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15 Il Trovatore: The Villanelle The Gypsy threw the baby in the fire. Bad things are likely to happen now: evil, nobility, and mischance conspire. There will be savage hatred and desire seething in the boiling pot somehow. The Gypsy threw the baby in the fire. The flames of those mixed passions flicker higher than reason, which is absent, might allow; evil, nobility, and mischance conspire. We listen to the singers whom we admire performing in a tale we’d disavow: of the Gypsy and the baby in the fire. But hammering on their anvils, the male choir figures the fate to which all men must bow. The Gypsy threw the baby in the fire: evil, nobility, and mischance conspire. ...

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