The Book of the Courtier
rarest beauty,—who, being like most ladies curious and eager to learn
secrets and especially other ladies’, opened this letter, and on reading
it saw that it was written with the fervour of ardent love. And the
sweet, impassioned words that she read first moved her to compassion for
that lady, for she well knew from whom the letter came and to whom it
was going; then they gained such power, that as she turned them over in
her mind and considered what sort of man he must be who could arouse
such love in the lady, she too straightway fell in love with him; and
the letter had perhaps a greater effect than if it had been sent by the
young man to her. And as it sometimes happens that a poisoned dish,
intended for a prince, kills the first comer who tastes it, so in her
over greediness this poor lady drank the love poison that had been
prepared for another.
“What more shall I say? The affair became well known, and spread abroad
so that many other ladies besides these, partly to spite the others and
partly to imitate them, used every effort and pains to possess
themselves of the man’s love, and contended for it with one another as
boys contend for cherries. And all this began with the first impression
of that lady who saw him so beloved by another.”
35.—Here my lord Gaspar Pallavicino replied, laughing:
“To give reasons in support of your opinion, you cite the doings of
women, who for the most part are quite unreasonable. And if you cared to
tell the whole truth, this favourite of so many women must have been a
dunce and at bottom a man of little worth. For their way is always to
favour the meanest, and like sheep to do what they see others doing,
whether it be good or evil. Moreover they are so jealous among
themselves, that even if the man had been a monster, they would have
tried to steal him from one another.”
Here many began to speak, and nearly everyone wanted to contradict my
lord Gaspar; but my lady Duchess imposed silence on all, and then said,
laughing:
“If the evil you say of women were not so far from the truth, that the
saying of it casts blame and shame on him who says it rather than on
them, I should allow you to be answered. But I am not willing that, by
being confronted with the arguments which it is possible to cite, you
should be cured of this evil habit, in order that you may suffer very
grievous punishment for your fault: which shall be the bad opinion
wherein you will be held by all who hear you argue in such fashion.”
Head enlarged from a photograph, specially made by Alinari, of a part of
the fresco, “Leo X’s Entry into Florence,” in the Palazzo Vecchio at
Florence, by Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574). See Milanesi’s edition of
Vasari’s _Opere_, viii, 142.
Then messer Federico replied:
“My lord Gaspar, do not say that women are so very unreasonable, even if
they are sometimes moved to love by others’ judgment rather than by
their own; for gentlemen and many wise men do the same. And if I may say
the truth, you yourself and all the rest of us here do often and even
now trust more to the opinion of others than to our own. And in proof of
this, it is not long ago that certain verses, handed about this court
under the name of Sannazaro,[175] seemed very excellent to everyone and
were praised with wonder and applause; then, it being known for certain
that they were by another hand, they promptly sank in reputation and
were thought less than mediocre. And a certain motet,[176] which was
sung before my lady Duchess, found no favour and was not thought good
until it was known to be the work of Josquin de Près.[177]
“What clearer proof of the weight of opinion would you have? Do you not
remember that in drinking a certain wine, you at one time pronounced it
perfect, and at another most insipid? And this because you believed
there were two kinds of wine, one from the Genoese Riviera, and the
other from this country; and even when the mistake was discovered, you
would not at all believe it,—so firmly fixed in your mind was that wrong
opinion, although you had received it from the report of others.
36.—“Hence the Courtier ought to take great care to make a good
impression at the start, and to consider how mischievous and fatal a
thing it is to do otherwise. And they of all men run this danger, who
pride themselves on being very amusing and on having acquired by these
pleasantries of theirs a certain freedom that makes it proper and
permissible for them to do and say whatever occurs to them, without
taking thought about it. Thus they often begin a thing they know not how
to finish, and then try to help matters by raising a laugh; and yet they
do this so clumsily that it does not succeed, insomuch that they rouse
the utmost disgust in him who sees or hears them, and fail most
lamentably.
“Sometimes, thinking it to be droll and witty, they say the foulest and
most indecent things before and even to honourable ladies; and the more
they make these ladies blush, the more they rate themselves good
Courtiers, and they laugh and pride themselves on having such a fine
accomplishment, as they deem it. Yet they commit all this folly with no
other aim than to be esteemed jovial fellows: this is the one name which
seems to them worthy of praise and of which they boast more than of any
other; and to acquire it, they utter the grossest and most shameful
vileness in the world. Often they throw one another down-stairs, clap
billets of wood and bricks on one another’s backs, cast handfulls of
dust in one another’s eyes, make one another’s horses run into ditches
or down some hill; then at table they throw soups, sauces, jellies and
every kind of thing in one another’s faces:[178] and then they laugh.
