extent a rehearsal for the second,
at least in the second there were modifications--always improvements.
The father stood on one side of the stage, working some of the
marionettes and speaking for them. He had a MS. book which contained
little more than a list of the characters and properties and a short
statement of what was to happen in each scene. He also directed his
younger son who stood at the other side of the stage, working other
figures and speaking for some of them, and, when there were many puppets
on at once, the buffo was sent for from the front door, where he was
keeping order. When there were women or angels or children to speak, one
or more of the girls came down a ladder through a trap-door from the
house above. To speak improvised words on a given subject, as the father
did, is called "recitare a soggetto." When the girls spoke, the father
prompted, if necessary, and this they call "recitare col suggeritore"--to
speak, with the assistance of a prompter, words that have been learnt.

For the second performance I was among the audience, and this is what I
saw. It may not be in every detail in complete accordance with the
received views of historians, but the marionettes take their history
wherever they find it. In this case they found it not in Gibbon but in a
favourite legend of the people, and, considering that they depend upon
the favour of the people, to take it from that source was a judicious
proceeding.

The curtain rose on a bedroom in the palace in Rome. Constantine,
Emperor of the World, was lying in just such a bed as Pasquino or Onofrio
might have, with pillows and sheets and a red flowered counterpane. He
was endeavouring to allay the irritation of his skin caused by the
painful malady from which he had been suffering for twelve years. A
sentinel stood at the foot of the bed.

Amid shouts of "Evviva Costantino," two Christians were brought on in
chains. They knelt to the emperor who offered to spare their lives if
they would become Saracens or Turks or pagans--that is, if they would
adopt his religion. Of course, they indignantly refused and were led off
to be burnt, leaving the emperor restlessly soliloquizing to the effect
that all Christians must be burnt and all doctors, too, if they could not
cure him.

This was the cue for the family doctor to enter with a specialist.

"Come sta vostra Maiesta stamattina?" inquired the family doctor, and the
patient declared himself no