hless. At the sight of this, Domenico called to him, went
after him, met him, emptied his pockets, gave him all he had, took his
head in his hands, kissed him on both cheeks, dismissed him, returned to
his family and was received with an approval that was too deep for words.
Such an improvised incident, the sudden outcome of uncontrollable
emotion, may be seen any day in Sicily and might be introduced any
evening into one of these unwritten plays by any actor who should take it
into his head to do it. The audience, who would probably have seen the
play before, would recognize that here was an impromptu interpolation,
and would applaud the actor both for the idea and for the way it was
carried out.

Gradually Giovanni added written plays and a prompter, and was the first
to take on tour a company of actors performing in a Sicilian dialect. He
also included plays written in Italian. These written plays, though
constructed with more care, did not depart far from the style with which
he began. Giovanni still frequently returns from prison, but as he never
forfeits the sympathy of the audience, if he really committed the crime
it was in self-defence. Whatever the play may be, it always contains,
besides the inevitable scenes of violence, many other passages such as
hearing a letter read (he is then a simple fellow who cannot read),
collapsing in the presence of the Madonna (he is then deeply religious),
dancing at a festa (he is a perfect dancer), confiding, with his last
breath, the name of his murderer to his young brother who promises to
execute the vendetta. In these passages his humour, his delicacy, his
grace, his tenderness, his voice and, most wonderful of all, his
apparently intense belief in the reality of everything he says and does
make one forget how crude and transpontine the bare theme is.

On my saying I should like to see more of him, Peppino asked why I had
come away so soon. I had thought he must be tired and would want to be
alone and change his dress.

"Never is he alone," said Peppino. "Surely now shall he be suppering by
his friends."

We thought it too late to go and look for him then, so we determined to
ask ourselves to supper after the play the following evening.

CHAPTER XVII--SUPPER WITH THE PLAYERS

Next evening the play was _Feudalismo_. Giovanni does not return from
prison; he is a shepherd and is made to marry a girl without being told
of the relations that had subsisted