usually
maintained by men of Gratarol's sort. You meant them to be understood
ironically. But our Venetians will not take them so. What strikes their
ear, they retain in its material and literal sense. And they learn much
which is mischievous, unknown to them before.--May I parenthetically
observe that certain gentlemen want to give orders where they have no
right to speak?--I repeat to you that the magistracy which I serve does
not err; and I repeat the decree which has been passed." Having spoken
these words, Signor Agazi bowed, and left me for his business.

What passed between me and the censor I repeated to friends of mine, who
will bear me witness that I found myself estopped in my attempts to
suppress the comedy. It had to appear; and Signor Gratarol owed this
annoyance to his having powerful enemies.

Unfortunately he did his best to exasperate these enemies. Teodora
Ricci, primed by him and parroting his words, went about libelling men
and women of the highest rank, whom she had never seen. Phrases of the
grossest scurrility were hurled at eminent people by their names. "If
Gratarol has committed himself in this way to an actress," said I in my
sleeve, "what must he not have let fall to other friends and
acquaintances? Such indiscretion marks him out as little fitted for the
post of ambassador at Naples or elsewhere."

I have said that I had lost all authority over my wretched drama. I only
wanted to see it well hissed on its first appearance, and to bury the
annoyances it caused me in a general overthrow. Yet I was obliged to be
present at rehearsals. At the first which I attended, I noticed that two
of the roles had been changed. I had given Don Adone to an actor called
Luigi Benedetti, and the jealous Don Alessandro to Giovanni Vitalba.
Sacchi reversed my disposition of these parts, alleging that Benedetti
was better fitted to sustain the character of a furious lover than
Vitalba, who was somewhat of a stick. This seemed to me not
unreasonable; and I was so accustomed to have my plays cut and hacked
about by the actors, that I accepted his decision.

At the second rehearsal, Mme. Ricci asked me negligently if I knew why
this alteration had been made. I answered that Sacchi had explained it
to my satisfaction. She held her tongue, thinking doubtless that I was
well acquainted with certain machinations of which she had fuller
knowledge than I.

At last the piece appeared--it was the night of January 10,