PUPPET MAN. I cannot have so excellent a work so slightly spoken of.
ABBE FILOSI. A trifle ... a trifle. But I trust, when you have done your part, it may amuse the novices and the ladies--n.o.ble guests of Our Lady of the Rosebush.
PUPPET MAN. Is it from the gospels, or a saint"s story?
ABBE FILOSI. Humbly, it is the story of Judith.
PUPPET MAN. Humbly, as an artist, I am filled with delight. And I have for it just the figures you could wish. A Judith, lovely beyond the power of song, and a Prince, heavy with gold, and a cavalier for the lady--
ABBE FILOSI. That will not serve. In my play she goes with only her maid-servant to the tent of the Holophernes.
PUPPET MAN. It is not usual, in Venice. Will it not be deemed strange by the ladies present?
ABBE FILOSI. Better so, than its author be deemed ignorant by the learned Reverendissima, who will grace your performance personally.
PUPPET MAN [_stiffly_]. I bow to your learning, Reverend Father.
ABBE FILOSI. My poem will require of you some artistry, and not all of the stale and accustomed sort.
[_The Puppet Man bows._]
I shall require, for example, that the head of the Holophernes be actually and visibly severed.
PUPPET MAN. I will undertake it, and moreover, I will promise a goodly flow of red blood from the corpus of the Holophernes.
ABBE FILOSI. Excellent. Further, there is required a Triumph of Judith, in a car of state, and a figure of Time, speaking, and a Religion, out of the clouds, who speaks some verse in praise of the Reverendissima and of the n.o.ble house of the Morosini. All this must be carried out precisely.
PUPPET MAN. All this I undertake, seeing how famous is this convent, and of how ill.u.s.trious a house is its Abbessa. Suffer me to inquire if the entire poem is of a lofty and tragic nature.
ABBE FILOSI. Certainly.
PUPPET MAN. This is a great honor to me, but a ruinous one as well. For I see I shall have no opportunity to bring on my most potent figures--my Harlequino with the seven wires, and--
ABBE FILOSI. Harlequino does not appear in the poem.
PUPPET MAN. But might he not appear in an interlude? Let me suggest, in all humility, that I might perform an interlude between the Harlequino and the serving-wench of Judith, after the death of the Holophernes?
ABBE FILOSI. Dio, dio--what a profanation!
ABBESS. Come, come, your Reverence, I see no profanation in it. We must not be too severe--too lofty. Think of our guests, and of the novices, mere children in heart--who will be witnessing our play. Let there be something in it for the liking of all, I should say.
ABBE FILOSI. But, Reverendissima--
PUPPET MAN. I could a.s.sure you of the success of the poem, if you would permit it.
ABBESS. I am sure it will be permitted. And now, sir, there are some other matters to be settled. First, we shall require that you bring here your puppets, in advance of the play, for our inspection, lest there be anything unG.o.dly and unfit about them.
PUPPET MAN. It is the custom. I have brought some; and you shall have the others when I have conned the reverend Father"s poem, and know which ones shall be required.
[_Opens his bag and takes out puppets._]
Here is a lady who might serve for Judith. And here a Prince, though I have a richer one, better perhaps for the Holophernes. And here a devil--a Satana.s.so, and here--
ABBESS. Leave them all on the table. I will have them examined at leisure. Now, sir, tell me what you expect to be paid for this performance?
PUPPET MAN [_fingering his ma.n.u.script_]. Reverendissima, considering the difficulties of the poem, and the Holophernes to be visibly beheaded, and the great fame of this convent, that is said to require of every novice sixteen quarterings to her crest and a thousand ducats of dowry, and considering the ill.u.s.trious family of which the Abbessa herself descends--I will perform the poem in the best manner for twelve ducats.
ABBESS. Considering just the matters you mention, and the honor to you to bring your puppets into this convent at all, you shall have five ducats.
PUPPET MAN. Five ducats--Reverendissima, I cannot have heard you aright--five ducats.
ABBESS. Five ducats.
PUPPET MAN. Mercy of the Saints! Five ducats for Shrove Tuesday, and a Holophernes to be visibly beheaded--in a most ill.u.s.trious convent, too.
It is ruin to me, Reverendissima--black ruin.
ABBESS. Five ducats you shall have.
PUPPET MAN [_starting to put his puppets back in the bag_]. It is not possible, Reverendissima. No one of my craft could do it--even the worst of them would ask more than I have. Mere jugglers and bunglers from Padua would ask twenty ducats. And the fame of this convent! I see I have been deceived,--
ABBESS. Be silent, sir. You cannot trifle with me. Put down your trinkets. Do you know who I am, and of what family in the world? Well, sir?
PUPPET MAN [_slowly putting down his puppets again_]. Maybe it will profit me in the sight of the Saints--
ABBESS. I need not warn you further. Be prepared for the performance in the best style against Shrove Tuesday. And if all goes well, I may add a ducat to your fee.
[_She taps a gong on the table, and the Sister Sacristan enters.
The Puppet Man, dismissed, bows himself out, clutching the ma.n.u.script to his breast. The Sacristan follows him out, returning at once._]
Now, Father, since the play is yours, it shall also be yours to pa.s.s on the propriety of the figures.
ABBE FILOSI. I do not seek the responsibility, Reverendissima. Will you not excuse me?
ABBESS. You have some intention in this, Father?
ABBE FILOSI. Will you not excuse me?
ABBESS [_smiling_]. Certainly not. What troubles you about it?
ABBE FILOSI. Reverendissima, I would gladly have pa.s.sed it in silence.
Your wisdom in matters of the world--and of the Church--is greater than mine. But look you now. This Judith I think shows more of her bosom than is seemly.
ABBESS [_with asperity_]. I will instruct you. By the laws on the serene Republic, a Venetian lady may show one-half of her bosom and no more, and there is no immodesty in the proceeding. This law the lady Judith obeys.
ABBE FILOSI. I do not dissent from your wisdom, nor from the law of Venice. Still, it seems to me there would be more propriety in it if we were to have a collarette of tissue pinned about her--the eyes of all the novices, remember--
ABBESS. I remember also our guests, many of them ladies of the first houses, who would certainly take it amiss, and as a reflection upon themselves--
ABBE FILOSI. I wish with all my heart, Reverendissima, you had excused me.