oubt that at least seven members of this troupe were
excellent artists in the national _Commedia alla sprovveduta_--a species
of comedy which has always afforded innocent recreation to the public
when performed with taste and spirit, but which is utterly insufferable
when badly executed. This much I concede to the persecutors of the
species--little talents, more ridiculous and useless with their
ostentation of gravity than are even bad harlequins.

Sacchi's company enjoyed general respect in so far as their personal
conduct was concerned. On this point they differed widely from the
majority of our actors, who are for the most part very badly looked
upon. This excellent reputation weighed strongly with me, when I sought
their society, and entered into fraternal relations with them. The way
they held together, the harmony which reigned among them, their
domesticity, studious habits, severity in moral matters, their rules
against visits being paid to women, the abhorrence the women themselves
displayed for those who took presents from seducers, the regularity with
which they divided their hours between household duties, religious
exercises, and charitable attentions to the indigent among their
members, gratified my taste. I may incidentally mention that if any of
the salaried actresses or actors exceeded the prescribed bounds of
decent conduct, they were quickly sent about their business; and such
offenders were replaced by others, whose moral character had been
subjected to stricter inquiry than even their professional ability.

I am sufficiently unprejudiced and free from scruples; I have never
evaded opportunities of studying human nature, which brought me into
passing contact with all sorts of men; yet it is certain that I should
not have entered into familiar relations and daily converse in my hours
of recreation with these people, for upwards of the space of twenty
years, if it had not been for their exceptional good character.

I not only composed for them a long series of theatrical pieces, novel
in kind and congenial to their talents, but I also furnished them with a
new arsenal of stock passages, essential to the _Commedia dell'Arte_,
and which they call its _dote_, or endowment.[29] I could not say how
many prologues and epilogues in verse I wrote, to be recited on the
first and last evenings of the run of some play by the leading lady for
the time being; nor how many songs to be inserted in their farces; nor