bstantially the foundation of the
slender plot of most modern scenic pantomimes preliminary to the
bursting forth from their chrysalides of Harlequin, Columbine,
Pantaloon, and company. A young girl, with the consent of her parents,
has for some time promised her hand to an honest youth. The old
mother, in despite of her word, has taken a caprice to give her
daughter to another suitor. The father, though much under the sway of
his spouse, is in his heart desirous to keep his engagement, and has
called in the notary to draw the contract. At this moment the scene
begins, the actors of which, for greater perspicuity and brevity, may
be provided with stage names as follows:

Cecca, diminutive for Francisca, the mother of--
Nanella, diminutive of Antoniella, the betrothed of--
Peppino, diminutive of Peppe, which is diminutive of Giuseppe.
Pasquale, husband of Cecca and father of Nanella.
Tonno, diminutive of Antonio, favored by Cecca.
D. Alfonso, notary.

[Illustration: Fig. 81.--Disturbance at signing of Neapolitan marriage
contract.]

[Illustration: Fig. 82.]

Cecca tries to pick a quarrel with Peppino, and declares that
the contract shall not be signed. He reminds her of her promise,
and accuses her of breach of faith. In her passion she calls
on her daughter to repudiate her lover, and casting her arms
around her, commands her to make the sign of breaking off
friendship--"_scocchiare_"--which, she has herself made to Peppino,
and which consists in extending the hand with the joined ends of
finger and thumb before described, see Fig. 66, and then separating
them, thus breaking the union. This the latter reluctantly pretends
to do with one hand, yet with the other, which is concealed from her
irate mother's sight, shows her constancy by continuing with emphatic
pressure the sign of _love_. According to the gesture vocabulary, on
the sign _scocchiare_ being made to a person who is willing to accept
the breach of former affection, he replies in the same manner, or
still more forcibly by inserting the index of the other hand between
the index and thumb of the first, thus showing the separation by the
presence of a material obstacle. Simply refraining from holding out
the hand in any responsive gesture is sufficient to indicate that
the breach is not accepted, but that the party addressed desires to
continue in friendship instead of resolving into enmity. This weak
and inactive negative, however, does not su