Le Opere Italiane di Giordano Bruno

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| Bartholomew enters

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In Act One, Scene 3, where he mocks Bonifacio’s love, concluding that falling in love with gold and silver and pursuing two other ladies is more to the point. It is likely that upon leaving there, he went to practice the alchemy that he was studying under the 5 instruction of Cencio. This Cencio, in Scene 2, is revealed to be a rogue barro; a Renaissance term for a cheat or a swindler according to the judgment of Giovanni Bernardo; and later, in Scene 12, he shows himself to be a complete fraud. Martha, his wife, appears in Scene 13 and discusses her husband’s work. And in Scene 14, she is 10 overtaken by Sanguino, who was making fun of both him and her.

In Act Two, Scene 6, as the Rogue referring to Cencio talks with Lucia, he shows some of the profit Bartholomew was making: that is, while he attended to his alchemy, his wife Martha "did the laundry and soaped the cloths" This is a double entendre; while Bartholomew is distracted by his "great work," Martha is likely engaging in sex work or affairs.

In Act Three, Scene 1, Bartholomew discourses upon the nobility 15 of his new profession: and demonstrates with his own reasons that there is no better study or doctrine than that concerning minerals original: "de minerabilibus," a Latinate reference to alchemical studies of metals, and having remembered his practice with this, he departs.

In Act Four, Scene 3, Bartholomew goes about waiting for the servant 20 he had sent for the Christ’s powder original: "puluis Christi"; a fictional alchemical catalyst used by the swindler Cencio to trick Bartholomew. In Scene 4, he discourses upon that saying: "A Light Burden" original: "ONVS LEVE"; a reference to the Gospel of Matthew, which Bartholomew ironically applies to gold, comparing gold to feathers. In Scene 8, his wife demonstrates what an "honest matron" she was in the talk [14] she has with Master Bonifacio. She shows how much more expert she was in the "art of jousting" than her husband was in practicing alchemy; and in Scene 9, she gives it to be understood that this is no wonder, because 25 she was introduced to that discipline at the age of twelve. And giving even more vivid signs of her "doctrine of riding" Martha uses "jousting" and "riding" as sexual metaphors to mock her husband's ignorance, she makes a lamentable and pious digression regarding her husband’s study, which had distracted him from his "better occupations." She also shows the diligence she kept in 30 petitioning her gods so that they might restore her husband to his former status. With this, Scene 10, she begins to see the effect of her prayers: for the alchemy has all "gone into the Chiasso" original: "andata in chiasso"; a pun meaning both that the experiment failed in a loud mess and that it ended up in the "Chiasso," the red-light district because of a certain "Christ’s powder" that could not be found unless Bartholomew made it himself—which, from five talents, would have returned him five talents meaning there was no profit or "multiplication," the goal of alchemy. 35 Now the man goes with his servant Mochione to find Consalvo to get better information.

In Act Five, Scene 2, Consalvo and Bartholomew arrive, the latter complaining that the former was aware of and an accomplice to the trick played on him by Cencio. And so, from words they came to blows in Scene 3; they were 40 overtaken by Sanguino and his companions in the guise of a captain and bailiffs birri; the low-level police. These men, under the pretext of wanting to lead them to prison, tied them with...

11 with Lucia, he shows | 18 part | 22 Scene | 24 alchemy and: | 35 Now the man