ellow, but a poor
artist; and unfortunately he resembled Signor Gratarol pretty closely
both in figure and colour of hair. The knavery of the comedians had
furnished him with clothes cut and trimmed exactly on the pattern of
those worn by Gratarol. He had been taught to imitate his mincing walk
and other gestures. The caricature was complete; and I had to confess
that Signor Gratarol had actually been parodied upon the stage in my
comedy of the _Droghe d'Amore_. Innocent as I was of any wish to play
the part of Aristophanes in modern Venice, the fact was obvious; and the
audience greeted Vitalba with a storm of applause and rounds of clapping
which deafened our ears.

I turned sharply upon Sacchi, and complained bitterly of the liberty he
had taken with my unoffending comedy. He only shrugged his shoulders,
and said he was afraid that an exhibition which promised so well for his
money-box might be suppressed as a public scandal. That was all I could
extort from him; and the play advanced to the middle of the third act,
accompanied with universal approval. Whenever Don Adone entered and
spoke a line or two, he was greeted with thunders of applause. I still
hoped for those salutary hisses which might have damned the piece. The
audience had been crammed together now for full seven hours; they
numbered some two thousand persons, and were largely composed of people
from the lower ranks of life. It was no wonder that they began to be
restless, fought together, tried to leave the house, and raised a din
which drowned the voices of the actors. Don Adone made his last exit,
and there was nothing to excite interest but the dregs of an involved
and stationary plot. The hubbub rose to a tumult, and my hopes rose with
it. The actors gabbled through the last scenes in helpless
unintelligible dumb-show. At last the drop-scene fell upon a storm of
cat-calls, howls, hisses, and vociferations. I turned to Sacchi and
said: "Your vile machinations deserved this retribution. Now you will
admit that I prophesied the truth about my play." "Pooh!" he answered,
"the play took well enough up to a certain point. It is only necessary
to shorten it a little, and we shall not have the same scene another
night." Then he left the box all in a heat, without waiting for my reply
and without even bidding me good-night.

LVIII.

_Gratarol tries to stop the performance of the play, which is no longer
in my power.--Intervention of Signor Carlo Maff