the wind right out of his sails.
BIRRIA: (What did he say?)
SIMO: You’re behaving as you should when I ask you lovingly to do what I want.
DAVO: Was I right?
BIRRIA: (If I’ve heard correctly, my master is going to do without a wife.)
SIMO: Go into the house now so that you’ll be ready when you’re needed.
PANFILO: I’m going.
BIRRIA: (It’s impossible to trust anybody about any­ thing! The old saw people repeat about how ‘every man is his own best friend’ is true. I’ve seen that girl, and, if I remember correctly, she’s beautiful; so, I can’t hold it against Panfilo if he’d sooner embrace her than my master. I’ll go and tell Carino about it, and my bad news will get me in bad.) 12

SCENE SIX
Simo, Davo.
DA vo: (This guy now thinks I’ve got some trick up my sleeve and that I’ve stayed behind on account of it.)
SIMO: What are you saying, Davo?
DAVO: Nothing, really. SIMO: Nothing, huh? DAVO: Honestly, nothing.
SIMO: I was certainly expecting something.
DA v o: (I can tell something unexpected has happened to him. He’s taken aback.)
SIMO: Is it possible for you to tell me the truth?
DA vo: Nothing is easier.

SIMO: Queste nozze sono a costui punto moleste per la consuetudine che lui ha con questa forestiera?
DAVO: Niente, per Dio; e, se fia, sara uno pensiero che durera dua o tre di, tu sai? perch’egli ha preso questa cosa per il verso.
SIMO: Io lo lodo.
DA vo: Mentre che gli fu lecito e mentre che la eta lo pati, egli amo; e allora lo fece di nascosto, perche quella cosa non gli dessi carico, come debbe fare uno giovane da bene; ora ch’egli e tempo di menar moglie, egli ha diritto l’animo alla moglie.
SIMO: E’ mi parve pure alquanto maninconoso.
DAVO: Non e per questa cagione; ma ei ti accusa bene in qualche cosa.
SIMO: Che cosa e?
DA vo: Niente.
SIMO: Che omine e?
DA vo: Una cosa da giovani.
SIMO: Orsu, dimmi: che cosa e?
DAVO: Dice che tu usi troppa miseria in queste nozze.
SIMO: lo?
DAVO: Tu. Dice che a fatica hai speso dieci ducati: e’ non pare che tu dia moglie ad uno tuo figliuolo. Ei non sa chi si menare de’ sua compagni a cena. E, a dire il vero, che tu te ne governi cosi miseramente, io non ti lodo.
SIMO: Sta’ cheto.
DAVO: Io l’ho aizzato.
SIMO: Io provedro che tutto andra bene. Che cosa e questa? Che ha voluto dire questo ribaldo? E se ci e male alcuno, heime, che questo tristo nee guida.

SIMO: Are these wedding plans troubling Panfilo in any way because of his intimacy with that foreign woman?
DAVO: For goodness sake, no! If they were, it would be a problem that would last two or three days, you know, because he has taken this business in the right way.
SIMO: Good for him.
DAVO: He loved her as long as it was allowable, and as long he was of an age to allow it; he kept quiet about it then so that he wouldn’t be blamed for this business, as, indeed, a well-brought-up young man ought to. Now that it’s time for him to get married, he’s turned his attention to marriage.
SIMO: Still, he seemed to me to be somewhat gloomy.
DA vo: Not for that reason; but he certainly faults you for something.
SIMO: For what?
DAVO: Oh, nothing.
SIMO: What the devil is it?
DA vo: Something childish.
SIMO: Come on, now, tell me what it is!
DAVO: He says you’re too stingy about the wedding.
SIMO: l am?
DAVO: You are. He says that scarcely ten ducats have been spent and that it doesn’t look as if you were marrying off a son of yours to someone. He doesn’t know if any of his friends ought to be invited for dinner. And, to tell the truth, you’re being so chintzy about this matter that I can’t give you much credit for it.
SIMO: Be quiet!
DA vo: (That got a rise out of him!)
SIMO: I’ll see to it that everything is nicely taken care of. (What’s this all about? What does this rascal mean? If there’s any mischief going on here, that wretch is at the bottom of it.)
ATTO TERZO
SCENA PRIMA
Miside, Simo, Lesbia, Davo, Glicerio.
MI SIDE: Per mia fe, Lesbia, che la cosa va come tu hai detto: e’ non si truova quasi mai veruno uomo che sia fe­ dele ad una donna.
SIMO: Questa fantesca e da Andra: che dice ella?
DAVO: Cosl e.
MI SIDE: Ma questo Panfilo …
SIMO: Che dice ella?
MISIDE: … l’ha dato la fede ..
SIMO: Heime!
DA vo: Dio volessi che o costui diventassi sordo o colei mutola!
MI s IDE : . . . perche gli ha comandato che quel che la fara s’allievi.
SIMO: 0 Giove, che odo io? La cosa e spacciata, se cos­ tei dice il vero!
LESBIA: Tu mi narri una buona natura di giovane.
MI SIDE: Ottima; ma vienmi dreto, accio che tu sia a tempo, se l’avessi bisogno di te.
LESBIA: Io vengo.
DA vo: Che remedio troverro io ora ad questo male?
SIMO: Che cosa e questa? e egli sl pazzo che d’una forestiera . . . gia io so . . . ha! sciocco! io me ne sono avveduto!
DA vo: Di che dice costui essersi aveduto?
SIMO: Questo e il primo inganno che costui mi fa: ei fanno vista che colei partorisca per sbigottire Cremete.
ACT THREE
SCENE ONE
Miside, Simo, Lesbia, Davo, Glicerio.
MISIDE: Upon my word, Lesbia, things are going just as you said they would; you can hardly find any man who is faithful to a woman.
SIMO: This is the servant girl of the woman from An- dros. What is she saying?
DA v o: Yes, she is. MISIDE: But this Panfilo . SIMO: What is she saying?
MI SIDE: … has promised ..
SIMO: Ah ha!
DAVO: (Would to God either he’d become deaf or she’d shut up!)
MISIDE: … for Panfilo has ordered that her child be brought up.
SIMO: Oh, heavens, what’s this I’m hearing? If she’s
telling the truth, things are done for.
LESBIA: From what you say, he’s a good-natured young man.
MI SIDE: The best. But come on inside so that we’ll be on time if she needs you.
LESBIA: I’m coming.
DA vo: (How can I find a way out of this mess?)
SIMO: What is this? Is he so insane that with a foreign woman … Now I see. Ah, what an idiot! I’m beginning to get the picture.
DAVO: (What did this guy say he’s “beginning to get”?) s IM o: This is the first scheme this Davo is setting me
up for; they’re making believe this woman is in labor to scare off Cremete.
GLICERIO: 0 Giunone, aiutami, io mi ti raccomando!
SIMO: Bembe, si presto? Cosa da ridere. Poi che la mi ha veduto stare innanzi all’uscio, ella sollecita. 0 Davo, tu non hai bene compartiti questi tempi!
DAVO: lo?
SIMO: Tu ti ricordi del tuo discepolo.
DA vo: Io non so quello che tu di’.
SIMO: Come mi uccellerebbe costui, se queste nozze fussino vere e avessimi trovato impreparato! Ma ora ogni cosa si fa con periculo suo: io sono al sicuro.

SCENA SECONDA
Lesbia, Simo, Davo.
LESBIA: Infino a qui, o Archile, in costei si veggono tutti buoni segni. Fa’ lavare queste cose, dipoi gli date bere quanta vi ordinai e non piu punto che io vi dissi. E io di qui ad un poco daro volta di qua. Per mia fe, che gli e nato a Panfilo uno gentil figliuolo! Dio lo facci sano, sendo egli di si buona natura che si vergogni di abbandonare questa fanciulla.
SIMO: E chi non crederrebbe chi ti conoscessi, che an­ cor questo fussi ordinato date?
DAVO: Che cosa e?
SIMO: Perche non ordinava ella in casa quello che era di bisogno alla donna di parto? Ma, poi che la e uscita fuora, la grida della via a quegli che sono drento!0 Davo, tieni tu si poco conto di me, o paioti io atto ad essere ingannato si apertamente? Fa’ le cose almeno in modo che paia che tu abbia paura di me, quando io lo risapessi!
GLICERIO: (Oh, Juno, help me; I commend my soul
to you!)
SIMO: Well, well, so soon? What a joke! As soon as she saw me at the front door, she sped things up. Oh Davo, you haven’t worked out your timing very well.
DAVO: Miner
SIMO: You’re thinking about your crew. 13
DAVO: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
SIMO: (What an ass he’d have made of me if the wedding were real and he had caught me with my pants down. But now everything is done at his risk-I’m safe.)

SCENE TWO
Lesbia, Simo, Davo.
LESBIA: So far, Archile, she is giving all the proper signs. Make sure she’s washed, then give her the right amount of what I ordered for her to drink-and not any more than what I said. I’ll be back here soon. (Upon my word, what a fine baby boy was born to Panfilo! God grant it health because his father’s character is so good that he was reluctant to abandon this unmarried woman.)
SIMO: How could anybody who knew you not realize
that even this was one of your put-up jobs?
DAVO: What do you mean?
SIMO: Why didn’t that woman tell those women inside what a woman in labor needed? No, she comes right out­ side and shouts it back from the street to whoever’s in there. Oh, Davo, do you think so little of me, do I appear to be such a proper fool as to be duped so obviously? You might at least act as if you were afraid of me if I ever got wind of it!
DAVO: Veramente costui s’inganna da se, non lo in­ ganno 10.
SIMO: Non te lo ho io detto? Non ti ho minacciato che
tu non lo faccia? Che giova? Credi tu ch’io ti creda che costei abbi portorito di Panfilo?
DAVO: lo so dove ei s’inganna; e so quel ch’io ho a fare.
SIMO: Perche non rispondi?
DA vo: Che vuoi tu credere? Come se non ti fussi stato ridetto ogni cosa.
SIMO: A me?
DA vo: He! ho! Ha’ ti tu inteso da te che questa e una finzione?
SIMO: lo sono uccellato!
DA vo: E’ ti e stato ridetto: come ti sarebbe entrato questo sospetto?
SIMO: Perch’io ti conoscevo.
DA vo: Quasi che tu dica che questo e fatto per mio consiglio.
SIMO: lo ne sono certo.
DAVO: 0 Simone, tu non conosci bene chi io sono.
SIMO: lo non ti conosco?
DA v o: Ma come io ti comincio a parlare, tu credi che io t’ inganni . . .
SIMO: Bugie.
DAVO: … in modo che io non ho piu ardire d’aprire la bocca.
SIMO: lo so una volta questo, che qui non ha partorito persona.
DA vo: Tu la intendi; ma di qui a poco questo fanciullo ti sara portato innanzi all’uscio; io te ne avvertisco, accio che tu lo sappia e che tu non dica poi che sia fatto per consiglio di Davo, perche io vorrei che si rimovessi date questa opinione che tu hai di me.
DAVO: (This guy is really deceiving himself; I’m not the one doing it to him.)
SIMO: Didn’t I tell you-didn’t I warn you-not to do it? What’s the use? Do you really think I believe you about this woman having had Panfilo’s child?
DA vo: (I see where he’s making his mistake-and I know what I can do about it.)
SIMO: Why don’t you answer me?
DA v o: What do you want me to believe? As if you hadn’t been told about everything before.
SIMO: Told?
DA vo: Ha, ha! Do you mean you realized all by your­ self that this was a setup?
SIMO: I’m being mocked!
DA vo: You were told-or why else did you become suspicious?
SIMO: Because I know you.
DA vo: It’s almost as if you’re saying that this is my idea.
SIMO: I’m sure of it.
DA vo: Oh, Simo, you don’t really know me well.
SIMO: I don’t?
DAVO: Just as I start to speak, you think I’m tricking you …
SIMO: Lies!
DAVO: … so that I don’t dare open my mouth.
SIMO: Once and for all, I know this much: nobody here has given birth.
DAVO: You’re right. But in a little while a baby boy will be brought to you from out of that door. I’m remind­ ing you of it now so that you’ll know about it and won’t say later on that it was done on Davo’s say-so, because I’d like you to get the idea that you have about me out of your head.
SIMO: Donde sai tu questo?
DAVO: Io l’ho udito e credolo.
SIMO: Molte cose concorrono per le quali io fo questa coniettura: in prima, costei disse essere gravida di Panfilo, e non fu vero; ora poi che la vede aparecchiarsi le nozze, ella mando per la levatrice, che venissi ad lei e portassi seco uno fanciullo.
DA vo: Se non accadeva che tu vedessi il fanciullo, queste nozze di Panfilo non si sarebbono sturbate.
SIMO: Che di’ tu? Quando tu intendesti che si aveva ad pigliare questo partito, perche non me lo dicesti tu?
DAVO: Chi l’ha rimosso da lei, se non io? Perche, non sa ognuno quanto grandemente colui l’amava? Ora egli e bene che tolga moglie: pero mi darai questa faccenda e tu nondimeno seguita di fare le nozze. E io ci ho buona spe­ ranza, mediante la grazia di Dio.
SIMO: Vanne in casa, e quivi mi aspetta e ordina quello che fa bisogno. Costui non mi ha al tutto costretto a cred­ ergli, e non so s’egli e vero cio che mi dice: ma lo stimo poco, perche questa e la importanza, che ‘l mio figliuolo me lo ha promesso. Ora io troverro Cremete e lo pregherro che gliene dia: se io lo impetro, che voglio io altro, se non che oggi si faccino queste nozze? Perche, a quello che ‘l mio figliuolo mi ha promesso, e’ none dubbio ch’io lo potro forzare, quando ei non volessi. E apunto a tempo ecco Cremete.
SIMO: How do you know this?
DA vo: I heard about it and I believe it.
SIMO: 14 A lot of things are coming together and lead­ ing me to this conclusion. First, this woman said that Pan­ filo had gotten her pregnant and it wasn’t true. Now that she realizes that people are making wedding preparations, she sends for the midwife to come-carrying a baby boy with her.
DA vo: If you hadn’t chanced to have seen the baby, then Panfilo’s wedding plans wouldn’t have been upset.
SIMO: What do you mean? When you realized that they had reached this decision, why didn’t you tell me about it?
DA vo: Who was it that got him away from her if I didn’t? Everybody knows how tremendously in love with her he was. Now it is a good thing for him to get married, so leave this matter to me. You, however, go right on with the wedding plans. And, with God’s help, I have high hopes for them.
SIMO: Go on in the house; wait for me there and see to it that what needs to be done gets done. That guy hasn’t quite gotten me to believe him; I don’t know whether he’s telling me the truth or not. but I don’t really care, because this is what’s important: my son has made me a promise. Now I’ll find Cremete and ask him for his daughter. If I get what I’m asking for, what more could I want-unless it’s that the wedding be today? Given what my son has promised, there’s no doubt-should he renege-that I can force him. And here’s Cremete, just in the nick of time.
SCENA TERZA
Simo, Cremete.
SIMO: A! quel Cremete! CREME TE: O! io ti cercavo. SIMO: E io te.
CREME TE: Io ti desideravo perche molti mi hanno tro­ vato e detto avere inteso da piu persone come oggi io do la mia figliuola al tuo figliuolo: io vengo per sapere se tu o loro impazzano.
SIMO: Odi un poco e saprai per quel che io ti voglio e quello che tu cerchi.
CREMETE: Di’ cio che tu vuoi.
SIMO: Per Dio io ti prego, o Cremete, e per la nostra amicizia, la quale, cominciata de piccoli, insieme con la
eta crebbe; per la unica tua figliuola e mio figliuolo, la salute del quale e nella tua potesta; che tu mi aiuti in
questa cosa e che quelle nozze, che si dovevono fare, si faccino.
CREME TE: Ha! non mi pregare, come se ti bisogni
prieghi quando tu vogli da me alcun piacere. Credi tu che io sia d’altra fatta che io mi sia stato per lo adietro, quando
io te la davo? S’egli e bene per l’una parte e per l’altra,
facciamole; ma se di questa cosa a l’uno e l’altro di noi ne nascessi piu male che commodo, io ti priego che tu abbi riguardo al comune bene, come se quella fussi tua, e io padre di Panfilo.
SIMO: Io non voglio altrimenti, e cosi cerco che si facci, o Cremete; ne te ne richiederei, se la cosa non fussi in termine da farlo.
CREMETE: Che e nato?
SIMO: Glicerio e Panfilo sono adirati insieme.

