left the faults of youth behind and has not yet reached those of old
age. Being placed then at the two extremes, young and old must needs
learn from reason how to correct the faults that nature implants in
them. Thus, old men ought to guard against much self-praise and the
other evil habits that we have said are peculiar to them, and to use
that prudence and knowledge which they have gained from long experience,
and to be like oracles consulted of all men; and in telling what they
know, they ought to have the grace to speak to the point and temper the
gravity of their years with a certain mild and sportive humour. In this
way they will be good Courtiers, enjoy their intercourse with men and
with ladies, and be always welcome,—without singing or dancing; and when
need arises they will display their worth in affairs of importance.
16.—“Let young men use this same care and judgment, not indeed in
copying old men’s ways,—for that which befits the one would not at all
befit the other, and we are wont to say that over wisdom is a bad sign
in the young,—but in correcting their own natural faults. Hence I
greatly like to see a youth, and especially when handling weapons, who
has a touch of the grave and taciturn; who is master of himself, without
those restless manners which are often seen at that age; because such
youths seem to have a certain something in them above the rest. Moreover
this quietness of manner has in it a kind of impressive boldness,
because it seems the result not of anger but of judgment, and governed
more by reason than by passion. This is nearly always found in all men
of high courage, and we see it also among those brute animals that have
more nobility and strength than their fellows,—as in the lion and the
eagle.
“Nor is this strange; for an impetuous and sudden movement,—which
without words or other signs of wrath abruptly bursts with all its force
at once from the quiet that is its contrary, as it were like the
discharge of a cannon,—is far more violent and furious than that which
increases by degrees and grows hotter little by little. Therefore they
who talk much and move about and cannot stand still, when they have an
enterprise on foot, seem thus to exhaust their powers; and as our friend
messer Pietro Monte well says, they act like boys who sing from fear
when they walk at night, as if to keep up their courage by their
singing.
“Again, just as calm and thoughtful youthfulness is very praiseworthy in
a young man, because the levity which is the fault peculiar to his age
seems to be tempered and corrected,—so in an old man a green and lively
old age is to be highly esteemed, because his stoutness of heart seems
to be so great as to warm and strengthen his feeble and chill years, and
to keep him in that middle state which is the best part of our life.
17.—“But in brief not even all these qualities in our Courtier will
suffice to win universal favour of lords, cavaliers and ladies, unless
he has also a gentle and amiable manner in daily talk. And I verily
believe it to be difficult to give any rule for this, because of the
infinite variety of things that arise in conversation, and because among
all the men on earth no two are found who have minds quite alike. So
whoever has to prepare himself for conversation with many, must needs be
guided by his own judgment, and distinguishing the differences between
one man and another, must daily change his style and method according to
the character of the person with whom he has to converse. Nor could I
for my part give other rules in this matter than those already given,
which our friend my lord Morello has learned at the confessional from
his youth up.”
Here my lady Emilia laughed, and said:
“You shirk labour too much, messer Federico. But you shall not succeed,
for you must talk on until it is time to go to bed.”
“And what, my Lady, if I have nothing to say?” replied messer Federico.
“There you shall show your wit,” said my lady Emilia. “And if what I
once heard be true, that there was a man so clever and eloquent that he
did not lack material to write a book in praise of a fly, others in
praise of the fourth day ague, and another in praise of baldness,—will
you also not have the courage to find something to say about
Courtiership for one evening?”[160]
“We have already said enough about it to make two books,” replied messer
Federico. “But since my excuse is of no avail, I will talk until you
think I have fulfilled, if not my duty, at least the limit of my powers.
18.—“I think that the conversation which the Courtier ought most to try
in every way to make acceptable, is that which he holds with his prince;
and although this word ‘conversation’ implies a certain equality that
seems impossible between a lord and his inferior, yet we will call it so
for the present. Therefore, besides daily showing everyone that he
possesses the worth we have already described, I would have the Courtier
strive, with all the thoughts and forces of his mind, to love and almost
to adore the prince whom he serves, above every other thing, and mould
his wishes, habits and all his ways to his prince’s liking.”
