This is excellent news for _Spinola_; the more
so as we are soon made to understand that _Nina_, being impatient of her
husband's return, has fled to his tent to meet him, and discovers the fair
Florentine in the very act of guitar-playing, and her spouse in the midst
of his raptures thereat.
A scene follows, in which _Spinola_, as a new edition of Iago, and _Nina_,
in the form of a female Othello, get scope for a great variety of that
kind of acting which performers call "effective." The wife--in this scene
really well-drawn--will not believe Doria's falsehood, in spite of strong
circumstantial evidence. _Spinola_ offers to strengthen it; and the last
scene of this act--the fourth--presents a highly melo-dramatic situation.
It is a street scene; and _Spinola_ has brought _Nina_ to watch her
husband into her rival's house. She sees him approach it--he wavers--she
hopes he will pass the door. Alas, he does not, and actually goes in! Of
course she swoons and falls. So does the act drop.
The entire business of the last act is to bring about the catastrophe;
and, as not one step towards it has been previously taken, there is no
time to lose.
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