Reply to: RE>>eavesdropping
Try the _Twelfth Night_ prototype, Gli ingannati (Siena, 1532, by the
Accademia degli Intronati), Act III, Scene 6, where the servants Crivello and
Scatizza spy and eavesdrop (two separate processes) on Lelia (in page
disguise) resists the advances of Isabella.
In V, 5 of the same play, a little girl ("cittina") relays the noises and
words she hears from inside the room where Fabrizio (Lelia's twin brother,
fortuituously arrived in town) is making love to Isabella. Eavesdropping is
structural in this case. Lelia and Fabrizio do not appear on stage
simulataneously, and are never formally reunited: presumably they are played
by the same actor.
I have thought about eavesdropping in the _sacra rappresentazione_, and not
come up with anything. There is spying (and wonderful spying) in the Susanna
play, but I think eavesdropping works best as a comic device, and the sacra
rappresentazione is seldom comic.
Nerida Newbigin
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