in love, yet in his game the other evening my lord Ottaviano seemed to
know that there are some lovers who call sweet the scorns and ires and
warrings and torments which they have from their ladies; whence he asked
to be taught the cause of this sweetness? Therefore if our Courtier,
although old, were inflamed with those loves that are sweet without
bitterness, he would feel no calamity or misery in them; and if he were
wise, as we suppose him to be, he would not deceive himself by thinking
that all was befitting to him which befits young men; but if he loved,
perhaps he would love in a way that would bring him not only no blame,
but much praise and highest happiness unaccompanied by any pain, which
rarely and almost never happens with young men; and thus he would not
fail to instruct his prince, nor would he do aught to deserve the
mockery of children.”
Then my lady Duchess said:
“I am glad, messer Pietro, that you have had little fatigue in our
discussion this evening, for now we shall with more assurance impose on
you the burden of speaking, and of teaching the Courtier this love which
is so happy that it brings with it neither blame nor discomfort; for
perhaps it will be one of the most important and useful attributes that
have thus far been ascribed to him: therefore tell us, on your faith,
all you know about it.”
Messer Pietro laughed, and said:
“I should be sorry, my Lady, that my saying it is permissible for old
men to love should be a reason for these ladies to regard me as old;
therefore please to give this task to someone else.”[473]
My lady Duchess replied:
“You ought not to shun being reputed old in wisdom, even if you are
young in years; so speak on, and make no more excuse.”
Messer Pietro said:
“Indeed, my Lady, if I must talk about this matter, I should need to go
take counsel with my Lavinello’s Hermit.”[474]
Then my lady Emilia said, half vexed:
“Messer Pietro, there is no one in the company who is more disobedient
than you; therefore it will be well for my lady Duchess to inflict some
chastisement upon you.”
Messer Pietro said, again smiling:
“Be not angry with me, my Lady, for love of God; for I will tell what
you wish.”
“Then tell it at once,” replied my lady Emilia.
51.—Whereupon messer Pietro, having first remained silent awhile, then
settled himself a little as if about to speak of something important,
and spoke thus:[475]
“My Lords, in order to prove that old men can love not only without
blame but sometimes more happily than young men, it will be needful for
me to make a little discourse to explain what love is, and in what
consists the happiness that lovers may enjoy. So I pray you hear me with
attention, for I hope to make you see that there is no man here whom it
does not become to be in love, even though he were fifteen or twenty
years older than my lord Morello.”
And then after some laughter, messer Pietro continued:
“I say, then, that according to the definition of the ancient sages love
is naught but a certain desire to enjoy beauty; and as desire longs only
for things that are perceived, perception must needs always precede
desire, which by its nature wishes good things, but in itself is blind
and does not perceive them. Therefore nature has so ordained that to
every faculty of perception there is joined a certain faculty of
appetite; and since in our soul there are three modes of perceiving,
that is, by sense, by reason, and by intellect: from sense springs
appetite, which we have in common with the brutes; from reason springs
choice, which is peculiar to man; from the intellect, by which man is
able to commune with the angels, springs will. Thus, just as sense
perceives only things that are perceptible by the senses, appetite
desires the same only; and just as intellect is directed solely to the
contemplation of things intellectual, the will feeds only upon spiritual
benefits. Being by nature rational and placed as a mean between these
two extremes, man is able at will (by descending to sense or mounting to
intellect) to turn his desires now in the one direction and now in the
other. In these two ways, therefore, it is possible to desire beauty,
which universal name applies to all things (whether natural or
artificial) that are framed in good proportion and due measure according
to their nature.
[Illustration:
PIETRO BEMBO
1470-1547
]
Much enlarged from a photographic print of a medal in the King’s
Library, British Museum. This is probably the medal for which
Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1572), in his autobiography, describes
making a sketch from life in 1537. See Émile Molinier’s monograph on
Cellini in the series, _Les Artistes Célèbres_, published at Paris
by the _Librairie de l'Art_, p. 33; and Armand’s _Les Médailleurs
Italiens_, i, 150.
