He talks with the broadest possible Florentine
accent and idiom, and despite his cunning is continually getting more
kicks than halfpence. Well, there was in those days a famous
Stenterello, really a very clever fellow in his way, who for many
years had been the delight of the Florentines every Carnival. But one
year a rival theatre produced a new and rival Stenterello. Of course
the old and established Stenterello could not stand this without using
the license of the popular stage to overwhelm his rival with ridicule.
"This sort of thing," said he, "will never do! How many Stenterelli
are we to have? Two is the regular established number in Florence.
There are I and my brother over there at the great house on the other
side of the Arno: we are the Florentine Stenterelli by right divine,
as is well known. Who is this pretender who comes to interfere with
us?" etc. Now, this was a little too much, even for Florence. And a
day or two afterward the old original Stenterello was ordered to go to
prison. Nobody was ever _arrested_, as we should call it, or _taken_
to prison. A man who for any cause was to suffer imprisonment used to
be told to _go_ to prison. Stenterello told the officer who announced
his doom that it was out of the question that he should go just then:
he had to appear on the boards that night.
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