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Let the reader picture to himself the open coffin with the corpse of the lovely child, surrounded by the hired mourners singing their dismal De profundis in hoarse voices, and then the comical masks of Pasquarello and Dr. Gratiano, who were expressing their grief in the most ridiculous gestures, and lastly the two Capuzzis, wailing and screeching in despair.
At length he said the Doctor showed gross ignorance in not knowing the very greatest composer of the day none other than Signor Pasquale Capuzzi, who had done him the honour to take him into his service. Could he not see that Pasquarello was the friend and servant of Signor Pasquale?
And this Formica this Pasquarello was transformed into Salvator Rosa! "Salvator!" cried Marianna, Antonio, and Capuzzi, ensemble, all amazement. "Yes," said that wondrous man.
"Pasquale! idiotic fool! madman! spendthrift! prodigal!" cried the Capuzzi below, in crescendo, after the mention of the several dishes, and grew more and more angry the higher the total bill for this most unheard-of of all dinners became. Let me tell you, my good Pasquarello, that to-morrow I celebrate the wedding-day, rich in blessings, of my dear niece Marianna.
The aria, he said, was by the greatest of living composers and virtuosi, whose service it was his good fortune to be in, and who himself gave him lessons in music and singing. Graziano went over the names of a number of well-known composers and virtuosi, but at each renowned name Pasquarello disdainfully shook his head.
"Ha! here comes my master himself," cried Pasquarello at this moment, and there entered on the stage Signor Pasquale Capuzzi himself, just as he breathed and walked, his very clothes, face, gestures, gait, postures, in fact so perfectly like Signor Capuzzi in the auditorium, that the latter, quite aghast, let go Marianna's hand, which hitherto he had held fast in his own, and tapped himself, his nose, his wig, in order to discover whether he was not dreaming, or seeing double, whether he was really sitting in Nicolo Musso's theatre and dare credit the miracle.
The terror that he has caused me to feel has brought about a complete revolution within me." Pasquarello stepped forward. Antonio threw himself upon his neck, crying, "O Signor Formica, you to whom I owe my life, my all oh! take off this disfiguring mask, that I may see your face, that Formica may not be any longer a mystery to me."
Then the Doctor asked Pasquarello how long he had taken to the confounded habit of singing, and where he had got that execrable piece from. Whereupon Pasquarello replied, that he didn't know what the Doctor would have; he was like the Romans, and had no taste for real music, since he failed to recognise the most talented of musicians.
Capuzzi on the stage laughed, and said he was pleased to find that Pasquarello knew how to turn his good humour to advantage, and threw him several glittering ducats. "Pasquale, you must be mad, possessed of the devil," cried the real Capuzzi aloud. He was bidden be still. "I tell you you're lying in your throat, you knave," shouted the Capuzzi off the stage, rising from his seat.
Pasquarello began, however, to weep and sob more violently than before, till at length, as if overcome by the terrible nature of his pain, he fainted away. Doctor Gratiano ran backwards and forwards in great distress, was so sorry he had no smelling-bottle with him, felt in all his pockets, and at last produced a roasted chestnut, and put it under the insensible Pasquarello's nose.
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