Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/269

 "You can make me the happiest man in all Italy. You know how much the public are pleased with little plays interspersed with songs; well, I thought of going to the expense of engaging an orchestra, and thus create, in spite of the rigorous limits of my privilege, a kind of opera. Now, you are in truth, Signor Capuzzi, the first composer in Italy; and the fashionable world of Rome must have lost their wits, or your rivals are very powerful, in order that any other pieces than yours should be played in our theatres. And I, Signor, dared to take the liberty to beg of you to grant me the right to have them represented, with all the care in my power, on my humble stage."

Master Pasquale, puffed with pride on listening to the fine speech of Nicolo, made a thousand excuses for having so long conversed with him at the door, and begged him to enter his house, where they could continue at their ease, so agreeable an interview. When they were carefully shut up in a distant closet, the old man took from a mouldy old chest an enormous packet of music strangely scrawled, and, taking down a cracked guitar, began to stun poor Nicolo with his frightful bellowings.

The unfortunate manager devoted himself bravely; he stamped, clapped his hands, and raved like a person undergoing exorcism, crying out as loud as he could shout:

"Bravo, bravissimo! Benedettissimo Capuzzi!"

He carried the demonstrations of his magnificent enthusiasm so far, that, rolling himself on the floor, like a worm, he began to pinch and bite the legs of the unfortunate Capuzzi, who bounded with pain and howled out:

"By all the saints in heaven, leave me, master Nicolo, you hurt me horribly!"

"No, Signor Pasquale," cried Nicolo, "I will not let you go until you give me that divine air which enchants me, and which I wish to have Formica, my best actor, learn for to-morrow's representation!"

"I have then found a man capable of appreciating me,"