SCENE THREE
Simo, Cremete.
SIMO: Ah, my friend Cremete. CREMETE: Oh, I’ve been looking for you. SIMO: And I you.
CREME TE: I wanted you because lots of people have been coming up to me and saying that they had learned from several sources that my daughter is marrying your son today. I’m here to find out who is crazy-you or them?
SIMO: Listen to me for a moment and you’ll learn why I want you, and what you want to know.
CREME TE: Tell me what it is you want.
SIMO: Oh, Cremete, in the name of heaven and our friendship-which began when we were boys and has grown deeper through the years-and in the name of your only daughter and my son-whose salvation is in your power-I implore you to help me in this matter: let this marriage that should have been, be.
CREME TE: Ha! Don’t beg me, as if you need to entreat me whenever you want some favor from me. Do you think I’m any different from what I was when I promised her to you? If it is a good thing for both of them, let’s do it; but if more harm than good is going to come to either of them from this affair, then I beg you to consider the common good-as if she were your daughter and Panfilo my son.
SIMO: I’d have it no other way; so, I’m attempting to carry out the common good, Cremete. I shouldn’t be ask­ ing you about it if it weren’t propitious for the wedding to be carried out.
CREMETE: What has happened?
SIMO: Glicerio and Panfilo have had a falling out.
CREME TE: Intendo.
SIMO: Edi qualita che io credo che non se ne abbi a fare pace.
CREMETE: Favole!
SIMO: Certo la cosa e cosi.
CREMETE: E’ fia come io ti diro, che l’ire degli amanti sono una reintegrazione d’amore.
SIMO: De! io ti priego che noi avanziano tempo in dar­ gli moglie mentre che ci e dato questo tempo, mentre che la sua libidine e ristucca dale iniurie, innanzi che le scele­
ratezze loro e le lacrime piene d’ inganno riduchino l’animo infermo a misericordia; perche spero, come e’ fia legato da la consuetudine e dal matrimonio, facilmente si liberera da tanti mali.
CREME TE: E’ pare ate cosi, ma io credo che non potra lungamente patire me ne lei.
SIMO: Che ne sai tu, se tu non ne fai esperienza?
CREMETE: Fame esperienza in una sua figliuola, e
pazzia.
SIMO: In fine tutto il male che ne puo risultare e
questo: se non si corregge, che Dio guardi!, che si facci il divorzio; ma, se si corregge, guarda quanti beni: in prima tu restituirai ad uno tuo amico uno figliuolo, tu arai uno genero fermo e la tua figliuola marito.
CREME TE: Che bisogna altro? Se tu ti se’ persuaso che questo sia utile, io non voglio che per me si guasti alcuno tuo commodo.
SIMO: Io ti ho meritamente sempre amato assai.
CREMETE: Ma dimmi …
CREMETE: So I understand.
SIMO: It is so bad I believe that there will be no reconciliation.
CREMETE: Nonsense!
SIMO: It’s a fact!
CREMETE: I’ll tell you how it’s going to turn out: lovers’ quarrels restore love. 15
SIMO: Alas, I beg you-before the women’s wicked wiles and crocodile tears reduce Panfilo’s lovesick mind to a state of pity-let’s save time by marrying them while there is still time given us, while his passion is cooled by insult. I’m counting on its being easier for him, once he’s restrained by ties of habit and marriage, to get himself out of so many predicaments.
CREMETE: So it seems to you, but I believe Panfilo
will not be able to tolerate either her or me for very long.
SIMO: How can you know unless you make the experiment?
CREMETE: To experiment with your own daughter is folly.
SIMO: In the long run, the only problem that could result from all this is that, if Panfilo doesn’t mend his ways, then-may God forbid-there will be a divorce. But, if he does mend them, consider how many advan­ tages there are: first of all, you restore a son to your friend, you’ll have a resolute son-in-law, and you’ll have a husband for your daughter.
CREMETE: What else is needed? If you’re convinced that this idea is advantageous, I don’t want any of your interests to be hurt on my account.
SIMO: I have always been very fond of you-and I was right.
CREME TE: But tell me …
SIMO: Che?
CREME TE: Onde sai tu ch’egli e infra loro inimicizia?
SIMO: Davo me lo ha detto, che e il primo loro con- sigliere; ed egli mi persuade che io faccia queste nozze il piu presto posso. Credi tu che lo facessi, se non sapessi che ‘l mio figliuolo volessi? Io voglio che tu stessi oda le sua parole proprie. Ola, chiamate qua Davo! Ma eccolo che viene fuora.

SCENA QUARTA
Davo, Simo, Cremete.
DA vo: Io venivo a trovarti.
SIMO: Che cosa e?
DA vo: Perche non mandate per la sposa? E’ si fa sera. SIMO: Oditu quel che dice? Per lo adietro io ho du- bitato assai, o Davo, che tu non facessi quel medesimo che
suole fare la maggiore parte de’ servi, d’ingannarmi per cagione del mio figliuolo.
DA vo: Che io facessi cotesto?
SIMO: Io lo credetti, e in modo ne ebbi paura, che io vi ho tenuto segreto quello che ora vi diro.
DA VO: Che cosa e?
SIMO: Tu lo saprai, perche io comincio a prestarti fede. DA vo: Quanta tu hai penato a conoscere chi io sono! SIMO: Queste nozze non erano da dovero .
DAVO: Perche no?
SIMO: Maio le finsi per tentarvi.
SIMO: What?
CREMETE: How do you know that there is bad blood between them?
SIMO: Davo, who is foremost among their advisers,
told me; he persuaded me to arrange the wedding as soon as possible. You don’t think he would do that unless he knew my son wanted the marriage, do you? I’d like you
to hear it from his own lips. You there, call Davo out here. Ah, here he is coming out.

SCENE FOUR
Davo, Simo, Cremete.
DAVO: I was looking for you.
SIMO: What is it?
DA vo: Why hasn’t the bride been sent for; it’s getting on toward evening.
SIMO: Do you hear what he’s saying? I used to feel quite afraid, Davo, that you would do exactly what the majority of slaves are wont to do-trick me because of my son.
DAVO: That I would do that?
SIMO: I did think so; it was because of that fear that I withheld the secret that I am now going to divulge.
DA vo: What’s that?
SIMO: You’ll find out because I’m just beginning to trust you.
DA vo: At last, you’ve taken the trouble to discover
who I am.
SIMO: This wedding was not in earnest …
DA vo: Why not?
SIMO: I pretended it was in order to sound you two out.
DAVO: Che di’ tu?
SIMO: Cosi sta la cosa.
DAVO: Vedi tu! mai me ne arei saputo avedere. U! Ha!, che consiglio astuto!
SIMO: Odiguesto: poi che io ti feci entrare in casa, io riscontrai a tempo costui.
DA VO: Heime! noi siam morti.
SIMO: Di’ a costui guello che tu dicesti a me.
DAVO: Che odo io?
SIMO: Io l’ho pregato che ci dia la sua figliuola e con fatica l’ho ottenuto.
DA vo: Io son morto.
SIMO: Hem? che hai tu detto?
DAVO: Ho detto ch’egli e molto bene fatto.
SIMO: Ora per costui non resta.
CREMETE: Io me n’andro a casa e diro che si preparino; e, se bisognera cosa alcuna, lo faro intendere a costui.
SIMO: Ora io ti prego, Davo, perche tu solo mi hai fatte gueste nozze . . .
DA vo: Io veramente solo.
SIMO: … sforzati di correggere guesto mio figliuolo.
DA vo: Io lo faro sanza dubio alcuno.
SIMO: Tu puoi ora, mentre ch’egli e adirato.
DAVO: Sta’ di buona voglia.
SIMO: Dimmi, dove e egli ora?
DAVO: Io mi maraviglio se non e in casa.
SIMO: Io l’andro a trovare e diro a lui quel medesimo che io ho detto ate.
DAvo: Io sono diventato pichino. Che cosa terra che io non sia per la piu corta mandato a zappare? Io non ho spe­ ranza che i prieghi mi vaglino: io ho mandato sottosopra ogni cosa; io ho ingannato il padrone e ho fatto che oggi
DAVO: What are you saying?
SIMO: That’s it.
DAVO: What do you know? I never would have figured that out. Humph, what a clever plan!
SIMO: Now hear this: right after I made you go into the house, I luckily met this man.
DAVO: (Oh brother, now we’ve had it!) SIMO: Tell him what you have just told me. DAVO: (What am I hearing?)
SIMO: I begged him for his daughter’s hand in marriage and got it-with some difficulty.
DAVO: (Now I’m done for.)
SIMO: Huh, what did you say?
DA vo: I said, “he has done a good deed.”
SIMO: Now, as for him, there’s nothing left to be done.
CREMETE: I’ll run along home and tell them to get things ready; if anything is needed, I’ll let you know.
SIMO: Now, Davo, I implore you, because you alone have made this marriage possible for me . . .
DAVO: (I alone, ah yes!)
s IM o: . . . make every effort to set that son of mine straight.
DAVO: I’ll do that, no problem.
SIMO: You can do it now, while he’s angry.
DAVO: Relax.
SIMO: Tell me, where is he now?
DAVO: I’d be surprised ifhe weren’t at home.
SIMO: I’ll go find him and tell him exactly what I’ve told you.
DAVO: I’m a goner.16 What’s to prevent me from being sent off to dig ditches the short way ’round? I’ve no hope that my prayers can be of any use. I’ve turned everything upside down: I’ve deceived my master and caused the wed-
queste nozze si faranno, voglia Panfilo o no.0 astuzia! Che se io mi fussi stato da parte, non ne sarebbe risultato male alcuno. Ma ecco, io lo veggo. Io sono spacciato! Dio volessi che fussi qui qualche balza dove io a fiaccacollo mi potessi gittare!

SCENA QUINTA
Panfilo, Davo.
PANFILO: Dove e quello scelerato che mi ha morto?
DA vo: Io sto male.
PANFILO: Maio confesso essermi questo intervenuto ragionevolmente, quando io sono si pazzo e si da poco che io commetto e casi mia in si disutile servo! Io ne porto le pene giustamente; ma io ne lo paghero in ogni modo.
DA v o: Se io fuggo ora questo male, io so che poi tu non me ne pagherai.
PAN FILO: Che diro io ora a mio padre? Negherogli io quello che io gli ho promesso? Con che confidenza ardiro io di farlo? Io non so io stesso quello che mi fare di me medesimo.
DAVO: Ne anch’io di me; ma io penso di dire di avere trovato qualche bel tratto, per differire questo male.
PANFILO: Ohe!
DAVO: E’ mi ha veduto.
PANFILO: Ola, uom da bene, che fai? Vedi tu come tu m’hai aviluppato co’ tuoi consigli?
DAVO: Io ti sviluppero. PANFILO: Sviluppera’mi? DAVO: Si veramente, Panfilo! PANFILO: Come ora?
ding to take place today whether Panfilo wants it or not. 17 Clever, aren’t I. Had I stayed out of it, there wouldn’t have been any problem. There he is-I see Panfilo. I’m done for. God grant me a cliff right here so I can plunge over it headlong!

SCENE FIVE
Panfilo, Davo.
PANFILO: Where is that scoundrel who has ruined me?
DAVO: (I’m in for it.)
PANFILO: Still, I must admit that all this happened to me with good reason, for I was foolish enough-and in­ ept enough-to entrust my needs to such a no_-good slave. It’s my own fault; but, in any case, I’ll make him pay.
DA v o: (If I get out of this mess now, I know that you won’t make me pay for it later.)
PANFILO: What am I going to say to my father now?
How can I renege on what I’ve already promised him? Where shall I find the courage to do it? I don’t know ex­ actly what I ought to do.
DAVO: (Neither do I, but I’m thinking of telling him that I’ve come up with some clever idea18 to get us out of this mess.)
PANFILO: Ah ha!
DAVO: He’s spotted me.
PANFILO: Hey there, my good man, what’s up? See how you and your schemes have gotten me all tangled up?
DAVO: I’ll untangle you. PANFILO: You’ll get me out? DA VO: Of course, Panfilo.
PANFILO: As you did just now?
DAvo:Spero pure di fare meglio.
PANFILO: Vuoi tu che io ti creda, impiccato, che tu rassetti una cosa aviluppata e perduta? O! di chi mi sono
io fidato, che d’uno stato tranquillo m’hai rovesciato adosso queste nozze. Ma non ti dissi io che m’interverrebbe questo?
DAVO: Si, dicesti.
PANFILO: Che ti si verrebbe egli?
DA vo: Le forche! Ma lasciami un poco poco ritornare in me: io pensero a qualcosa.
PANFILO: Heime! perche non ho io spazio a pigliare di te quel suplizio che io vorrei? Perche questo tempo richiede che io pensi a’ casi mia e non a vendicarmi.
DAvo:I hope even better.
PANFILO: You want me to believe you, you crook! You’re going to put in order what’s all tangled up and ruined? Oh, to think that I relied on this guy who has destroyed my tranquility and dumped this wedding on top of me. But didn’t I tell you that this would happen?
DAVO: Yes, you did.
PANFILO: What do you deserve?
DAVO: The gallows! But let me gather my wits for a moment; I’ll think of something.
PANFILO: Well, if only I had the time to exact from you the punishment I should like to. But the time avail­ able requires me to think about my own need-not about revenge.
ATTO QUARTO
SCENA PRIMA
Carino, Panfilo, Davo.
CARINO: E ella cosa degna di memoria o credibile che sia tanta pazzia nata in alcuno che si rallegri del male d’al­
tri e degli incommodi d’altri cerchi i commodi suoi? Ah! non e questo vero? E quella sorte d’huomini e pessima, che
si vergognano negare una cosa quando sono richiesti; poi, quando ne viene il tempo, forzati da la necessita, si scuo­ prono e temono. E pure la cosa gli sforza a negare, et al- lora usano parole sfacciate:-Chi se’ tu? Che hai tu a fare
meco? Perche ti ho io a dare le mia cose? Odi tu: io ho a volere meglio a me!-E se tu gli domandi dove e la fede,
e’ non si vergognono di niente; e prima, quando non bi­ sognava, si vergognorno. Ma che faro io? Androllo io a trovare per dolermi seco di questa ingiuria? Io gli diro villania. E se un mi dicessi:-Tu non farai nulla!-io gli daro pure questa molestia e sfoghero l’animo mio.
PANFILO: Carino, io ho rovinato imprudentemente te e me, se Dio non ci provede.
CARINO: Cosi, «imprudentemente»? Egli ha trovata la scusa! Tu m’hai osservata la fede!
PANFILO: 0 perche?
CARINO: Credimi tu ancora ingannare con queste tua
parole?
PANFILO: Che cosa e cotesta?
CARINO: Poi che io dissi d’amarla, ella ti e piaciuta.
De! misero a me, che io ho misurato l’animo tuo con l’a­ nimo mio!
PANFILO: Tu t’inganni.
ACT FOUR
SCENE ONE
Carino, Panfilo, Davo.
CARINO: 19 Is it within the realm of possibility to believe in or conceive of anyone being so insane that he would take delight in someone’s misfortunes and take com­ fort in someone’s discomfort? Can this be true? The worst sort of man is someone who is ashamed to say “no” to something when he is asked, but later, when the time is up and he is forced by circumstances, he comes out into the open and becomes shameless. If the situation forces such a person to refuse, then he talks impudently: “Who are you? What are you to me? Why should I give up my girl to you? Listen, I look out for number one!” And if
you ask, what about your promise, this kind of person isn’t ashamed of anything; whereas before, when he didn’t need to be ashamed, he was. What should I do? Shall I go hunt him out and complain about this outrage? I’ll insult him. If someone were to say, “you’ll get nowhere,” at least I shall have annoyed him and let off steam.
PANFILO: Carino, I have carelessly ruined both you and me, unless the Lord helps us out.
CARINO: “Carelessly,” he says. You’ve found an out!
You’ve kept your promise to me!
PANFILO: Oh, why?
CARINO: Do you still expect to deceive me with those speeches of yours?
PANFILO: What’s the matter?
CARINO: Once I said that I loved Filomena, she be­ came charming for you. Alas, how unfortunate I am to have measured your nature by my own.
PANFILO: You’re mistaken.
108 ANDRIA (IV)

CARINO: Questa tua allegrezza non ti sarebbe paruta intera, se tu non mi avessi nutrito e lattato d’una falsa speranza: abbitela.
PANFILO: Che io l’abbia? Tu non sai in quanti mali io sia rinvolto e in quanti pensieri questo mio manigoldo m’abbi messo con i suoi consigli.
CARINO: Maraviglitene tu? Egli ha imparato date.
PANFILO: Tu non diresti cotesto, se tu conoscessi me e lo amore mio.
CARINO: Io so che tu disputasti assai con tuo padre: e per questo ti accusa, che non ti ha potuto oggi disporre a menarla.
PANFILO: Anzi, vedi come tu sai i mali mia! Queste nozze non si facevano, e non era alcuno che mi volessi dare moglie.
CARINO: Io so che tu se’ stato forzato date stesso. PANFILO: Sta’ un poco saldo: tu non lo sai ancora. CARINO: Io so che tu l’hai a menare.
PANFILO: Perche mi ammazzi tu? Intendi questo: cos­ tui non cesso mai di persuadere, di pregarmi, che io dicessi a mio padre di essere contento di menarla, tanto che mi condusse a dido.
CARINO: Chi fu cotesto uomo?
PANFILO: Davo.
CARINO: Davo?
PANFILO: Davo manda sozopra ogni cosa.
CARINO: Per che cagione?
PANFILO: Io non lo so, se non che io so bene che Dio e
adirato meco, poi che io feci a suo modo.

CARINO: Would your joy have seemed complete only if you fed and nourished me on false hope? Keep her!
PANFILO: Keep her? You can’t imagine how many problems I’ve become tangled up in and how much trouble my executioner here has gotten me into with his schemes.
CARINO: Why are you surprised at that? He learned it from you.
PANFILO: You wouldn’t talk like that if you knew me and my love.
CARINO: I know that you had a big fight with your father and thus he blames you; and so, he was unable to persuade you to marry Filomena today.
PANFILO: On the contrary, see how little you know about my troubles. The wedding was not to have taken place and there was no one trying to give me a wife.
CARINO: I know, you were forced to-because you were forcing yourself.
PANFILO: Hold your horses; you don’t get it yet.
CARINO: I get that you’re going to marry her.
PANFILO: You’ll be the death of me. Listen. He never stopped influencing me and badgering me into telling my father that I’d be content to marry her; so, I was driven to tell him so.
CARINO: Whowas this guy?
PANFILO: Davo.
CARINO: Davo?
PANFILO: Davo throws a monkey wrench into everything.
CARINO: Why?
PANFILO: I don’t know why, but I do know that God has been angry with me ever since I started doing what he wanted.
IIO ANDRIA (IV)

CARINO: E ita cos1 la cosa, Davo?
DAVO: S1, e.
CARINO: Che di’ tu, scelerato? Idio ti dia quel fine che tu meriti! Dimmi un poco: se tutti i suoi nimici gli aves­ sino voluto dare moglie, arebbongli dato altro consiglio?
DAVO: Io sono stracco, ma non lasso.
CARINO: Io lo so.
DAVO: E’ non ci e riuscito per questa via, enterreno per una altra: se gia tu non pensi che, poi che la prima non riusd, questo male non si possa guarire.
PANFILO: Anzi, credo che, ogni poco che tu ci pensi, che d’un paio di nozze tu me ne farai dua.
DAVO: 0 Panfilo, io sono obligato in tuo servizio sfor­ zarmi con le mani e co’ pie, d1 e notte, e mettermi ape­ riculo della vita per giovarti. E’ s’appartiene poi ate per­ donarmi, se nasce alcuna cosa fuora di speranza, e s’egli occorre cosa poco prospera, perche io aro fatto il meglio che io ho saputo; o veramente tu ti truovi uno altro che ti serva meglio, e lascia andare me.
PANFILO: Io lo desidero; ma rimettimi nel luogo dove tu mi traesti.
DAVO: lo lo faro.
PANFILO: Ei bisogna ora.
DAVO: Hem! Ma sta’ saldo, io sento l’uscio di Glicerio.
PANFILO: E’ non importa ate.
DAvo: Io vo pensando.
P ANFILO: Hem? or ci pensi?
DAVO: lo l’ho gia trovato.

