ABRAZZA—Very fine. I presume, Babbalanja, the first thing he did, was to fast, and invoke the muses.
BABBALANJA—Pardon, my lord; on the contrary he first procured a ream of vellum, and some sturdy quills: indispensable preliminaries, my worshipful lords, to the writing of the sublimest epics.
ABRAZZA—Ah! then the muses were afterward invoked.
BABBALANJA—Pardon again. Lombardo next sat down to a fine plantain pudding.
YOOMY—When the song-spell steals over me, I live upon olives.
BABBALANJA—Yoomy, Lombardo eschewed olives. Said he, “What fasting soldier can fight? and the fight of all fights is to write.” In ten days Lombardo had written—
ABRAZZA—Dashed off, you mean.
BABBALANJA—He never dashed off aught.
ABRAZZA—As you will.
BABBALANJA—In ten days, Lombardo had written full fifty folios; he loved huge acres of vellum whereon to expatiate.