52.—“But speaking of the beauty we have in mind, which is only that
which is seen in the bodies and especially in the faces of men, and
which excites this ardent desire that we call love,—we will say that it
is an effluence of divine goodness, and that although it is diffused
like the sun’s light upon all created things, yet when it finds a face
well proportioned and framed with a certain pleasant harmony of various
colours embellished by lights and shadows and by an orderly distance and
limit of outlines, it infuses itself therein and appears most beautiful,
and adorns and illumines that object whereon it shines with grace and
wonderful splendour, like a sunbeam falling upon a beautiful vase of
polished gold set with precious gems. Thus it agreeably attracts the
eyes of men, and entering thereby, it impresses itself upon the soul,
and stirs and delights her with a new sweetness throughout, and by
kindling her it excites in her a desire for its own self.
“Then, being seized with desire to enjoy this beauty as something good,
if the soul allows herself to be guided by the judgment of sense, she
runs into very grievous errours, and judges that the body wherein the
beauty is seen is the chief cause thereof; and hence, in order to enjoy
that beauty, she deems it necessary to join herself as closely to that
body as she can; which is false: and accordingly, whoever thinks to
enjoy the beauty by possessing the body deceives himself, and is moved,
not by true perception through reasonable choice, but by false opinion
through sensual appetite: wherefore the pleasure also that results
therefrom is necessarily false and vicious.
“Hence all those lovers who satisfy their unchaste desires with the
women whom they love, run into one of two errours: for as soon as they
have attained the end desired, they either not only feel satiety and
tedium, but hate the beloved object as if appetite repented its errour
and perceived the deceit practised upon it by the false judgment of
sense, which made it believe evil to be good; or else they remain in the
same desire and longing, like those who have not truly attained the end
they sought. And although, by reason of the blind opinion wherewith they
are intoxicated, they think they feel pleasure at the moment, as the
sick sometimes dream of drinking at some clear spring, nevertheless they
are not contented or appeased. And since the possession of a wished-for
joy always brings quiet and satisfaction to the mind of the possessor,
if that joy were the true and worthy object of their desire, they would
remain quiet and satisfied in possessing it; which they do not. Nay,
deceived by that likeness, they soon return to unbridled desire, and
with the same distress they felt at first, they find themselves
furiously and very ardently athirst for that which they vainly hope to
possess perfectly.
“Such lovers as these, therefore, love most unhappily; for either they
never attain their desires (which is great unhappiness), or if they do
attain thereto, they find they have attained their woe, and finish their
miseries with other miseries still greater; because even in the
beginning and midst of their love naught else is ever felt but anguish,
torments, sorrows, sufferings, toils. So that to be pale, melancholy, in
continual tears and sighs, to be sad, to be ever silent or lamenting, to
long for death, in short, to be most unhappy, are the conditions that
are said to befit lovers.
53.—“The cause, then, of this havoc in the minds of men is chiefly
sense, which is very potent in youth, because the vigour of flesh and
blood at that period gives to it as much strength as it takes away from
reason, and hence easily leads the soul to follow appetite. For, finding
herself plunged into an earthly prison and deprived of spiritual
contemplation by being set the task of governing the body, the soul
cannot of herself clearly comprehend the truth; wherefore, in order to
have perception of things, she must needs go begging first notions from
the senses, and so she believes them and bows before them and allows
herself to be guided by them, especially when they have so much vigour
that they almost force her; and as they are fallacious, they fill her
with errours and false opinions.
“Hence it nearly always happens that young men are wrapped in this love
which is sensual and wholly rebellious to reason, and thus they become
unworthy to enjoy the graces and benefits which love bestows upon its
true subjects; nor do they feel any pleasures in love beyond those which
the unreasoning animals feel, but anguish far more grievous.
