chapter six

Day 21: The Fake Sorcerer

The Fake Sorcerer does not provide the clearly unified plotting of The Jealous Old Man. Instead it provides what Kenneth Burke has explained as a qualitative unity, not of structure but of feeling or tone, that one often finds in early modern drama, here in the relationship of contrasting tones:1 melodramatic and farcical. The scenario brings together a large number of images of “the grotesque body” (pregnancy, urine, vomit, feces, drinking to excess, and eating) that Bakhtin identified with Carnival. Its further imagery, which Bakhtin would also have identified as carnivalesque, includes “festive” madness, suspension of the social distance between people, clowning (in four memorable lazzi), and death, not only in the usual form of the passing generation of old men but also in the form of ghosts.² The scenario as a whole is an exuberant celebration of Carnival, suitably for this scenario described by Roger Callois as “an interregnum of vertigo, effervescence, and fluidity in which everything that symbolizes order in the universe is temporarily abolished.”³

Day 21

The Fake Sorcerer

COMEDY

Argument

In Rome lived two very prominent merchants, the one named Pantalone, with an only daughter called Flaminia, and the other named Graziano, with two children of his [own], the one named Orazio and the other called Isabella. These two friends bought some delightful places near Rome, where, with all their family, they went to stay in the summer to enjoy themselves.

It happened that a young man endowed with nobility, with virtue and with property had a place of his near there. As often happens, this [young man] fell in love with Isabella, Graziano’s daughter. And, having become close friends with Orazio, her brother, he disclosed his love to him. He had no other aim than to make her his wife. Orazio liked this, and promised to give him all [possible] help so that he could honestly enjoy his sister. Orazio revealed himself to be in love with Flaminia, the daughter of Pantalone, a close friend of his father’s. Flavio (this was the young man’s name), to satisfy himself and to give help to the friend, began to banquet the two old fathers with the young daughters, since his place was contiguous with theirs; and in this way, with time, and with the help of the servants and with the opportunity [provided them], both the young men were [able] to enjoy the ones they loved, and to their greatest happiness, they got their women pregnant. But since they were too greedy and eager in their loves, they aroused some suspicion in the old men, and in particular in Pantalone, who immediately went back to the city with his friend Graziano and with the whole family. Immediately when they arrived there, the women (whose bodies were growing larger) pretended – as devised by the servants – the one, to have dropsy, the other, to be possessed. And the young Flavio, to make it seem that staying in the country had caused these illnesses, pretended also to be an idiot a few times. In the end, having agreed [on a plan] with the servants, one of them [the servants] pretends to be a sorcerer [and], with his cunning, makes it so that the fathers agree to give their daughters to the aforementioned young men as wives. When the truth came out, every fault of theirs is pardoned, and from then on they passed their entire lives with the greatest joy.

Characters in the Comedy	Properties for the Comedy
PANTALONE FLAMINIA daughter PEDROLINO servant GRAZIANO Doctor ISABELLA daughter ORAZIO son ARLECCHINO servant FRANCESCHINA servant FLAVIO alone and noble PHYSICIAN < CAPITANO SPAVENTO > <COPS>
Two ghost costumes Many glasses with wine One ring-shaped cake Sorcerer costume Mercury costume for Franceschina
ROME CITY

Scala neglects to mention either the Capitano or the police in the cast of characters. The omission of the police, evidently non-speaking roles and probably doubled, is understandable. The omission of the Capitano, like the omission of the urine flask, lanterns, and ladder, which are all critical to the scenario, suggests that emendation of the scenario for publication was not thorough.4

Guido Ruggiero explains that young women regularly sought a promise of marriage before agreeing to sexual intercourse, and males just as regularly provided it, even in cases bordering on rape. Intercourse followed by marriage was acceptable and occasionally provided a means for a love match that was otherwise not thought to be a good idea.⁵ In this case, as the Argument explains to readers, the men’s intentions are honest.⁶ The evidence of the scenario, as I show, provides reason to believe that the information in its Argument was probably not included in the prologue spoken before its performance. The viewing audience would have learned about the men’s honourable intentions only later.

The scenario requires two houses on opposite sides of the stage, each with a practicable window at an upper storey and one with a loggia in which an actor can appear – or, more simply, some means of suggesting these.

	First Act
1. PANTALONE [PEDROLINO]	complains to his servant Pedrolino about the infirmity of Flaminia, his daughter, and that she has gotten such a large belly. Pedrolino blames many things out in the country where they had stayed for their enjoyment and [says] that it would be good to give her a husband, proposing Orazio to him. Pantalone, in a rage [says], that he would sooner drown her; at that

We learn that Flaminia is Pantalone’s daughter and that they vacationed in the country last summer. In this case the relaxation of the countryside led to a relaxation of morals.

Immediately, one of the scenario’s two plots, that of Flaminia’s pregnancy, is introduced. We may hear Flaminia moaning within. In this scenario we are frequently reminded of the ongoing life offstage. The entrance suggests that the characters, perhaps coming from the house, speak as if they were in the midst of conversation, thus supplying efficient exposition. That they speak of such concerns in the street is of course a requirement of the piazza setting, but also, as I have noted, the street was an extension of the house, to a greater extent than we might suppose.

The gesture Pantalone would naturally make to demonstrate the size of Flaminia’s belly would make the true nature of her infirmity clear to the audience. Pantalone likely also specifies how long it has been since they were at the villa, so that the audience can surely deduce what he does not know and does not wish to believe. Pantalone, although very suspicious of Orazio’s behaviour towards Flaminia at the villa, does not realize how far things had actually gone. The audience, however, can readily infer that Pantalone has lost what he tries to keep – the virginity of his daughter and his authority to provide a match for her. He is also in imminent danger of having his honour forever destroyed by his daughter’s giving birth to an illegitimate child. Pedrolino must distract Pantalone from the obvious cause of her very protuberant belly and, at the same time, in his unerring faithfulness to the young, move to save Flaminia’s otherwise irredeemable honour and, coincidentally, Pantalone’s.7

Time is of the essence, even more so than in most of the scenarios, because so much is at stake and Flaminia is so very near term. The scenario begins with its primary complication. Owing to Flaminia’s “dropsy,” it would be best to marry her off immediately, before she becomes the unmarriageable financial liability that a sick daughter would be. This would be the tack to take with Pantalone, who is finely attuned to expenses.

With Pantalone’s rapid change from lament to agreement with the suggestion that he marry Flaminia off, and then to anger at the suggestion of Orazio as the choice of husband, the actor playing Pantalone is given a fine opportunity to display his skills and to focus the audience’s attention and heighten their anticipation.

Carnival, beginning forty days before Easter, allows an appropriate length of time after the summer holiday for the young women to be near term. The very premise of the scenario, two single upper-middle-class girls just about to give birth under the watch of their oblivious fathers, is carnivalesque. Perhaps the scenario was written not only to celebrate Carnival but also to accommodate at least one very pregnant actress.⁸

2. FLAVIO	the one possessed goes [around] conversing with himself and circling around Pantalone, saying: “Your daughter will die” and performing the acts of one possessed, to frighten them; he leaves. Pantalone sends Pedrolino for the physician; he leaves. Pantalone, away.