CARINO: Is that how it was, Davo?
DAVO: Yes, it is.
CARINO: What do you mean, you wretch? God’s going to get you for that! Tell me: if all his enemies had wanted to marry their daughters to him, would they have given him any other advice?
DAVO: I’m down, but not out.
CARINO: I know.
DAVO: We’ve had no success with this route, let’s try another; unless you think that, because our first try was unsuccessful, there is no way to solve this problem.
PANFILO: On the contrary, I believe that without giv­ ing it much thought, you can come up with two weddings for me instead of one.
DAVO: Oh, Panfilo, I’m bound to you as your slave to strive to do my darnedest20 day and night and to risk my life to help you. It’s your duty, then, if something unex­ pected turns up, to forgive me; should it turn out that
my plan is not so lucky, at least I did the best I know how. In fact, if you can come up with a better plan, let me go.
PANFILO: I’d like to; but put me back where you found me.
DAVO: I shall.
PANFILO: It must be done now.
DAVO: Hmm. Hold it, I hear Glicerio’s door opening.
PANFILO: That’s none of your business.
DAVO: I’m thinking. 21
PANFILO: Ha, at last!
DA vo: I’ve already figured it out.

SCENA SECONDA
Miside, Panfilo, Carino, Davo.
MI s IDE : Come io l’aro trovato’ io procurero per te e ne merro meco il tuo Panfilo; ma tu, anima mia, non ti voler macerare.
PANFILO: 0 Miside!
MI SIDE: Che e?0 Panfilo, io t’ho trovato appunto.
PANFILO: Che cosa e?
MISIDE: Lamia padrona mi ha comandato che io ti prieghi che, se tu l’ami, che tu la vadia a vedere.
PANFILO: U! Ha! ch’io son morto. Questa male rin­ nuova. Tieni tu con la tua opera cosi sospeso me e lei? La manda per me, perche la sente che si fanno le nozze.
CARINO: Dale quali facilmente tu ti saresti potuto as­ tenere, se costui se ne fussi astenuto.
DA vo: Se costui non e per se medesimo adirato, aizzalo!
MISIDE: Per mia fe, cotesta e la cagione; e pero e ella manmconosa.
PANFILO: Io ti giuro, o Miside, per tutti gl’Iddei, che io non la abandonero mai, non se io credessi che tutti gli uomini mi avessino a diventare nimici. lo me la ho cerca, la mi e tocca; i costumi s’affanno: morir possa qualunque vuole che noi ci separiamo! Costei non mi fia tolta se non da la morte.
MI SIDE: Io risucito.
PANFILO: L’oraculo d’Apolline none piu vero che questo. Se si potra fare che mio padre creda che non sia mancato per me che queste nozze si faccino, io l’aro caro; quanta che no, io faro le cose alla abandonata e vorro ch’e­ gli intenda che manchi dame. Chi ti paio io?

SCENE TWO
Miside, Panfilo, Carino, Davo.
MISIDE: Wherever he is, I shall have him found; I’ll get him for you and bring back your Panfilo with me. But you, my darling, don”t brood about it.
PANFILO: Oh, Miside.
MI SIDE: What? Oh, Panfilo, I’ve found you just in time.
PANFILO: Why’s that?
MISIDE: My mistress ordered me to beg you to come and see her, if you love her.
PANFILO: Ah, I’ve had it! This problem keeps crop­ ping up. See what your deeds have done to keep her and me up in the air? She is sending for me because she has heard that the wedding plans are made.
CARINO: How easy it would have been for you to hold off on them if only this guy had backed off.
DA vo: Goad him on-as if my master weren”t flying into a rage on his own!
MI SIDE: I bet that’s the reason why she is gloomy.
PANFILO: I swear to you, Miside, by all the gods, that I shall never desert her, not even if I knew that every man alive would become my enemy. I sought her out and I got her; we suit one another. Death to anyone who wants to separate us. Only death shall take her from me!
MI SIDE: I feel much better.
PANFILO: Apollo’s oracle is not more true than my words. If it’s at all possible to arrange things so that my father doesn’t believe that it was I who got the wedding called off, I’d be grateful; if not, though, I’ll let things go their own way-I intend for him to understand that I was the one who called things off. How does that seem to you?

CARINO: Infelice come me.
DA vo: Io cerco d’un partito. CARINO: Tu se’ valente huomo. PANFILO: Io so quel che tu cerchi.
DAVO: Io te lo daro fatto in ogni modo.
PANFILO: E’ bisogna ora.
DAVO: Io so gia quello che io ho a fare.
CARINO: Che cosa e?
DAVO: Io l’ho trovato per costui, non per te, accio che tu non ti inganni.
CARINO: E’ mi basta.
PANFILO: Dimmi quello che tu farai.
DA vo: Io ho paura che questo di non mi basti a farlo, non che mi avanzi tempo a dirlo. Orsu, andatevi con Dio: voi mi date noia.
PANFILO: Io andro a vedere costei.
DAVO: Ma tu dove n’andrai?
CARINO: Vuoi tu ch’io ti dica il vero?
DA vo: Tu mi cominci una istoria da capo.
CARINO: Quel che sara di me?
DAVO: Eh! o! imprudente! Non ti basta egli che, s’io differisco queste nozze uno di, che io lo do ate?
CARINO: Nondimeno ..
DAVO: Che sara? CARINO: Ch’io la meni. DA vo: Uccellaccio!
CARINO: Se tu puoi fare nulla, fa’ di venire qui. DAVO: Che vuoi tu ch’io venga? Io non ho nulla. CARINO: Pure, se tu avessi qualche cosa .
DA VO: Orsu, io verro!

CARINO: Unfortunate-like me. DAVO: I’m looking for an alternative. CARINO: You’re a skillful one. 22
PANFILO: I know what you’re looking for. DA vo: I’ll give you results, come what may! PANFILO: We need them now!
DA vo: I already know what I’ve got to do.
CARINO: What’s that?
DA vo: It’s for Panfilo, not you, so you won’t make a mistake.
CARINO: That’s OK by me.
PANFILO: Tell me what you’re going to do.
DAVO: I’m afraid this day isn’t long enough to do it, so you know that there’s not enough time to tell it. Come on, now; may God be with you both-you’re in my way.
PANFILO: I’ll go and see Glicerio.
DA vo: And where will you be going?
CARINO: Would you like me to tell you the truth?
DA vo: You’re about to start a story from the top.
CARINO: What’s going to become of me?
DA vo: What? Oh, you’re so rash!23 Isn’t it enough that, if I’m putting off this wedding for one day, I’m giving that one day to you?
CARINO: Nevertheless …
DAVO: What’s up?
CARINO: I want to marry Filomena.
DAVO: Youfool!
CARINO: If you can do anything, come here to my house.
DAVO: Why do you want me to come? I have
nothing …
CARINO: Still, if you might have something.
DAVO: Go on, now, I’ll come.

CARINO: … lo saro in casa.
DA vo: Tu, Miside, aspettami un poco qui, tanto che io peni a uscire di casa.
MI SIDE: Perche?
DAVO: Cosi bisogna fare.
MI SIDE: Fa’ presto!
DAVO: lo saro qui ora.

SCENA TERZA
Miside, Davo.
MISIDE: Veramente e’ non ci e boccone del netto.0 Idii! io vi chiamo in testimonio che io mi pensavo che questo Panfilo fussi alla padrona mia un sommo bene, sendo amico, amante e uom parato a tutte le sua voglie: ma ella, misera, quanta dolore piglia per suo amore! In
modo che io ci veggo dentro piu male che bene. Ma Davo esce fuora. Oime! Che cosa e questa? dove porti tu il
fanciullo?
DA v o: 0 Miside, ora bisogna che la tua astuzia e au­ dacia sia pronta.
MI SIDE: Che vuoi tu fare?
DAVO: Piglia questo fanciullo, presto, e pollo innanzi all’uscio nostro.
MISIDE: In terra?
DA vo: Raccogli paglia e vinciglie della via, e met­ tigliene sotto.
MI SIDE: Perche non fai tu questo da te?
DAVO: Per potere giurare al padrone di non lo avere
posto.
MI SIDE: Intendo; ma dimmi: come se’ tu diventato si religioso?

CARINO: I’ll be at home.
DAVO: Miside, wait here a minute until I come out of the house.
MISIDE: Why?
DAVO: Just do it.
MISIDE: Hurry!
DA vo: I’ll be right out.

SCENE THREE
Miside, Davo.
MISIDE: (Everything really does come with strings at­ tached. Ye Gods, I call upon you as witnesses that I used to consider Panfilo to be the greatest good my mistress could have-a friend, a lover, someone in tune with her
every desire; but, poor dear, what sorrow she gets from her love. I see more bad than good in this affair. But Davo is coming.) Oh no, what’s this? Where are you taking the baby?
DAVO: Oh, Miside, now your cunning and boldness must be at the ready.
MI SIDE: What are you going to do?
DA vo: Take the baby, quickly, and put him on the threshold of our door.
MISIDE: On the ground?
DA vo: Gather up some straw and willow branches from the street24 and put them underneath him.
MISIDE: Why don’t you do it yourself?
DA vo: So that I’ll be able to swear to my master that I didn’t put him there.
MISIDE: I see; but, tell me, since when did you be­ come so scrupulous?
II8 ANDRIA (IV)

DAVO: Muoviti presto, accio che tu intenda dipoi quel ch’io voglio fare.0 Giove!
MI SIDE: Che cosa e?
DA vo: Ecco il padre della sposa: io voglio lasciare il primo partito.
MISIDE: Io non so che tu ti di’.
DAVO: Io fingero di venire qua da man dritta: fa’ d’an­ dare secondando il parlare mio dovunque bisognera.
MI SIDE: Io non intendo cosa che tu ti dica; me io staro qui, accio, se bisognassi l’opera mia, io non disturbi alcuno vostro commodo.

SCENA QUARTA
Cremete, Miside, Davo.
CREMETE: Io ritorno per comandare che mandino per lei, poi che io ho ordinato tutte le cose che bisognano per le nozze … Ma questo che e? Per mia fe, ch’egli e un fanciullo!0 donna, ha’lo tu posto qui?
MISIDE: Ove e ito colui?
CREMETE: Tu non mi rispondi?
MISIDE: Hei, misera a me! che none in alcun luogo!
Ei mi ha lasciata qui sola ed essene ito.
DA vo: 0 Dii, io vi chiamo in testimonio: che romore e egli in mercato! Quanta gente vi piatisce! E anche la ri­ colta e cara. Io non so altro che mi dire.
MI SIDE: Perche mi hai tu lasciata qui cosi sola?
DAVO: Hem? che favola e questa?0 Miside, che fan­ ciullo e questo? Chi l’ha recato qui?
MISIDE: Se’ tu impazzato? Di che mi domandi tu?

DAVO: Get a move on so you’ll be able to find out what I want you to do next. Oh my God!
MISIDE: What’s the matter?
DAVO: Here comes the bride’s father. I’m going to abandon my original plan.
MI SIDE: I don’t understand what you’re talking about.
DAVO: I’ll pretend to be arriving here from the right. Try to follow me and back up what I’m saying whenever it’s necessary.
MISIDE: I don’t understand a thing you’re talking
about, but I’ll be here; so, if you need my services, I’ll not stand in your way.

SCENE FOUR
Cremete, Miside, Davo.
CREMETE: I’m coming back in order to have my daughter sent for, because I have made all the necessary wedding arrangements. But what’s this? Upon my word, it’s a baby! Hey, young woman, did you put this baby here?
MISIDE: (Where did Davo go?)
CREMETE: Are you going to answer me?
MISIDE: (Oh dear, dear-he’s nowhere around. He’s gone off and left me here all alone.)
DAVO: Ye Gods, I call upon you as my witnesses­ what a commotion there is in the market place. What a crowd of people squabbling there and how expensive food is. (I don’t know what else to say.)
MISIDE: Why did you leave me here all alone?
DAVO: Huh? What kind of comedy is this?25 Whose baby is this, Miside? Who brought it here?
MISIDE: Are you crazy? Why are you asking me this?

DAvo: Chi ne ho io a domandare, che non ci veggo altri?
CREMETE: Io mi maraviglio che fanciullo sia questo.
DAVO: Tu m’hai a rispondere ad quel ch’io ti domando.
Tlrati in su la man ritta.
MISIDE: Tu impazzi: non ce lo portasti tu?
DA v o: Guarda di non mi dire una parola fuora di quello che io ti domando.
MISIDE: Tu bestemmi.
DAVO: Di chi e egli? Di’, ch’ognuno oda.
MISIDE: De’ vostri.
DA vo: Ha! ha! io non mi maraviglio se una meretrice non ha vergogna.
CREMETE: Questa fantesca e da Andra, come mi pare.
DAVO: Paiamovi noi pero uomini da essere cosl uccellati?
CREMETE: Io sono venuto a tempo.
DAVO: Presto, leva questo fanciullo di qui! Sta’ salda; guarda di non ti partire di qui!
MI SIDE: Gl’Idii ti sprofondino, in modo mi spaventi!
DAVO: Dico io ate o no?
MISIDE: Che vuoi?
DA vo: Domandimene tu ancora? Dimmi: di chi e co­
testo bambino?
MISIDE: Nol sai tu?
DAVO: Lascia ire quel ch’io so: rispondi a quello che io ti domando.
MISIDE: E de’ vostri.
DA VO: Di chi nostri?
MISIDE: Di Panfilo.
DA vo: Come di Panfilo?
MISIDE: 0 perche no?

DAvo: Whom should I ask about it? I don’t see anyone else here.
CREMETE: I wonder whose baby this could be?
DA vo: Answer my question. (Come off here to the right.)26
MISIDE: (You’re out of your mind! Didn’t you bring it yourself?)
DA vo: (Be careful to say nothing more than what I ask you for.)
MISIDE: (You’re talking nonsense.)
DAVO: Whose is it? (Speak up so everyone can hear.)
MISIDE: Your people’s!
DA vo: Ha! It doesn’t surprise me that a whore has no shame.
CREMETE: (It would appear that it’s the woman from Andros’s servant.)
DAVO: Do we appear to be people who could be so easily fooled?
CREMETE: (I got here in the nick of time.)
DAVO: Hurry up, get that baby away from here! (Wait, don’t you dare move away from here.)
MI SIDE: (Go to Hell, you’re scaring me to death!)
DA v o: Am I talking to you or not?
MISIDE: What do you want?
DAVO: Are you asking me again? Tell me, whose baby is this?
MI SIDE: Don’t you know?
DA vo: Never mind what I know. Answer my question!
MISIDE: It’s your people’s.
DAVO: Ours?
MI SIDE: Panfilo’s.
DAVO: What do you mean, Panfilo’s?
MI SIDE: Well, isn’t it?

CREME TE: Io ho sempre ragionevolmente fuggite queste nozze.
DAVO: 0 sceleratezza notabile!
MI SIDE: Perche gridi tu?
DAVO: Non vidi io che vi fu ieri recato in casa?
MISIDE: 0 audacia d’uomo!
DA vo: Non vidi io una donna con uno involgime sotto?
MISIDE: Io ringrazio Dio che, quando ella partod, v’in­ tervennono molte donne da bene.
DA vo: Non so io per che cagione si e fatto questo?-Se Cremete vedra il fanciullo innanzi all’uscio, non gli dara la figliuola!-Tanto piu gliene dara egli!
CREMETE: Non fara, per Dio!
DA vo: Se tu non lievi via cotesto fanciullo, io rin­ volgero te e lui nel fango.
MI SIDE: Per Dio, che tu se’ obliaco!
DAVO: L’una bugia nasce da l’altra. Io sento gia susur­ rare che costei e cittadina ateniese . . .
CREMETE: Heime!
DAVO: … e che, forzato dale leggi, la torra per donna.
MI SIDE: A! rn per tua fe, none ella cittadina?
CREME TE: Io sono stato per incappare in uno male da farsi beffe di me.
DAVO: Chi parla qui?0 Cremete, tu vieni a tempo.
Odi!
CREMETE: Io ho udito ogni cosa.
DA vo: Hai udito ogni cosa?
CREME TE: Io ho udito certamente il tutto da principio.

CREMETE: (I was right all along to steer clear of this wedding.)
DA vo: What monstrous villainy!
MISIDE: Why are you shouting?
DAVO: Isn’t this the baby I saw being carried into your house yesterday?
MISIDE: What nerve!
DA vo: Didn’t I see a woman with a bundle rolled up under her arm?
MISIDE: Thank God there were some reliable women around when Glicerio gave birth.
DA vo: Don’t I know why this was done? “If Cremete sees a baby on his threshold,” she thinks, “he won’t let his daughter get married.” But he’ll be for it all the more.
CREMETE: (Oh no he won’t, by God!)
DA vo: If you don’t take this baby away, I’ll roll you both in the mud.
MISIDE: My God, you’re drunk!
DA vo: One story leads to another: I’ve heard it bruited about that Glicerio is a citizen of Athens . . .
CREMETE: (Ah ha!)
DA vo: … and that Panfilo will be compelled by law to marry her.
MISIDE: Oh, for heaven’s sake, isn’t she a citizen?
CREMETE: (I almost stumbled into a bad situation and made a fool of myself.)
DAVO: Who’s that talking? Oh, Cremete, you’re just in time. Listen!
CREMETE: I heard everything.
DAVO: You heard it all?
CREMETE: I heard everything clearly right from the beginning.

