charms and sometimes force, sometimes sleeping potions and such like
things. Be assured, too, that gifts much lessen the pleasures of love;
for a man may suspect that he is not loved and that his lady makes a
show of loving him in order to profit by it. Hence you see that great
ladies’ love is prized because it could hardly spring from other source
than real and true affection, nor is it credible that a great lady
should ever pretend to love one of her inferiors unless she loves him
truly.”
95.—Then my lord Gaspar replied:
“I do not deny that the purpose, toils and dangers of lovers ought to
have their aim directed chiefly towards the conquest of the mind rather
than of the body of their beloved. But I say that these deceits, which
you call treachery in men and trickery in women, are excellent means of
attaining this aim, for whoever possesses a woman’s person is master of
her mind as well. And if you remember rightly, Filippello’s wife, after
much lament over the deceit practised on her by Riciardo, discovered how
much more delicious than her husband’s were the kisses of her lover, and
her coldness to Riciardo changed to sweet affection, so that from that
day forth she loved him most tenderly. Thus it came about that what his
frequent fond visits, his gifts and countless other tokens shown
unceasingly, could not affect, a taste of his embraces soon
accomplished. You now see that this same trickery, or treachery as you
would call it, was a good way to capture the fortress of her mind.”
Then messer Bernardo said:
“You advance a very false premise, for if women always surrendered their
mind to the man who possessed their person, no wife would be found who
did not love her husband more than every other person in the world; the
contrary of which we find to be the case. But Giovanni Boccaccio was
very unjustly hostile to women, as you are also.”[327]
96.—My lord Gaspar replied:
“I am not at all hostile to them; but there are very few men of worth
who as a rule make any account of women whatever, although for their own
purposes they sometimes pretend the contrary.”
Then messer Bernardo replied:
“You wrong not women only, but also all men who hold them in respect.
However, as I said, I do not wish for the present to go outside my
original subject of practical joking, and enter upon so difficult an
enterprise as would be the defence of women against you, who are a most
redoubtable warrior. So I will make an end of this talk of mine, which
has perhaps been far longer than was necessary, and certainly less
amusing than you expected. And since I see the ladies sit so quiet,
enduring your insults thus patiently as they do, I shall henceforth
regard a part of what my lord Ottaviano said as true, namely, that they
care not what other evil is said of them, provided they be not taunted
with lack of chastity.”
Then at a signal from my lady Duchess, many of the ladies rose to their
feet, and all ran laughing towards my lord Gaspar, as if to shower blows
upon him and treat him as the bacchants treated Orpheus,[328]—meanwhile
saying:
“You shall see now whether we care if evil be said of us.”
97.—Thus, partly because of the laughter and partly because everyone
rose to his feet, the drowsiness that had seized the eyes and mind of
some, seemed to flee away; but my lord Gaspar began to say:
“You see that being in the wrong, they would fain use force and thus end
the discussion by giving us a Braccesque leave, as the saying is.”[329]
Then my lady Emilia replied:
“Nay, that shall not help you; for when you saw messer Bernardo wearied
by his long talk, you began to say all manner of evil about women,
thinking to have no antagonist. But we shall put a fresh champion in the
field to fight you, to the end that your offence may not go long
unpunished.”
So, turning to the Magnifico Giuliano, who had thus far spoken little,
she said:
“You are accounted the defender of women’s honour; wherefore the time
has come for you to show that you have not acquired this title falsely.
And if hitherto you have ever found profit in your office, you ought now
to consider that by putting down so bitter an enemy of ours, you will
render all women still more beholden to you, so much so that although
nothing else be ever done but requite you, yet the obligation must
always stand and can never fully be requited.”
98.—Then the Magnifico Giuliano replied:
“My Lady, methinks you do your enemy much honour, and your defender very
little; for so far my lord Gaspar has certainly said nothing against
women that messer Bernardo has not most consummately answered. And I
believe we all know that it is fitting for the Courtier to show women
the greatest reverence, and that he who is discreet and courteous must
never taunt them with lack of chastity, either in jest or in earnest.
