Cassandro, a merchant of about fifty years old, is in need of money: he has finally decided to marry, partly to benefit from his wife’s dowry. He must go from Rome to Albano for this wedding with a woman whom he does not know. He leaves with Rocco, his apprentice, on a donkey. On the way, Cassandro stops at a famous inn in which many Romans meet, eat, drink and sing some sorts of stornelli in verse. Cassandro and Rocco then set out again to meet the bride. A storm breaks out during the trip: the donkey stumbles, Cassandro falls, and Rocco and the innkeeper who has come to help him both think that he is dead. While the two men are busy taking care of the donkey, Cassandro comes round; but he pretends to be dead to see what will happen. The fiancée arrives with her brother and mother. They also believe that Cassandro is dead, but they need to pretend that he is alive to make him sign the marriage agreement and take his money. Thus, they drag the so-called corpse and arrange it so that it can be at the wedding and stand before the notary, whose sight is bad. They change the contract so that the two parties can fully enjoy the other’s possessions. However, Cassandro “comes back to life” when it is time to sign it. The wedding still happens: although the young bride is blind in one eye and not pretty, Cassandro reaps economic benefits from it and the bride’s parents must make the best of it. The friends from the inn join in the celebration.

Rod and string marionette

All audiences

Giraud Giovanni

Italy

Rome

Printed

Wedding

Journey

Death

Contract

Money

Comical

Giovanni Giraud, Opere edite e inedite, 1842.

Italian

Shopkeeper

Fiancé

Cassandre

Sister

Apprentice

Fiancée

Mother

Brother

Notary

Innkeeper

Coachman

Poet

Inn scene

Letter

Song

Music

Fall of a character

Fake death

Il viaggio sull'asino di Cassandro sposo

The trip on the donkey of Cassandro, husband

Pulcinella and Rosetta are husband and wife; they quarrel about love and money. Rosetta then meets a man of a certain age, Cassandrino; he tries to seduce her while she thinks he only wants to take her on for a sewing job. Cassandrino mistakes Pulcinella for Rosetta’s father and asks him if he can marry her. Pulcinella plays along with the situation and makes a fool of him by always talking about his daughter Malvinuccia, who is four years old, instead of Rosetta; indeed, Cassandrino does not know the name of the woman to whom he just spoke. Pulcinella settles on a very high price for the sewing job and agrees to let Cassandrino marry his daughter in return. Pulcinella is thrilled at having duped the old man and relates the story to his brother-in-law Rugantino. The latter takes the matter into his own hands: he asks Cassandrino to make a written commitment and begins to negotiate with him. Cassandrino wants to know how long all of this will take, because he is in a hurry and wants to atone for a failed marriage at the end of which his future wife left with a friend. After making repeated threats, Rugantino manages to turn down all his demands; he even gets money to buy a drink. Rugantino calls Pulcinella, who is sleeping, and tells him that the agreement is ready. However, Cassandro wants to see his fiancée Malvinuccia. Pulcinella then calls the children and the young Malvinuccia greets Cassandro merrily, as though he were her grandfather. The man says that there has been a misunderstanding and that he wants Rosetta. Thus, they go fetch her while she is nursing another child. She arrives and the misunderstanding is cleared: she is already Pulcinella’s wife. Rugantino still demands that the contract be honoured. They therefore decide that Cassandro will pay for dinner and wine for everyone, and the latter asks that they all go to Zagarolo (a village near Rome) to relate all that has happened and turn it into a theatre play.