of the triumph, and might have been emboldened by success to have
deserved it, had not all my sham tremors been shent--in one moment--by a
shaft most real and memorable, whose fatal delivery I must now relate.

We had reached a point in our absurdity where, by the direction of Il
Nanno, who had a sure dramatic sense, a little touch of tragic meaning
was to be brought into the action. The play was suddenly to deepen into
seriousness; the masqueraders were to be discovered--momentarily--for
men and women, with hearts to be broke and souls to be tortured. I
believe it was I who gave him the hint; for he had said to me one day at
rehearsal, "Don Francis, you have tragedy in your face, a mouth of pure
sorrow. That is a valuable asset for our business." May be that he had
thought to use me at my best when he suffered this little shiver of
serious surmise to be blown across the painted scene. The worthy little
monster was pardonably proud of his conception, and explained it to me
point by point. Touchy as his infirmities had left him, his vanity of
author made him as tender as a green wound. He set all his hopes upon
his invention; rightly rendered, he said, the whole theatre would be
moved by it. It should be received with a moment of absolute silence, a
sixty-seconds' silence; then, with one consent, the audience would rise
en masse and cheer the actor--myself--and the poet--himself. Admiring
the thought, feeling the force of it, I promised him that he might
depend upon me.

His point was this. At a certain stage in the play, Brighella, the
country clown, observes his pretended inamorata, the sham contessa, in
the embrace of the pretended marchese, Truffaldino, who by his lies and
flatteries has ensnared the heart of Colombina. Now Colombina is the
beloved sister of Brighella; and the doubt is to dawn upon him that
possibly his wonderful contessa and his sister's imposing marchese are