Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/162

154 young men, also nobles, and who called themselves the company of the Infiammati; and these, desirous of receiving equal praise with the Umidi, and acting in competition with them, chose for recitation a work by the Aretine poet Messer Giovanni Pollastra, which was performed under the guidance of the author himself; the scenery and preparations they confided to Giovan-Antonio Lappoli, who acquitted himself to perfection, and so the comedy was recited to the great honour of that society, as well as of the whole city.

And here I will not omit to mention an amusing fancy of the above-named poet, who was certainly a very ingenious person. While the preparations for these and other festivals were in progress, it chanced that the young men of the two societies, moved by their rivalry in the matter of the comedies, and by other causes, did more than once come to blows, to say nothing of the very frequent disputes that arose among them; whereupon Pollastra, proceeding very secretly to work, caused four of these young men, who had grievously offended each other many times in the city, to come forth with naked swords, and each with his shield on his arm, at a time when the gentlemen and ladies, with all the people, had assembled at the place where the comedies were to be recited. These all feigned to attack each other with great outcries, and to be on the point of killing each other, he who first appeared having his temples painted to represent blood, as of one wounded, and crying, as he rushed upon the scene, “Come forth, traitors.” At these words the whole assembly rose in alarm, men began to lay hand on their weapons, and the kinsmen of the }routlis, who seemed to be dealing fearful blows, and on the point of slaying each other, came hurrying to the stage. But he who had first appeared then turned to the other young men and said, “Calm yourselves, gentlemen, and put your swords into your scabbards, for I have taken no harm, and although we are all at daggers drawn, and you fancy that the comedy will fail to be performed in consequence, yet it will certainly take place, and I, wounded as I am, will now commence the prologue.” After this jest, which had taken by surprise, not only the spectators but the performers, also, with the exception of the four instructed by Pollastra to play it off, the comedy was begun and was so admirably recited, that in the next year 1540, when the Signor Duke Cosimo and