Therefore, to discuss such obvious truth as this, is almost to cast
doubt upon that which is undoubted. But indeed I think my lord Ottaviano
went rather too far when he said that women are very imperfect
creatures, incapable of any worthy action, and possessed of little or no
dignity in comparison with men. And as trust is often placed in those
who have great authority, even when they say what is not the exact truth
and also when they speak in jest,—my lord Gaspar suffered himself to be
led by my lord Ottaviano’s words to say that wise men make no account of
women whatever, which is most false. On the contrary, I have known very
few men of merit who did not love and honour women,—whose worth (and so
whose dignity) I regard as in no wise inferior to men’s.
[Illustration]
UNICUS ARETINUS
Bernardo Accolti
JO. CHRISTOFANO ROMANO
VINCENTIO CALMETA
NICOLO PHRYSIO
SERAPHINO
AUTOGRAPH SIGNATURES OF INTERLOCUTORS
From negatives, made by Signor Lanzoni, from originals preserved in the
Royal State Archives at Mantua and selected by the Director, Signor
Alessandro Luzio.
“Yet if this were to be the subject of dispute, women’s cause would be
at serious disadvantage; because these gentlemen have described a
Courtier so excellent and of such heavenly accomplishments, that whoso
undertook to consider him as they have pictured him, would imagine that
women’s merits could not attain that pitch. But if the contest were to
be fair, we should first need to have someone as clever and eloquent as
Count Ludovico and messer Federico are, to describe a Court Lady with
all the perfections proper to woman, just as they have described the
Courtier with the perfections proper to man. And then, if he who
defended their cause were of only moderate cleverness and eloquence, I
think that with truth for ally, he would clearly prove that women are as
full of virtue as men are.”
“Nay,” replied my lady Emilia, “far more so; and in proof of this, you
see that virtue (_la virtù_) is feminine, and vice (_il vizio_) is
masculine.”[330]
99.—Then my lord Gaspar laughed, and turning to messer Niccolò Frisio,
said:
“What think you of this, Frisio?”
Frisio replied:
“I am sorry for my lord Magnifico, who has been beguiled by my lady
Emilia’s promises and soft words into the errour of saying that which I
blush for on his behalf.”
My lady Emilia replied, still laughing:
“You will be ashamed rather of yourself, when you see my lord Gaspar
confuted, confessing his own and your errour, and imploring a pardon
that we shall refuse to grant him.”
Then my lady Duchess said:
“As the hour is very late, let the whole matter be postponed until
to-morrow; especially since it seems to me wise to follow my lord
Magnifico’s counsel, which is: that before we enter upon this
controversy, a Court Lady be described with all her perfections, just as
these gentlemen have described the perfect Courtier.”
Then my lady Emilia said:
“My Lady, God forbid that we chance to entrust this task to any
fellow-conspirator of my lord Gaspar, who will describe us a Court Lady
that can do naught but cook and spin.”
Frisio said:
“But this is her proper calling.”
Then my lady Emilia said:
“I am willing to trust my lord Magnifico, who will (with the cleverness
and good sense which I know are his) imagine the highest perfection that
can be desired in woman, and will set it forth in beautiful language
too; and then we shall have something to offer against my lord Gaspar’s
false aspersions.”
100.—“My Lady,” replied the Magnifico, “I am not sure how well advised
you are to impose on me an enterprise of such weight that I really do
not feel myself sufficient for it. Nor am I like the Count and messer
Federico, who have with their eloquence described a Courtier that never
was and perhaps never can be. Still, if it pleases you to have me bear
this burden, at least let it be upon the same conditions as in the case
of these other gentlemen, namely: that everyone may contradict me when
he pleases; for I shall take it, not as contradiction, but as aid; and
perhaps by the correction of my mistakes we shall discover that
perfection of the Court Lady which we seek.”
“I hope,” replied my lady Duchess, “that your talk will be of such sort
that little may be found in it to contradict. So give your whole mind to
it, and describe for us such a woman that these adversaries of ours
shall be ashamed to say she is not equal in worth to the Courtier; of
whom it will be well for messer Federico to say no more, since the
Courtier has been only too well adorned by him, especially as there is
now need to give him a paragon in woman.”
Then messer Federico said:
“My Lady, little or nothing is now left for me to tell about the
Courtier; and what I thought of saying has been driven from my mind by
messer Bernardo’s pleasantries.”