Without waiting for more, Pietro da Napoli here said:
“We already have enough Courtiers of this kind, for methinks you have in
a few words described for us a noble flatterer.”
“You are much in errour,” replied messer Federico; “for flatterers love
neither their prince nor their friends, which I tell you I wish chiefly
in our Courtier.
“Moreover it is possible without flattery to obey and further the wishes
of him we serve, for I am speaking of those wishes that are reasonable
and right, or of those that in themselves are neither good nor evil,
such as would be a liking for play or a devotion to one kind of exercise
above another. And I would have the Courtier bend himself to this even
if he be by nature alien to it, so that on seeing him his lord shall
always feel that he will have something agreeable to say; which will
come about if he has the good judgment to perceive what his prince
likes, and the wit and prudence to bend himself thereto, and a
deliberate purpose to like that which perhaps he by nature dislikes. And
adopting these precautions, he will never be out of humour or melancholy
before his prince, nor so taciturn as many are who seem to bear a grudge
against their patrons, which is a truly odious thing. He will not be
given to evil speaking, especially against his own lords; which often
happens, for in courts there seems to rage a fury[161] of such sort that
those who have been most favoured by their lord and have been raised to
eminence from the lowest state, are always complaining and speaking ill
of him; which is unseemly not only in such as these, but even in those
who chance to have been ill used.
“Our Courtier will show no foolish presumption; he will not be a bearer
of evil tidings; he will not be thoughtless in sometimes saying things
that offend instead of pleasing as he intends. He will not be obstinate
and disputatious, as some are who seem to delight in nothing but to be
troublesome and disagreeable like flies, and who make a point of
spitefully contradicting everyone without discrimination. He will not be
an idle or untruthful tattler, nor a boaster nor pointless flatterer,
but modest and reserved, always and especially in public showing that
reverence and respect which befit the servant towards the master; and he
will not behave like many, who on meeting any great prince, with whom if
only they have spoken but once, press forward with a certain smiling and
friendly look, as if they wished to caress an equal or show favour to an
inferior.
“He will very rarely or almost never ask anything of his lord for
himself, lest his lord, being reluctant to deny it to him directly, may
sometimes grant it with an ill grace, which is much worse. Even in
asking for others he will choose his time discreetly and ask proper and
reasonable things; and he will so frame his request, by omitting what he
knows may displease and by skilfully doing away with difficulties, that
his lord shall always grant it, or shall not think him offended by
refusal even if it be denied; for when lords have denied a favour to an
importunate suitor, they often reflect that he who asked it with such
eagerness, must have desired it greatly, and so having failed to obtain
it, must feel ill will towards him who denied it; and believing this,
they begin to hate the man and can never more look upon him with favour.
19.—“He will not seek to intrude unasked into his master’s chamber or
private retreats, even though he be of great consequence; for when great
lords are in private, they often like a little liberty to say and do
what they please, and do not wish to be seen or heard by any who may
criticise them; and it is very proper. Hence I think those men do ill
who blame great lords for consorting privately with persons who are of
little worth save in matters of personal service, for I do not see why
lords should not have the same freedom to relax their minds that we fain
would have to relax ours. But if a Courtier accustomed to deal with
important matters, chances to find himself in private with his lord, he
must put on another face, postpone grave concerns to another place and
time, and give the conversation a cast that shall amuse and please his
lord, so as not to disturb that repose of mind of which I speak.
“In this however, as in everything else, let him above all take care not
to weary his lord, and let him wait for favours to be offered him rather
than angle for them so openly as many do, who are so greedy that it
seems as if they must die if they do not get what they seek; and if they
happen to meet any disfavour or to see others favoured, they suffer such
anguish that they can in no wise hide their envy. Thus they make
everyone laugh at them, and often are the cause that leads their master
to bestow favour on the first comer simply to spite them. Then again, if
they find themselves in at all more than common favour, they become so
intoxicated by it that they stand palsied[162] with joy, and seem not to
know what to do with their hands and feet, and they can hardly keep from
calling on the company to come and see and congratulate them as upon
something to which they are quite unused.
