THE KING.
Don't listen to me any longer, my child, or you will lose your joyousness and appear before the public not as a punchinello, but as a spectre from the grave!
ALMA.
Of course, here in the market place of Perugia you must feel uncomfortable.
A PAGE.
(Enters the dressing room carrying an autograph album under his arm.) My mistress, the noble spouse of the honorable Doctor Silvio Andreotti, Attorney General to His Majesty the King, sends me thither. My mistress desires the celebrated artist Epaminondas Alexandrion to place his autograph in this book. My mistress bids me say that the book contains only the autographs of the greatest men. (He hands the book and writing materials to the King.)
THE KING.
(Takes the goose quill and writes, speaking the words aloud as he does so.) "Only simplicity can fathom wisdom," Epaminondas Alexandrion the Second. (Giving back the album.) Present my respects to your noble mistress, the spouse of the Attorney General to the King.
(Exit the page.)
THE KING.