In the Argument, Scala describes Flavio as a fool or an idiot. Here he describes him as possessed. At the time, no clear distinctions between the two were recognized.9 Flavio’s suggestion that Flaminia, his only child, will die must be deeply disturbing to Pantalone, and apparently his generous-spirited neighbour from the villa has gone mad. Flavio’s attempt to distract Pantalone from the actual cause of Flaminia’s illness, by pretending to be also afflicted by something in the countryside, backfires. Flavio’s ravings make Pantalone more determined than ever to seek the cause of Flaminia’s distended belly. The action is intensified.

The time between Flavio’s appearance now and his appearance at the villa seems compressed. He has evidently not appeared in the intervening months. He has no onstage abode and perhaps no in-town residence. The madman wanders off.

Madness actual or feigned, to judge by its frequency in early modern plays and scenarios, was very popular with audiences. Three of the lovers, at one point or another in this scenario, take on the guise of madness to mislead the fathers and, temporizing, to stave off their wrath. Like rage and despair, madness provided opportunities for bravura performances, instances in which the all-out behaviour blurred the line between actor and role.

Madness in drama was indicated primarily through speech,¹⁰ although Anne MacNeil also observes the extent to which the madwoman’s overabundance of passion led to song, as it does later in Isabella’s case.¹¹ Flavio probably makes many illogical, colourful, and perhaps obscene statements, likely playing off and frustrating Pantalone’s efforts to reach him. In Day 33 the mad Orazio raves in several different languages. In Day 38, The Madness of Isabella (La pazzia d’Isabella), Scala provides brief samples of mad speech. The sentences follow normal word order, but the images, for instance, of “the lasagne, the macaroni, and the polenta dressed in brown, unable to tolerate that the clever cat should befriend the beautiful girls of Algiers” provide a conjunction of words that makes them senseless, albeit quite musical in Italian. They exist as what Carol Neely aptly describes as “cultural remnants.”¹²

As madness was thought to have brought people closer to a state of nature, its language often included folkloric riddles, jokes, games, proverbs, superstitions, and songs.¹³ In Pietro Aretino’s La cortigiana, 1525, the supposed madwoman is possessed “by maybe ten spirits” and is reported to be speaking “every language under the sun.”¹⁴ Similarly, Isabella Andreini spoke many languages in her madness in the work, also called The Madness of Isabella (La pazzia d’Isabella), in which she performed for the marriage of Duke Ferdinando de’ Medici and Christine of Lorraine in 1589.

In his Anatomy of Melancholy, 1621, Robert Burton suggests that those afflicted experience rapid mood changes and sometimes think they hear and see phantasms.15 Rapid emotional changes are evident throughout Scala’s scenarios in instances other than madness and, again, to judge by their frequency, were much enjoyed by audiences. So they, as well as the theatrical response to phantasms, were employed in theatrical displays of madness.¹⁶

Since there was no distinction between the mind and the body (the theory of humours acknowledged none), the madness had bodily manifestations. Mad speech was likely accompanied by odd physical indications like Ophelia’s “winks, nods, and gestures,” some perhaps obscene (Hamlet, act 4, scene 5, line 11). Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, 1516, described madness in terms of undress. In canto 23, verses 133–4, Orlando, raving mad and in a perfect frenzy, discards his shoes, shirt, and pants and flings them hither and thither. In canto 29, verse 52, he is naked and crazy.¹⁷ Actually, nudity had been part of the folklore of madness for a long time; those who reduced their apparel to rags or cast away body coverings repudiated their place in the social hierarchy.¹⁸ It was assumed that no sane middle elite would do that. Flavio’s clothes and hair may have been in disarray, his body partially exposed. A costume actually distressed would have been an added expense and is not mentioned in the prop list. On the title page of the Corsini scenario La pazzia di Doralice the madwoman is shown in disarray.¹⁹ For actresses, thus in disarray, the elision of reality and appearance, as in their obscene gestures or even breast exposure, was excused by the madness of the character. But mad men too could be represented in such disarray. Robert Henke observes also that mountebanks portraying madness used soap in their mouths to produce foam to accompany their extravagant acting and copious verbal performance.²⁰

Pantalone sends Pedrolino in search of a cure for Flaminia. Very upset, he probably enters his house.

3. ORAZIO [ARLECCHINO]	complains to Arlecchino about Pantalone’s suspicion, because of which he left the countryside so soon, and [says] that the opportunity to talk [to him] was taken away. Arlecchino tells him how, while they were at the villa, Flavio made him tell Pantalone that he [Flavio] was possessed, but that he does not know to what end; at that

The primary reason for the entrance of Orazio and Arlecchino at this point is to provide more exposition, from which Flavio’s mad performance provided a break. The relationship between Orazio and Arlecchino and their relationship to Graziano must be established, perhaps by their entrance from the house.

There was evidently no perceptible distinction between real and pretended madness. Information concerning Flavio’s pretended madness and Orazio’s honourable intentions seem not to have been presented in a prologue. We learn it here. The audience has already deduced that Orazio is the father of Flaminia’s child. We have yet to learn why Flavio pretended madness.

Again, time between the summer at the villa, when Flavio told Arlecchino he was faking madness, and the present seems compressed.

4. PEDROLINO	that the physician wants to see Flaminia’s urine; he says this to Orazio, who worries that the physician will discover her pregnancy. Orazio: that he would like to speak to her. Pedrolino goes inside to have her urinate. They remain; at that

Now, another potential complication arises. Uroscopy, the medical determination of illness by examination of urine for peculiarities of colour, smell, texture, and taste, was the primary means of diagnosis of illness in the sixteenth century.21 In many kinds of cases, uroscopy was judged to be more reliable than seeing the patient.²² So it is not peculiar that the doctor seeks first to examine the urine and by act 2, scene 4, has prescribed medicine although he has yet to see the patient.²³

The urine flask or matula, which Pedrolino carries, was clear and, like a bladder, round bottomed; it had to be carried in a specially made basket, which was readily identifiable because of the common use of uroscopy.²⁴

5.FLAMINIA	implores Orazio [to help her], the pregnancy being near its term; they perform a love scene*; at that

The audience has been well primed to see Flaminia. Scala does not specify where Flaminia appears, but in his scenarios the upper-middle-class females usually appear first at the window to establish that they are carefully sheltered to protect their virginity. In the next scene, in which Scala introduces Isabella, he specifies that she is seen at the window. He also specifies at scenes 12 and 13 that the girls appear at their windows. Flaminia is desperate. The time pressure further intensifies the action. No mention is made of Flaminia’s exit, but it seems likely that she withdraws after the scene. Arlecchino has been left on stage, probably to parody the florid love scene in gesture and perhaps in asides.

6.ISABELLA	at the window, implores her brother Orazio [to help her] telling him how her pregnancy is advancing; at that

Now we are introduced to a second plot line, quite like the first. If Orazio, at scene 1, entered from the house in which Isabella appears at the window, her relationship with him is easily established. One would suppose that Orazio would know that his sister is pregnant and by his friend Flavio, but this has to be specified for the audience, again suggesting that the background information has not been provided in a prologue. Repeatedly, as we shall see, Scala emphasizes the parallels in the situations of the couples by making their actions successive and the stage pictures symmetrical.