“This premise being admitted then,—and it is most true,—I say that the
contrary happens to those who are of maturer age. For if such as these
(when the soul is already less weighed down by bodily heaviness and when
the natural heat begins to become tepid) are inflamed by beauty and turn
thereto a desire guided by rational choice,—they are not deceived, and
possess beauty perfectly. Therefore their possession of it always brings
them good; because beauty is good, and hence true love of beauty is most
good and holy, and always works for good in the mind of those who
restrain the perversity of sense with the bridle of reason; which the
old can do much more easily than the young.
54.—“Hence it is not beyond reason to say further that the old can love
without blame and more happily than the young; taking this word old,
however, not in the sense of decrepit, nor when the bodily organs have
already become so weak that the soul cannot perform its functions
through them, but when our knowledge is at its true prime.
“I will not refrain from saying also this: which is, that I think that
although sensual love is evil at every age, yet in the young it deserves
excuse, and is perhaps in a measure permitted. For although it gives
them anguish, dangers, toils, and those woes that have been told, still
there are many who, to win the favour of the ladies of their love, do
worthy acts, which (although not directed to a good end) are
intrinsically good; and thus from that mass of bitterness they extract a
little sweet, and through the adversities which they endure they at last
perceive their errour. Hence, just as I deem those youths divine who
control their appetites and love in reason, so I excuse those who allow
themselves to be overcome by sensual love, to which they are so strongly
inclined by human frailty: provided they show therein gentleness,
courtesy and worth, and the other noble qualities of which these
gentlemen have told; and provided that when they are no longer of
youthful age, they abandon it altogether, shunning this sensual desire
as it were the lowest round of the ladder by which true love can be
attained. But if, even after they are old, they preserve the fire of
appetite in their chill heart and subject stout reason to frail sense,
it is not possible to say how much they are to be blamed. For like fools
they deserve to be numbered with perpetual infamy among the unreasoning
animals, since the thoughts and ways of sensual love are too unbecoming
to mature age.”
55.—Here Bembo paused a little, as if to rest; and as everyone remained
silent, my lord Morello da Ortona said:
“And if an old man were found more vigourous and sturdy and of better
looks than many youths, why would you not have him allowed to love with
that love wherewith young men love?”
My lady Duchess laughed, and said:
“If young men’s love is so unhappy, my lord Morello, why do you wish to
have old men love thus unhappily also? But if you were old, as these
gentlemen say, you would not thus contrive evil for old men.”
My lord Morello replied:
“Methinks it is messer Pietro Bembo who is contriving evil for old men,
in that he wishes to have them love in a certain way which I for my part
do not understand; and methinks that to possess this beauty which he so
highly praises, without the body, is a dream.”
Then Count Ludovico said:
“Do you believe, my lord Morello, that beauty is always as good as
messer Pietro Bembo says?”
“Not I indeed,” replied my lord Morello; “nay, I remember having seen
many beautiful women who were very bad, cruel and spiteful; and this
seems to be almost always so, for beauty makes them proud, and pride
makes them cruel.”
Count Ludovico said, laughing:
“To you, perhaps, they seem cruel because they do not grant you what you
would have; but have yourself taught by messer Pietro Bembo in what way
old men ought to desire beauty, and what they ought to seek from women,
and with what they ought to be content; and if you do not exceed these
limits, you shall see that they will not be either proud or cruel, and
will grant you what you wish.”
Then my lord Morello seemed a little vexed, and said:
“I have no wish to know what does not concern me; but do you have
yourself taught how this beauty ought to be desired by young men who are
less vigourous and sturdy than their elders.”
56.—Here messer Federico, to quiet my lord Morello and turn the
conversation, did not allow Count Ludovico to reply, but interrupted him
and said:
“Perhaps my lord Morello is not altogether wrong in saying that beauty
is not always good; for women’s beauty is often the cause that brings
upon the world countless evils, hatreds, wars, deaths and destructions;
of which good proof can be found in the fall of Troy. And beautiful
women are for the most part either proud or cruel, or (as has been said)
immodest; but this would not seem to my lord Morello a fault. There are
also many wicked men who have the gift of fair looks, and it seems that
nature made them thus to the end that they should be better fitted to
deceive, and that this gracious seeming is like the bait upon the hook.”
