(to VENETIAN AMBASSADOR)
What say you to our Diego's masque, my Lord? Does not his skill as a composer vie almost with his sublety as a singer?
MARCHIONESS OF GUASTALLA
(to the DUCHESS DOWAGER)
A most excellent masque, methinks, Madam. And of so new a kind. We have had masques in palaces and also in gardens, and some, I own it, beautiful; for our palace on the hill affords fine vistas of cypress avenues and the distant plain. But, until the Duke your son, no one has had a masque on the water, it would seem. 'Tis doubtless his invention?
DUCHESS
(with evident preoccupation)
I think not, Madam. 'Tis our foolish Diego's freak. And I confess I like it not. It makes me anxious for the players.
BISHOP OF CREMONA (to the CARDINAL)
A wondrous singer, your Signor Diego. They say the Spaniards have subtle exercises for keeping the voice thus youthful. His Holiness has several such who sing divinely under Pierluigi's guidance. But your Diego seems really but a child, yet has a mode of singing like one who knows a world of joys and sorrows.