7. GRAZIANO	from inside, calls his daughter, asking with whom she is conversing. Orazio leaves with Pedrolino. Isabella remains with Arlecchino, and, seeing her father coming, she immediately begins to sing, and Arlecchino to dance; at that

Graziano’s call suggests his continuing life offstage, the possibility of his overhearing, and the danger for the lovers of his returning to the piazza at any time.

Pedrolino comes from the house with the urine flask; it was thought to have been important for the urine to be examined fresh.25 Pedrolino and Orazio leave hurriedly to avoid any confrontation with Graziano.

To prevent her father from discovering the true cause of her condition, Isabella begins madly to sing. Her madness explains her boldness in appearing in the street. She tries, by this violation of propriety, to distract her father from her true condition. Arlecchino does his best to help because servants, like our sympathies, are loyal to the young rather than to the old fathers.

8.GRAZIANO	seeing Isabella dance and sing, believes that she has gone crazy; with gentle words he sends her into the house; then he sends for Franceschina.

It must be a sight for Isabella to dance with her very near-term belly, which the audience sees now for the first time. Graziano’s manner suggests that he thinks that Isabella is mad from natural causes, not possession. Both causal explanations served at the time.26 Like Pantalone, Graziano is oblivious to the obvious cause of his daughter’s distress.

Isabella may feign tarantism, which was believed to have been caused by the bite of a tarantula, in this case perhaps at the villa. Symptoms of this supposed disease, which received widespread medical attention between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, could include acute melancholy, hydropsy, raving, and an irresistible urge to dance with frenetic agitation. Victims of the affliction manifested a distinct tendency towards exhibitionism; they behaved with frenzied abandon, making obscene gestures and improvised movements. They were stung during the summer and often relapsed with the return of warm weather in the spring. Afflicted young women (the disease afflicted mostly young women) might dash out into the street, shouting and leaping during the siesta time or the early hours of the night. Only music, most often the rhythm of the tarantella, was curative.²⁷ We know from the conclusion of the act that this scene takes place just before nightfall.

Here Graziano is likely to be a doctor of law rather than of medicine; he is able to minister to Isabella only with kind words. True to form, he seems more sanguine about his daughter’s condition than is Pantalone about his. And he has something else, more pleasurable, on his mind.

9. FRANCESCHINA	comes out, Graziano leads her [to go] with him to Ripa to buy some wine, ordering Arlecchino to wash the cask, and [says] that he will send it [the wine] by way of the Porta della Caneva. Arlecchino remains; at that

We know from what Graziano says in act 3, scene 5, that he is making preparations for Carnival. He likely establishes that here. This scene is a relief from further plot complications of the two damsels in distress and introduces the important Carnival motif. To get the wine, as Scala specifies at act 2, scene 2, Graziano will spend the night at his brother’s house, presumably near the harbour on the Tiber River where apparently the wine came in. The reference to the harbour is a nice local detail.²⁸ The explanation is best provided here because it calls attention to the impending nightfall, justifies Graziano’s evening departure and very early return the next morning – ready to drink, even before breakfast – and allows Arlecchino to be in the house alone in the night scene that follows. He is in no hurry to work. He has time until his master returns.

10. CAPITANO	speaks to Arlecchino of his love for Flaminia,* and that he wants to send her a letter, offering him fifty scudi if he will dare to throw it through the window, and in agreement, they go to write it, away.

With his entrance, the Capitano, in a characteristic vain and long-winded set speech, establishes that he is a great warrior and lover who could have any woman but has deigned to love Flaminia. He poses and flashes his sword about. As he speaks, Arlecchino leads him on to even more preposterous claims.

Arlecchino, however lazy, is always anxious to earn money and agrees to throw a letter through Flaminia’s window. The Capitano promises a sum that the audience must regard as out of all proportion. In the latter half of the sixteenth century a salaried female servant made about five scudi a year.29 Fifty scudi is the amount that Pedrolino negotiates for two oriental rugs in Scala’s Day 26, Li tappeti Alessandrini (The Alexandrian Carpets); it is one-sixth the amount that Claudio is to pay in ransom for his brother in that same scenario. But the size of the promised reward evidently does not make the always-needy Arlecchino suspicious of the Capitano’s intention to pay.

The difficulty of writing for most people meant that it was often a cooperative venture. Even if the Capitano came from the nobility he may claim, writing would have been difficult for him.³⁰ Arlecchino would not have been able to write at all. However, the Capitano may think that he can add useful particulars about Flaminia, whom obviously he has only admired in the window: he does not know that she is pregnant.

The Capitano’s arrival defers the plots of the impending illegitimate births, which thus far have built to considerable intensity, and suggests a new and ludicrous complication – his pursuit of the very pregnant Flaminia.

11. ORAZIO [FLAVIO]	hears from Flavio how he has pretended to be possessed [in[FLAVIO] front of] Pantalone and what he has told him. Orazio tells him how Pedrolino has invented a way by which both of them will get inside the houses of their women; then he tells Flavio how his sister is pregnant by him, and that they [the young women] must be informed now that night is approaching; at that

We learn that Orazio and Flavio, probably entering from offstage where they exited, are friends and finally that Flavio feigned madness to protect Orazio and Flaminia from Pantalone’s deducing the true cause of Flaminia’s problem. The time between the summer at the villa and the present is again compressed. Contrary to the Argument, Flavio apparently does not know about Isabella’s pregnancy. We see that he is quite sane and his intentions honourable. No impediment to his marrying Isabella and thereby saving her honour has been suggested, but so allied are the two plots that this is not likely to occur to the audience. In any case, the two youths seem only to have the ability to fornicate, inseminate, distract their elders from the inevitable consequences, and rely on the plan of a servant, evidently to be effected this rapidly approaching night. We are reminded once again that time is of the essence.

NIGHT

12. ISABELLA	at the window, performs a love scene with Flavio*; at that

Isabella’s appearance can be explained to the audience by the lovers regularly speaking to one another under cover of darkness. They make clear in their extravagant talk that they cannot see one another, surely a torment. One of the debate topics of the time, “whether it is preferable to see the beloved without being able to speak to her, or to speak to her without being able to see her,” suggests the predicament of the covert night-time conversation.31 The love scene importantly affirms the commitment of Flavio and Isabella to one another; it also defers the action.

13. FLAMINIA	at the window, converses with Orazio, to whom she says that her labour pains are tormenting her; Isabella says the same. Orazio advises the women of Pedrolino’s invention and that, no matter what they may see, they should not be afraid, because it will all be for [the purpose of] bringing them together. Women, cheerful, withdraw; they [Orazio and Flavio] leave.

The fraught women provide a symmetrical visual picture. Their lines of dialogue may be interlaced, almost musical. The women share their pains and their anxiety that their children will be born out of wedlock. The action is intensified seemingly to the maximum; the women are experiencing labour pains, and the illegitimate births are imminent. Once again, a resolution is promised. The youths and girls put all their trust in Pedrolino to save them in this most difficult and urgent matter. The particulars of the plan are not disclosed, but we can anticipate from the reassurances to the girls that what we will see might be frightening. The men exit because it is night.

