When he misleads and distracts his poor old father —
well, poor old fathers ought not to be misled and betrayed ;
but — could you have resisted a son who slid so gracefully
on to one knee with a ' Father, behold me at your feet ! ' ?
And can you, being in front of, and not upon, the scene,
with aU your ^neas-hke piety, refuse a laugh, when he
peeps round his three-cornered hat to perceive the effect
of his blandishments ?

But, perhaps, he is even more remarkable in ' Una
deUe Ultima Sere.' In ' II Bugiardo ' he has a well-marked
part. Read the play, and you will see that there is a
good deal to be got out of it. Read the other, and you
might almost pass by unnoticed the part that Benini
plays. But, then,' you might easily^ pass the whole play
as entirely wanting in stage effect. In fact, its force
consists solely in the extraordinary way, by the art of
the dramatist, the different figures combine. It is just
the touch of real genius that makes Goldini an exception
to a sound rule. There is no plot. The only question
is whether a certain young man, who is in love, will leave
Venice or not. He is a designer of stuffs, and he has had
a good post offered him abroad. If he does go, he cannot
marry ; if he doesn't, he can. The discussion of this is to
carry us through three acts ! There is, literally, nothing
else, except an elderly French lady, who has had three
husbands already and is now in search of a fourth. There
is not an incident in the whole piece that would delay a
modem "dramatist one puff of his cigar ; and yet such is



290 PLAYS AND PLAYERS IN MODERN ITALY

the reality of these common clothes when a true-bred
Venetian puts them on that a full house is kept in roars
of laughter for three ample hours. And Benini, as Sior
Momolo, is superb. He is at once the butt and wag of
the whole party. He is the one on whom every one
relies ; to whom every one appeals ; whose genial discretion
sets everj^hing straight. 