“If that be so,” said my lady Duchess, “let us come together again early
to-morrow, and we shall have time to attend to both matters.”
Thereupon all rose to their feet, and having reverently taken leave of
my lady Duchess, everyone went to his own room.
THE THIRD BOOK OF THE COURTIER
BY COUNT BALDESAR CASTIGLIONE
TO MESSER ALFONSO ARIOSTO
1.—We read that Pythagoras very ingeniously and cleverly discovered the
measure of Hercules’s body; and the way was this: it being known that
the space where the Olympic games were celebrated every five years,
before the temple of Olympian Jove near Elis, in Achaia,[331] had been
measured by Hercules, and a stadium made six hundred and twenty-five
times the length of his own foot; and that the other stadia which were
afterwards established throughout Greece by later generations, were
likewise of the length of six hundred and twenty-five feet, and yet were
somewhat shorter than the first one: by this proportion Pythagoras
easily reckoned how much larger Hercules’s foot was than other human
feet; and thus, knowing the measure of the foot, from this he argued
that the whole body of Hercules was larger than other men’s in the same
proportion that the first stadium bore to the other stadia.
So you, my dear messer Alfonso, by the same reasoning may clearly see,
from this small part of the whole body, how superior the court of Urbino
was to all others in Italy, considering how much the games that were
devised for the refreshment of minds wearied by the most arduous
labours, were superior to those that were practised in the other courts
of Italy. And if these were of such sort, think what were the other
worthy pursuits to which our minds were bent and wholly given; and of
this I confidently make bold to speak with hope of being believed; for I
am not praising things so ancient that I might be allowed to invent, but
can prove what I affirm by the testimony of many men worthy of faith,
who are still living and personally saw and knew the life and behaviour
that one time flourished in that court: and I hold myself bound, as far
as I can, to strive with every effort to rescue this bright memory from
mortal oblivion, and by my writing to make it live in the hearts of
posterity.
Wherefore perhaps in the future there will not be lacking some to envy
our century for this also; since no one reads the wonderful exploits of
the ancients, who in his mind does not conceive a somewhat higher
opinion of those that are written of than the books themselves seem able
to express, however divinely they be written. Even so we desire that all
to whose hands this work of ours shall come (if indeed it shall ever be
worthy of such favour as to deserve being seen by noble cavaliers and
virtuous ladies) may assume and take for certain that the court of
Urbino was far more excellent, and adorned by men of singular worth,
than we can express in writing; and if we had as great eloquence as they
had merit, we should have no need of other proof to make our words
believed by those who saw it not.
2.—Now the company being assembled the next day at the accustomed hour
and place, and seated in silence, everyone turned his eyes to messer
Federico and to the Magnifico Giuliano, waiting to see which of them
would begin the discussion. Wherefore my lady Duchess, having been
silent awhile, said:
“My lord Magnifico, everyone desires to see this lady of yours well
adorned; and if you do not display her to us in such fashion that all
her beauties may be seen, we shall think that you are jealous of her.”
The Magnifico replied:
“My Lady, if I deemed her beautiful, I should display her all unadorned
and in the same fashion wherein Paris chose to view the three
goddesses;[332] but if these ladies here, who well know how, do not aid
me to deck her forth, I fear that not only my lord Gaspar and Frisio,
but all these other gentlemen, will have just cause to say ill of her.
So, while still she stands in some repute for beauty, perhaps it will be
better to keep her hidden, and to see what messer Federico has left to
say about the Courtier, which without doubt is far more beautiful than
my Lady can be.”
“What I had in mind,” replied messer Federico, “is not so necessary to
the Courtier that it may not be omitted without any harm; nay, it is
rather different matter from that which has thus far been discussed.”
“And what is it, then?” said my lady Duchess.
Messer Federico replied:
“I had thought of explaining, as far as I could, the origin of these
companies and orders of knighthood established by great princes under
different ensigns: as that of Saint Michael in the House of France;[333]
that of the Garter, which bears the name of Saint George, in the House
of England;[334] the Golden Fleece in that of Burgundy:[335] and in what
manner these dignities are bestowed, and how they who deserve them are
deprived thereof; whence they arose, who were the founders of them, and
to what end they were established: for even in great courts these
knights are always honoured.