14. CAPITANO [ARLECCHINO]	with the letter*; Arlecchino goes to get the ladder, saying that he wants to pretend to remove swifts, and that he will throw the letter through the window. Capitano: [says that he] will give him the fifty scudi as promised. Arlecchino [goes] into the house for the ladder and a lamp. Capitano withdraws; at that

A marked change of mood is effected with the entrance of the comic characters. The promised action to solve the women’s problem is sidetracked by this ridiculous enterprise. The Capitano probably reads aloud and admires his letter in which he again boasts of his brave exploits and great desirability as a lover. Arlecchino seeks reassurance of payment.

Should anyone come while Arlecchino is throwing the letter through the window, he will explain that he is removing the nests of disturbingly shrill European swifts, which characteristically nest in eaves at night. The action has been finely imagined, either by Scala or by an actor who played the role.

After Arlecchino leaves, the Capitano is doubtless afraid of the dark. He is a coward, but in point of fact the night realm was, as we know, fearfully full of every manner of frightening thing (see chapter 3, “Night”).

15. PANTALONE	with lamp, hears that the physician has ordered the medicine for the morning; goes into the house.

We are reminded of Pantalone’s intention. Has he, even at night, been out searching for the physician? If so, we know how desperate he is for help. Perhaps he now hears a noise. The lantern calls for comic business involving the near discovery of the terrified Capitano. Just when the situation seems as dire as it can be, a possible new complication is introduced: the giving of pregnant Flaminia a drug for her dropsy. Pantalone and the Capitano are brought very close, but interaction between them is narrowly averted.

16. ARLECCHINO	with the ladder, says the wine has come; then he leans the ladder at Flaminia’s window, falling many times. Capitano encourages him; Arlecchino climbs to the top of the ladder; at that

Arlecchino’s entrance has been delayed by his indulgence in his master’s wine; he has started the holiday festivities a little early. Conforming to the common stereotype for servants, not only is he lazy, but he steals.32 There is much silly business in his drunken attempts to set up the ladder in the dark and mount it. He tries to be quiet but, in his condition, he drops the ladder and stumbles. The Capitano, much fearing their discovery, hurries Arlecchino on and probably offers incompetent help, perhaps in a stage whisper. Finally Arlecchino is perched to deliver the letter.

17. COPS	with large lantern, make a racket. Arlecchino, for fear, falls from top to bottom and runs away. Capitano [does] the same, cops [go] after [them], and here the first act ends.

The fall must be spectacular.³³ Social historian E.R. Chamberlin notes that “the man who was discovered abroad during the night hours by the officers of the city had to be prepared to give a very convincing reason for his eccentric activity.”³⁴ “Night was a criminal time that filled every statute,” Camporesi observes. The legal system, partly influenced by folk mythologies about the terrors of night, stiffened the punishments for certain crimes if they were perpetrated after nightfall.³⁵

Although, the act ends with a fine extended lazzo including ladder high jinks and a noisy chase, the scene does not play an integral role in the plot of the pregnant girls except in so far as it delays it. The ruckus does motivate Pedrolino’s revenge on Arlecchino in the next act, which succeeds, in the most elaborate way, in warding off the complication of Flaminia’s having to take the medicine. Andrews lists this scenario as one of what he calls “third-act scenarios,” scenarios in which there is only sufficient action for one act; the rest serves at best as a delaying tactic.³⁶ However, it is the passage of time that works against the plight of the outrageously pregnant girls, and Carnival becomes an active adversary. It eventually involves not only Arlecchino, who is central to the resolution, but also Pedrolino, the plot manipulator. It prevents them both from helping the girls, who are in imminent danger of delivering bastard children and thus of destroying the honour of both their houses.

It is as accurate, however, to see this scenario, with its four extended and memorable lazzi (three of which end each of the three acts), as a scenario about Carnival as much as it is about the plight of the lovers who, in fact, have very little onstage time after that plot is established. Their plight serves as the framework for the highly theatrical and carnivalesque antics. Carnival overtakes the action and contrasts with the melodramatic plight of the pregnant girls.

The roles of the policemen could have been played by the actors playing Pedrolino and perhaps either Graziano or Franceschina. Neither has been on stage since act 1, scene 9, and an interlude of music or dance between acts would have allowed for their costume change.

All the characters and their problems and intentions have been introduced in the first act. The night has been variously used as cover for lovers, as fear-inducing for the Capitano, as evidence of Pantalone’s desperation, and as opportunity for Arlecchino’s behaviour to be particularly inept and suspect.

Most of the exits have been motivated. The comic, romantic, and action scenes have not always been readily distinguished and do not follow any regular pattern.

	Second Act
1. PEDROLINO	[says] he has heard lots of noise, [says] he wants to go for the medicine, simply [in order] to give colour to the business and to [humour] Pantalone, away.

Scala specifies that the scene after this be set during daylight. So this scene, reminding us of the close of the first act, apparently takes place just before dawn. Pedrolino enters from Pantalone’s house. The only reason to have extended the night into the second act is to make clear that Pedrolino has been kept awake by the night’s antics and is accordingly tired and irritated. The trick that he later plays on Arlecchino is motivated, at least in part, by this irritation.

Again, there seems to be a time compression as Pedrolino now exits, early in the morning, to fetch the medicine. It is all too apparent that he did nothing last night to help the pairs of lovers. Moreover, his intention to humour Pantalone intensifies the impending complication of the medicine. We hear nothing of the lovers’ urgent plight for six scenes.

DAY

2. GRAZIANO FRANCESCHINA	that they have slept in the house [of] the brother, saying that they have sent the wine and a ciambellone, and he says he wants to taste the wine; they knock at the house.

The carnival mood continues. Graziano establishes that it is now early morning. In anticipation of the later festivities he has returned early and already wants to taste the wine. The ring-shaped cake that he has ordered is a traditional Easter bread-like cake. Michael Bristol observes the extent to which “carnival permitted and actually encouraged the unlimited consumption of special foods, drunkenness, and a high degree of sexual license, and it often led to street violence and civil commotion.”37 All but street violence and sexual licence – the latter having occurred before the action begins – are represented in this scenario.

The door is barred from the inside. In an effort to get Arlecchino to answer it, Franceschina calls and simulates loud and hard bangs on it. In Scala’s scenarios it was, at least in the first instance, the job of the servant to knock on the door. Here Pantalone may have to knock as well. Much silliness and hollering accompanies the banging. Arlecchino, sound asleep after the night’s binge drinking, is virtually impossible to rouse.

3. ARLECCHINO	answers, then comes out [and] receives the master, telling him the wine has come. Graziano gives him money to buy a pound of cheese to have for breakfast and to taste the wine; he goes inside with Franceschina. Arlecchino remains

Indeed, the wine has come; Arlecchino, probably feeling its morning after-effects, is hardly in shape to run an errand, and he remains on stage.

4. PEDROLINO	with the medicine, makes Arlecchino believe it is malmsey. Arlecchino drinks some, becomes nauseous, and leaves. Pedrolino laughs about it; at that

Pedrolino does not wish Flaminia to take the medicine, fearing its ill effects. Always quick to seize advantage of a situation, he gets the idea to preclude this complication and to take his revenge on Arlecchino for having disturbed his sleep, by offering him what he pretends is a sweet wine.

