r _Erminio della Stella d'Oro_; if they suspected any
symbolism or mystery, the melodrama with which they were saturated
provided a context that determined the direction of the resolution. They
saw wicked priests conspiring with a cowardly traitor and an overbearing
bully to bring about the destruction of an innocent man. They saw the
innocent man passing through misfortune and in the end triumphing over
his enemies by means of a happy ending, which reminded them of the happy
ending of a Machiavelli play, when the hero returns from prison and the
bad people are punished. They saw a mother weeping for her son, but they
saw no allusion to Ceres weeping for loss of Proserpine, although their
Castrogiovanni was her Enna--just as Angiolino saw no reference to Judas
having been born to be hanged, although they have the saying in Sicily,
and he is the son of the house. I do not think they saw any significance
in the fact that this mystery of the Death and Resurrection of the God is
repeated every spring. I imagine that the point made by Joseph of
Arimathaea in his speech for the defence, that the wonders done by Christ
on earth were miracles and were not occasioned by magic, was lost upon
them. It would take a long time to make one of them understand that la
Durlindana, the sword of Orlando, was a magical sword and not a
miraculous one. And yet this distinction between miracle and magic was
the pivot of the plot as it was presented to them. If they had felt
themselves lifted out of their ordinary routine I do not think they would
have done what they did after the curtain had fallen on the section of
the story presented each evening.

At the Machiavelli they are accustomed to remain for the farce and the
Canzonettisti Napoletani which close the performance; so at the Sicilia
they remain for the cinematograph. Every evening during Holy Week the
programme posted up at the door concluded with these words "Indi
Cinematografo," and there were always three parts to the show. First
there was cruelty--victorious tyrants forcing conquered queens to drink
their lovers' blood, or some horror of the Inquisition, or the barrel of
Regulus bumping down-hill and coming to smash at the bottom. The second
part was a modern comedy carried on in Parisian drawing-rooms or on board
an electric launch on an American river. The third part was always a
wild farce and usually contained an impossible chase. Not till after the
cinematograph ha