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He used to complain
that times were changed; that what was good in the days of the Duke
might not be good for the present generation; that a scene such as this
was no incentive to true religion; that the Holy Mother of God could
hardly be edified by the performance, seeing that the players were
almost nude, and that certain of the gestures verged on indelicacy and
even immodesty. Every year he complained in like fashion: Ah, what
would the Madonna say, if she saw it?
And every year the entire body of the local clergy, with Don Francesco
as their eloquent spokesman, opposed his views.
The play was tradition, they avowed. Tradition must be upheld. And what
more? It savoured of heresy to suggest that the Mother of God was blind
to anything that happened on earth. Doubtless She saw this particular
scene; doubtless She approved; doubtless She smiled, like everyone
else. She loved her people in true motherly fashion. She was not born
in the Central Provinces. She was fond of children, whether they wore
clothes or not.


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