"Va via, Sansone," but they only got themselves into trouble, for he took
them all up and threw them back into the castle and we heard each of them
fall separately.

"Aprite," said Samson, "datemi il mio genitore."

Then there came a comic dwarf; Samson looked at him scornfully, and
saying--

"Cosa vuoi, Insetto?" took him up, twirled him round and round and threw
him away.

Then Pasquino and Onofrio came on; Samson, after doing them some damage,
but not so much as they deserved because they were favourites with the
audience, passed by them and disappeared in the direction of the castle
gate. We heard him knock and we heard the movement within, indicating
serious alarm, while the masks made comments in dialect. This was
repeated and repeated with a roaring crescendo until, with a crash, the
walls of the castle fell upon the stage--a bushel of stones--and Samson
entered carrying the castle gates under his left arm and his father on
his right, and the delighted audience applauded as the curtain fell.

After this we came away, which I have often regretted since, because
these marionettes were the best I had seen. They were worked by artists
who understood the handling of repose and the value of small things well
placed. Occasionally, it is true, the figures moved too much and were
unintentionally comic, but wonderful effects were produced by very slight
movements. When a puppet was delivering a tirade, the listener, standing
as motionless as one of the knights at Catania, would sometimes turn his
head almost imperceptibly, or shift his weight from one leg to the other,
or place his right hand on his hip with his arm a-kimbo. The action not
only expressed contempt, acquiescence, or boredom as the case required,
but vivified the whole scene, spreading over it like the ripples from a
pebble thrown into a pond.

If I had been as strong as Samson I would have stayed to the end, for I
knew he could not be wearing all that loose, brown hair merely to toss it
back when he was fighting. The Philistines would come later on and bribe
the lady to entice him and see wherein his great strength lay, and he
would be enticed and, forgetting how she had betrayed him over the
riddle, would tell her everything; for he had a guileless, generous
nature, and every time he was deceived thought it an exceptional case and
no rule for future conduct. And presently the lady would make him sleep
upon her knees and a young man would c