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FABIELLO: Where are you going so quickly? Where are you going in such a hurry, Iacovuccio? IACOVUCCIO: To take this little thing home. FAB.: Is it something nice? IAC.: It sure is. Absolutely first-rate. FAB.: Well, then? IAC.: It’s a crucible. FAB.: What do you use it for? IAC.: If you only knew. FAB.: Hey, careful there. You get away from me! IAC.: Why? FAB.: Who knows, maybe you’ve been blinded by the demon! Do you get what I’m saying? 126 The Crucible Eclogue Fabiello, Iacovuccio The four eclogues that divide the days are all recited by two characters, members of Tadeo’s court but otherwise not involved in the tale-telling activities. The eclogues are in verse: an irregular alternation between hendecasyllable and seven-syllable lines (two of the most common in Italian verse) and a rhyme pattern that is also irregular, which I have translated in prose. Historically, the eclogue is a verse dialogue, often between shepherds, that treats pastoral themes (Virgil’s are perhaps the best-known examples). Basile’s intent appears ironic, since the actors in his eclogues are court servants and their topics of conversation are the social ills (specifically, the various hypocrisies) of urban civic society. Indeed, they have much in common with the tradition of satire in verse; after the Roman masters of this genre, one of the most important Renaissance satirists was Ludovico Ariosto, with whose Satire Basile was certainly familiar. With the choice of “staged” eclogues to divide the days of telling Basile also makes reference, although once again in a topsy-turvy sort of way, to the established tradition of intermezzi, or interludes, that were inserted between the acts (five) of a play. During the Renaissance these compositions could be pastoral or love poems (see, e.g., Machiavelli’s Mandragola), though they could also be theatrical in form themselves (e.g., comic scenes), and in subject matter were generally extraneous (at least explicitly so) to the action in the principal play. A coppella (Neap.) is “a type of porous crucible used for purifying or testing metals” (Rak 270). 127 Eclogue IAC.: I hear you, but you’re a hundred miles off.1 FAB.: What do I know, then? IAC.: He who knows not is quiet and keeps his trap shut. FAB.: I do know you’re not a goldsmith, and you’re not a distiller: draw your own conclusions! IAC.: Let’s move over to the side here, Fabiello. I want you to be amazed and stunned. FAB.: We can go wherever you want. IAC.: Let’s go stand under that awning. I’m going to make you jump out of your clothes! FAB.: Hurry up and get on with it, brother, you’re making me pant. IAC.: Take it easy, my brother! What a rush you’re in! Tell me, did your mother make you in such a hurry? Take a good look at this contraption. FAB.: I can see that it’s a pot where you purify silver. IAC.: You hit it on the head. You guessed it right off! FAB.: Cover it up. Who knows, some copper might come by and we’ll be taken off to the pen! IAC.: What a pants shitter you are! But you can tremble in peace. This isn’t one of those where you knead dough with all sorts of stratagems until three little coins2 turn into three pieces of wood!3 FAB.: Tell me, then, what do you use it for? IAC.: To refine the things of this world, and to distinguish between garlic and figs. FAB.: You’ve got a lot of linen to card! You’ll get old in no time; in no time at all you’ll have white hair! IAC.: Look, there’s not a man on earth who wouldn’t pay an eye and a tooth to have a device like this one, which on the first try reveals every stain a person has inside him, the value of every art and every fortune! For inside here you can see if a noodle is empty or if it’s got some sense, if something is adulterated or pure. FAB.: What do you mean now? IAC.: Listen to me straight through; calm down, and I’ll explain myself better. Whatever by its outer aspect and on the face of things seems to be of value is all an illusion of the eye, a way to blind people, mere appearance. You...

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