eral disputes had arisen; wherefore Pollastra
arranged a surprise (keeping the matter absolutely secret), which was as
follows. When all the people, with the gentlemen and their ladies, had
assembled in the place where the comedy was to be performed, four of
those young men who had come to blows with one another in the city on
other occasions, dashing out with naked swords and cloaks wound round
their arms, began to shout on the stage and to pretend to kill one
another: and the first of them to be seen rushed out with one temple as
it were smeared with blood, crying out: "Come forth, traitors!" At which
uproar all the people rose to their feet, men began to lay hands on
their weapons, and the kinsmen of the young men, who appeared to be
giving each other fearful thrusts, ran towards the stage; when he who
had come out first, turning towards the other young men, said: "Hold
your hands, gentlemen, and sheathe your swords, for I have taken no
harm; and although we are at daggers drawn and you believe that the play
will not be performed, yet it will take place, and I, wounded as I am,
will now begin the Prologue." And so after this jest, by which all the
spectators and the actors themselves, only excepting the four mentioned
above, were taken in, the comedy was begun and played so well, that
afterwards, in the year 1540, when the Lord Duke Cosimo and the Lady
Duchess Leonora were in Arezzo, Giovanni Antonio had to prepare the
scenery anew on the Piazza del Vescovado and have it performed before
their Excellencies. And even as the performers had given satisfaction on
the first occasion, so at that time they gave so much satisfaction to
the Lord Duke, that they were afterwards invited to Florence to perform
at the next Carnival. In these two scenic preparations, then, Lappoli
acquitted himself very well, and he was very highly praised.

He then made an ornament after the manner of a triumphal arch, with
scenes in the colour of bronze, which was placed about the altar of the
Madonna delle Chiavi. After a time Giovanni Antonio settled in Arezzo,
fully determined, now that he had a wife and children, to go roaming no
more, and living on his income and on the offices that the citizens of
that city enjoy; and so he continued without working much. Not long,
indeed, after these events, he sought to obtain the commissions for two
altar-pieces that were to be painted in Arezzo, one for the Church and
Company of S. Rocco, and the other