A RICH NOBLEMAN once opened the theaters without charge to the people,
and gave a public notice that he would handsomely reward any person who
invented a new amusement for the occasion. Various public performers
contended for the prize. Among them came a Buffoon well known among the
populace for his jokes, and said that he had a kind of entertainment
which had never been brought out on any stage before. This report being
spread about made a great stir, and the theater was crowded in every
part. The Buffoon appeared alone upon the platform, without any
apparatus or confederates, and the very sense of expectation caused an
intense silence. He suddenly bent his head towards his bosom and
imitated the squeaking of a little pig so admirably with his voice that
the audience declared he had a porker under his cloak, and demanded
that it should be shaken out. When that was done and nothing was found,
they cheered the actor, and loaded him with the loudest applause. A
Countryman in the crowd, observing all that has passed, said, “So help
me, Hercules, he shall not beat me at that trick!” and at once
proclaimed that he would do the same thing on the next day, though in a
much more natural way. On the morrow a still larger crowd assembled in
the theater, but now partiality for their favourite actor very
generally prevailed, and the audience came rather to ridicule the
Countryman than to see the spectacle. Both of the performers appeared
on the stage. The Buffoon grunted and squeaked away first, and
obtained, as on the preceding day, the applause and cheers of the
spectators. Next the Countryman commenced, and pretending that he
concealed a little pig beneath his clothes (which in truth he did, but
not suspected by the audience ) contrived to take hold of and to pull
his ear causing the pig to squeak. The Crowd, however, cried out with
one consent that the Buffoon had given a far more exact imitation, and
clamored for the Countryman to be kicked out of the theater. On this
the rustic produced the little pig from his cloak and showed by the
most positive proof the greatness of their mistake. “Look here,” he
said, “this shows what sort of judges you are.”