The Book of the Courtier
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.
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