DAvo: Hai udito, per tua fe? Ve’ che sceleratezza! Egli e necessario mandare costei al bargello! Questo e quello. Non credi di uccellare Davo!
MISIDE: 0 miser’ a me!0 vecchio mio, io non ho detto bugia alcuna.
CREMETE: Io so ogni cosa. Ma Simone e drento?
DAVO: E.
MISIDE: Non mi toccare, ribaldo! io diro bene a Glice- rio ogni cosa.
DAVO: 0 pazzerella! tu non sai quello che si e fatto.
MI SIDE: Che vuoi tu che io sappia?
DA vo: Costui e il suocero e in altro modo non si poteva fare che sapessi quello che noi volavamo.
MISIDE: Tu me lo dovevi dire innanzi.
DAVO: Credi tu che vi sia differenza, o parlare da cuore, secondo che ti detta la natura, o parlare con arte?

SCENA QUINTA
Crito, Miside, Davo.
CRITO: E’ si dice che Criside abitava in su questa piazza, la quale ha voluto piu tosto aricchire qui inonesta­ mente, che vivere povera onestamente nella sua patria. Per la sua morte i suoi beni ricaggiono a me . . . Ma io veggo chi io ne potro domandare. Dio vi salvi!
MISIDE: Chi veggo io? E questo Crito, consobrino di
Criside? Egli e esso.
CRITO: 0 Miside, Dio ti salvi!
MI SIDE: E Crito sia salvo!
CRITO: Cosi Criside, he?
MISIDE: Ella ci ha veramente rovinate.
CRITO: Voi che fate? In che modo state qui? Fate voi bene?

DAvo: Ohdear, everything? What an outrage! That woman ought to be sent to prison! This is the man. Don’t think you can fool a Davo.
MISIDE: Oh dear, oh dear-sir, I wasn’t telling a story.
CREMETE: I know it all. Is Simo inside?
DAVO: Yes.
MIS IDE: Don’t touch me, you scoundrel! I’m going to tell Glicerio everything.
DAVO: Oh, silly goose, don’t you realize what’s going on?
MISIDE: How should I?
DA vo: He’s the father-in-law; there was no other way he could learn what it is we want him to.
MISIDE: You might have told me about it beforehand.
DA vo: Don’t you think it makes a difference whether you speak from the heart, as nature tells you to, or whether you speak from the head?

SCENE FIVE
Crito, Miside, Davo.
CRITO: This is the square where Criside used to live. She preferred getting rich here dishonestly rather than liv­ ing in her own country in honest poverty. At her death her property reverts to me. But I see some people whom I can ask about her. Greetings!
MISIDE: Who’s this? Is it Criside’s cousin, Crito? It is.
CRITO: Hello, Miside.
MI SIDE: Whyhello, Crito.
CRITO: So, Criside … Alas.
MISIDE: We were really broken up about it.
CRITO: What have you been doing? How are you? Are you all right?
126 ANDRIA (IV)

MISIDE: Oime! Noi? Come disse colui:-Come si puo-poiche, come si vorrebbe, non possiamo.
CRITO: Glicerio che fa? Ha ella ancora trovato qui i suoi parenti?
MISIDE: Dio il volessi!
CRITO: O!non ancora? Io ci sono venuto in male punto, che, per mia fe, se io lo avessi saputo, io non ci arei mai messo un piede. Costei e stata tenuta, sempre mai tenuta sorella di Criside, e possiede le cose sua; ora, sendo io fo­ restiero, quanto mi sia utile muovere una lite, mi am­ muniscono gli esempli degli altri. Credo ancora che costei ara qualche amico e difensore, perche la si parti di la gran­ dicella, che griderranno che io sia uno spione e che io vo­ glia con bugie aquistare questa eredita; oltra di questo non mi e lecito spogliarla.
MISIDE: Tu se’ uno uom da bene, Crito, e ritieni il tuo costume antico.
CRITO: Menami a lei, che io la voglio vedere, poiche io sono qui.
MISIDE: Volentieri.
DAVO: Io andro drieto a costoro, perch’io non voglio che in questo tempo il vecchio mi vegga.

MISIDE: Oh, well … us? As they say, we’re doing what we can since we can’t do what we’d like.
CRITO: What’s Glicerio doing? Has she found her rela­ tives yet?
MI SIDE: I wish to God that she had!
CRITO: What, not yet? I’ve arrived at a bad time be­ cause, I swear, had I known that, I’d never have set foot in this town. She was thought of, she was always thought of, as Criside’s sister; she is still in possession of Criside’s property. Now, the example of others acts as fair warning about how much good it would do for me, a foreigner, to file suit. I assume Glicerio will still have some friend and protector because she was fairly well grown up when she
left. People will be screaming that I’m a fraud 27 and that I want to get at this inheritance deceitfully. Besides, I have no desire to strip the girl.
MI SIDE: You’re a good man, Crito; you’ve held on to your old character.
CRITO: Now that I’m here, take me to her so I can see her.
MISIDE: Of course.
DA vo: I’ll go along with them; I don’t want the old man to spot me just now.
ATTO QUINTO
SCENA PRIMA
Cremete, Simo.
CREME TE: Tu hai, o Simone, assai conosciuta l’ami­ citia mia verso di te; io ho corsi assai periculi: fa’ fine di pregarmi. Mentre che io pensavo di compiacerti, io sono stato per affogare questa mia figliuola.
SIMO: Anzi, ora ti priego io e suplico, o Cremete, cheap­ pruovi coi fatti questo benefizio cominciato con le parole.
CREME TE: Guarda quanta tu sia, per questo tuo desi­ derio, ingiusto! E pure che tu faccia quello desideri, non osservi alcuno termine di benignita ne pensi quello che tu prieghi: che se tu lo pensassi, tu cesseresti di agravarmi con queste ingiurie.
SIMO: Con quali?
CREMETE: Ha! domandine tu? Non mi hai tu forzato che io dia per donna una mia figliuola ad uno giovane occupato nello amore d’altri e alieno al tutto dal torre mo­ glie? E hai voluto con lo affanno e dolore della mia fi­ gliuola medicare il tuo figliuolo. Io volli, quando egli era bene; ora none bene; abbi pazienza. Costoro dicono che colei e cittadina ateniese e ne ha auto uno figliuolo: lascia stare noi.
SIMO: Io ti priego, per lo amore di Dio, che tu non creda a costoro: tutte queste cose sono finte e trovate per amore di queste nozze. Come fia tolta la cagione per che fanno queste cose, e’ non ci fia piu scandolo alcuno.
CREMETE: Tu erri: io vidi una fantesca e Davo, che si dicevano villania.
SIMO: Io lo so.

ACT FIVE
SCENE ONE
Cremete, Simo.
CREME TE: You’ve had ample proof of my friendship for you, Simo; I’ve run quite enough risks. Stop your plead­ ing. While I was making up my mind to fall in with your whims, I almost did my daughter in.
SIMO: But, now, I beg you, I beseech you, Cremete, that you ratify with deeds this favor you just granted with words.
CREMETE: See how unfair you’re being with your un­ warranted enthusiasm. As long as you can get what you want, you pay no attention to any limits on kindness or think about what it is you’re asking. If you thought about it, you’d stop taking advantage of me.
SIMO: What advantage?
CREME TE: How can you ask? Haven’t you forced me to marry my daughter to a young man distracted by another love affair, averse to any marriage? You sought to heal your son through my daughter’s pain and suffering. I cooperated as long as it was still a good idea; now that it isn’t, resign yourself. People say that she is a citizen of Athens and that she has had a child by him. Count us out!
SIMO: For the love of God, I beg you don’t believe them. Every one of those things is a set up designed for the sake of this wedding. Once their reason for doing these things is taken away, there won’t be any more gossip.
CREMETE: You’re wrong. I saw Davo having it out with their servant girl.
SIMO: I know.
CREME TE: Eda dovero, perche nessuno sapeva che io fussi presente.
SIMO: Io lo credo; ed e un pezzo che Davo mi disse
che volevono fare questo, e oggi te lo volli dire, e dimen­ tica’melo.

SCENA SECONDA
Davo, Cremete, Simo, Dromo.
DA v o: Ora voglio io stare con l’animo riposato .
CREMETE: Ecco Davo ate.
SIMO: Onde esce egli?
DA vo: … parte per mia cagione, parte per cagione di questo forestiero.
SIMO: Che ribalderia e questa?
DA vo: Io non vidi mai uomo venuto piu a tempo di questo.
SIMO: Chi loda questo scelerato?
DA vo: Ogni cosa e a buon porto.
SIMO: Tardo io di parlargli?
DAVO: Egli e il padrone: che faro io?
SIMO: Dio ti salvi, uom da bene!
DAVO: 0 Simone, o Cremete nostro, ogni cosa e ad
ordine.
SIMO: Tu hai fatto bene.
DAVO: Manda per lei a tua posta.
SIMO: Bene veramente! e’ ci mancava questo! Ma ri- spondimi: che faccenda avevi tu quivi?
DAVO: lo?
SIMO: Si.
DAVO: Di’ tu a me? SIMO: Ate dich’io. DAVO: Io v’entrai ora .
CREME TE: They were serious about it because neither one of them was aware that I was present.
SIMO: I believe it. Davo told me earlier that they
wanted to pull off that number today. I meant to tell you, but I forgot to.

SCENE TWO
Davo, Cremete, Simo, Dromo.
DAVO: (Now, I want to take a load off my mind … )
CREMETE: There’s your Davo.
SIMO: Why is he coming out of there?
DA v o: (. . . partly on my own account and part!y on this foreigner’s account.)
SIMO: What kind of mischief is this?
DA VO: (I’ve never seen a man arrive more when he was needed that this guy did.)
SIMO:1 Now who’s this rascal praising?
DAVO: (Everything is safe now.)
SIMO: Why am I hesitating to speak to him? DAVO: (It’s the boss. What shall I do?) SIMO: Hello, my good man.
DAVO: Simo, Cremete-everything is shipshape.
SIMO: You’ve done well.
DA vo: Send for her when you’re ready.
SIMO: Oh, that’s a good one; that’s all we need. Answer me: what business did you have in there?
DAVO: Me?
SIMO: Yes.
DA v o: Are you talking to me?
SIMO: I am talking to you!
DA vo: I went in there just now .
SIMO: Come s’io domandassi quanta e ch’e’ vi entro!
DAVO: … col tuo figliuolo. SIMO: Ho! Panfilo e dentro? DA vo: Io sono in su la fune.
SIMO: Ho! non dicesti tu ch’egli avieno quistione insieme?
DA vo: E hanno.
SIMO: Come e egli cosi in casa?
CREMETE: Che pensi tu che faccino? E’ si azzuffano.
DAVO: Anzi, voglio, o Cremete, che tu intenda dame una cosa indegna: egli e venuto ora uno certo vecchio, che pare uom cauto ed e di buona presenza, con uno volto grave da prestargli fede.
SIMO: Che di’ tu di nuovo?
DAVO: Niente veramente, se non quello che io ho sen- tito dire da lui: che costei e cittadina ateniese.
SIMO: O! Dromo! Dromo!
DA VO: Che cosa e?
SIMO: Dromo!
DAVO: Odi un poco.
SIMO: Se tu mi di’ piu una parola … Dromo!
DAVO: Odi, io te ne priego.
DROMO: Che vuoi?
SIMO: Porta costui di peso in casa.
DROMO: Chi? SIMO: Davo. DROMO: Perche?
SIMO: Perche mi piace: portalo via!
DAVO: Che ho io fatto?
SIMO: Portalo via!
SIMO: As if I asked you how long ago you went in there!
DA vo: … with your son. SIMO: What, Panfilo’s in there? DAVO: I’m at the end of my rope.
SIMO: Hey, didn’t you say that those two were squabbling?
DAVO: They are.
SIMO: So, why is he in the house?
CREMETE: What do you suppose he’s doing in there?
They’re fighting.
DAVO: No, Cremete, but I’d like you to listen to me tell you about something shocking: just now a man came in, some old man who seemed prudent and dignified, with an earnest expression that made you want to trust him.
SIMO: What news do you have to tell?
DAVO: Nothing, really, except what I heard him say- that she is a citizen of Athens.
SIMO: Dromo, Dromo! DA vo: What’s the matter? SIMO: Dromo!
DA VO: Listen.
s IM o: If you say one more word to me . . . Dromo!
DAVO: Listen, I beg you!
DROMO: What do you want?
SIMO: Take this man bodily into the house.
DROMO: Who?
SIMO: Davo.
DROMO: Why?
SIMO: Because I say so-take him now.
DA vo: What have I done?
SIMO: Get him out of here, now!
DAvo: Se tu truovi che io ti abbia dette le bugie, ammazzam1.
SIMO: Io non ti odo. Io ti faro diventare destro.
DAVO: Egli e pure vero.
SIMO: Tu lo legherai e guardera’lo. Odi qua, metti- gli un paio di ferri: fallo ora e, se io vivo, io ti mosterro, Davo, innanzi che sia sera, quello che importa, ate ingan­ nare il padrone, ea colui il padre.
CREMETE: Ha! non essere si crudele.
s IM o: 0 Cremete, non ti incresce egli di me per la ri­ balderia di costui, che ho tanto dispiacere per questo fi­ gliuolo? Orsu, Panfilo! Esci, Panfilo! Di che ti vergogni tu?

SCENA TERZA
Panfilo, Simo, Cremete.
PANFILO: Chi mi vuole? Oime! egli e mio padre.
SIMO: Che di’ tu, ribaldo?
CREME TE: Digli come sta la cosa, sanza villania.
SIMO: E’ non se gli puo dire cosa che non meriti.
Dimmi un poco: Glicerio e cittadina?
PANFILO: Cosi dicono.
SIMO: 0 gran confidenza! Forse che pensa quel che risponde? Forse che si vergogna di quel ch’egli ha fatto? Guardalo in viso, e’ non vi si vede alcuno segno di ver­
gogna. E egli possibile che sia di si corrotto animo, che
voglia costei fuora delle leggi e del costume de’ cittadini, con tanto obbrobrio?
PANFILO: Misero a me!
DAvo: If you discover that what I’ve been telling you are lies, kill me.
SIMO: I’m not listening to you. I’ll have you on the line.
DA vo: But it’s the truth!
SIMO: Tie him up and watch him. Listen, put him in chains. Do it now! As sure as I’m alive, Davo, I’ll show you before this day is out what it is to deceive your master and I’ll show him what it is to deceive a father.
CREME TE: Oh, don’t be so cruel!
SIMO: Oh, Cremete, don’t you think that you ought to feel sorry for me because of his dastardly behavior, for all the chagrin I’ve had from that son of mine? Come now, Panfilo! Come out here, Panfilo! What are you ashamed of?

SCENE THREE
Panfilo, Simo, Cremete.
PANFILO: Whowants me; oh my God, it’s my father!
SIMO: What do you have to say for yourself, you rascal?
CREMETE: Tell him how things are without being unpleasant.
SIMO: As if I could say something to him that he didn’t deserve. Tell me, is Glicerio a citizen?
PANFILO: That’s what they say.
SIMO: How free and easy he is! Do you think he gives a thought to what he’s saying? Perhaps he’s ashamed of what he’s done? Look at his face-not a sign of shame.
Can his mind be so corrupted that he wants her in spite of the laws and customs of Athens, no matter how much disgrace is involved?
PANFILO: I’m miserable.
SIMO: Tu te ne se’ aveduto ora? Cotesta parola dovevi tu dire gia quando tu inducesti l’animo tuo a fare in qua­
lunque modo quello che ti aggradava: pure alla fine ti e
venuto detto quello che tu se’. Ma perche mi macero e perche mi crucio io? Perche afliggo io la mia vecchiaia per la pazzia di costui? Voglio io portare le pene de’ peccati suoi? Abbisela, tengasela, viva con quella!
PANFILO: 0 padre mio!
SIMO: Che padre! Come che tu habbi bisogno di padre,
che hai trovato, a dispetto di tuo padre, casa, moglie, figliuoli e chi dice ch’ella e cittadina ateniese. Abbi nome
Vinciguerra.
PANFILO: Possoti io dire dua parole, padre?
SIMO: Che mi dirai tu?
CREMETE: Lascialo dire.
SIMO: Io lo lascio: dica!
PANFILO: Io confesso che io amo costei e, s’egli e
male, io confesso fare male, e mi ti getto, o padre, nelle braccia; impommi che carico tu vuoi: se tu vuoi che io meni moglie e lasci costei, io lo sopportero il meglio che io potro. Solo ti priego di questo, che tu non creda che io ci abbi fatto venire questo vecchio, e sia contento ch’io mi iustifichi e che io lo meni qui alla tua presenza.
SIMO: Che tu lo meni?
PANFILO: Sia contento, padre.
CREMETE: Ei domanda il giusto: contentalo.
PANFILO: Compiacimi di questo.
SIMO: Io sono contento, pure che io non mi truovi in­ gannato da costui.
CREME TE: Per uno gran peccato ogni poco di suplicio basta ad uno padre.
SIMO: So, you’re just realizing that now? You should have said that a long time ago when you decided to do what you pleased and damn the consequences-that’s when such words described you. But why on earth am I worry­ ing and tormenting myself? Why should I trouble my
old age with his craziness? Why should I bear the punish­ ments for his sins? Take her, keep her, live with her!
PANFILO: Father!
SIMO: What do you mean, “father”! 28 As if you needed a father now that, by defying your father, you’ve found a house, wife and children, and people to swear that she’s
a citizen of Athens. Call yourself Conqueror! PANFILO: Father, may I say something? SIMO: What can you say to me?
CREME TE: Let him speak!
SIMO: I’ll let him: Speak!
PANFILO: I confess that I love the woman. If that’s wrong, I confess to doing wrong; I put myself in your hands, father. Impose any punishment on me that you want. If you want me to marry and let her go, I’ll endure it as best I can. I beg only this: that you not think that I’ve made this old man come here; please let me bring him out here before you and clear myself.
SIMO: Bring him out here?
PAN FILO: Please, father.
CREMETE: That’s a fair request; let him.
PANFILO: Grant me this one request.
SIMO: Agreed, just so I don’t find out that Panfilo has been deceiving me.
CREMETE: Even for a major crime, a father can go easy on the punishment.

