He Has Contrived To Make The Puppet
Girolamo A Little Like Himself, But So Much Caricatured And So Monstrously
Ugly A Likeness That The Bare Sight Of It Raises Immediate Laughter.
The
theatre itself is small, being something under the size of our old
Haymarket little theatre, but is very neatly and tastefully fitted up.
The
puppets are about half of the natural size of man, and Girolamo, aided by
one or two others, works them and gives them gesture, by means of strings,
which are, however, so well contrived as to be scarcely visible; and
Girolamo himself speaks for all, as, besides being a ventriloquist, he has
a most astonishing faculty of varying his voice, and adapting it to the
role of each puppet, so that the illusion is complete. The scenery and
decorations are excellent. Sometimes he gives operas as well as dramas, and
there is always a ballo, with transformation of one figure into another,
which forms part of the performance. These transformations are really very
curious and extremely well executed. Almost all the pieces acted on the
theatre are of Girolamo's own composition, and he sometimes chooses a
classical or mythological subject, in which the puppet Girolamo is sure to
be introduced and charged with all the wit of the piece. He speaks
invariably with the accent and patois of the country, and his jokes never
fail to keep the audience in a roar of laughter; his mode of speech and
slang phrases form an absurd contrast to the other figures, who speak in
pure Italian and pompous versi sciolti.
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