The Book of the Courtier
beautiful, spend many years in love, without omitting aught of care, of
gifts, of prayers, of tears, in short, of anything that can be imagined;
and all in vain. And but that I might be told that my qualities have
never made me worthy of ever being loved, I should call myself as
witness, who have more than once been nigh to death because of a woman’s
unchangeable and too stern chastity.”
My lord Gaspar replied:
“Marvel not at that: for women who are always wooed refuse to please him
who wooes them; and they who are not wooed, woo others.”[410]
42.—Messer Cesare said:
“I have never known these men who are wooed by women; but very many who,
on finding that they have tried in vain and spent time foolishly, resort
to this noble revenge, and say they have had an abundance of that which
they have only imagined, and think it a kind of courtiership to speak
evil and invent tales to the end that slanderous stories of some noble
lady may spring up among the rabble. But such as these, who make vile
boast (whether true or false) of conquering a gentle lady, deserve
punishment or torture most severe; and if they sometimes meet it, we
cannot measure the praise due to those who perform the office. For if
they are telling lies, what villainy can be greater than to steal from a
worthy lady that which she values more than life? And for no other
reason than that which ought to win endless praise for her? Again, if
they are telling the truth, what punishment could suffice for a man who
is so vile as to reward with such ingratitude a woman, who,—vanquished
by false flatteries, by feigned tears, by continual wooing, by laments,
by arts, tricks and perjuries,—has suffered herself to be led into too
great love, and then without reserve has fondly given herself a prey to
such a malign spirit?
“But to answer you further touching that unheard-of continence of
Alexander and Scipio which you have cited, I say I am unwilling to deny
that both performed an act worthy of much praise; yet to the end that
you may not be able to say that in rehearsing ancient matters I tell you
fables, I wish to cite a woman of low degree in our own times, who
showed far more continence than these two great men.
43.—“I say, then, that I once knew a beautiful and gentle girl, whose
name I do not tell you lest you give food for slander to many fools, who
conceive a bad opinion of a woman as soon as they hear of her being in
love. Well, this girl having been long loved by a noble and
well-conditioned youth, began to love him with all her mind and heart;
and of this not only I (to whom she voluntarily confided everything as
if I had been, I will not say her brother, but her dearest sister), but
all those who saw her in the presence of the beloved youth, were very
certain of her passion. Loving thus as fervently as a very loving soul
can love, she maintained such continence for two years that she never
gave this youth any token of loving him, except such as she could not
hide; neither would she ever speak to him or receive letters from him or
gifts, although a day never passed but she was besought to do both. And
I well know how she longed for it, because if she was sometimes able to
possess anything secretly that had been the youth’s, she held it so dear
that it seemed to be the source of her life and all her weal; and never
in all that time would she grant him other pleasure than to see him and
let herself be seen, and to dance with him as with the others when she
took part in public festivals.
“And since they were well suited to each other in condition, the girl
and the youth desired that their great love might end happily, and that
they might be man and wife together. The same was desired by all the
other men and women of their city, except her cruel father, who out of
perverse and strange caprice wished to marry her to another and richer
man; and to this the unhappy girl opposed naught but very bitter tears.
And the ill-starred marriage having been concluded, with much pity from
the people and to the despair of the poor lovers, even this blow of
fortune did not avail to destroy the love so deeply rooted in their
hearts; which still endured for the space of three years, although she
very prudently concealed it and sought in every way to stifle those
desires that now were hopeless. And all this time she kept her stern
resolve of continence; and as she could not honourably possess him whom
alone in the world she adored, she chose not to wish for him in any
wise, and to follow her custom of accepting neither messages nor gifts
nor even glances from him; and in this fixed resolve, the poor girl,
overcome by sharpest anguish and grown very wasted from long passion,
died at the end of three years, preferring to renounce the joys and
pleasures so eagerly desired, and at last her very life, rather than her
honour. Nor was she without ways and means of satisfying herself quite
secretly and without risk of disgrace or any other harm; and yet she
abstained from that which she herself so greatly desired and towards
which she was so urged continually by the person whom alone in the world
she desired to please: nor was she moved therein by fear or any other
motive than mere love of true virtue.
“What will you say of another, who for six months spent nearly every
night with a dearly cherished lover; yet, in a garden full of sweetest
fruits, invited by her own most ardent longing and by the prayers and
tears of one dearer to her than life itself, she refrained from tasting
them; and although she was caught and held in the fast bonds of those
beloved arms, she never yielded herself vanquished, but preserved the
flower of her chastity immaculate.
