Virgil And The Ball-Player

“Ima subit, resilit. Ventosi prælia vento,
Exagitant juvenes: pellunt dextra atque repellunt,
Corruit ille iterùm; levisque aere truditur aer;
Ictibus impatiens obmurmurat; altaque rursus
Nubila metitur cursu; si forte globosa
Excipiant miserata globum patiturque repulsam.”

P. CAR. DE LUCA, . , EX. J. B. GANDUTIO: _Harpastum Florentinum_;
_or_, _On the Florentine Game of Ball_ .

“Jamque calent lusorum animi; color ardet in ore
In vultu sanguis rubet, omnesque occupat artus;
Præcipites hinc, inde ruunt, cursuque sequaci
Atque oculis sphæræ volucri vigilantibus justant.”

PILÆ LUDUS: _The Game of Ball_. _Auctor Incertus_. _XVIth Century_.

“Now the playing at _ball_ is allowed to Christians, because, like
chess, draughts, billiards, bowls, _trucca_, and the like, it is a
game of skill and not of chance, which latter makes illicit the most
innocent play.”—_Trattato di Giochi_, etc., _Rome_, .

There was once upon a time a grand signore in Florence who had a clever servant, a young man, who, whether he had a fairy god-mother or a witch grandmother is not told; but it is certain that he had such luck at playing ball as to always win and never lose. And his master so arranged it with him as to bet and win immense sums.

One day Virgilio, being present at a match in which this young man played, observed that there sat upon his ball a tiny invisible goblin, who directed its course as he pleased.

“Beautiful indeed is thy play,” said Virgilio to the youth, “and thy ball—_ha tutta la finezza dell’ arte_—hath all the refinement of its art; but ’tis a pity that it is not an honest ball.”

“Thou art mistaken,” replied the young man; but he reddened as he spoke.

“Ah, well,” answered Virgil, “I will show thee anon whether I have made a mistake or told the truth. _A carne di lupo dente di cane_—A dog’s teeth to a wolf’s hide. My young friend and his old master need a bite or two to cure them of their evil ways.”

There was in Florence the next day a great fair, or _festa_, and Virgil, passing where young people were diverting themselves, saw a very beautiful, bold-faced girl, who looked like a gipsy, or as if she belonged to some show, playing ball. Then Virgil, calling a goblin not bigger than a babe’s finger, bade it go and sit on the girl’s ball, and inhabit and inspire it to win. It did so, and the girl won every time. Then Virgilio said to her:

“Come with me, and I will show you how to win one hundred crowns. There is a young man who carries all before him at playing; thou must drive him before thee; _e render la pariglia_—pay him back in his own money. Then shalt thou have one hundred crowns.”

So they went together to the castle, and Virgilio said to the old signore:

“I have found a young girl who plays ball so well, that I am anxious to try her game against that of your young man.”

“What will you bet on her?” asked the old signore.

“A thousand crowns,” replied Virgilio.

“Done!” was the response.

But when they met on the ground the youth and the girl fell in love at first sight to the last degree, and not being much troubled with modesty, told one another so—_schiettamente e senza preamboli_—plainly, without prelude, preamble, or preface, as is the way and wont of professionals or show-people, wherein they showed their common sense of the value of time, which is to them as money.

Then they began to play, and it was in the old fashion, with two balls at once, each player tossing one to the other with the drum. {a} And it came to pass that in the instant that the two goblins beheld one another from afar they also fell in love. And as fairies and _folletti_ do everything, when they will, a thousand times more rapidly than human beings, and as neither could or would conquer in the game, they both cried:

“Let us be for ever united in love.”

So the two balls met with a bump half-way in their course and fell to the ground as one, while the fays embraced; and at the same instant the youth and the girl, unable to suppress their feelings, rushed into one another’s arms and began to kiss, and Virgilio and the old signore roared with laughter, the latter having a second attack of merriment when Virgilio explained to him the entire trick and plot.

Then, as it was a drawn game, the thousand crowns were by common consent bestowed on the young couple, who were married to their hearts’ content, having one _festa_ after another, at which all the guests went from bottle to bottle, even as the ass of a dealer in pottery goeth from door to door, or as the pig of Saint Antonio went from house to house. Amen!