Then messer Pietro Bembo said:
“Do not believe that beauty is not always good.”
Here Count Ludovico, in order to return to the original subject,
interrupted and said:
“Since my lord Morello does not care to know what so deeply concerns
him, teach it to me, and show me how old men attain this happiness in
love, for I shall not mind having myself thought old, provided it help
me.”
57.—Messer Pietro laughed, and said:
“I wish first to free these gentlemen’s minds from their errour; then I
will satisfy you too.” Resuming thus, he said:
“My Lords, I would not have any of us, like profane and sacrilegious
men, incur God’s wrath by speaking ill of beauty, which is a sacred
thing. Therefore, to the end that my lord Morello and messer Federico
may be warned, and not lose their sight, like Stesichorus (which is a
very fitting punishment for one who scorns beauty),[476] I say that
beauty springs from God, and is like a circle of which goodness is the
centre. And hence, as there can be no circle without a centre, there can
be no beauty without goodness. Thus a wicked soul rarely inhabits a
beautiful body, and for that reason outward beauty is a true sign of
inward goodness. And this grace is impressed upon bodies, more or less,
as an index of the soul, whereby she is known outwardly, as in the case
of trees, in which the beauty of the blossom gives token of the
excellence of the fruit. The same is true in the case of human bodies,
as we see that the Physiognomists often recognize in the face the
character and sometimes the thoughts of men; and what is more, in beasts
also we discern from the aspect the quality of the mind, which is
expressed as much as possible in the body. Think how clearly we read
anger, ferocity and pride in the face of the lion, the horse, the eagle;
a pure and simple innocence in lambs and doves; cunning malice in foxes
and wolves, and so of nearly all other animals.
58.—“The ugly are therefore for the most part wicked too, and the
beautiful are good: and we may say that beauty is the pleasant, gay,
acceptable and desirable face of good, and that ugliness is the dark,
disagreeable, unpleasant and sad face of evil. And if you will consider
all things, you will find that those which are good and useful always
have a charm of beauty also.
“Look at the state of this great fabric of the world, which was made by
God for the health and preservation of every created thing. The round
firmament, adorned with so many heavenly lights, and the earth in the
centre, surrounded by the elements and sustained by its own weight; the
sun, which in its revolving illumines the whole, and in winter
approaches the lowest sign, then little by little mounts to the other
side; the moon, which derives her light from it, according as it
approaches her or withdraws from her; and the five other stars, which
separately travel the same course.[477] These things have such influence
upon one another through the linking of an order thus precisely framed,
that if they were changed for an instant, they could not hold together,
and would wreck the world; they have also such beauty and grace that
human wit cannot imagine anything more beautiful.
“Think now of the shape of man, which may be called a little world;
wherein we see every part of the body precisely composed with skill, and
not by chance; and then the whole form together so beautiful that we
could hardly decide whether more utility or more grace is given to the
human features and the rest of the body by all the members, such as the
eyes, nose, mouth, ears, arms, breast, and other parts withal. The same
can be said of all the animals. Look at the feathers of birds, the
leaves and branches of trees, which are given them by nature to preserve
their being, and yet have also very great loveliness.
“Leave nature, and come to art. What thing is so necessary in ships as
the prow, the sides, the yards, the masts, the sails, the helm, the
oars, the anchors and the cordage? Yet all these things have so much
comeliness, that it seems to him who looks upon them that they are thus
devised as much for beauty as for use. Columns and architraves support
lofty galleries and palaces, yet they are not on that account less
pleasing to the eyes of him who looks upon them, than useful to the
buildings. When men first began to build, they set that middle ridge in
their temples and houses, not in order that the buildings might have
more grace, but to the end that the water might flow off conveniently on
either side; yet to utility soon was added comeliness, so that if a
temple were built under a sky where no hail or rain falls, it would not
seem able to have any dignity or beauty without the ridge.