“I thought too, if I had time enough, to speak not only of the diversity
of customs that are in use at the courts of Christian princes in serving
them, in merry-making and in appearing at public shows, but also to say
something of the Grand Turk’s[252] court, and much more particularly of
the court of the Sophi king of Persia.[336] For having heard, from
merchants who have been long in that country, that the noblemen there
are of great worth and gentle behaviour, and that in their intercourse
with one another, in their service to ladies and in all their actions,
they practise much courtesy and much discretion, and on occasion much
magnificence, much liberality and elegance in their weapons, games and
festivals,—I was glad to learn what ways they most prize in these
things, and in what their pomp and finery of dress and arms consist; in
what they differ from us, and in what they resemble us; what manner of
amusements their ladies practise and with what modesty show favour to
lovers.
“But indeed it is not fitting to enter upon this discussion now,
especially as there is something else to say, and far more to our
purpose than this.”
3.—“Nay,” said my lord Gaspar, “both this and many other things are more
to the purpose than to describe this Court Lady; seeing that the same
rules that are set the Courtier, serve also for the Lady; for she, like
the Courtier, ought to have regard to time and place, and (as far as her
stupidity permits) to follow all those other ways that have been so much
discussed. And therefore, in place of this, perhaps it would not have
been amiss to teach some of the details that pertain to the service of
the Prince’s person, for it is well befitting the Courtier to know them
and to show grace in practising them; or indeed to tell of the method to
be pursued in bodily exercises, such as riding, handling weapons and
wrestling, and to tell wherein consists the difficulty of these
accomplishments.”
Then my lady Duchess said, laughing:
“Princes do not employ the personal service of so admirable a Courtier
as this: and as for bodily exercises and physical strength and agility,
we will leave to our friend messer Pietro Monte the duty of teaching
them, when he shall deem the season more convenient; for now the
Magnifico must speak of nothing but this Lady, of whom, methinks, you
are already beginning to be afraid, and so would make us wander from our
subject.”
Frisio replied:
“Surely it is irrelevant and little to the purpose to speak of women
now, especially when more remains to be said about the Courtier, for we
ought not to mix one thing with another.”
“You are much in errour,” replied messer Cesare Gonzaga; “for just as no
court, however great it be, can have in it adornment or splendour or
gaiety, without ladies, nor can any Courtier be graceful or pleasing or
brave, or perform any gallant feat of chivalry, unless moved by the
society and by the love and pleasure of ladies: so, too, discussion
about the Courtier is always very imperfect, unless by taking part
therein the ladies add their touch of that grace wherewith they perfect
Courtiership and adorn it.”
My lord Ottaviano laughed, and said:
“There you have a taste of that bait which makes men fools.”
[Illustration:
GIULIANO DE’ MEDICI
“MY LORD MAGNIFICO”
1479-1516
]
From Alinari’s photograph (no. 359) of the portrait, in the Uffizi
Gallery at Florence, painted by Alessandro Allori (1535-1607), and
believed to be a copy of an earlier portrait by Raphael.
4.—Then my lord Magnifico, turning to my lady Duchess, said:
“Since so it pleases you, my Lady, I will say what occurs to me, but
with very great fear of not satisfying. And in sooth it would be a far
lighter task to describe a lady worthy to be queen of the world, than a
perfect Court Lady: because of the latter I know not where to take my
model; while for the queen I should not need to go far, and it would be
enough for me to think of the divine accomplishments of a lady whom I
know,[337] and, lost in contemplation, to bend all my thoughts to
express clearly in words that which many see with their eyes; and if I
could do no more, by merely naming her I should have performed my task.”
Then my lady Duchess said:
“Do not wander from your subject, my lord Magnifico, but hold to the
order given you and describe the Court Lady, to the end that so noble a
Lady as this may have someone competent to serve her worthily.”
