It at least offered a way of
passing the evening; and after a hurried supper he set out with
Cantapresto for the Philodramatic Academy. It was late when they entered
their box, and several masks were already capering before the
footlights, exchanging lazzi with the townsfolk in the pit, and
addressing burlesque compliments to the quality in the boxes. The
theatre seemed small and shabby after those of Turin, and there was
little in the old-fashioned fopperies of a provincial audience to
interest a young gentleman fresh from the capital. Odo looked about for
any one resembling the masked beauty of the market-place; but he beheld
only ill-dressed dowagers and matrons, or ladies of the town more
conspicuous for their effrontery than for their charms.
The main diversion of the evening was by this begun. It was a comedy in
the style of Goldoni's early pieces, representing the actual life of the
day, but interspersed with the antics of the masks, to whose improvised
drolleries the people still clung. A terrific Don Spavento in cloak and
sword played the jealous English nobleman, Milord Zambo, and the part of
Tartaglia was taken by the manager, one of the best-known interpreters
of the character in Italy. Tartaglia was the guardian of the prima
amorosa, whom the enamoured Briton pursued; and in the Columbine, when
she sprang upon the stage with a pirouette that showed her slender
ankles and embroidered clocks, Odo instantly recognised the graceful
figure and killing glance of his masked beauty.
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