came on as Pasquarello, and sang, with the gestures most
peculiarly characteristic of Capuzzi, and in his very voice, that most
atrocious of all arias. The theatre resounded with the audience's most
uproarious laughter. People shouted out: "Ah! Pasquale Capuzzi!
Compositore--Virtuoso celeberrimo! Bravo, bravissimo!" The old man, not
observing the tone of the laughter, was all delight. When the aria
ended, the audience called for silence; Doctor Graziano (played on this
occasion by Nicolo) came on, holding his ears, and calling out to
Pasquarello to cease his din, and not make such an insane crowing. He
proceeded to ask Pasquarello when he had taken to singing, and where he
had picked up that abominable tune. Pasquarello said he did not know
what the Doctor meant, and that he was just like the Romans, who had no
taste for real music, and left the finest talents in neglect. The aria,
he said, was by the greatest of living composers and virtuosi, whose
service it was his good fortune to be in, and who himself gave him
lessons in music and singing. Graziano went over the names of a number
of well-known composers and virtuosi, but at each renowned name
Pasquarello disdainfully shook his head.

At length he said the Doctor showed gross ignorance in not knowing the
very greatest composer of the day--none other than Signor Pasquale
Capuzzi, who had done him the honour to take him into his service.
Could he not see that Pasquarello was the friend and servant of Signor
Pasquale?

The Doctor broke into an immoderate fit of laughter and cried: "What!
had Pasquarello, after serving _him_, where, besides wages and food,
many a good _quattrino_ fell into his mouth, gone to the very greatest
and most accomplished skinflint and miser that ever swallowed
macaroni?--to the motley Carnival-fool, who strutted about like a
turkey-cock after a shower?--to that cur, that amorous old coxcomb, who
poisons the air in Strada Ripetta with that disgusting goat-bleating
which he calls 'singing?'" &c., &c.

To this Pasquarello answered quite angrily, that it was mere envy on
the Doctor's part. To speak with his heart in his hand (_parla col
cuore in mano_) the Doctor was by no means in a position to pass a
judgment on Signor Pasquale Capuzzi di Senegaglia. To speak heart in
hand, the Doctor himself had a pretty good dash of all which he was
finding fault with in the admirable Signor Pasquale. Speaking, as he
was, heart in hand, he had often, himsel