LEL. Enough; I know it all; you have told it me twice already.

[Footnote: Though Lelio says to Mascarille, "Enough, I know it all," he
has not been listening to the speech of his servant, but, in the
meanwhile, is arranging his dress, and smoothing his ruffles, and making
it clear to the spectator that he knows nothing, and that he will be a
bad performer of the part assigned to him. This explains the blunders he
makes afterwards in the second and fifth scenes of the same act.]

MASC. Yes, yes; but even if I should tell it thrice, it may happen
still, that with all your conceit, you might break down in some minor
detail.

LEL. I long to be at it already.

MASC. Pray, not quite so fast, for fear we might stumble. Your skull is
rather thick, therefore you should be perfectly well instructed in your
part. Some time ago Trufaldin left Naples; his name was then Zanobio
Ruberti. Being suspected in his native town of having participated in a
certain rebellion, raised by some political faction (though really he is
not a man to disturb any state), he was obliged to quit it stealthily by
night, leaving behind him his daughter, who was very young, and his
wife. Some time afterwards he received the news that they were both
dead, and in this perplexity, wishing to take with him to some other
town, not only his property, but also the only one who was left of all
his family, his young son, a schoolboy, called Horatio, he wrote to
Bologna, where a certain tutor, named Alberto, had taken the boy when
very young, to finish there his education; but though for two whole
years he appointed several times to meet them, they never made their