from Canto IV

81

By one of these, the buffo of the party,
     Juan was told about their curious case;
For although destined to the Turkish mart, he
     Still kept his spirits up—at least his face;
The little fellow really look’d quite hearty,
    And bore him with some gaiety and grace,
Showing a much more reconcil’d demeanour
Than did the prima donna and the tenor.

82

In a few words he told their hapless story,
    Saying, “Our Machiavelian impresario,
Making a signal off some promontory,
    Hail’d a strange brig; Corpo di Caio Mario!
We were transferr’d on board her in a hurry,
    Without a single scudo of salario;
But if the Sultan has a taste for song,
We will revive our fortunes before long.

83

“The prima donna, though a little old
     And haggard with a dissipated life,
And subject, when the house is thin, to cold,
     Has some good notes; and then the tenor’s wife,
With no great voice, is pleasing to behold;
     Last carnival she made a deal of strife
By carrying off Count Cesare Cicogna
From an old Roman princess at Bologna.

84

“And then there are the dancers; there’s the Nini,
     With more than one profession gains by all;
Then there’s that laughing slut the Pelegrini,
     She too was fortunate last carnival,
And made at least five hundred good zecchini,
     But spends so fast, she has not now a paul;
And then there’s the Grotesca—such a dancer!
Where men have souls or bodies she must answer.

85

“As for the figuranti, they are like
     The rest of all that tribe; with here and there
A pretty person, which perhaps may strike,
     The rest are hardly fitted for a fair;
There’s one, though tall and stiffer than a pike,
     Yet has a sentimental kind of air
Which might go far, but she don’t dance with vigour,
The more’s the pity, with her face and figure.

86

“As for the men, they are a middling set;
    The Musico is but a crack’d old basin,
But being qualified in one way yet,
     May the seraglio do to set his face in,
And as a servant some preferment get;
     His singing I no further trust can place in:
From all the pope makes yearly ‘twould perplex
To find three perfect pipes of the third sex.

87

“The tenor’s voice is spoilt by affectation,
     And for the bass, the beast can only bellow;
In fact, he had no singing education,
    An ignorant, noteless, timeless, tuneless fellow,
But being the prima donna’s near relation,
     Who swore his voice was very rich and mellow,
They hired him, though to hear him you’d believe
An ass was practising recitative.

88

”’Twould not become myself to dwell upon
     My own merits, and though young—I see, Sir—you
Have got a travell’d air, which shows you one
     To whom the opera is by no means new:
You’ve heard of Raucocanti?—I’m the man;
     The time may come when you may hear me too;
You was not last year at the fair of Lugo,
But next, when I’m engaged to sing there—do go.

89

“Our baritone I almost had forgot,
     A pretty lad, but bursting with conceit;
With graceful action, science not a jot,
     A voice of no great compass, and not sweet,
He always is complaining of his lot,
    Forsooth, scarce fit for ballads in the street;
In lovers’ parts his passion more to breathe,
Having no heart to show, he shows his teeth.”

90

Here Raucocanti’s eloquent recital
     Was interrupted by the pirate crew,
Who came at stated moments to invite all
     The captives back to their sad births; each threw
A rueful glance upon the waves (which bright all
     From the blue skies derived a double blue,
Dancing all free and happy in the sun),
And then went down the hatchway one by one.