SCENA QUARTA
Crito, Cremete, Simo, Panfilo.
CRITO: Non mi pregare; una di queste cagioni basta
a farmi fare cio che tu vuoi: tu, il vero e il bene che voglio a Glicerio.
CREMETE: Io veggo Critone Andrio? Certo egli e desso.
CRITO: Dio ti salvi, Cremete!
CREMETE: Che fai tu cosi oggi, fuora di tua consuetu- dine, in Atene?
CRITO: Io ci sono a caso. Mae questo Simone?
CREME TE: Questo e.
SIMO: Domandi tu me? Dimmi un poco: di’ tu che Glicerio e cittadina?
CRITO: Neghilo tu?
SIMO: Se’ tu cosl qua venuto preparato?
CRITO: Perche?
SIMO: Domandine tu? Credi tu fare queste cose sanza esserne gastigato? Vieni tu qui ad ingannare i giovanetti imprudenti e bene allevati e andare con promesse pascendo l’animo loro?
CRITO: Se’ tu in te?
SIMO: E vai raccozzando insieme amori di meretrici e nozze?
PANFILO: Heime! io ho paura che questo forestiero non si pisci sotto.
CREMETE: Se tu conoscessi costui, o Simone, tu non penseresti cotesto; costui e uno buono huomo.
SIMO: Sia buono a suo modo: debbesegli credere ch’egli e appunto venuto oggi nel di delle nozze e non e venuto prima mai?

SCENE FOUR
Crito, Cremete, Simo, Panfilo.
CRITO: Don’t entreat me. Any one of these reasons is enough to make me do what you want me to: yourself, the truth, and the love that I bear Glicerio.
CREMETE: Is this Crito of Andros whom I see? It cer­ tainly is the very man.
CRITO: Greetings, Cremete.
CREMETE: What are you doing here in Athens today?
It’s not part of your routine.
CRITO: I’m here by chance, but isn’t this Simo?
CREMETE: Yes.
SIMO: Are you looking for me? Tell me, are you the one who’s saying that Glicerio is a citizen?
CRITO: Are you the one who’s denying it? SIMO: So, that’s how it is, is it-all primed? CRITO: What?
s IM o: How can you wonder? Do you think you can do this sort of thing with impunity? Coming here to trick inexperienced, well-brought-up young men; going about and exciting their hearts with idle promises?
CRITO: Are you in your right mind?
s IM o: And joining meretricious love affairs together in bonds of matrimony?
PANFILO: (Yipes, I’m afraid this stranger is going to piss in his pants.)29
CREMETE: If you knew this man, Simo, you wouldn’t
think that; he is a good man.
SIMO: Good in his own way. Why should I believe that, when he’s arrived today, just in time-on the day of the wedding, and never before?
PANFILO: Se io non avessi paura di mio padre, io gl’in- segnerei la risposta.
SIMO: Spione!
CRITO: Heime!
CREME TE: Cosi e fatto costui, Crito; lascia ire.
CRITO: Sia fatto come e’ vuole: se seguita di dirmi cio che vuole, egli udira cio che non vuole; io non prezzo e non curo coteste cose, impero che si puo intendere se quelle cose che io ho dette sono false o vere, perche uno ateniese, per lo adrieto, avendo rotto la sua nave, rimase
con una sua figlioletta in casa il padre di Criside, povero e mendico.
SIMO: Egli ha ordito una favola da capo.
CREMETE: Lascialo dire. CRITO: Impediscemi egli cost? CREMETE: Seguita.
CRITO: Colui che lo ricevette era mio parente; quivi io udi’ dire da lui come egli era cittadino ateniese; e quivi si mod.
CREMETE: Come aveva egli nome?
CRITO: Ch’io ti dica il nome si presto? Fania.
CREMETE: 0! Hu!
CRITO: Veramente io credo ch’egli avessi nome Fania: ma io so questo certo, ch’e’ si faceva chiamare Ramnusio.
CREMETE: 0 Giove!
CRITO: Queste medesime cose, o Cremete, sono state udite da molti altri in Andro.
CREMETE: Dio voglia che sia quello che io credo!
Dimmi un poco: diceva egli che quella fanciulla fussi sua?
CRITO: No.
PANFILO: (If I weren’t afraid of my father, I could set him straight.)
SIMO: Swindler!30
CRITO: Well!
CREME TE: That’s just the way he is, Crito, never mind him.
CRITO: Let him be just the way he is. If he continues telling me whatever he wants to, he’ll hear what he doesn’t want to. I don’t put any stock in these affairs or meddle
in them. Nevertheless, you can find out later whether or not the things that I’ve said are true or false. Some time ago an Athenian was shipwrecked and, because he was needy-destitute-he stayed with his little girl in the house of Criside’s father.
SIMO: He has composed a comedy from the ground up.31
CREMETE: Let him tell it.
CRITO: Is he going to keep on badgering me like this?
CREMETE: Go on.
CRITO: The man who took the Athenian in was a rela­ tive of mine. It was there that I heard from him that he was a citizen of Athens and there that he died.
CREMETE: What was his name?
CRITO: Must I tell it so soon-uh, Fania.32
CREMETE: Oh, no!
CRITO: I really do believe that his name was Fania, but I’m sure of this, he was called Ramnusio.
CREMETE: My God!
CRITO: This same story, Cremete, was known to many other people on Andros.
CREMETE: May heaven let it be as I think it is. Tell me, did he say that the little girl was his own?
CRITO: No.
CREMETE: Di chi dunque? CR ITO: Figliuola del fratello. CREMETE: Certo, ella e mia. CRITO: Che di’ tu?
SIMO: Che di’ tu?
PANFILO: Rizza gli orecchi, Panfilo!
SIMO: Che credi tu?
CREMETE: Quel Fania fu mio fratello.
SIMO: Io lo conobbi e sollo.
c REM ET E: Costui, fuggendo la guerra mi venne in Asia drieto, e, dubitando di lasciare qui la mia figliuola, la meno seco; dipoi non ne ho mai inteso nulla, se non ora.
PANFILO: L’animo mio e sl alterato che io non sono in me per la speranza, per il timore, per la allegrezza, veg­ gendo uno bene sl repentino.
SIMO: Io mi rallegro in molti modi che questa tua si sia ritrovata.
PANFILO: Io lo credo, padre.
SIMO: Mae’ mi resta uno scrupolo che mi fa stare di mala voglia.
PANFILO: Tu meriti di essere odiato con questa tua religione.
CRITO: Tu cerchi cinque pie al montone!
CREMETE: Che cosa e?
SIMO: Il nome non mi riscontra.
CRITO: Veramente da piccola la si chiamo altrimenti.
CREMETE: Come, Crito? Ricorditene tu?
CRITO: Ione cerco.
CREMETE: Whose, then?
CRITO: His brother’s daughter. CREMETE: Then she is certainly mine. CRITO: What’s that you’re saying?
SIMO: What’s that you’re saying? PANFILO: Prick up your ears, Panfilo. SIMO: What makes you think so?
CREME TE: Fania was my brother.
SIMO: I knew him and I know the story.
CREME TE: He was a refugee from the war; he was coming to meet me in Asia. He was afraid to leave my daughter here at the time, so he took her with him. Since then I have heard nothing about him-until now.
PANFILO: My heart is so aflutter that I can hardly con­ trol myself-I’m in such a state of hope, fear, and joy at these unexpected good tidings.
SIMO: I’m delighted in more ways than one that this girl of yours has been found again.
PANFILO: I believe you father.
s IM o: But there is one remaining scruple that keeps bothering me.
PANFILO: (You deserve to be despised for your religion with its scruples.)
CRITO: You’re splitting hairs!33 CREMETE: What’s the matter? SIMO: The name doesn’t ring a bell.
CRITO: As a little girl she was really called something else.
CREMETE: What, Crito? Can you remember what it was?
CRITO: I’m trying to.
PANFILO: Patin’> io che la smemorataggine di costui me nuoca, potendo io per me medesimo giovarmi?0 Cre­ mete, che cerchi tu? La si chiamava Passibula.
CRITO: La e essa!
CREMETE: La e quella!
PANFILO: Io gliene ho sentito dire mille volte.
SIMO: Io credo che tu, o Cremete, creda che noi siamo tutti allegri.
CREMETE: Cosl mi aiuti Idio, come io lo credo.
PANFILO: Che manca, o padre?
SIMO: Gia questa cosa mi ha fatto ritornare nella tua grazia.
PANFILO: 0 piacevole padre! Cremete vuole che la sia mia moglie, come la e!
CREMETE: Tu di’ bene, se gia tuo padre non vuole altro.
PANFILO: Certamente.
SIMO: Cotesto.
CREME TE: La dota di Panfilo voglio che sia dieci talenti.
PANFILO: Io l’accetto.
CREMETE: Io vo a trovare la figliuola. 0 Crito mio, vieni meco, perche io non credo che la mi riconosca.
s IM o: Perche non la fai tu venire qua?
PANFILO: Tu di’ bene: io commettero a Davo questa faccenda.
SIMO: Ei non puo.
PANFILO: Perche non puo?
SIMO: Egli ha uno male di piu importanza.
PANFILO: Che cosa ha?
SIMO: Egli e legato.
PANFILO: 0 padre, ei none legato a ragione.
PANFILO: Do I have to put up with this person’s absent-mindedness and let it do me harm when I can clear up my situation on my own? Cremete, what are you look­ ing for? Her name was Passibula.
CRITO: That’s it!
CREMETE: Yes, that’s it!
PANFILO: I’ve heard her say it thousands of times.
SIMO: I believe, Cremete, that you must believe that we are all delighted at this news.
CREMETE: God help me, I do believe it.
PANFILO: What’s missing, father?
SIMO: This event has already put you back in my good graces.
PANFILO: Oh what a wonderful father. If Cremete
wants her still to be my wife, so be it!
CREMETE: You’re right, unless your father wants some- thing else.
PANFILO: Agreed?
SIMO: Yes.
CREMETE: I want the dowry for Panfilo to be ten talents.
PANFILO: I accept.
CREMETE: I’mgoing to find my daughter. Oh, Crito, my friend, come with me, because I don’t think she will recogmze me.
SIMO: Why don’t you have her come over here? PANFILO: You’re right; I’ll entrust the task to Davo. SIMO: He can’t.
PANFILO: Why can’t he?
SIMO: He has a weightier problem.
PANFILO: What’s that?
SIMO: He’s in chains.
PANFILO Oh, father, it’s not proper to chain him.
SIMO: Io volli cosi.
PANFILO: Io ti priego che tu faccia che sia sciolto.
SIMO: Che si sciolga! PANFILO: Fa’ presto! SIMO: Io VO in casa.
PANFILO: 0 allegro e felice questo di!

SCENA QUINTA
Carino, Panfilo.
CARINO: Io torno a vedere quel che fa Panfilo … Ma eccolo!
PANFILO: Alcuno forse pensera che io pensi che questo non sia vero, ma e’ mi pare pure che sia vero. Pero credo io che la vita degli Iddei sia sempiterna, perche i piaceri loro non sono mai loro tolti: perche io sarei, sanza dubio, im­ mortale, se cosa alcuna non sturbassi questa mia allegrezza. Ma chi vorrei sopra ogni altro riscontrare per narrargli questo?
CARINO: Che allegrezza e questa di costui?
PANFILO: Io veggo Davo; none alcuno che io desideri vedere piu di lui, perche io so che solo costui si ha a ralle­ grare da dovero della allegrezza mia.

SCENA SESTA
Davo, Panfilo, Carino. DA vo: Panfilo dove e? PANFILO: 0 Davo!
DAVO: Chi e?
PANFILO: Io sono.
SIMO: I ordered it done that way. PANFILO: I beg you to have him released. SIMO: Release him!
PANFILO: Do it quickly.
SIMO: I’m going into the house.
PANFILO: Oh what a happy day!

SCENE FIVE
Carino, Panfilo.
CARINO: I’m coming back to see what’s up with Pan­ filo. Why, there he is!
PANFILO: Perhaps some people will think I can’t be­ lieve that this is true, but still it seems true enough to me. 34 I believe the gods enjoy eternal life because they never have their pleasures taken away from them. Why, I’ll be immortal myself if nothing disturbs this joy of mine­ there’s no doubt of that! But whom should I like to meet more than anyone else so that I could tell him this story of mine?
CARINO: (What’s this guy so happy about?)
PANFILO: I see Davo; there’s no one I’d rather see than him because I know that he’s the only one who can be genuinely delighted at my happiness.

SCENE SIX
Davo, Panfilo, Carino. DAVO: Where’s Panfilo? PANFILO: Oh, Davo!
DA vo: Who’s that?
PANFILO: It’s l.
DAVO: 0 Panfilo!
PANFILO: Ha! tu non sai quello mi e accaduto.
DA vo: Veramente no: ma io so bene quello che e ac­ caduto a me.
PANFILO: Io lo so anch’io.
DA vo: Egli e usanza degli uomini che tu abbi prima saputo il male mio che io il tuo bene.
P ANFILO: La mia Glicerio ha ritrovato suo padre.
DAVO: 0! lava bene.
CARINO: Hem?
PANFILO: Il padre e grande amico nostro.
DAVO: Chi?
PANFILO: Cremete.
DAVO: Di’ tu il vero?
PANFILO: Ne ci e piu dificulta di averla io per donna.
CARINO: Sogna costui quelle cose ch’egli ha vegghiando volute?
PANFILO: Madel fanciullo, o Davo?
DA vo: Ha! sta’ saldo: tu se’ solo amato dagl’Idii.
CARINO: Io sono franco, se coscui dice il vero. Io gli voglio parlare.
PANFILO: Chi e questo?0 Carino! Tu ci se’ arrivato a tempo.
CARINO: O! lava bene.
PANFILO: O! hai tu udito?
CARINO: Ogni cosa. Or fa’ di ricordarti di me in queste tua prosperira. Cremete e ora tutto tuo, e so che fara quello che tu vorrai.
PANFILO: Io lo so; e perche sarebbe troppo aspettare ch’egli uscissi fuora, seguitami, perch’egli e in casa con
DAvo: Oh, Panfilo.
PANFILO: Ha-you don’t know what’s happened to me.
DA vo: No, I really don’t, but I certainly know what’s happened to me.
PANFILO: I know about it too.
DA vo: That’s the way of the world: you find out about my bad luck before I find out about your good luck.
PANFILO: My Glicerio has found her father.
DA VO: Oh, fine!
CARINO: (Hmmm.)
PANFILO: Her father is a great friend of ours.
DAVO: Who?
PANFILO: Cremete!
DAVO: Are you telling the truth?
PANFILO: And there’s no longer any difficulty about marrying her.
CARINO: (Does this guy dream up all the things he’d like to have if he were awake?)
PANFILO: And, Davo, about the baby …
DA vo: Stop. You alone are beloved of the gods!
CARINO: (I’m saved, if what he says is true. I’m going to speak to him.)
PANFILO: Who’s this? Oh, Carino, you’re just in time.
CARINO: Congratulations!
PANFILO: Have you heard?
CARINO: Everything. Now be sure to remember me in your hour of prosperity. Cremete is absolutely on your side now; I know he’ll do anything you want.
PANFILO: I know it. Because it would take too long for him to come outside, follow me-for he’s inside the house with Glicerio. Davo, go on home; hurry and send
Glicerio. Tu, Davo, vanne in casa e subito manda qua chi la meni via. Perche Stai? perche non vai?
DAVO: 0 voi, non aspettate che costoro eschino fuora. Drento si sposera e drento si fara ogni altra cosa che man­ cassi. Andate, al nome di Dio, e godete!
some people to get her out here. What are you waiting for, why aren’t you going?
DAVO: Don’t you wait for them to come out. Carino will get engaged inside, and everything else that’s wrong will get fixed up inside too. May God be with you; enjoy yourselves. 35
‌MAND RAGO LA
THE MANDRAKE

image

TRANSLATED BY
DAVID SICES

CiiiXtXXJXJJitJJJJJJXXJXXiliiiitXXXJl
CHARACTERS
CALLIMACO: a young Florentine merchant
SIRO: his servant
MESSER NICIA: A Florentine lawyer
LIGURIO: a parasite SOSTRATA: mother of Lucrezia FRATE TIMOTEO: a friar
A WOMAN
LUCREZIA: wife of Messer Nicia
[IXJXiXJiliiJIXXJXJXXXXXXIXJliiXJJXX>
da dirsi innanzi alla commedia, cantata da ninfe e pastori insieme

Perche la vitae brieve e molte son le pene
che vivendo e stentando ognun sostiene;

dietro alle nostre voglie,
andiam passando e consumando gli anni, che chi il piacer si toglie
per viver con angosce econ affani, non conosce gli inganni
del mondo; o da quai _mali e da che strani casi
oppressi quasi-sian tutti i mortali.

Per fuggir questa noia, eletta solitaria vita abbiamo, e sempre in festa e in gioia
giovin’ leggiadri e liete Ninfe stiamo.
Or qui venuti siamo con la nostra armonia, sol per onorar questa
si lieta festa-e dolce compagnia.

Ancor ci ha qui condutti
il nome di colui che vi governa, in cui si veggon tutti
i beni accolti in la sembianza eterna. Per tal grazia superna,
per si felice stato, potete lieti stare,
godere e ringraziare-chi ve lo ha dato.
OPENING CHORUS
Sung by nymphs and shepherds together 1

Since life on earth is fleeting And many are the sorrows
That every man must bear from dawn to morrow,

We do whate’er we will,
We live from day to day in search of pleasure, For he who seeks out ill,
And clings to fear and grief as to a treasure, Regrets it at his leisure
In sadness, for his mind is Deceived by dark illusion
And deep confusion-as to what mankind is.

