What fun! The mimic lovers sit at table and discuss the supper and their love.
Taddeo enters in mock alarm to tell of the coming of Pagliaccio.
Harlequin decamps, but leaves a philtre in the hands of Columbine to be poured into her husband's wine.

At the window Columbine calls after him: A stanotte--e per sempre io saro tua! At this moment Canio enters in the character of Pagliaccio.

He hears again the words which Nedda had called after the fleeing Silvio, and for a moment is startled out of his character.

But he collects himself and begins to play his part.
"A man has been here!" "You've been drinking!" The dialogue of the comedy continues, but ever and anon with difficulty on the part of Pagliaccio, who begins to put a sinister inflection into his words.
Taddeo is dragged from the cupboard in which he had taken hiding.

He, too, puts color of verity into his lines, especially when he prates about the purity of Columbine.