And he who can excel the others in these things, esteems himself to be
the best Courtier and the most gallant, and thinks he has won great
glory. And if they sometimes invite a gentleman to these carouses of
theirs, and he does not choose to join in their unmannerly jokes, they
at once say he stands too much on his dignity, and holds himself aloof,
and is not a jovial fellow. But I have worse to tell you. There are some
who rival one another and award the palm to him who can eat and drink
the vilest and most offensive things; and they devise dishes so
abhorrent to human sense that it is impossible to recall them without
extreme disgust.”
37.—“And what may these be?” said my lord Ludovico Pio.
Messer Federico replied:
“Ask the Marquess Febus, who has often seen them in France, and perhaps
has taken part.”
The Marquess Febus replied:
“I have seen none of these things done in France that are not done in
Italy as well. But what is good among the Italians in dress, sports,
banquets, handling arms, and in everything else that befits a
Courtier,—all comes from the French.”
Messer Federico replied:
“I do not say that very noble and modest cavaliers are not also to be
found among the French, and I myself have known many who were truly
worthy of every praise. But some are little circumspect, and generally
speaking it seems to me that as regards breeding the Spaniards have more
in common with the Italians than the French have; because that grave
reserve peculiar to the Spaniards befits us far more than the quick
vivacity which among the French we see in almost every movement, and
which is not unseemly in them, nay is charming, for it is so natural and
proper to them as not to seem at all affected. There are very many
Italians who earnestly strive to copy this manner; and they can only
shake their heads in speaking and make clumsy crosswise bows, and walk
so fast that their lackeys cannot keep up with them when they pass
through the city. And with these ways they seem to themselves to be good
Frenchmen and to have the same freedom of manner, which in truth rarely
happens save with those who have been bred in France and have acquired
the manner in their youth.
“The same is true of knowing many languages; which I approve highly in
the Courtier, especially Spanish and French, because the intercourse of
both these nations with Italy is very frequent, and they have more in
common with us than any of the others have; and their two princes,[179]
being very powerful in war and very glorious in peace, always have their
courts full of noble cavaliers, who spread throughout the world; and it
is necessary for us also to converse with them.
38.—“I do not care at present to go more into detail in speaking of
things that are too well known, such as that our Courtier ought not to
avow himself a great eater or drinker, or given to excess in any evil
habit, or vile and ungoverned in his life, with certain peasant ways
that recall the hoe and plough a thousand miles away; because a man of
this kind not only may not hope to become a good Courtier, but can be
set to no more fitting business than feeding sheep.
“And finally I say it were well for the Courtier to know perfectly that
which we have said befits him, so that every possible thing may be easy
to him, and everyone may marvel at him,—he at no one. But be it
understood that there ought not to be in him that lofty and ungenial
indifference which some men have who show they are not surprised at what
others do because they imagine they can do it better, and who disparage
it by silence as not worth speaking of; and they almost seem to imply
that no one is their equal or even able to fathom the profundity of
their knowledge. Wherefore the Courtier ought to shun these odious ways,
and to praise the fine achievements of other men with kindness and good
will; and although he may feel that he is admirable and far superior to
all, yet he ought to appear not to think so.
“But since such complete perfection as this is very rarely and perhaps
never found in human nature, a man who is conscious of being lacking in
some particular, ought not to despond thereat or lose hope of reaching a
high standard, even though he cannot attain that perfect and supreme
excellence to which he aspires. For in every art there are many grades
that are honourable besides the highest, and whoever aims at the highest
will seldom fail to rise more than half-way. Therefore if our Courtier
excels in anything besides arms, I would have him get profit and esteem
from it in fine fashion; and I would have him so discreet and sensible
as to be able with skill and address to attract men to see and hear that
wherein he thinks he excels, always appearing not to do it from
ostentation, but by chance and at others’ request rather than by his own
wish. And in everything he has to do or say, let him if possible come
ready and prepared, yet appearing to act impromptu throughout. In those
things, however, wherein he feels himself to be mediocre, let him touch
in passing, without dwelling much upon them, albeit in such fashion that
he may be thought to know more about them than he shows himself to know:
like certain poets, who sometimes touched lightly upon the profoundest
depths of philosophy and other sciences, of which perhaps they
understood little. Then, in that of which he knows he is wholly
ignorant, I would never have him make any pretence or seek to win any
fame; nay if need be, let him frankly confess his ignorance.”
Reduced from Braun’s photograph (no. 79.207) of Leonardo’s drawing in
the Royal Library at Windsor. For an account of this and other less
authentic portraits, see Müntz’s life of Leonardo da Vinci (London:
1898), ii, 225 _et seq._
39.—“That,” said Calmeta, “is not what Nicoletto[180] would have done,
who was a very excellent philosopher but knew no more about law than