To flee from what annoys
We’ve chosen to live out here in the country Pursuing mirth and joys,
Young men and happy Nymphs, a rustic gentry. We greet you all and sundry
With song and dance adorning; And we wish you all gladness
Instead of sadness-on this bright spring morning.

The name of him who reigns
Here also draws us to this landscape vernal, A prince whose heart contains
All gifts in Jove’s bright countenance eternal. 2
And for this grace supernal, This blessed state enchanted, You all should feel elation,
Congratulation-offer him who has it granted.
PROLOGO
Idio vi salvi, benigni auditori, quando e’ par che dependa
questa benignita da lo esser grato. Se voi seguite di non far romori, noi voglian che s’intenda
un nuovo caso in questa terra nato. Vedete l’apparato,
qual or vi si dimostra:
quest’ e Firenze vostra,
un’altra volta sara Roma o Pisa, cosa da smascellarsi delle risa.
Quello uscio, che mi e in sulla man ritta, la casa e d’un dottore,
che imparo in sul Buezio legge assai; quella via, che e cola in quel canto fitta, e la via dello Amore,
dove chi casca non si rizza mai; conoscer poi potrai
a l’abito d’un frate
qual priore o abate
abita el tempio che all’ incontro e posto,
se di qui non ti parti troppo tosto.

Un giovane, Callimaco Guadagno, venuto or da Parigi,
abita la, in quella sinistra porta.
Costui, fra tutti gli altri buon compagno, a’ segni ed a’ vestigi
l’onor di gentilezza e pregio porta. Una giovane accorta
PROLOGUE
God bless you, gracious audience, Since we know that your graciousness Depends upon our pleasing you.
May your silence let our troupe commence To play for you, with some finesse,
A recent case that’s something new. The stage set we’ve convoked you to, As you shall presently be shown,
Is that dear Florence which you call your own. Tomorrow Rome or some other setting
Will tickle you till your sides are splitting.

This entrance, on my right-hand side, Is the door to the house of a doctor of law
Who’s learned from Boethius 3 what law he could. And that street there, you’ve no doubt espied,
Is called Lovers’ Lane, where, as you know, He who stumbles falls for good.
You shortly will have understood,
When you have seen the cloak he flaunts,4 What sort of monk or abbot haunts
That church there in the other part,
If you don’t leave too near the start.

Callimaco Guadagni, a youth Arrived from Paris recently, Resides there on the left extreme.
Of all our rich young bloods, in truth, He bears himself most decently,
And merits honor and esteem.
A circumspect young wife by him
fu da lui molto amata, e per questo ingannata
fu, come intenderete, ed io vorrei che voi fussi ingannate come lei.

La favola Mandragola si chiama: la cagion voi vedrete
nel recitarla, com’ i’ m’indovino. Non e il componitor di molta fama;
pur, se vo’ non ridete,
egli e contento di pagarvi il vino.
Un amante meschino, un dottor poco astuto, un frate mal vissuto,
un parassito, di malizia il cucco,
fie questo giorno el vostro badalucco.

E, se questa materia none degna, per esser pur leggieri,
d’un uom, che voglia parer saggio e grave,
Scusatelo con questo, che s’ingegna con questi van’ pensieri
fare il suo tristo tempo piu suave, perche altrove non have
dove voltare el viso, che gli e stato interciso
mostrar con altre imprese altra virtue, non sendo premio alle fatiche sue.
El premio che si spera e che ciascuno
si sta da canto e ghigna,
dicendo mal di cio che vede o sente.
Di qui depende, sanza dubbio alcuno,
Was hotly and at length pursued; And how the woman, falsely wooed,
At last was brought to bed, you’ll hear, Mesdames, and you’d be, too, I fear.

Our tale’s named for the mandrake root. 5
You’ll see the reason as we play it For you, dear public, I opine.
Its author has no great repute,
But if you don’t laugh while we essay it, He’ll treat you to a flask of wine.
A wretched swain will weep and whine, A doltish man of law will bumble,
A venal monk will help him stumble, A most ingenious parasite
Will guide them all, for your delight.

If such material seems unsound Argument, and far too spare
For a man of serious pretense,
Excuse him on the following ground: The author, with pastimes debonair, Has sought to mask his impotence, Since he’s reduced to indolence
And has no other way to turn, Condemned to an enforced sojourn, All worthwhile occupations barred Or, at the least, denied reward. 6

The sole reward he may hope to reap Is for all to stand aside and snicker, Decrying what they see and hear.
And that is why, if we look deep,
che per tutto traligna
da l’antica vim). el secol presente, imperc> che la gente,
vedendo ch’ ognun biasma, non s’affatica e spasma
per far con mille sua disagi un’opra, che ‘l vento guasti o la nebbia ricuopra.

Pur, se credessi alcun, dicendo male, tenerlo pe’ capegli,
e sbigottirlo o ritirarlo in parte,
io l’ammonisco, e dico a questo tale che sa dir male anch’ egli,
e come questa fu la sua prim’ arte, e come in ogni parte
del mondo, ove el “sl.” sona, non istima persona,
ancor che facci sergieri a colui,
che puo portar miglior mantel che lui.

Ma lasciam pur dir male a chiunque vuole.
Torniamo al caso nostro,
accio che non trapassi troppo l’ora. Far conto non si de’ delle parole, ne stimar qualche mostro,
che non sa forse s’ e’ s’e vivo ancora.
Callimaco esce fuora e Siro con seco ha, suo famiglio, e dira
l’ordin di tutto. Stia ciascuno attento, ne per ora aspettate altro argumento.
THE MANDRAKE 161

Today the ancient virtues flicker, And high endeavors disappear; For who would dare to persevere In undertakings long or short,
Which nagging censure will abort,
And works on which fond hopes are pinned Are cloaked in fog, or gone with the wind.

But still, if any critics thought Through blame to have him by the hair, And frighten or intimidate,
I warn them it will come to naught, For he can slander, too, I swear, And he’s no mere initiate;
In truth, he doesn’t hesitate
With any man who speaks his tongue; He can sting back when he is stung; Our author doesn’t give a fig
For lackeys of the biggest wig.

But let us let the blackguards carp, And come back to the work at hand, For as it is the hour grows late.
It isn’t meet for us to harp
On critics’ words, or be unmanned By monsters our vain fears inflate. Callimaco is at his gate
With Siro, his servant boy, in traction; The two of them will start the action. Dear public, adieu, you’ve heard our plot: Now let our tangled thread unknot.
ATTO PRIMO
SCENA PRIMA
Callimaco, Siro.
CALLIMACO: Siro, non ti partire, io ti voglio un poco. srno: Eccomi.
CALLI MACO: Io credo che tu ti maravigliassi assai della mia subita partita da Parigi; ed ora ti maraviglierai, sendo io stato qui gia un mese sanza fare alcuna cosa.
srno: Voi dite el vero.
CALLI MACO: Se io non ti ho detto infino a qui quello che io ti diro ora, non e stato per non mi fidare di te, ma
per iudicare che le case che l’uomo vuole non si sappino, sia bene non le dire, se non forzato. Pertanto, pensando io di potere avere bisogno della opera tua, ti voglio dire el tutto.
srno: Io vi sono servidore: e servi non debbono mai domandare el padrone d’alcuna cosa, ne cercare alcuno loro fatto, ma quando per loro medesimi le dicano, debbono servirgli con fede; e cosl ho fatto e sono per fare io.
CALLI MACO: Gia lo so. Io credo che tu mi abbi sentito dire mille volte, ma e’ non importa che tu lo intenda mille una, come io avevo dieci anni quando da e mia tutori, sendo mio padre e mia madre morti, io fui mandato a Parigi, dove io sono stato venti anni. E perche in capo de’ dieci cominciorono, per la passata del re Carlo, le guerre in Italia, le quali ruinorono quella provincia, delibera’ mi di vivermi a Parigi e non mi ripatriare mai, giudicando po­
tere in quel luogo vivere piu sicuro che qui.
SIRO: Egli e cosl.

ACT ONE
SCENE ONE
Callimaco, Siro.
CALLIMACO: Siro, don’t go away. I need you for a moment.
SIRO: At your service.
CALLIMACO: I imagine you must have wondered why I left Paris so suddenly, and you must be wondering now why I have stayed in Florence for a month already, without doing a thing.
srno: I am indeed.
CALLIMACO: If I haven’t told you up to now what I am about to reveal, it’s not because I don’t trust you. I always feel it is better not to talk about private matters unless one is forced to. However, since I think I can use your help now, I am going to let you in on the secret.
SIRO: I am your servant, and servants should never ask questions or pry into their master’s personal affairs. But when we are told about them, we must serve you faithfully. That is what I have always done and always will do.
CALLIMACO: I know that. I imagine you must have heard me say a thousand times, so it doesn’t matter if you hear it for the thousand and first, how, when I was a lad of ten, my mother and father died, and my guardians sent me to Paris, where I lived for twenty years. What with King Charles’s campaign in Italy, 7 which stirred up the
wars and ruined our country, I decided after ten years to stay in France and never return home, judging I could live more safely there than here.
SIRO: That is so.

CALLIMACO: E commesso di qua che fussino venduti tutti e mia beni, fuora che la casa, mi ridussi a vivere quivi, dove sono stato dieci altri anni con una felicita gran­ dissima …
srno: Io lo so.
CALLIMACO: … avendo compartito el tempo parte alli studii, parte a’ piaceri, e parte alle faccende; ed in modo mi travagliavo in ciascuna di queste cose, che l’una non mi impediva la via dell’altra. E per questo, come tu sai, vivevo quietissimamente, giovando a ciascuno, ed in­ gegnandomi di non offendere persona: talche mi pareva es­ sere grato a’ borghesi, a’ gentiluomini, al forestiero, al
terrazzano, al povero ed al ricco.
SIRO: Egli e la verita.
CALLIMACO: Ma, parendo alla Fortuna che io avessi troppo bel tempo, fece che e’ capito a Parigi uno Cammillo Calfucci.
SIRO: Io comincio a ‘ndovinarmi del male vostro.
CALLIMACO: Costui, come Ii altri fiorentini, era spesso convitato dame; e, nel ragionare insieme, accadde un giorno che noi venimo in disputa dove erano piu belle donne, o in Italia o in Francia. E perche io non potevo ra­ gionare delle italiane, sendo si piccolo quando mi parti’, alcuno altro fiorentino, che era presente, prese la parte franzese, e Cammillo la italiana; e, dopo molte ragione assegnate da ogni parte, disse Cammillo, quasi che irato, che, se tutte le donne italiane fussino monstri, che una sua parente era per riavere l’onore loro.
s IR o: Io sono or chiaro di quello che voi volete dire.
CALLIMACO: E nomino madonna Lucrezia, moglie di messer Nicia Calfucci: alla quale e’ dette tante laude e di bellezza e di costumi, che fece restare stupidi qualunque di noi, ed in me desto tanto desiderio di vederla, che io, la-

CALLIMACO: And having commissioned someone here to sell off all my belongings except for the house, I
settled down and lived most happily there for the next ten years …
SIRO: I know.
CALLIMACO: … dividing my time between studies, pleasure and business. And I arranged things so nicely that none of these activities ever interfered with any of the oth­ ers. In this fashion, as you well know, I lived tranquilly, helping my fellow man and being sure never to offend any­ one. So I felt accepted by merchant and nobleman, for­ eigner and countryman, rich and poor alike.
SIRO: That is quite true.
CALLIMACO: But fortune, deeming no doubt that things were going too well for me, saw to it that a certain Cammillo Calfucci came to Paris.
SIRO: I’m beginning to guess what your trouble is. CALLIMACO: Like many other Florentines, he was often a guest in my house, and talking together one day, we happened to get into an argument as to whether the women are more beautiful in France or in Italy. I couldn’t
speak about Italian women, since I was so young when
I left, but another Florentine who was there took the part of the French, and Cammillo that of the Italians. After a great deal of discussion on both sides, Cammillo almost flew into a rage, saying that, even if all the other women in Italy were monsters, one of his relatives was enough by herself to win back their honor.
SIRO: Now I see exactly what you’re getting at.
CALLIMACO: He named Madonna Lucrezia, the wife of Messer8 Nicia Calfucci. He paid such homage to her beauty and her grace that he silenced all the rest of us, and he aroused in me so great a desire to see her for my-
sciato ogni altra deliberazione, ne pensando piu alle guerre o alle pace d’Italia, mi messi a venire qui. Dove arrivato, ho trovato la fama di Madonna Lucrezia essere minore assai che la verita, il che occorre rarissime volte, e sommi acceso in tanto desiderio d’esser seco, che io non truovo loco.
SIRO: Se voi me n’avessi parlato a Parigi, io saprei che consigliarvi; ma ora non so io che mi vi dire.
CALLIMACO: Io non ti ho detto questo per voler tua consigli, ma per sfogarmi in parte, e perche tu prepari l’animo adiutarmi, dove el bisogno lo richerchi.
SIRO: A cotesto son io paratissimo; ma che speranza ci avete voi?
CALLIMACO: Ehime! nessuna.
SIRO: 0 perche?
CALLIMACO: Dirotti. In prima mi fa guerra la natura di lei, che e onestissima ed al tutto aliena dalle cose d’amore; l’avere el marito ricchissimo, e che al tutto si lascia gover­ nare da lei, e, se non e giovane, non e al tutto vecchio, come pare; non avere parenti o vicini, con chi ella con­ venga ad alcuna vegghia o festa o ad alcuno altro piacere, di che si sogliono dilettare le giovane. Delle persone mec­ caniche non gliene capita a casa nessuna; non ha fame ne famiglio, che non triemi di lei: in modo che non c’e luogo ad alcuna corruzione.
SIRO: Che pensate, adunque, di porer fare?
CALLIMACO: E’ non e mai alcuna cosa si disperata, che non vi sia qualche via da poterne sperare; e benche la fussi debole e vana, e la voglia e ‘l desiderio, che l’uomo ha di condurre la cosa, non la fa parere cosi.
s IR o: Infine, e che vi fa sperare?
self that, without stopping to consider anything else, or whether there was war or peace in Italy, I set out for Flor­ ence. Upon my arrival, I found Madonna Lucrezia’s reputa­ tion to be nothing, compared to the truth, which you will admit is rare indeed. I have been inflamed with such burn­ ing desire to be with her, that I cannot bear it.
srno: If you had spoken to me in Paris, I would have known how to advise you, but now I really don’t know what to say.
CALLIMACO: I haven’t told you all this to get your ad­ vice, but just to find a little relief, and get you ready to help me if I should need it.
srno: I am quite ready to do that, but what hopes do
you have?
CALLIMACO: I don’t have any.
srno: Oh, why?
CALLIMACO: I’ll tell you. In the first place, I have to overcome Madonna Lucrezia’s own nature, since she is completely virtuous and not interested in affairs of the heart. Secondly, she has a husband who is very rich,
who lets her have her way in all things and, although he isn’t young, doesn’t appear to be all that old. Third, she doesn’t have relatives or neighbors whom she meets at par­ ties, dances, or other kinds of entertainment where young women generally go to have fun. No workmen frequent her house, she has no maids or servants who are not afraid of her, so there is no chance of bribery.
SIRO: What do you think you can do, then?
CALLIMACO: Nothing is ever so desperate that there is no ground for hope. Even if the hope is vain and foolish,
a man’s will and desire to achieve what he wants will make it seem not to be.
SIRO: Well, then, what gives you hope?
168 MANDRAGOLA (I)

CALLIMACO: Dua cose: l’una, la semplicita di messer Nicia, che, benche sia dottore, egli e el piu semplice ed el piu sciocco uomo di Firenze; l’altra, la voglia che lui e lei hanno di avere figliuoli, che, sendo stata sei anni a marito e non avendo ancora fatti, ne hanno, sendo ricchissimi, un desiderio che muoiono. Una terza ci e, che la sua madre e suta buona compagna, ma la e ricca, tale che io non so come governarmene.
SIRO: Avete voi per questo tentato per ancora cosa alcuna?
CALLI MACO: Si ho, ma piccola cosa.
SIRO: Come?
CALLIMACO: Tu conosci Ligurio, che viene continua­ mente a mangiar meco. Costui fu gia sensale di matri­ moni, dipoi s’e dato a mendicare cene e desinari; e perche gli e piacevole uomo, messer Nicia tiene con lui una stretta dimestichezza, e Ligurio l’uccella; e benche non lo meni a mangiare seco, li presta alle volte danari. Io me l’ho fatto amico, e gli ho comunicato el mio amore: lui m’ha pro­ messo d’aiutarmi con le mani e co’ pie.
SIRO: Guardate e’ non v’inganni: questi pappatori non sogliono avere molta fede.
CALLIMACO: Egli eel vero. Nondimeno, quando una cosa fa per uno, si ha a credere, quando tu gliene commu­ nichi, che ti serva con fede. Io gli ho promesso quando
e’ riesca, donarli buona somma di danari; quando e’ non riesca, ne spicca un desinare ed una cena, che ad ogni modo i’ non mangerei solo.
SIRO: Che ha egli promesso, insino a qui, di fare?
CALLIMACO: Ha promesso di persuadere a messer Nicia che vada con la sua donna al bagno in questo magg10.
SIRO: Chee a voi cotesto?
CALLI MACO: Two things: first, the stupidity of her husband, Messer Nicia who, although he is a Doctor of Laws, is the simplest and most foolish man in all Florence. Second, the desire of both of them for children; they have been married for six years now without having any, and since they are rich, they are dying to have an heir. There is a third reason, too: her mother; she used to play around a bit when she was younger. But now she is well-to-do, so I don’t know how to take advantage of that.
srno: Have you attempted anything at all yet?
CALLIMACO: Yes, but nothing much.
SIRO: What?
CALLIMACO: You know Ligurio, who is always show­ ing up to eat at my house. He used to make his living as a marriage-broker, but then he took up mooching lunches and dinners. Since he is an agreeable fellow, Messer Nicia has grown quite inseparable from him, and Ligurio strings him along. Nicia hasn’t asked him home to dinner yet, but sometimes he lends him money. I have made friends with Ligurio and told him about my love. He has promised to help me in any way he can.
SIRO: Watch out that he doesn’t trick you. Those moochers can never be trusted.
CALLIMACO: That is true. However, when there is nothing else to lose, if you take someone into your confi­ dence, you have to believe he will serve you faithfully. I have promised to give him a goodly sum of money if he succeeds; if he doesn’t, all he gets out of it is a lunch and dinner, and I wouldn’t eat alone anyway.
SIRO: What has he promised to do so far?
CALLIMACO: He promised to persuade Messer Nicia to
take his wife to the baths9 this coming May.
srno: What good will that do you?
CALLIMACO: Chee a me! Potrebbe quel luogo farla diventare d’un’altra natura, perche in simili lati non si fa se non festeggiare; ed io me n’andrei la, e vi condurrei di tutte quelle ragion’ piaceri che io potessi, ne lascerei in­ drieto alcuna parte di magnificenzia; fare’mi familiar suo, del marito … che so io? Di cosa nasce cosa, e ‘l tempo la governa.
SIRO: E’ non mi dispiace.
CALLIMACO: Ligurio si pard questa mattina dame, e disse che sarebbe con messer Nicia sopra questa cosa, e me ne risponderebbe.
srno: Eccogli di qua insieme.
CALLIMACO: Io mi vo’ tirare da parte, per essere a tempo a parlare con Ligurio, quando si spicca dal dottore. Tu, intanto ne va’ in casa alle tue faccende; e, se io vom:> che tu faccia cosa alcuna, io tel diro.
SIRO: lo VO.

