The Book of the Courtier
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.”
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.
“And on the other hand, there is no man so shameless and insolent as not
to have reverence for those women who are esteemed good and virtuous;
because this gravity (tempered with wisdom and goodness) is as it were a
shield against the insolence and coarseness of the presumptuous. Thus we
see that a word or laugh or act of kindness (however small it be) from a
virtuous woman is more prized by everyone, than all the endearments and
caresses of those who show their lack of shame so openly; and if they
are not immodest, by their unseemly laughter, their loquacity, insolence
and like scurrile manners, they give sign of being so.
6.—“And since words that carry no meaning of importance are vain and
puerile, the Court Lady must have not only the good sense to discern the
quality of him with whom she is speaking, but knowledge of many things,
in order to entertain him graciously; and in her talk she should know
how to choose those things that are adapted to the quality of him with
whom she is speaking, and should be cautious lest occasionally, without
intending it, she utter words that may offend him. Let her guard against
wearying him by praising herself indiscreetly or by being too prolix.
Let her not go about mingling serious matters with her playful or
humourous discourse, or jests and jokes with her serious discourse. Let
her not stupidly pretend to know that which she does not know, but