“Of such sort I would not have our Courtier. I am quite willing that he
should like favours, but not that he should value them so highly as to
seem unable to do without them. And when he receives them, let him not
seem unused or strange to them, or marvel that they are offered him; nor
let him refuse them, as some do who refrain from accepting them out of
mere ignorance, and thus seem to the bystanders to be conscious of not
deserving them.
“Yet a man ought always to be a little more backward than his rank
warrants; to accept not too readily the favours and honours that are
offered him; and to refuse them modestly, showing that he values them
highly, yet in such fashion as to give the donor cause to offer them
again with far more urgency. For the greater the reluctance with which
they are accepted, the more highly will the prince who gives them think
himself esteemed, and the benefit that he bestows will seem the greater,
the more the recipient seems to prize it and to hold himself honoured by
it. Moreover these are the true and solid favours that make a man
esteemed by those who see him from without; for, being unsought, they
are assumed by everyone to be the reward of true worth, the more so when
they are accompanied by modesty.”
20.—Then messer Cesare Gonzaga said:
“Methinks you have stolen this passage from the Evangelist, where he
says: ‘When thou art bidden to a wedding, go and sit down in the lowest
room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say: Friend, go up
higher: and thus shalt thou have honour in the presence of them that sit
at meat with thee.’”[163]
Messer Federico laughed, and said:
“It were too great sacrilege to steal from the Evangelist; but you are
more learned in Holy Writ than I thought;” then he went on: “You see
what great danger those men sometimes run who boldly begin conversation
before a lord without being invited; and to put them down, the lord
often makes no reply and turns his head another way, and even if he
replies to them, everyone sees that he does it with an ill grace.
[Illustration]
BALDESAR CASTIGLIONE
CESAR DE GONZAGA
LUDOVICO CANOSSA
PIETRO BEMBO
BERNARDO DE BIBBIENA
AUTOGRAPH SIGNATURES OF THE AUTHOR AND OF
FOUR OF HIS FRIENDS
From negatives, made by Premi and by Signor Lanzoni, from originals
preserved in the Royal State Archives at Mantua and selected by the
Director, Signor Alessandro Luzio.
“To have the favour of princes, then, there is no better way than to
deserve it. And when we see another man who is pleasing to a prince for
any reason, we must not think to reach the same height ourselves by
imitating him, for all things are not proper to all men. Thus there will
sometimes be found a man who by nature is so ready at jesting that
whatever he may say carries laughter with it, and he seems to have been
born solely for that; and if another man, who has a sober habit of mind
(however excellently endowed) tries to do the like, it will fall so cold
and flat as to disgust those who hear him, and he will prove exactly
like that ass who tried to copy the dog by frolicking with their
master.[164] Hence every man must understand himself and his own powers,
and govern himself accordingly, and consider what things he ought to
imitate, and what things he ought not.”
21.—Here Vincenzo Calmeta said:
“Before you go on, if I heard aright I think you said awhile ago that
the best way to win favours is to deserve them, and that the Courtier
ought to wait for them to be offered him rather than ask for them
presumptuously. I greatly fear this rule is little to the purpose, and I
think experience very clearly teaches us the contrary. For to-day very
few are favoured by their lords, save the presumptuous; and I know you
can give good testimony as to some, who on finding themselves in small
favour with their princes, have made themselves acceptable solely by
their presumption. While as for those who have risen through modesty, I
for my part do not know any, and I even give you time to think about it
and believe you will find few. And if you consider the court of France,
which is to-day one of the noblest in Christendom, you will find that
all men who have universal favour there are somewhat presumptuous, and
not only towards one another but towards the king himself.”