In Baldesar Castiglione’s distinction between two kinds of practical jokes, this is one in which a little bait is offered and the victim causes his own downfall. Later Pedrolino and Arlecchino, in conspiracy, effect the other kind on the old fathers, in which someone is cleverly tricked in an adroit and amusing fashion. As distinct from the original audience, we are unlikely to regard the first of these beffe as but “an amicable deception regarding things that give little or no offence.”³⁸

It would have been hard for Arlecchino to refuse the supposed malmsey regardless of his present condition or Pedrolino’s means of persuasion. Although employed, Arlecchino would have been ill paid and regularly in a state of deprivation,39 and the present brimming-over abundance would have been irresistible. Camporesi even argues that ritual ceremonies of eating and drinking provide a different perception of time: long days of the most meagre nourishment punctuated with interminable excesses, dietary orgies and colossal feasts, disorder, and drunkenness.⁴⁰ Sick as he is, it is hard to imagine him going anywhere but home.

5. PANTALONE	in despair because of his daughter, sees Pedrolino with the jar of medicine; he sends him into the house to give it to Flaminia. Pantalone remains.

Pedrolino has disposed of the medicine just in time. Pantalone, within, perhaps having heard Pedrolino and Arlecchino, enters lamenting the condition of his daughter and probably disturbed that Pedrolino took so long to return from the pharmacy. There is an opportunity for Pantalone, always conscious of money, to enquire the cost and for Pedrolino to play with Pantalone’s obtuseness about the pregnancy. Pantalone anxiously awaits the physician.

6. PHYSICIAN	arrives. Pantalone caresses him, entreating him to heal his daughter; at that

The physician arrives as needed. No sooner has his prescribed medication been done away with than he himself arrives, potentially adding a new complication. Pantalone fawns over him and probably promises him what seems to Pantalone to be a large sum of money given his perpetual tale of financial woe. Pantalone naively describes and, no doubt, again gestures to demonstrate the daughter’s problem.

7. PEDROLINO	[comes] out; Pantalone orders him to lead the physician to Flaminia, so that he can better examine her illness, and away. Physician has Flaminia called. Pedrolino into the house, then returns with

8. FLAMINIA	[comes] out, is examined by the physician; in the end[PEDROLINO] she confesses she is pregnant by Orazio; at that

Scala needs Pantalone offstage for the examination that reveals Flaminia’s pregnancy. No mention of his exit is made, but he is probably sent into the house.

It is hard to imagine that a medical examination would have been conducted in the street, as the fixed outdoor setting required. However, as we know, houses afforded little privacy, and physicians relied on detailed patient histories (in addition to uroscopy) to make diagnoses, not on physical examination. The only physical examination at the time seems to have been pulse taking.41

Pedrolino brings the reluctant Flaminia outside. She does not wish her true condition to be revealed to her father and is thus a frightened and uncooperative patient. Her condition is surely obvious to the physician. Nonetheless, he can go through all kinds of skilful cross-examination, which she evidently evades until it is no use. A medical history could include biographical statistics, symptoms, periodicity of the disease, what the patient and relatives thought was the cause, her social and family relations, her bowel, urinary, and menstrual habits, and her diet and exercise.⁴² Pedrolino is evidently present to supply verbal asides or silent takes on the account provided by Flaminia.

9. GRAZIANO	who, off to the side, has heard everything. Physician consoles her, sends her into the house, and he, away with Pedrolino. Graziano says that Orazio, his son, is a scoundrel,* and that this is why he stayed out in the country [so] willingly; at that

Graziano would have most focus were he to enter when the physician is on the stage alone. It is odd that there is no stage direction for his entrance at that point or elsewhere. The direction here comes too late for an actor to have acted upon it.⁴³ He enters, perhaps with a wine glass in hand, seeking Arlecchino’s return with the breakfast cheese. We know that he has already begun drinking for Carnival because later he tells Arlecchino that he wants to try the other wine. Seeing the physician, he hides, maybe behind his door, in order to find out why the physician is there. His interest and his response, verbal and aside or silent, upon learning that Orazio has impregnated Flaminia is part of the scene. Graziano now speaks about his irresponsible son. Graziano is a lover of the good life, but his son has impregnated his friend’s daughter, deceived his own father, and negotiated no dowry. Graziano has not provided the obstacle to the relationship between his daughter Isabella and Flavio, like Pantalone’s between his daughter Flaminia and Orazio, which we might well have expected, the parallels between the two sets of lovers having been so strongly established. Rather, Graziano is upset with his son.

10.ORAZIO	arrives; Graziano banters with Orazio about love, about the countryside, and about getting women pregnant. Orazio immediately pretends that he is having a fit, away. Graziano remains.

Orazio has not been seen since act 1, scene 6. Perhaps he enters trying to see or talk to Flaminia. Time is of the essence, and nothing has been heard regarding Pedrolino’s scheme. Graziano is not sober, and his joking may be obscene. In self-defence, Orazio becomes the third lover to feign madness.

11. PANTALONE	arrives. Graziano: that he has heard about Flaminia’s illness and, to heal her, he asks her father Pantalone [to give] her as wife to his son Orazio. Pantalone refuses. Graziano: that if he wants her healthy, that he give her to Orazio. Pantalone, in a rage, leaves to find the physician. Graziano remains.

Pantalone enters, probably from the house, anxious to learn the doctor’s diagnosis and cure. Graziano hints broadly at the appropriate cure and probably emphasizes the urgency of the matter. Pantalone is as much in denial as he has been all along. He reiterates his strong disapproval of the suggestion, already made by Pedrolino at the outset, that Flaminia marry Orazio. He seeks to learn the diagnosis from the physician.

12. ARLECCHINO	with the cheese, gives it to Graziano, vomiting all over for having drunk some of the medicine. Graziano: that he come into the house to taste the other wine. Arlecchino remains, vomiting; at that

Arlecchino vomits throughout this and the next five scenes. The extended vomiting is another bravura performance. The medicine proves to be an emetic and purgative.⁴⁴

Graziano’s expansive mood suggests something of the spirit in which he advised Pantalone. That Arlecchino cannot accept an official invitation to drink wine with and courtesy of his master makes clear how wretched he is.

13. FRANCESCHINA	calls him to tap the cask. He vomits, and [says] that his stomach aches. Franceschina goes inside; Arlecchino pauses.

At the end of the scenario Franceschina and Arlecchino marry, and their relationship, which contrasts with the precious relationships of the upper-class lovers, had best be established here. Franceschina is probably enticing and in a cheerful carnival mood, to which, by contrast, Arlecchino is too sick to respond. He may stink of vomit as well. He continues to vomit and curse the physician and Pedrolino.

14. PEDROLINO	says the physician is a good man. Arlecchino complains about him, vomiting and straining to make a bowel movement; at that

Carnival emphasizes bodily orifices. It gives focus to the belly and the buttocks, literally and figuratively the lower parts of the body, to “eating, drinking, defecation and other elimination … as well as copulation, [and] pregnancy.”45 Pedrolino, facetiously, takes pleasure in the revenge that he has effected on Arlecchino through the medicine. Their moods contrast. Although Pedrolino has successfully prevented Isabella from ingesting the medicine, he has not taken the promised action to solve the girls’ problems.