The Magnifico continued:
“Then, my Lady, to show that your commands have power to induce me to
essay even that which I know not how to do, I will speak of this
excellent Lady as I would have her; and when I have fashioned her to my
liking, not being able then to have another such, like Pygmalion I will
take her for my own.[338]
“And although my lord Gaspar has said that the same rules which are set
the Courtier, serve also for the Lady, I am of another mind; for while
some qualities are common to both and as necessary to man as to woman,
there are nevertheless some others that befit woman more than man, and
some are befitting man to which she ought to be wholly a stranger. The
same I say of bodily exercises; but above all, methinks that in her
ways, manners, words, gestures and bearing, a woman ought to be very
unlike a man; for just as it befits him to show a certain stout and
sturdy manliness, so it is becoming in a woman to have a soft and dainty
tenderness with an air of womanly sweetness in her every movement,
which, in her going or staying or saying what you will, shall always
make her seem the woman, without any likeness of a man.
“Now, if this precept be added to the rules that these gentlemen have
taught the Courtier, I certainly think she ought to be able to profit by
many of them, and to adorn herself with admirable accomplishments, as my
lord Gaspar says. For I believe that many faculties of the mind are as
necessary to woman as to man; likewise gentle birth, to avoid
affectation, to be naturally graceful in all her doings, to be mannerly,
clever, prudent, not arrogant, not envious, not slanderous, not vain,
not quarrelsome, not silly, to know how to win and keep the favour of
her mistress and of all others, to practise well and gracefully the
exercises that befit women. I am quite of the opinion, too, that beauty
is more necessary to her than to the Courtier, for in truth that woman
lacks much who lacks beauty. Then, too, she ought to be more circumspect
and take greater care not to give occasion for evil being said of her,
and so to act that she may not only escape a stain of guilt but even of
suspicion, for a woman has not so many ways of defending herself against
false imputations as has a man.
“But as Count Ludovico has explained very minutely the chief profession
of the Courtier, and has insisted it be that of arms, methinks it is
also fitting to tell what in my judgment is that of the Court Lady: and
when I have done this, I shall think myself quit of the greater part of
my duty.
5.—“Laying aside, then, those faculties of the mind that she ought to
have in common with the Courtier (such as prudence, magnanimity,
continence, and many others), and likewise those qualities that befit
all women (such as kindness, discretion, ability to manage her husband’s
property and her house and children if she be married, and all those
capacities that are requisite in a good housewife), I say that in a lady
who lives at court methinks above all else a certain pleasant affability
is befitting, whereby she may be able to entertain politely every sort
of man with agreeable and seemly converse, suited to the time and place,
and to the rank of the person with whom she may speak, uniting with calm
and modest manners, and with that seemliness which should ever dispose
all her actions, a quick vivacity of spirit whereby she may show herself
alien to all indelicacy; but with such a kindly manner as shall make us
think her no less chaste, prudent and benign, than agreeable, witty and
discreet: and so she must preserve a certain mean (difficult and
composed almost of contraries), and must barely touch certain limits but
not pass them.
“Thus, in her wish to be thought good and pure, the Lady ought not to be
so coy and seem so to abhor company and talk that are a little free, as
to take her leave as soon as she finds herself therein; for it might
easily be thought that she was pretending to be thus austere in order to
hide something about herself which she feared others might come to know;
and such prudish manners are always odious. Nor ought she, on the other
hand, for the sake of showing herself free and agreeable, to utter
unseemly words or practise a certain wild and unbridled familiarity and
ways likely to make that believed of her which perhaps is not true; but
when she is present at such talk, she ought to listen with a little
blush and shame.
“Likewise she ought to avoid an errour into which I have seen many women
fall, which is that of saying and of willingly listening to evil about
other women. For those women who, on hearing the unseemly ways of other
women described, grow angry thereat and seem to disbelieve it and to
regard it almost monstrous that a woman should be immodest,—they, by
accounting the offence so heinous, give reason to think that they do not
commit it. But those who go about continually prying into other women’s
intrigues, and narrate them so minutely and with such zest, seem to be
envious of them and to wish that everyone may know it, to the end that
like matters may not be reckoned as a fault in their own case; and thus
they fall into certain laughs and ways that show they then feel greatest
pleasure. And hence it comes that men, while seeming to listen gladly,
usually hold such women in small respect and have very little regard for
them, and think these ways of theirs are an invitation to advance
farther, and thus often go such lengths with them as bring them deserved
reproach, and finally esteem them so lightly as to despise their company
and even find them tedious.