“Now do not say that,” replied messer Federico; “for in France there are
very modest and courteous gentlemen. It is true that they behave with a
certain freedom and unceremonious familiarity, which are proper and
natural to them; and therefore it ought not to be called presumption,
because in this very manner of theirs, whilst they deride and make sport
of the presumptuous, yet they rate highly those who seem to them to have
worth and modesty.”
Calmeta replied:
“Look at the Spaniards, who it seems are our masters in Courtiership,
and consider how many you will find who are not very presumptuous with
ladies and with gentlemen; and even more so than the French, because at
first sight they show the greatest modesty. And in this they are truly
clever, for as I said, the princes of our time all favour only those who
have such manners.”
22.—Then messer Federico replied:
“I will by no means suffer you, messer Vincenzo, to cast this reproach
upon the princes of our time. For indeed there are also many who love
modesty, which I do not however say alone suffices to make a man
acceptable; but I do say that when united to high worth, it greatly
honours its possessor. And although it be silent about itself,
praiseworthy deeds speak aloud and are far more admirable than if they
were accompanied by presumption and rashness. I will not indeed deny
that there are many presumptuous Spaniards, but I say that those who are
much esteemed are as a rule very modest.
“Again, there are also some men who are so reserved that they shun human
company beyond reason, and so far exceed a certain limit of moderation
that they come to be regarded as either too timid or too proud. For
these I have no praise, nor would I have modesty so dry and arid as to
become clownishness; but let the Courtier be fluent on occasion, and
prudent and sagacious in discussing statecraft, and let him have the
good sense to adapt himself to the customs of the nations where he finds
himself; then in lesser matters let him be agreeable and speak well
about everything.
“But above all, he should make for right; not envious, not evil-tongued:
nor let him ever bring himself to seek grace or favour by foul ways or
dishonourable means.”
Then Calmeta said:
“I assure you that all other ways are more uncertain and longer than
this one which you censure. For to repeat, princes at the present day
love only those who tread that path.”
“Say not so,” then replied messer Federico, “for that would be too clear
an argument that the princes of our time are all vicious and
wicked,—which is not true, since several good ones are to be found. But
if our Courtier should chance to find himself in the service of one who
is vicious and malign, let him depart as soon as he discovers it, lest
he suffer that keen anguish which all good men feel who serve the
wicked.”
“We must needs pray God,” replied Calmeta, “to send us good masters, for
when we have them, we are forced to endure them such as they are;
because an infinity of reasons constrain a gentleman not to leave the
patron he has once begun to serve; but the misfortune consists in
beginning to serve a bad patron, and Courtiers in this condition are
like those unhappy birds that are hatched in a gloomy valley.”
“It seems to me,” said messer Federico, “that duty ought to outweigh all
other reasons. And provided a gentleman does not leave his patron when
at war or in adversity,—lest he be thought to have done so to better his
fortunes or because he feared that he might lack opportunity for gain,—I
think that at any other time he rightly may and ought to leave a service
that is like to disgrace him before all good men; for everyone assumes
that whoever serves the good is good, and that whoever serves the wicked
is wicked.”
23.—Then my lord Ludovico Pio said:
“I should like to have you clear a doubt that is in my mind; that is,
whether a gentleman in the service of a prince is bound to obey him in
all things that he commands, even if they be dishonourable and
infamous.”
“In dishonourable things we are not bound to obey any man,” replied
messer Federico.
“And how,” returned my lord Ludovico, “if I am in the service of a
prince who uses me well and trusts to my doing for him all that can be
done, commanding me to go kill a man or do anything else you
please,—ought I to refuse to do it?”
“You ought,” replied messer Federico, “to obey your lord in all things
that are advantageous and honourable to him, not in those that bring him
injury and disgrace. Therefore if he were to command you to commit an
act of treachery, not only would you not be bound to do it, but you
would be bound not to do it,—both for your own sake and for the sake of
not being a minister to your lord’s disgrace. True it is that many
things which are evil seem at first sight good, and many seem evil and
yet are good. Hence in our lords’ service it is sometimes permitted to
kill not one man but ten thousand, and to do many other things that
would seem evil to a man who did not rightly consider them, and yet are
not evil.”