The scenario’s focus on the obscene may suggest why, sometime between 1570 and 1580, the Grand Duke of Florence wanted and provided for himself secret access to a place from which he and his familiars could privately view commedia dell’arte performances that were intended for the public.⁴⁶ No doubt, performing troupes could pick and choose scenarios from their extensive repertory and tailor them to suit the local authorities and audience at hand and may have tailored bits of business as well. But this is a scenario representing Carnival; it is essentially about the body.

15. GRAZIANO	from inside calls Arlecchino, asking him who is with him. He says: “Pedrolino.” Graziano calls him, that he come to drink. Pedrolino goes inside, Arlecchino remains; at that

Graziano’s mood becomes even more expansive. He invites in the servant of his neighbour. With drink and Carnival, he overlooks the class barriers. We probably hear him partying in the house. Pedrolino is once again distracted from his promise to the wretched, trusting, helpless lovers.

16. CAPITANO	arrives, Arlecchino wants the fifty scudifor having thrown the letter through the window; at that

The Capitano, the nuisance whom we have not seen since the end of act 1 and have probably forgotten, returns to find out how his affair is progressing. Arlecchino, always impoverished and, in his clothing of patches, representing the many poorly paid unskilled and often marginally employed labourers in the cities, is not sick enough to forget that he is owed money. The Capitano has no intention of paying anything, having promised a ridiculous sum, being probably impoverished himself, and lacking moral rectitude. He may begin some elaborate excuse, including perhaps blaming Arlecchino for the unhappy incident with the police. Another common ploy was to insult the person asking for money by calling him a spy, a scoundrel, or a slut. “This tactic,” social historian Elizabeth Cohen explains, “shifted the onus from the debtor to the creditor whose honour and reputation were now called into question, probably undeservedly.”47

17. GRAZIANO	eating, to call Arlecchino; he sees the Capitano and leads him into the house to have breakfast; Arlecchino, vomiting, follows them.

It does not seem likely that Arlecchino would go in to drink or eat. Gra-ziano must still want Arlecchino to open the other cask. The Capitano is a stranger, but Graziano’s carnival mood becomes even more expansive, and he invites him in, thus saving the Capitano from his promise to pay Arlecchino.

18. PANTALONE [PHYSICIAN]

asks the physician for [his] opinion about his daughter’s illness. Physician tells Pantalone that he [should] marry his daughter to the one she wants, doing otherwise he [warns] is to have grief and dishonor in short order, and that the sensible men know how to make [good] choices, and away. Pantalone remains, pondering the word honour; he remembers what Graziano had told him; he hears singing and drinking of toasts in his house; knocks.

When last we saw Pantalone, he exited to find the physician. For the third time and by men of increasing authority – first his servant, then his friend, and now the doctor – Pantalone has been told that to save his daughter and his honour he must marry her off quickly and not to a man of his choosing. In his profound denial of the situation he still does not understand. While he is trying to reason the matter through, given his disposition, which is generally more choleric than that of Graziano, and in his present state of mind, Pantalone is likely to be extremely disturbed by the carousing, perhaps including the singing of lewd songs. His anger at the noise, and his confusion, would contrast nicely with the sounds of the revellers. No resolution to Flaminia’s problem is forthcoming from him.

19. GRAZIANO CAPITANO PEDROLINO FRANCESCHINA	eating and drinking, and as drunk as monkeys. Pantalone reproaches Graziano, who falls on the ground drunk, after many acts of a drunken kind; and thus, one after the other, all fall on the ground. Pantalone is surprised; at that

This act, like the last, ends with an extended lazzo. The carnival merriment in Graziano’s house bursts out into the street. The characters carouse, and one by one, in their different ways pertaining to character and prop, drop to the ground. They are shown transformed through drink as they are in other scenarios transformed through disguise and love. The transformed states afford opportunity for acting virtuosity and, to judge by their number and kind, provided great pleasure for the audience.

Pantalone cannot believe such indulgence. Indeed, that very characteristic prevents him from being able to understand Flaminia’s problem. He is not specifically Jewish, although his hook-nose, skull cap, miserliness, and calculating capitalism suggest the influence of that stereotype, as does his failure here to participate in the spirit of communality, free expenditure, and careless exuberance characteristic of Carnival. He is its antithesis. In Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, Shylock admonishes his daughter Jessica: Do not “thrust your head into the public street / To gaze on Christian fools with varnish’d faces; / But stop my house’s ears, I mean my casements; / Let not the sound of shallow foppery enter / My sober house. By Jacob’s staff I swear / I have no mind of feasting forth to-night” (act 2, scene 5, lines 32–7).

20. ARLECCHINO	drags [or carries] them, one by one, into the house in various ridiculous ways; in the end he comes back, wants to grab Pantalone, who runs away along the street. Arlecchino [goes] inside the house, and here the second act ends.

Arlecchino must move quickly lest this comic ending flag. The lazzo clears the stage for the act break. Pedrolino is obviously too drunk to act on behalf of the girls and has apparently forgotten them.

	Third Act
1. ORAZIO [FLAVIO]	tells Flavio he suspects that his father might know something about his love, because of the words that he had just spoken to him; at that

We have seen nothing of the youths since act 2, scene 10. They enter together from the street. Flavio serves to remind the audience that in act 2 his father, Graziano, had made jokes with him about love, about the countryside, and about impregnating women. The youths, it is clear, have made no progress whatever. In fact, Graziano is now perturbed about Orazio’s licentiousness. The sombre mood contrasts with the close of act 2.

2. PEDROLINO	half asleep from the drunkenness; the lovers complain about him because he is taking too long to further the business. Pedrolino: that they should leave it to him; at that

Pedrolino conveniently enters. Here, in another scene that foregrounds the parallels between the two sets of lovers, they complain about Pedrolino’s long failure to deliver on the promise to fix everything, pending since the middle of act 1. The delay, together with his present condition, can hardly be reassuring either to the young men or to the audience. How soon before the inevitable births? David Wiles provides examples of jests in which clowns win audiences precisely by extracting themselves from a situation of hopeless disadvantage.48 But here the threat is prolonged far beyond a jest. Carnival has sandbagged both Pedrolino and Arlecchino, and the reputations of two families hang in the balance.

3. CAPITANO ARLECCHINO	tells Arlecchino that he will satisfy him, greets the lovers, telling them how the Doctor had given him a present of some very good wine, away. Pedrolino sends Arlecchino into the house to tell the women that soon they will be happy; then, speaking into the lovers’ ears, he sends them to their friend the costumer to disguise themselves as ghosts. They, away. Pedrolino remains.