SCEN A SE CONDA
Messer Nicia, Ligurio.
NICIA: Io credo ch’ e tua consigli sien buoni, e parla’ne iersera alla donna: disse che mi risponderebbe oggi; ma, a dirti el vero, io non ci vo di buone gambe.
LIGURIO: Perche?
NICIA: Perche io mi spicco mal volentieri da bomba; dipoi, ad avere a travasare moglie, fame, masserizie, ella non mi quadra. Oltr’ a questo, io parlai iersera a parecchi medici: l’uno dice che io vadia a San Filippo, l’altro alla Porretta, e l’altro alla Villa; e’ mi parvono parecchi uc-
CALLIMACO: Well, who knows? A place like that could change her mind, since people have nothing to do there but have fun. I would go along and seize every op­ portunity for pleasure, and I wouldn’t neglect any chance to show off my wealth. I would get on good terms with her and her husband. Who can say? One thing leads to another, and only time will tell.
smo: That sounds all right to me.
CALLI MACO: Ligurio went off this morning to sound out Messer Nicia on the subject, and he promised to let me know what he said.
smo: Ssh … There they are together now.
CALLIMACO: I think I’ll move off a little way, so that I can speak to Ligurio as soon as he has got rid of Nicia. Meanwhile, you go on with your business back at the house. If I want you for anything, I’ll call you.
SIRO: I’m off.

