Inebriety had made
sufficient ravages for his ends, and he was now desirous of stopping
farther excesses.
"Here come the mummers--gods and goddesses, shepherds and their lasses and
all the other pleasantries, to keep us in humor! To do these Vevaisans
justice, they treat us rarely; for ye see they send their players to amuse
our retirement!"
"Wine! liquor! raw or ripe, bring us liquor!" roared Conrad, Pippo, and
their pot-companions, who were much too drunk to detect the agency of Maso
in defeating their wishes, though they were just drunk enough to fancy
that what he said of the attention of the authorities was not only true
but merited.
"How now, Pippo! art ashamed to be outdone in thine own craft, that thou
bellowest for wine at the moment when the actors have come into the square
to exhibit their skill?" cried the mariner. "Truly, we shall have a mean
opinion of thy merit, if thou art afraid to meet a few Vaudois peasants in
thy trade,--and thou a buffoon of Napoli!"
Pippo swore with pot-oaths that he defied the cleverest of Switzerland;
for that he had not only acted on every mall and mole of Italy, but that
he had exhibited in private before princes and cardinals, and that he had
no superior on either side of the Alps.
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