Batti, batti, o bel Masetto

from Don Giovanni

from the opera "Don Giovanni"

Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte

English version by Natalia Macfarren

Origin : https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8jmYnWjMsEnYjZlNWE5NjEtZWEyZS00MDAwLWI3YjgtYjQ2NTczZWQ5N2Jk/edit?resourcekey=0-Q4J2UpghjJhGLDSkHKdivQ

English version : https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015012779602?urlappend=%3Bseq=126%3Bownerid=13510798887814647-130

Comment

It may seem a bit thick to see in a single word ("batti") a reference to an aria by Mozart - even if it is repeated.

But when in the same flow of conversation, it is said "La donna è mobile"🎹, then "Funiculi, Funicula"🎹, we understand that for an illiterate in Italian (like Bruce Carmyle), an exchange in the language of Dante is like a mixture of opera arias and menu headings. The ignorant listener also perceives Spanish and French words.

The Adventures of Sally 📚

[...]; while just behind him two waiters had halted in order to thrash out one of those voluble arguments in which waiters love to indulge.

[...]

'Batti, batti! I presto ravioli hollandaise', cried one of the disputing waiters at his back–or to Bruce Carmyle's prejudiced hearing it sounded like that.

The Adventures of Sally. 16.III At the Flower Garden