Logically, all the revellers would enter from Graziano’s house. The Capitano and his condition, like Pedrolino’s, refers us back to the end of the second act. Arlecchino’s plea and the Capitano’s evasion, now with a promise of future payment, have become a running joke. Once again, as with the entrance of Graziano, the Capitano sidesteps the matter of his debt by redirecting his attention to characters of a class that is higher than that of Arlecchino, making it difficult for Arlecchino to press his case. Douglas Biow explains that gifts were a recognition of status in a very stratified society. Gifts of food, in a culture where hunger was so real, were significant. The recipient would point not only to the gift and its copiousness but also to the giver as a measure of his own worth. Conspicuous consumption was enviable.49 The Capitano might justify his previous drunken behaviour and his likely present disarray by observing the magnanimity of his host and his own discerning taste in wine. At this point, Scala abandons the story of the Capitano’s quest for Flaminia, which the audience would not have taken seriously anyway. He has not managed to interact in any significant way with a single one of the principals, not even Flaminia towards whom he now makes no move. His pursuit of her was only another of his fantasies.

Pedrolino has finally sprung into action. There is no indication of the means by which he enlists Arlecchino’s cooperation after having so recently ill treated him. Arlecchino may accept that the score has been evened.

Pedrolino’s whispering must be loud enough for the audience to hear. The youths seem reassured that Pedrolino has finally set to work. We cannot tell in which direction they exit but probably not in the same direction as the Capitano or from where they entered. Costume makers were readily available at Carnival time. A ghost costume would not have been a usual request and might have raised some questions. Scala is careful to specify that the costumer is a friend.

In scenes 7 and 8 we learn that each of the women are in their separate houses, so it is not clear how Arlecchino might inform them by entering one of the houses, presumably his own. But his entrance into one house suffices to show that he is carrying out the appointed task.

4. PANTALONE	scolds Pedrolino because he gets himself drunk and does not attend to the house. Pedrolino blames the Doctor; then he tells him he has found someone who will heal his daughter for him; at that

Pantalone comes into the playing space from his house and details the tasks that Pedrolino has omitted, and the result. Thus, once again, the offstage space is made real. Pantalone has been dishonoured by Pedrolino’s failure to perform his appointed tasks; he is a disobedient servant. Pedrolino deflects Pantalone’s attack, first by blaming Graziano and then by promising a cure. We still do not know Pedrolino’s plan, only that we can look forward to the youths disguised as ghosts.

5. GRAZIANO

arrives; Pantalone reproaches him. Graziano apologizes, saying he [was acting in a way] fit for Carnival. Pedrolino again says that he has found someone who will heal both their daughters. Graziano entreats him on behalf of his own [daughter], but starts laughing about Pantalone’s, saying that she will never recover if she does not have his son Orazio as husband. Pedrolino sends them to the Apothecary of the Chamber Pot to wait for him, and [says] that they [are] not to say anything at all about the sorcerer, because he does not want to be known. They, away; Pedrolino remains.

Graziano enters, probably from his house. Neither of the old men comprehends the true condition of his daughter despite the overwhelming evidence. Pantalone, who is losing control of his life, is upset that his house is not in order. Graziano, while concerned about his daughter, has not passed up the opportunity to celebrate Carnival.

This is the first mention of the sorcerer. Pedrolino enlists the old men in secrecy, just as he had enlisted the youths. The secrecy adds to the suspense and suggests the modesty of the sorcerer. Moreover, magic, particularly black or demonic magic, which employed the help of evil spirits, was a dangerous art to practise.50 The Italian Inquisitions and other ecclesiastical courts, backed by legislation and Church decrees, fought what they regarded as superstitious practices.⁵¹ The data from Inquisition tribunals in Venice and Friuli show that, by a wide margin, accusations and denunciations of magic led all others.⁵² “Practitioners of magic had to exercise great caution for fear of prosecution.”⁵³

Pedrolino must get the old men offstage. Since many, if not most, ailments were diagnosed by examination of the contents of the chamber pot, Scala, comically and perhaps somewhat satirically, calls the apothecary “The Apothecary of the Chamber Pot.” It was recognized that to some extent uroscopy, and thus the medications prescribed on the basis of diagnoses made from it, was quackery and that the drugs, as we have seen, could be dangerous.54 Indeed the cure does not come from there.

6. ARLECCHINO	arrives; Pedrolino tells him he wants to free their mistresses from worry and play a prank on the old men. He sends him to disguise himself as a sorcerer, and that, [on] coming [back], he will tell him what he should do, advising him that, when he is before Pantalone, he should pretend to conjure spirits. Arlecchino, away. Pedrolino knocks to inform the women.

Arlecchino enters, probably from the house. Already enlisted into Pedrolino’s service, he is now to be a co-conspirator. He must be flattered. From what the audience has seen of him, they have reason to have serious reservations about his abilities. Characteristically, Pedrolino will manipulate from behind the scene. The suspense continues. The plan is not spelled out; we still know only that the sorcery will be demonic; it will involve ghosts. In the scenario this dangerous business is clearly fake because necromancy was condemned by the Church.

Probably Arlecchino must also go to a costume shop, exiting in the same direction as the youths. How he might pay the costumer is not a detail with which Scala bothers.

7. ISABELLA	at the window.

8. FLAMINIA	at the window. Pedrolino informs the women that they should not be afraid of what they will see because everything will be fake, and that then it will all lead to their happiness; women, cheerful, withdraw. Pedrolino [goes] to find the lovers, away.

The young women, again at their windows, appear to have full confidence in Pedrolino. We cannot be so sure. From the scenario we know only that he has managed to trick the gullible Arlecchino and then waste more time partying. The scene with the two women cheerful in their windows contrasts nicely to the scene in act 1 when we last saw them there in despair.

9. ARLECCHINO	with Mercury’s caduceus, with the winged cap, and with the winged ankle boots, says he has thought up [a] double trickery; calls Franceschina.

Arlecchino has become very involved in his role; he has elaborated on it, having added Franceschina to it, further taking time to set up the trick and delay the resolution. Arlecchino must display the items and explain that they are part of the costume of Mercury. The popularizing of classical myth and its imagery became a staple of secular public festivals, and from these festivals and from second-hand print descriptions the non-learned spectators became familiar with them.55

10. FRANCESCHINA	[comes] out, receives the stuff, and the plan is [spoken into] her ear, while she is pointing to the loggia of the house. She goes inside, and he [goes] to disguise himself, away.

Franceschina enters from Graziano’s house, perhaps at Arlecchino’s call or other signal. Here, as before, they probably show a sexual relationship. She seems to have been impressed with his plan, whatever it is, and pleased and excited that it includes her. There was likely considerable intimate physical contact and merriment.⁵⁶ Her pointing builds anticipation.

11. PANTALONE [GRAZIANO]	tells Graziano that he wants to marry off his daughter,[GRAZIANO] right away, once she has recovered, refusing to give her to Orazio, since out in the country he had said that he would have her despite him. Pantalone says that if Graziano wants to give him Isabella as wife, when she has recovered, that he agrees to give Flaminia to his son Orazio. Graziano agrees; at that

Deep in conversation, the two men return from the apothecary. Whatever transpired there (probably reassurances from the apothecary about the efficacy of the drug) leaves them optimistic that their daughters will recover. The result, surprisingly, is a new complication. While Scala does not prepare us for this complication, we can understand that it must seem both logical from Pantalone’s point of view and shrewd. He accedes to the pressure from several sources to marry his daughter to Orazio and, at the same time, negotiates something for himself in return: marriage to a young girl. Indeed, particularly if he can negotiate a good dowry, he must relish the idea. From the point of view of both the fathers this is a good marital arrangement. They are friends who are financially well off and will cement their bond through it. They shake hands.⁵⁷ The young are bargaining chips in a negotiated arrangement, their required assent assumed. There is a contrast between the seeming immorality of the young men, who, in fact, are honourably seeking to marry the girls they love, and the old men who bargain the girls away. And Pantalone has hardly shown himself to be a good catch despite his money. The old men will deserve to be tricked, but it is hard to imagine how sorcery can overcome their pact.

