Patterns of Language and Action

Abstract

At one point in Gl’Ingannati — one of the Italian comedies involving a disguised girl — a party of travellers arrives in town and has to choose between two rival inns, The Mirror and The Fool (or, in another translation, The Madman). It is obvious from the other puns in this dialogue that, when the party finally decides to stay at The Fool, their choice has an ironic significance. It is the more ironic, because one member of the party is the heroine’s long-lost brother. The play thus neatly makes its dramatic point: until everyone recognises that brother and sister are mirror images, the situation is going to make fools of them all.