issues, as I may term them, to be tempted to join it. And again there
were several restrictions placed by some States--such as those of the
Church--upon female performers, only to be overcome by heavy fees to the
officials. If it was inconvenient to them to drop Signora Minghelli in
one place and pick her up at another, to have had more women in the same
case might well have ruined them. They therefore had with them half a
dozen boys and lads, of whom Belviso was by far their best--Pamfilo,
Narcisso, Adone, Deifobo and the like, wicked, graceless little wretches
as they were. Belviso took the leading woman's part in La Panormita's
absence, and when she was present he came second. Notably he was
Columbine in the comedy, and, as they said, one of the most excellent. I
found all these people, as I have never failed to find Italians of their
sort, simple, good-hearted and careless, sometimes happy, sometimes
acutely miserable; but always patient and reasonable, and always
expressing themselves unaffectedly, in very strong language. Of their
kindness I cannot say too much; of their moral behaviour I must not.
Their profession, no doubt, which forced them to exhibit themselves in
indelicate or monstrous situations for the pleasure of people who were
mainly both, had made them callous to much which is offensive to a man
of breeding. Il Nanno was a great exception to their rule. I never knew
him, but once, behave otherwise than as a gentleman. I never heard him
hold unseemly conversation. Belviso, too, was, as far as I was
concerned, honest, decent and self-respecting. I am inclined to hope,
and have some grounds for believing, that he had given himself a worse
character than he deserved. All I shall say about him here is that, had
he been my son, I could not have been troubled by anything which he said
or did so long as I was in his company.

Sufficient of my story had been made common property by Il Nanno to save
me the trouble of trying to enlist their sympathies. They were mine from