THE GIORDANO

OR

THE CITIZEN GENTLEMAN

COMEDY

ARGUMENT.

A decorative woodcut drop cap 'G' depicts two figures, one seated and one standing, inside a room with architectural details.
Giordano Spiluzzi, a simple Roman citizen and merchant who has taken it upon himself to become a person of quality, spares no expense to make himself appear as such in the city and to intrude with ridiculous simplicity into the friendship of distinguished persons. To better arrive at the nobility he has imagined for himself, he wishes to remove his son Aurelio from the company of Erasto and Fidalbo, who are also merchants, by sending him to study in Bologna in the company of Doctor Ardelione, brought from that city for this purpose. Furthermore, he intends to marry his daughter Lucilla to a Marquis. Flaminio, Giordano’s brother, unable to bear his wastefulness, never ceases to scold him to make him recognize his madness, but all in vain; for in this folly he is confirmed by Count Dorante and the Marquis of Petrognano, who use his gullibility to serve their own interests. Fidalbo and Erasto, seeing that Giordano's madness cannot be cured, set about mocking his foolish plans. Thus, with Aurelio’s consent and the help of Mascariglio, they play such tricks on Ardelione that, besides discrediting him in Giordano’s eyes, they force him to flee Rome after having stripped him of all he possessed. Then, having led Giordano to believe that Fidalbo is the son of the Grand Turk who desires to marry Lucilla, they feed his insane vanity and obtain his consent to give her to him as a consort. In this way, if the madness of the foolish Giordano is not cured, his designs are at least frustrated. The scene is set in Rome.

INTERLOCUTORS.