59.—“Much praise is therefore bestowed, not only upon other things, but
upon the world, by saying that it is beautiful. We praise when we say:
‘Beautiful sky, beautiful earth, beautiful sea, beautiful rivers,
beautiful lands, beautiful woods, trees, gardens; beautiful cities,
beautiful churches, houses, armies.’ In short, this gracious and sacred
beauty gives highest ornament to everything; and we may say that the
good and the beautiful are in a way one and the same thing, and
especially in the human body; of whose beauty I think the most immediate
cause is beauty of the soul, which (as partaker of true divine beauty)
brightens and beautifies whatever it touches, and especially if the body
wherein it dwells is not of such base material that it cannot impress
thereon its quality. Therefore beauty is the true trophy of the soul’s
victory, when with power divine she holds sway over material nature, and
by her light overcomes the darkness of the body.
“Hence we must not say that beauty makes women proud or cruel, although
it may seem so to my lord Morello; nor yet ought we to ascribe to
beautiful women those enmities, deaths and destructions of which the
immoderate appetites of men are the cause. I do not by any means deny
that it is possible to find beautiful women in the world who are also
immodest, but it is not at all because their beauty inclines them to
immodesty; nay, it turns them therefrom and leads them to the path of
virtuous behaviour, by the connection that beauty has with goodness. But
sometimes evil training, the continual urgence of their lovers, gifts,
poverty, hope, deceits, fear and a thousand other causes, overcome the
steadfastness even of beautiful and good women; and through these or
similar causes beautiful men also may become wicked.”
60.—Then messer Cesare said:
“If that is true which my lord Gaspar alleged yesterday, there is no
doubt that beautiful women are more chaste than ugly women.”
“And what did I allege?” said my lord Gaspar.
Messer Cesare replied:
“If I remember rightly, you said that women who are wooed always refuse
to satisfy him who wooes them, and that those who are not wooed woo
others. Certain it is that the beautiful are always more wooed and
besought in love than are the ugly; therefore the beautiful always
refuse, and hence are more chaste than the ugly, who, not being wooed,
woo others.”
Bembo laughed, and said:
“To this argument no answer can be made.” Then he added: “It often
happens also that our sight deceives us like our other senses, and
accounts a face beautiful which in truth is not beautiful; and since in
some women’s eyes and whole aspect a certain wantonness is seen
depicted, together with unseemly blandishments,—many (who like such
manner because it promises them ease in attaining what they desire) call
it beauty: but in truth it is disguised immodesty, unworthy a name so
honoured and so sacred.”
Messer Pietro Bembo was silent, and those gentlemen still urged him to
speak further of this love and of the mode of enjoying beauty truly; and
he at last said:
“Methinks I have shown clearly enough that old men can love more happily
than young, which was my thesis; therefore it does not become me to go
further.”
Count Ludovico replied:
“You have better shown the unhappiness of youths than the happiness of
old men, whom as yet you have not taught what road to follow in this
love of theirs, but have only told them to be guided by reason; and by
many it is thought impossible for love to abide with reason.”
61.—Bembo still sought to put an end to his discourse, but my lady
Duchess begged him to speak; and he began anew thus:
“Too unhappy would human nature be, if our soul (wherein such ardent
desire can spring up easily) were forced to feed it solely upon that
which is common to her with the beasts, and could not direct it to that
other nobler part which is peculiar to herself. Therefore, since so
indeed it pleases you, I have no wish to avoid discoursing upon this
noble subject. And as I feel myself unworthy to speak of Love’s most
sacred mysteries, I pray him so to inspire my thought and tongue that I
may be able to show this excellent Courtier how to love beyond the
manner of the vulgar crowd; and since from boyhood up I have dedicated
my whole life to him, so now also may my words comport with this intent
and with his praise.
“I say, then, that as in youth human nature is so greatly prone to
sense, the Courtier may be allowed to love sensually while he is young.
But if afterwards in maturer years he chances still to be kindled with
this amourous desire, he must be very wary and take care not to deceive
himself by allowing himself to be led into those calamities which in the
young merit more compassion than blame, and, on the contrary, in the old
more blame than compassion.