DRAMATIS PERSONE.

GHERARDO FOIANI, an old man, father of Isabella.

VIRGINIO BELLENZINI, an old man, father of Lelia and Fabrizio. FLAMINIO DE' CARANDINI, in love with Isabella.

LELIA, daughter of Virginio, disguised as a page, under the name

of Fabio.

ISABELLA, daughter of Gherardo.

CLEMENTIA, nurse of Lelia.

PASQUELLA, housekeeper to Gherardo.

CITTINA, a girl, daughter of Clementia.

The SCENE is in MODENA.

THE DECEIVED.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-A Street, with the house of VIRGINIO.

VIRGINIO and GHERARDO.

VIRGINIO is an old merchant, who has two children, a son and a daughter, Fabrizio and Lelia. He has lost his property and his son in the sack of Rome, May 1527, when his daughter had just finished her thirteenth year. The comedy being performed in the Carnival of 1531, the girl is in her seventeenth year. Another old man, Gherardo, who is wealthy, wishes to marry her, and the father assents, provided the maiden is willing. Gherardo thinks that the father's will ought to be sufficient, and that it only rests with him to make his daughter do as he pleases.

SCENE II.

VIRGINIO and CLEMENTIA.

VIRGINIO, having shortly before gone on business to Bologna, in company with a Messer Buonaparte and others, had left Lelia in a convent with her Aunt Camilla, and now, in the intention of her

C

marriage, desires Lelia's nurse, Clementia, to go to the convent to bring her home.

Clementia must

first go to mass.

SCENE III.—A Street, with the house of FLAMINIO.

LELIA, afterwards CLEMENTIA.

Lelia (in male apparel). It is a great boldness in me, that, knowing the licentious customs of these wild youths of Modena, I should venture abroad alone at this early hour. What would become of me, if any one of them should suspect my sex? But the cause is my love for the cruel and ungrateful Flaminio. Oh, what a fate is mine! I love one who hates me. I serve one who does not know me: and, for more bitter grief, I aid him in his love for another, without any other hope than that of satiating my eyes with his sight. Thus far all has gone well: but now, how can I do? My father has returned. Flaminio has come to live in the town. I can scarcely hope to continue here without being discovered and if it should be so, my reputation will be blighted for ever, and I shall become the fable of the city. Therefore I have come forth at this hour to consult my nurse, whom, from the window, I have seen coming this way. But I will first see if she knows me in this dress. (Clementia enters.)

Clementia. In good faith, Flaminio must be returned to Modena: for I see his door open. Oh! if Lelia knew it, it would appear to her a thousand years till she came back to her father's house. But who is this young coxcomb that keeps crossing before me, backward and forward? What do you mean by it?

Take yourself off, or I will show you how I like

such chaps.

Lelia. Good morning, good mother.

Clementia. I seem to know this boy.

where can I have seen you?

Tell me,

Lelia. You pretend not to know me, eh? Come a little nearer: nearer still: on this side. Now?

Clementia. Is it possible? Can you be Lelia? Oh, misery of my life! What can this mean, my child? Lelia. Oh! if you cry out in this way, I must go. Clementia. Is this the honour you do to your father, to your house, to yourself, to me, who have brought you up? Come in instantly. You shall not be seen in this dress.

Lelia. Pray have a little patience.

Clementia. Are you not ashamed to be seen so? Lelia. Am I the first? I have seen women in Rome go in this way by hundreds.

Clementia. They must be no better than they should be.

Lelia. By no means.

Clementia. Why do you go so? Why have you left the convent? Oh! if your father knew it, he would

kill you.

Lelia. He would end my affliction. Do you think I value life?

Clementia. But why do you go so? Tell me. Lelia. Listen, and you shall hear. You will then know how great is my affliction, why I have left the convent, why I go thus attired, and what I wish you to do in the matter. But step more aside, lest any one should pass who may recognize me, seeing me talking with you.

Clementia. You destroy me with impatience.

Lelia. You know that after the miserable sack of Rome, my father, having lost everything, and with his property my brother Fabrizio, in order not to be alone in his house, took me from the service of the Signora Marchesana, with whom he had placed me, and, constrained by necessity, we returned to our house in Modena to live on the little that remained to us here. You know, also, that my father, having been considered a friend of the Count Guido Rangon,' was not well looked on by many.

*

Clementia. Why do you tell me what I know better than you? I know, too, for what reason you left the city, to live at our farm of Pontanile, and that I went with you.

Lelia. You know, also, how bitter were my feelings at that time: not only remote from all thoughts of love, but almost from all human thought, considering that, having been a captive among soldiers, I could not, however purely and becomingly I might live, escape malicious observations. And you know how often you scolded me for my melancholy, and exhorted me to lead a more cheerful life.

Clementia. If I know it, why do you tell it me? Go on.

Lelia. Because it is necessary to remind you of all this, that you may understand what follows. It happened at this time that Flaminio Carandini, from having been attached to the same party as ourselves, formed an intimate friendship with my father, came daily to our house, began to admire me secretly,

*This count makes a conspicuous figure in Guicciardini's History.