Pantalone, evidently, objects neither to Orazio’s family nor to his financial situation. His objection, we finally learn, results from Orazio’s disrespect for his authority, a slight to his honour – no small thing. However, given Flaminia’s condition, the audience cannot take Pantalone’s objection seriously because he risks the more serious loss of honour that an illegitimate grandchild would bring. Orazio’s behaviour was not a character flaw but rather an offer of salvation for Pantalone’s honour. The clarification of Pantalone’s objection to Orazio and his acceptance of him as a son-in-law, albeit on his disgusting terms, paves the way for the resolution.

12. PEDROLINO	all out of breath, says he has lost sight of the sorcerer; at that

That Pedrolino enters out of breath suggests that he has been searching hither and yon. He may mention landmarks of the particular city in which the scenario was being performed. This brief scene serves to heighten our anticipation of the entrance of Arlecchino. It also heightens our fear of the failure of Pedrolino’s plan. Even if Arlecchino does appear, we continue to wonder whether he is up to the job. The potential for failure is great.

13. ARLECCHINO	[dressed] as a sorcerer, conjuring the spirits, speaks to the old men, tracing two circles, one on one side of the stage, and the other on the other, inside of which he makes Pantalone and Graziano enter, ordering that, whatever they might see or hear, they are not to move. At that Arlecchino conjures, calls the spirits.

In the nick of time, or so it seems, Arlecchino appears. He separates the old men. Neither will have the other to turn to, and the sorcery will fill the whole of the stage. Magic circles, traced by the magician, who at the same time chants or says special words, contain the energy raised by him and keep out unwanted energies. Pantalone, especially, has shown himself to be easily self-deceived. Arlecchino, whom we have seen only as drunk and himself deceived, outdoes himself. His words, figures, and incantations all have magical powers. He appears to be so authoritative and his effects so great that the two old men are thoroughly cowed and fooled. Their fear and credulity make them receptive to the magic.

It is not surprising that Arlecchino is familiar with magic; magic was widely practised, despite its prohibition.58 The world was not seen as materialistic, static, and limited but rather as “closely and deeply integrated with a complex, dynamic, and powerful spiritual world.”⁵⁹ Magic was a means of transformation that was well suited to theatre.

14. ORAZIO FLAVIO	dressed as spirits, walking around the circles, scaring the old men and Pedrolino. Then, each of them goes inside the house [of] his woman. Old men make gestures of astonishment. Arlecchino, looking at the sky, calls Mercury, messenger of the gods, that he come on top of the house.60

The ending of the scenario is spectacular and perhaps a little frightening, even for the audience. Although the Inquisition played an important role in propagandizing for and enforcing a withdrawal of the spiritual, ghosts, which were generally understood to be condemned souls who forebode eternal damnation, continued to be genuinely frightening to many people.⁶¹ Just as Orazio upset Pantalone by circling round him at the beginning, so does he here again. The terrified fathers may fall to their knees. Only the magic circles protect them.

Ghosts “walk without moving their legs, they haunt the places which they used to like, unable to forget the delights of life which have now become alien to them. They have neglected to accomplish something important during their lifetime, or committed evil, or have taken a secret with them to the grave.”⁶² Ordinarily figures of the night, the ghosts appear here during daylight hours because the scenarios’ happy resolutions are, for the most part, set in the day. And Orazio and Flavio operating in tandem, are, after all, only pretend ghosts. Franceschina ostensibly stands in for a deus ex machina.

15. FRANCESCHINA	dressed as Mercury; [the] sorcerer asks her the will of the gods regarding the marriage of the old men’s daughters. Franceschina says that the gods want Flaminia to be Orazio’s, and Isabella to [be] Flavio’s, and that if the fathers do not agree, those spirits that had appeared must lead them to hell. Old men agree; Franceschina, away; at that, and right away

Franceschina appears at the top of Graziano’s house. Scala apparently envisions a substantial structure. In renderings from the period, Mercury appears either virtually nude or robed.⁶³ I do not know what would have been tolerated on stage beyond female breast baring. The appearance of Mercury may well have been accompanied by offstage music and incense. A particular kind of music was assigned to each of the planets.⁶⁴ According to D.P. Walker, sixteenth-century magic in every way borrowed heavily from the magic of the mass “with its music, words of consecration, incense, lights, wine, and supreme magical effect – transubstantiation.”⁶⁵ The caduceus, like the magician’s wand, was no doubt used to great dramatic effect. It is Mercury who orders the marriages in the name of the gods; the power ordering the marriages, twice removed from the magician, who merely conjures the messenger, is that much greater.

16. ISABELLA	comes out saying: “Signarfather, I am healthy, and I do not want [any] other husband than the one who is in the house”; at that, and right away

17. FLAMINIA	[comes] from the house, says the same. Old men say they do not want to become family with devils. Sorcerer: that he wants them to know his value; conjures again.

This is an instance in which Scala refers to the character as he or she appears. Arlecchino is referred to as the sorcerer just as in other scenarios a girl disguised as male may be referred to by the pronoun for a male, suggesting the extent to which Scala is visualizing rather than explaining.

The young women’s bellies are as distended as ever, but apparently in their terror the benighted old men overlook this. They never have any recognition of their daughters’ condition.

18. ORAZIO	in his [own] form

19. FLAYIO	the same. Arlecchino has them marry, then he frees the old men from the circle; they would like to give him a reward. He: that he wants no reward other than Franceschina; in agreement, they call her.

The young men provide a final symmetrical picture. One daughter marries a nobleman, and the other the son of her father’s close friend; therefore, they make good marriages and at the same time preserve the family honour. Arlecchino shows his true love for Franceschina by, improbably, forgoing a reward.

20. FRANCESCHINA	pretends to be afraid, then she agrees. Arlecchino commands that they must forgive a certain Pedrolino for some trickery. Old men agree; he pretends to conjure, then he takes his fake beard off of his face, reveals himself; at that

Franceschina appears now, quickly changed into her own clothing. The old men are freed from their circles, and there are congratulations all round. So grateful are they that their daughters have been “cured” that no mention is made of the marriage bargain they had previously made. Pedrolino’s wit, coupled with Arlecchino’s skill, solves the problem of the pregnant women not a moment too soon. Typically, Pedrolino, like the playwright, has worked his magic behind the scenes. The spirit of Carnival gives way to the celebration of social order. But one can readily infer that the happy ending could only have been brought about by magic.

21. PEDROLINO	confesses all of the trickery done to satisfy the young lovers and to preserve the honour of their houses; everyone praises him, and here the comedy ends.

The scenario would suitably end with a wedding or, technically, after the Council of Trent in 1563, with a betrothal dance, here with very pregnant brides.