SCENE TWO
Messer Nicia, Ligurio.
NICIA: I’msure your advice is sound, and I spoke of it with the missus last night. She said she would give me an answer today; but to tell you the truth, I’m not so keen on gomg.
LIGURIO: Why not?
NICIA: Because I have a hard time dragging myself away from home base. And then to have to pack up the wife, the servants, all our household stuff-it just doesn’t sit right with me. Aside from that, I spoke with a couple of doctors yesterday, and one says go to San Filippo, the next one says Porretta, and the third says Villa 10-they all
cellacci; e a dirti el vero, questi dottori di medicina non sanno guello che si pescano.
LIGURIO: E’ vi debbe dar briga, quello che voi dicesti prima, perche voi non sete uso a perdere la Cupola di veduta.
NICIA: Tu erri. Quando io ero piu giovane, io sono stato molto randagio: e’ non si fece mai la ti.era a Prato, che io non vi andassi; e’ non c’e castel veruno all’intorno, dove io non sia stato; e ti vo’ dir piu la: io sono stato a Pisa ed a Livorno, ova’!
LIGURIO: Voi dovete avere veduta la carrucola di Pisa.
NICIA: Tu vuo’ dire la Verucola.
LIGURIO: Ah! si, la Verucola. A Livorno, vedesti voi el mare?
NICIA: Ben sai che io il vidi!
LIGURIO: Quanto e egli maggior che Arno?
NICIA: Che Arno? Egli e per quattro volte, per piu di sei, per piu di sette, mi farai dire: e’ non si vede se non acqua, acgua, acqua.
LIGURIO: Io mi maraviglio, adunque, avendo voi pi­ sciato in tante neve, che voi facciate tanta difficulta d’an­ dare ad uno bagno.
NICIA: Tu hai la bocca piena di latte. E’ ti pare ate una favola avendo a sgominare tutta la casa? Pure, io ho tanta voglia d’avere figliuoli, che io son per fare ogni cosa. Ma parlane un po’ tu con questi maestri, vedi dove e’ mi consigliassino che io andassi; ed io saro intanto con la donna, e ritroverrenci.
LIGURIO: Voi dite bene.
seem like a bunch of quacks to me. To be frank, I don’t think those doctors know their ass from their elbows.
LIGURIO: What is really bothering you is what you were talking about before. You’re just not used to getting out of sight of the Cupola. 11
NICIA: There’s where you’re all wrong! When I was younger, I was a real vagabond. There was never a fair over in Prato that I didn’t go to, and there isn’t a castle around Florence I haven’t visited. And what is even more, I’ve been to Pisa and Leghorn, 12 what do think of that?
LIGURIO: Then you must have seen the Leaking Tower of Pisa. 13
NICIA: You mean the Leaning Tower?
LIGURIO: Oh yes! The Leaning Tower. Did you see the sea at Leghorn?
NICIA: What do you mean? Of course I saw it!
LIGURIO: How much bigger is it than the Arno?
NICIA: Than the Arno? It’s at least four times-more than six times; I’d go so far as to say even seven times bigger, and all you can see is water, water, and more water!
LIGURIO: I’m really amazed, then, that such a man
of the world, who had ants in his pants once upon a time, should make such a fuss about going off to the baths.
NICIA: You’re talking drivel, man! Do you think it’s a trifle to have to turn the whole household upside down? Still, I’m so anxious to have children that I’m ready to do just about anything. You go and talk to those doctors, find out where they advise me to go. I’ll be with the missus meanwhile, and we’ll see each other later.
LIGURIO: That’s a good idea.
SCENA TERZA
Ligurio, Cdlimaco.
LIGURIO: Io non credo che sia nel mondo el piu sciocco uomo di costui; e quanto la Fortuna lo ha favorito! Lui ricco, lui belladonna, savia, costumata, ed atta a gover­ nare un regno. E parmi che rare volte si verifichi quel proverbio ne’ matrimoni, che dice: “Dio fa gli uomini, e’ s’appaiano”; perche spesso si vede uno uomo ben qualifi­ cato sortire una bestia, e, per avverso, una prudente donna avere un pazzo. Madella pazzia di costui se ne cava questo bene, che Callimaco ha che sperare.-Ma eccolo. Che vai tu appostando, Callimaco?
CALLIMACO: Io t’avevo veduto col dottore, ed aspet­ tavo che tu ti spicassi da lui, per intendere quello avevi fatto.
LIGURIO: Egli e uno uomo della qualita che tu sai,
di poco prudenzia, di meno animo, e partesi mal volentieri da Firenze; pure, io ce l’ho riscaldato: e’ mi ha detto infine che fara ogni cosa; e credo che, quando e’ ti piaccia questo partito, che noi ve lo condurreno; ma io non so se noi ci fareno el bisogno nostro.
CALLIMACO: Perche?
LIGURIO: Che so io? Tu sai che a questi bagni va d’ogni qualita gente, e potrebbe venirvi uomo a chi ma­ donna Lucrezia piacessi come ate, che fussi ricco piu di te, che avessi piu grazia di te: in modo che si porta pericolo di non durare questa fatica per altri, e che c’intervenga che la copia de’ concorrenti la faccino piu dura, o che, dimesti­ candosi, la si volga ad un altro e non ate.
SCENE THREE
Ligurio, Callimaco.
LIGURIO: (I don’t believe there is a more stupid man in all the world, and look how Fortune has favored him! He is rich, and has a beautiful, virtuous wife with fine man­ ners, fit to rule a kingdom. You know, it’s seldom the case, as the old saying goes, that marriages are made in heaven. Often you see a fine, upstanding man paired off with a beast, and on the contrary, an intelligent woman married to a nit-wit. But there is one thing to be gained from Messer Nicia’s foolishness: Callimaco has grounds for hope. Ah, there he is now.) What are you doing standing there, Callimaco?
CALLIMACO: I saw you with Messer Nicia, and I was
waiting for you to get rid of him, to hear how you made out.
LIGURIO: You know what kind of man he is: little sense and less spirit. He is hard to pry away from Florence. But I have warmed him up to it, and he has told me that he will do everything I ask. So if we want to follow that plan, I think he will go along with us. Only I’m not sure we’ll be able to accomplish what we want that way.
CALLIMACO: Why not?
LIGURIO: Whocan tell? All kinds of people go to those baths, you know. Some fellow might come along who liked Madonna Lucrezia as much as you do, one who is richer or more attractive than you. In that case, there is a risk of your going to all that trouble for someone else.
Or it might happen that all the competition would make her harder to get, or that when her resistance was worn down, she would land in someone else’s arms.
CALLIMACO: Io conosco che tu di’ el vero. Ma come ho a fare? Che partito ho a pigliare? Dove mi ho a volgere? A me bisogna tentare qualche cosa, sia grande, sia pericu­ losa, sia dannosa, sia infame. Meglio e morire che vivere cosl. Se io potessi dormire la notte, se io potessi mangiare, se io potessi conversare, se io potessi pigliare piacere di
cosa veruna, io sarei piu paziente ad aspettare el tempo; ma qui non c’e rimedio; e, se io non sono tenuto in speranza da qualche partito, i’ mi morro in ogni modo; e, veggendo d’avere a morire, non sono per temere cosa alcuna, ma per pigliare qualche partito bestiale, crudele, nefando.
LIGURIO: Non dire cosi, raffrena cotesto impeto dello
ammo.
CALLIMACO: Tu vedi bene che, per raffrenarlo, <10 mi pasco di simili pensieri. E pero e necessario o che noi se­ guitiamo di mandare costui al bagno, o che noi entriano per qualche altra via, che mi pasca d'una speranza, se non vera, falsa almeno, per la quale io nutrisca un pensiero, che mitighi in parte tanti mia affani. LIGURIO: Tu hai ragione, ed io sono per farlo. CALLIMACO: Io lo credo, ancora che io sappia che e pari tuoi vivino di uccellare Ii uomiai. Nondimanco, io non credo essere in quel numero, perche, quando tu el facessi ed io me ne avvedessi, cercherei valermene, ed per­ deresti per ora l'uso della casa mia, e la speranza di avere quello che per lo avvenire t'ho promesso. LIGURIO: Non dubitare della fede mia, che, quando e' non ci fussi !'utile che io sento e che io spero, e' c'e che 'l tuo sangue si confa col mio, e desidero che tu adempia questo tuo desiderio presso a quanta tu. Ma lasciamo ir questo. El dottore mi ha commesso che io truovi un me­ dico, e intenda a quale bagno sia bene andare. Io voglio CALLIMACO: I realize you're right. But what can I do? What plans can I make? Where can I turn? I absolutely have to try something, whether it is noble, dangerous, drastic or vile. It's better to die than to live like this. If I could only sleep at night, if I could eat, if I could talk with people, if I could enjoy anything at all any more, I would be patient and bide my time. But there is no cure; and if my hope isn't kept alive by some plan or other, I will surely die. So, seeing that I'll die anyway, I have to do something; and I won't stop at anything, no matter how brutal, cruel or foul. LIGURIO: Don't say that, you must restrain these impulses! CALLIMACO: To tell you the truth, I only indulge in thoughts like that in order to restrain them. So we either have to get this fellow to the baths or work out some other way, so I can nourish some hope, even a false one-just so I can ease my suffering. LIGURIO: You're right, and I'm going to do something about it. CALLIMACO: I believe you, though I know that people like you live by tricking others. Still I don't think you will try to dupe me, because if you did and I discovered it, I would be sure to get even. You would lose not only my hospitality, but all hopes of getting what I promised you for the future. LIGURIO: Don't worry, you can trust me. Even if I didn't have a stake in this, the fact is I feel a kinship for you, and I want to satisfy your desires almost as much as you do. But let's get down to business. Messer Nicia has asked me to find a doctor and see which baths he should che tu faccia a mio modo, e guesto e che tu dica di avere studiato in medicina, e che abbi fatto a Parigi gualche sperienzia: lui e per crederlo facilmente per la semplicita sua, e per essere tu litterato e poterli dire gualche cosa in gramatica. CALLIMACO: Ache ci ha a servire cotesto? LIGURIO: Serviracci a mandarlo a gual bagno noi vor­ reno, ed a pigliare gualche altro partito che io ho pensato, che sara piu corto, piu certo, piu riuscibile che 'l bagno. CALLIMACO: Che di' tu? LI Gu RIO : Dico che, se tu arai animo e se tu confiderai in me, io ti do guesta cosa fatta, innanzi che sia domani guesta Otta. E, guando e' fussi uomo che none, da ricer­ care se tu se' o non se' medico, la brevita del tempo, la cosa in se fara o che non ne ragionera o che non sara a tempo a guastarci el disegno, guando bene e' ne ragionassi. CALLIMACO: Tu mi risuciti. Questa e troppa gran promessa, e pascimi di troppa gran speranza. Come farai? LIGURIO: Tu el saprai, guando e' fia tempo; per ora non occore che io te lo dica, perche el tempo ci manchera a fare, nonche dire. Tu, vanne in casa, e guivi m'aspetta, ed io andro a trovare el dottore, e, se io lo conduco ate andrai seguitando el mio parlare ed accomodandoti a guello. CALLIMACO: Cosi faro, ancora che tu mi riempia d'una speranza, che io temo non se ne vadia in fumo. go to. Here is what you'll do: tell him you have studied medicine and had a practice in Paris. He is bound to fall for it, given his stupidity and your learning, and your abil­ ity to say a few words in Latin. CALLIMACO: What good will that do us? LIGURIO: It will let us send him to the baths we choose, and follow up on another idea I have just thought of which will be quicker, surer, and more practical than the baths. CALLIMACO: What do you mean? LIGURIO: Let me just say that if you have courage, and trust me, I will swing this deal for you by this time to­ morrow. Then even if he had enough brains, which he doesn't, to verify whether you are a doctor or not, either he won't think about it, or he won't have time to spoil our plan, even if he does think about it. CALLIMACO: You're giving me a new lease on life! That is too much to promise, and I don't know whether I can bear such great hope. How will you do it? LIGURIO: You'll find out when the time comes. For now I had better not tell you, because there is scarcely enough time to act, much less to talk about it. Go back home and wait for me, and I will go get Messer Nicia. When I bring him to you, just listen to what I say and follow my lead. CALLIMACO: I'll do it, though you are filling me with such hope that I'm afraid it will all go up in smoke. 180 MANDRAGOLA (I) CANZONE Chi non fa prova, Amore, della tua gran possanza, indarno spera di far mai fede vera qual sia del cielo il piu alto valore; ne sa come si vive, insieme, e muore, come si segue il danno e'l ben si fugge, come s'ama se stesso men d'altrui, come spesso timore e speme i cori adiaccia e strugge; ne sa come ugualmente uomini e dei paventan l'arme di che armato sei. THE MANDRAKE (I) 181 SONG No man can, without trying The sweetness of thy power, Love, imagine In any rightful fashion High heaven's greatest virtue, love undying; Nor can he know mix'd death and life, while sighing, Or how we flee our welfare as from error, And think more of our lover Than self; over and over Our hearts are racked with hope and then with terror; For thou strik'st fear into the very marrow Of gods and mortals with thy bow and arrow. ATTO SECONDO SCENA PRIMA Ligurio, Messer Nicia, Siro. LIGURIO: Come io vi ho detto, io credo che Iddio ci abbia mandato costui, perche voi adempiate el desiderio vostro. Egli ha fatto a Parigi esperienzie grandissime; e non vi maravigliate se a Firenze e' non ha fatto professione dell'arte, che n'e suto cagione, prima, per essere ricco, se­ condo, perche egli e ad ogni ora per tornarsi a Parigi. NICIA: Ormai, frate sl., cotesto bene importa; perche io non vorrei che mi mettessi in qualche lecceto, e poi mi lasciassi in sulle secche. LIGURIO: Non dubitate di cotesto; abbiate solo paura che non voglia pigliare questa cura; ma, se la piglia, e' non e' per lasciarvi infino che non ne veda el fine. NI c I A: Di cotesta parte io mi vo' fidare di te, ma della scienzia io ti diro bene io, come io gli parlo, s' egli e uomo di dottrina, perche a me non vendera egli vesciche. LIGURIO: E perche io vi conosco, vi meno io a lui, accio li parliate. E se, parlato li avete, e' non vi pare per presenzia, per dottrina, per lingua uno uomo da metterli il capo in grembo, dite che io non sia desso. NICIA: Or sia, al nome dell'Agnol santo! Andiamo. Ma dove sta egli? LIGURIO: Sta in su questa piazza, in quello uscio che voi vedete al dirimpetto a noi. NICIA: Sia con buona ora. Picchia. LIGURIO: Ecco fatto. SIRO: Chi e? ACT TWO SCENE ONE Ligurio, Messer Nicia, Siro. LIGURIO: As I told you, I think the good Lord has sent us this doctor for the fulfillment of your desire. He has an enormous practice in Paris, but don't be surprised that he hasn't opened an office in Florence. The reasons are, first, that he is very rich, and second, that he is due to return to Paris at any moment. NICIA: Well now, brother, that's an important consid­ eration. I wouldn't want him to get me into deep water and then leave me high and dry. LIGURIO: Don't worry about that. Lets just hope that he'll be willing to take your case. If he does accept, I know he. is going to see it through right to the end. NICIA: As far as chat's concerned, I'll take your word for it. But when it comes to medical knowledge, I'll tell you after I've talked with him whether he is a man of learning. He won't be able to pull the wool over my eyes! LIGURIO: I know you only too well. That is why I am taking you to meet him. And when you have talked with him, if he doesn't seem to you, by his character, his learn­ ing, and his speech, to be someone in whose hands you can put your wife, then I'm not the man you think I am. NICIA: All right, by Jesus! Let's go! But where does he live? LIGURIO: Right in this square, at the door you see in front of you. NICIA: That's just fine. You knock. LIGURIO: Here we go. SIRO: Whois it? LIGURIO: E'vi Callimaco? SIRO: Si, e. NICIA: Che non di' tu "maestro Callimaco"? LIGURIO: E' non si cura di simil' baie. NICIA: Non dir cosi, fa' 'l tuo debito, e, s' e' l'ha per male, scingasi! SCENA SECONDA Callimaco, Messer Nicia, Ligurio. CALLI MACO: Chi e quel che mi vuole? NICIA: Bona dies, domine magister. CALLIMACO: Et vobis bona, domine doctor. LIGURIO: Che vi pare? NICIA: Bene, alle guagnele! LIGURIO: Se voi volete che io stia qui con voi, voi par­ lerete in modo che io v'intenda, altrimenti noi fareno duo fuochi. CALLIMACO: Che buone faccende? NICIA: Che so io? Vo cercando duo cose, ch' un altro per avventura fuggirebbe: questo e di dare briga a me e ad altri. Io non ho figliuoli, e vorre'ne, e, per avere questa briga, vengo a dare impaccio a voi. CALLI MACO: A me non fia mai discaro fare piacere a voi ed a tutti li uomini virtuosi e da bene come voi; e non mi sono a Parigi affaticato tanti anni per imparare per al­ tro, se non per potere servire a' pari vostri. NICIA: Gran merce; e, quando voi avessi bisogno del­ l'arte mia, io vi servirei volentieri. Ma torniamo ad rem nostram. Avete voi pensato che bagno fussi buono a disporre LIGURIO: Is Callimaco there? srno: Yes, he is. NICIA: Whydon't you call him Doctor Callimaco? LIGURIO: He doesn't care about such trifles. NICIA: Well, never mind him. You do what's right, and if he doesn't like it, he can screw it. SCENE TWO Callimaco, Messer Nicia, Ligurio. CALLIMACO: Who wishes to speak to me? NICIA: Bona dies, domine magister. 14 CALLIMACO: Et vobis bona, domine doctor. 15 LIGURIO: What do you think? NICIA: Fine, by the Holy Gospel! LIGURIO: Well, if you want me to stick around, you had better talk so that I understand you; otherwise we'll be at cross-purposes. CALLIMACO: What can I do for you? NICIA: I wish I knew. Here I am looking for two things that anybody else would probably fly from: I want to make trouble for myself, and for others, too. I have no children and I want to get some, and in order to have this trouble, I've come to make a nuisance for you. CALLIMACO: Never let it be said that I refused my services to you, or to any other good, deserving man like you. I haven't exhausted myself in Paris all these years, studying, for any other reason than to serve people of your kind. NICIA: Thank you, thank you! And any time you need my professional talents, doctor, I'll be delighted to return the favor. But let's get back ad rem nostram. 16 Have you la donna mia ad impregnare? Che io so che qui Ligurio vi ha detto quel che vi s'abbi detto. CALLIMACO: Egli e la verita; ma, a volere adempiere el desiderio vostro, e necessario sapere la cagione della ste­ rilita della donna vostra, perche le possono essere piu ca­ gione; nam causae sterilitatis sunt: aut in semine, aut in ma­ trice, aut in instrumentis seminariis, aut in virga, aut in causa extrinseca. NICIA: Costui e il piu degno uomo che si possa trovare! CALLIMACO: Potrebbe, oltr' a di questo, causarsi questa sterilita da voi, per impotenzia; che quando questo fussi, non ci sarebbe rimedio alcuno. NICIA: Impotente io? Oh! voi mi farete ridere! Io non credo che sia el piu ferrigno ed il piu rubizzo uomo in Firenze di me. CALLIMACO: Se cotesto non e, state di buona voglia, che noi vi troverremo qualche remedio. NICIA: Sarebbeci egli altro remedio che bagni? Perche io non vorrei quel disagio, e la donna uscirebbe di Firenze mal volentieri. LIGURIO: Si, sara! Io vo' rispondere io: Callimaco e tanto respettivo, che e troppo. Non m'avete voi detto di sapere ordinare certe pozione, che indubitatamente fanno ingravidare? CALLIMACO: Si, ho; ma io vo rattenuto con gli uomini che io non conosco, perche io non vorrei mi tenessino un cerretano. NICIA: Non dubitate di me, perche voi mi avete fatto maravigliare di qualita, che non e cosa io non credessi o facessi per le vostre mani. LIGURIO: Io credo che bisogni che voi veggiate el segno. decided which baths would be best for getting my wife pregnant? I know Ligurio here has told you what there is to tell you. CALLIMACO: That is true, but in order to gratify your desire, I have to know the cause of your wife's sterility. There are several possible causes. Nam causae steri/itatis sunt: aut in semine, aut in matrice, aut in instrumentis seminariis, aut in virga, aut in causa extrinseca. 17 NICIA: (This is the most worthy man I have ever met!) CALLIMACO: Aside from these causes, this sterility might be occasioned by your impotence. If that were the case, I have no remedy for you. NICIA: Me impotent!? Why, you're making me laugh! I'm as tough as nails, and I don't believe there is a more virile man in all of Florence. CALLI MACO: If that is so, then you can rest assured that we will find a cure for your problem. NICIA: Mightn't there be some other remedy than the baths? Because I'd rather not go to all that trouble, and the missus isn't anxious to leave Florence. LIGURIO: Yes, there is! Excuse me for interrupting, but Dr. Callimaco is far too modest. Didn't you tell me that you could concoct a certain potion that is absolutely guaranteed to result in pregnancy? CALLIMACO: Yes, I did. But I have to be cautious with people I don't know. I wouldn't want them to take me for a charlatan. NICIA: You don't have to worry about me. You have im­ pressed me so deeply that there is nothing I wouldn't be­ lieve or do in your hands. LIGURIO: I imagine that you will have to see a specimen. CALLIMACO: Sanza dubbio, e' non si puo fare di meno. LIGURIO: Chiama Siro, che vadia con el dottore a casa per esso, e torni qui; e noi l'aspetteremo in casa. CALLIMACO: Siro! Va' con lui. E, se vi pare, messere, tornate qui subito, e pensereno a qualche cosa di buono. NICIA: Come, semi pare? Io tornero qui in uno stante, che ho piu fede in voi che gli Ungheri nelle spade. SCENA TERZA Messer Nicia, Siro. NICIA: Questo tuo padrone e un gran valente uomo. SIRO: Piu che voi non dite. NI c I A: El re di Francia ne de' far conto. SIRO: Assai. NI c I A: E per questa ragione e' debbe stare volentieri in Francia. SIRO: Cosi credo. NICIA: E' fa molto bene: in questa terra non ci e se non cacastecchi, non ci si apprezza virtu alcuna. S' egli stessi qua, non ci sarebbe uomo che lo guardassi in viso. Ione so ragionare, che ho cacato le curatelle per imparare dua hac, e se io ne avessi a vivere, io starei fresco, ti so dire! srno: Guadagnate voi l'anno cento ducati? NICIA: Non cento lire, non cento grossi, ova'! E questo e che, chi non ha lo stato in questa terra, de' nostri pari, CALLIMACO: Of course, we can't do without it. LIGURIO: Call Siro, and let him go home with Messer Nicia here to get one. We will wait in your house for him to bring it back. CALLIMACO: Siro, you go with him. And if you will, sir, come back here right away, and we will find something good for you. NICIA: What do you mean, if I will? I'll be back in a second. I have more faith in you than an Arab in his stallion. 18 SCENE THREE Messer Nicia, Siro. NICIA: That master of yours is a very capable man. SIRO: More than you can imagine. NI CIA: The King of France must have a high regard for him. SIRO: Exceptional. NICIA: That is probably why he prefers to remain in France. SIRO: Evidently. NICIA: He's got the right idea. In this town there's nothing but a bunch of shit-asses; nobody has an apprecia­ tion for class. If he stuck around here, there isn't a man who could look him in the eye. I know what I'm talking about, because I had to work my butt off just to learn amo, amas, amat. If I didn't have money of my own, I'd be up the creek, let me tell you! SIRO: What do you make, a hundred ducats a year? NICIA: Nota hundred lire, not even a hundred cen­ times, what do you think of that? And the reason is that non truova can che gli abbai; e non sian buoni ad altro che andare a' mortori o alle ragunate d'un mogliazzo, o a starci tuttodi in sulla panca del Proconsolo a donzellarci. Ma io ne li disgrazio, io non ho bisogno di persona: cosi stessi chi sta peggio di me! Ma non vorrei pero ch' elle fussino mia parole, che io arei di fatto qualche balzello o qualche porro di drieto, che mi fare' sudare. SIRO: Non dubitate. NICIA: Noi siamo a casa. Aspettami qui: io tornero ora. SIRO: Andate. SCENA QUARTA Siro solo. s IR o: Se gli altri dottori fussin fatti come costui, noi faremo a' sassi pe' forni: che si, che questo tristo di Ligurio e questo impazzato di questo mio padrone lo conducono in qualche loco, che gli faranno vergogna! E veramente io lo desiderrei, quando io credessi che non si risapessi, perche, risapendosi, io porto pericolo della vita, el padrone della vita e della roba. Egli e gia diventato medico: non so io che disegno si sia el loro, e dove si tenda questo loro in­ ganno . . .-Ma ecco el dottore, che ha uno orinale in mano: chi non riderebbe di questo uccellaccio? SCENA QUINTA Messer Nicia, Siro. NICIA: Io ho fatto d'ogni cosa a tuo modo: di questo vo' io che tu facci a mio. Se io credevo non avere figliuoli, io arei preso piu tosto per moglie una contadina che te. To' anybody who doesn't have connections in this town is lucky if he can get the time of day. All we're good for is going to funerals or to wedding parties, or sitting on the Proconsul's bench all day long watching the people go by. But I don't give a damn, I don't need anyone. There are a lot worse off than I am, believe you me. All this is strictly off the rec­ ord, of course, I don't want to have some tax or fine, or some other pain in the ass slapped on me. srno: Doo'tworry. NICIA: Here's my house. Wait for me, I'll be right out. SIRO: Go ahead. SCENE FOUR Siro alone. s IR o : If all men of learning were like this one, the rest of us would be hanging from the treetops. That rascal, Ligurio, and that crazy master of mine are leading him into something he'll be sorry for. To tell the truth, that doesn't bother me, as long as word doesn't get around. If it does, my life is in jeopardy, and so is my master's, and his property, too. He has already turned into a doctor; I don't know what their plans are and what this swindle is leading to. But here comes Messer Nicia with a chamber pot in his hands. How can you help laughing at the poor sucker? SCENE FIVE Messer Nicia, Siro. NICIA: (I've always done everything your way, now I want you to do this my way, for once. If I had known I wasn't going to have children, I would have married some costi, Siro; viemmi drieto. Quanta fatica ho io durata a fare che questa mia mona sciocca mi dia questo segno! E non e dire che la non abbi caro di fare figliuoli, che lane ha piu pensiero di me; ma, come io le vo' far fare nulla, egli e una storia. SIRO: Abbiate pazienza: le donne si sogliono con le buone parole condurre dove altri vuole. NICIA: Che buone parole! che mi ha fracido. Va' ratto, di' al maestro ed a Ligurio che io son qui. SIRO: Eccogli che vengon fuori. SCENA SESTA Ligurio, Callimaco, Messer Nicia. LIGURIO: El dottore fia facile a persuadere; la difficulta fia la donna ed a questo non ci manchera modi. CALLI MACO: Avete voi el segno? NICIA: E' l'ha Siro, sotto. CALLIMACO: Dallo qua. Oh! questo segno mostra de­ bilita di rene. NI CIA: E' mi par torbidiccio; eppur l'ha fatto ora ora. CALLI MACO: Non ve ne maravigliate. Nam mulieris urinae sunt semper maioris grossitiei et albedinis et minoris pulchritudinis quam virorum. Huius autem, inter caetera, causa est amplitudo canalium, mixtio eorum quae ex matrice exeunt cum urmts. NICIA: Oh!uh! potta di san Puccio! Costui mi raffinisce in tralle mani; guarda come ragiona bene di queste cose! peasant girl rather than you.) Here, take this, Siro. 19 Come along with me. What a hard time I had getting that silly missus of mine to give me this specimen! It's not as if she isn't anxious to have children, too; she's more concerned than I am, but as soon as I try to get her to do something about it, it's another story. SIRO: Be patient. You always have to use sweet talk with women to get your way. NICIA: What do you mean, sweet talk! She got me madder than a wet hen. Go quickly, tell the doctor and Ligurio that I'm back. SIRO: Here they are, coming out of the house. SCENE SIX Ligurio, Callimaco, Messer Nicia. LIGURIO: Messer Nicia will be easy to convince. The real problem will be his wife, but we'll find a way around that. CALLIMACO: Do you have the specimen? NICIA: Siro has it there, covered up. CALLIMACO: Hand it over. Aha! This specimen shows signs of a weakness in the glands. NICIA: It does look a little murky, and yet she just did it a few moments ago. CALLI MACO: Do not be surprised. Nam mulieris urinae sunt semper maioris grossitiei et albedinis et minoris pulchritudinis quam virorum. Huius autem, inter caetera, causa est amplitudo canalium, mixtio eorum quae ex matrice exeunt cum urinis.20 NICIA: (Wow! By Saint Christopher's cock! This fellow gets more subtle by the minute! Listen to how well he speaks of these things!) CALLIMACO: lo ho paura che costei non sia la notte mal coperta, e per questo fa l'orina cruda. NICIA: Ella tien pure adosso un buon coltrone; ma la sta quattro ore ginocchioni ad infilzar paternostri, innanzi che la se ne venghi al letto, ed e una bestia a patir freddo. CALLIMACO: Infine, dottore, o voi avete fede in me, o no; o io vi ho ad insegnare un rimedio certo, o no. lo, per me, el rimedio vi daro. Se voi arete fede in me, voi la piglierete; e se, oggi ad uno anno, la vostra donna non ha un suo figliuolo in braccio, io voglio avervi a donare dumi­ lia ducati. NICIA: Dite pure, che io son per farvi onore di tutto, e per credervi piu che al mio confessoro. CALLIMACO: Voi avete ad intender questo, che none cosa piu certa ad ingravidare una donna che dargli bere una pozione fatta di mandragola. Questa e una cosa esperimen­ tata de me dua paia di volte, e trovata sempre vera; e, se non era questo, la reina di Francia sarebbe sterile, ed in­ finite altre principesse de quello stato. NICIA: E egli possibile? CALLIMACO: Egli e come io vi dico. E la Fortuna vi ha in tanto voluto bene, che io ho condutto qui meco tutte quelle cose che in quella pozione si mettono, e potete averla a vostra posta. NICIA: Quando l'arebbe ella a pigliare? CALLIMACO: Questa sera dopo cena, perche la luna e ben disposta, ed el tempo non puo essere piu appropriato. NICIA: Cotesto non fia molto gran cosa. Ordinatela in ogni modo: io gliene faro pigliare. CALLIMACO: I am afraid that the reason why this woman passes such raw water is that she has been badly covered at night. NICIA: I have a nice, thick comforter; but she insists on stringing out prayers for hours on end, down on her knees, before she'll get into bed. She's a real horse when it comes to standing the cold. CALLIMACO: All right, Messer Nicia: either you have confidence in me or you don't. Either I have a sure cure to prescribe for your wife or I don't. For my part, I'll give it to you straight: if you trust in me, you'll let your wife have it, and if within a year she doesn't have a baby in her arms, I am willing to give you two thousand ducats. NICIA: Go on. I'm ready to take your word without question, and I trust you more than my father-confessor. CALLIMACO: You must understand this: there is nothing more certain to make a woman conceive than to give her a potion made with mandrake root. That is some­ thing I have tested half a dozen times, and always found true. If it were not for that, the Queen of France and countless other Princesses of that realm would be barren. NICIA: You don't say! CALLI MACO: It is exactly as I have told you. And it just so happens, by a stroke of good fortune, that I have brought with me all the ingredients which go into this potion, so now you can have it, too. NICIA: When would she have to take it? CALLIMACO: This evening, after supper. According to the moon, this is just the right time of month. We couldn't choose a better moment. NICIA: There won't be any big problem, then. You just go ahead and mix it up, and I'll get her to swallow it. CALLI MACO: E' bisogna ora pensare a questo: che quello uomo che ha prima a fare seco, presa che l'ha, co­ testa pozione, muore infra otto giorni, e non lo campe­ rebbe el mondo. NICIA: Cacasangue! Io non voglio cotesta suzzacchera! A me non l'apiccherai tu! Voi mi avete concio bene! CALLIMACO: State saldo, e' ci e rimedio. NICIA: Quale? CALLIMACO: Fare dormire subito con lei un altro che tiri, standosi seco una notte, a se tutta quella infezione della mandragola: dipoi iacerete voi sanza periculo. NICIA: Io non vo' fare cotesto. CALLIMACO: Perche? NICIA: Perche io non vo' fare la mia donna femmina e me becco. CALLIMACO: Che