Then my lord Gaspar Pallavicino replied:
“On your faith, I pray you discuss this a little, and teach us how the
really good can be distinguished from that which only seems so.”
“Pardon me,” said messer Federico; “I am unwilling to enter upon that,
for there would be too much to say; but let the whole matter be left to
your own wisdom.”
24.—“At least clear another doubt for me,” returned my lord Gaspar.
“And what doubt?” said messer Federico.
“It is this,” replied my lord Gaspar. “I should like to know,—my lord
having charged me exactly what I must do in an enterprise or any other
business whatever, if I being engaged upon it think that my doing more
or less or otherwise than I was charged, may make the affair turn out
better and more advantageously for him who gave me the task,—whether I
ought to govern myself by the original plan without exceeding the limits
of my command, or on the contrary to do that which seems to me better.”
Then messer Federico replied:
“In this I should give you the precept and example of Manlius Torquatus
(who in like case slew his son, from too stern a sense of duty), if I
thought he deserved much credit, which I do not.[165] And yet I dare not
blame him against the verdict of so many centuries. For without doubt it
is a very perilous thing to deviate from our superiors’ commands,
relying more on our own judgment than on theirs whom we ought in reason
to obey; because if our expectation fails and the affair turns out ill,
we run into the errour of disobedience and ruin that which we have to
do, without any possibility of excuse or hope of pardon. On the other
hand, if the affair turns out according to our wish, we must give the
credit to fortune and be content at that. Moreover in this way a fashion
is set of rating the commands of our superiors lightly; and following
the example of one man who happened to succeed and who perhaps was
prudent and had reasoned well and been aided by fortune too,—a thousand
other ignorant featherheads will make bold to do as they please in the
most important matters, and for the sake of showing that they are
sagacious and have authority, to deviate from their masters’ commands;
which is a very evil thing and often the cause of numberless mistakes.
“But I think that in such a case the man whom it concerns ought to
consider carefully, and as it were to place in the balance the profit
and advantage that he stands to win by acting contrary to orders, in
case his design turns out according to his hopes; and on the other hand
to weigh the evil and disadvantage that will accrue if the affair
chances to turn out ill through his disobedience of orders. And if he
finds the damage in case of failure to be greater and more serious than
the gain in case of success, he ought to restrain himself and carry out
his orders to the letter; while on the contrary if the gain in case of
success is like to be more serious than the damage in case of failure, I
think he may properly venture to do that which his reason and judgment
dictate, and somewhat disregard the very letter of his orders,—so as to
act like good merchants, who to gain much risk little, but never risk
much to gain little.
“I strongly approve of the Courtier’s observing above all the character
of the prince whom he serves, and of his governing himself accordingly:
for if it be severe, as is the case with many, I should never advise
anyone who was my friend to change one jot the order given him; lest
that might befall him which is recorded as having befallen a master
engineer of the Athenians, to whom Publius Crassus Mucianus,[166] when
he was in Asia and wished to besiege a fortified place, sent to ask for
one of two ship’s masts that he had seen at Athens, in order to make a
ram wherewith to batter down the wall, and said he wished the larger
one. Being very intelligent, the engineer knew that the larger mast was
unsuitable for the purpose, and as the smaller one was easier to
transport and better adapted for making the machine in question, he sent
it to Mucianus. The latter, hearing how things had gone, sent for the
poor engineer, asked why he had disobeyed his orders, and refusing to
listen to any excuse from him, caused him to be stripped naked and so
flogged and scourged with rods that he died, because it seemed to
Mucianus that instead of obeying, the man had tried to offer advice. So
we had best use great caution with these rigourous men.
25.—“But now let us leave this subject of intercourse with princes, and
come to conversation with our equals or with those that are nearly so:
for we must pay heed to this also, since it is universally more
practised and a man more often finds himself engaged in it than in
conversation with princes.