44.—“Do you think, my lord Gaspar, that these acts of continence are
equal to Alexander’s?—who (being most ardently enamoured, not of
Darius’s women, but of that fame and greatness which incited him by
thirst for glory to endure toils and dangers to make himself immortal)
spurned not only other things, but his own life, in order to win renown
above all other men. And do we marvel that with such thoughts at heart
he abstained from something he did not much desire? For since he had
never seen the women before, he could not possibly love them in a
moment, but perhaps even loathed them because of his enemy Darius; and
in that case every wanton act of his towards them would have been
outrage and not love. Hence it is no great thing that Alexander, who
conquered the world no less by magnanimity than by arms, abstained from
doing outrage to women.
“Scipio’s continence also is much to be praised. Yet if you consider
rightly, it is not to be compared with these two women’s; for he too
likewise abstained from something not desired;—being in a hostile
country, newly in command, at the beginning of a very important
enterprise; having left great expectations of himself at home, and bound
to render an account to very strict judges, who often punished very
small mistakes as well as great, and among whom he knew he had enemies;
conscious also that if he acted otherwise (the lady being very noble and
married to a very noble lord), he might arouse so many enemies and in
such fashion that they might long hinder and perhaps quite snatch away
his success. Hence, for reasons thus many and important, he abstained
from a light and harmful wish, displaying continence and generous
uprightness; which, as it is written, gave him the entire good will of
those nations, and was worth another army to him, wherewith by
gentleness to conquer hearts that perhaps would have been unconquerable
by force of arms.[411]
. . . . . .
“Forgive me, my lord Gaspar, if I say the truth, for in short these are
the miraculous continences that men write about themselves while
accusing women of incontinence, in whom we every day see countless
tokens of continence; for in truth, if you consider well, there is no
fortress so impregnable and well defended that, if it were assailed with
a thousandth part of the wiles and tricks that are employed to overcome
the steadfast heart of woman, it would not surrender at the first
assault.
“How many creatures of great lords,—enriched by them and placed in very
high esteem, entrusted with their castles and fortresses, whereon depend
their whole state, life and weal,—have basely and sordidly surrendered
these to such as had no right thereto, without shame or fear of being
called traitors? And would to God there were so great a dearth of such
men in our days, that we might have no more trouble to find a man who
had done his duty in this regard, than to name those who have failed in
theirs. Do we not see many others who daily go about slaying men in the
forest and scouring the sea solely to steal money?
“How many prelates sell the property of God’s church! How many lawyers
forge wills! How many perjurers bear false witness only to get money!
How many physicians poison the sick to the same end! Again, how many do
the vilest things from fear of death! And yet a tender and delicate girl
often resists all these sharp and hard encounters; for many have been
found who preferred death rather than lose their chastity.”
47.—Then my lord Gaspar said:
“These, messer Cesare, I believe are not on earth to-day.”
Messer Cesare replied:
“I will not cite the ancients now; but I tell you this, that many would
be and are to be found, who in such case do not fear to die. And now I
remember that when Capua was sacked by the French (which was not so long
ago that you cannot recall it very well),[412] a beautiful young Capuan
lady being led out of her house, where she had been captured by a
company of Gascons, when she reached the river that flows through
Capua,[413] she pretended that she wished to tie her shoe, so that he
who was leading her let her go a little, and she suddenly threw herself
into the river.
“What will you say of a peasant girl, who not many months ago, at
Gazuolo in the Mantuan territory,[414] went with her sister to reap corn
in the fields, and being overcome with thirst, entered a house for a
drink of water; and the master of the house, who was a young man, seeing
that she was very beautiful and alone, took her in his arms, and first
with soft words, and then with threats, sought to persuade her to his
wishes; and she resisting more and more stubbornly, he at last overcame
her with many blows and with force. So, dishevelled and weeping, she
went back to her sister in the field, nor would she for all her sister’s
urgent questioning tell what outrage she had received in that house; but
on the way home, feigning to grow calmer little by little and to speak
quite without agitation, she gave her sister some directions. Then when
she came to the Oglio, which is the river that flows by Gazuolo,[415]
she left her sister a little behind not knowing or imagining what she
meant to do, and suddenly threw herself in. Wailing and weeping her
sister ran after her as fast as possible along the bank of the river,
which was bearing her down-stream very rapidly: and each time the poor
creature rose to the surface, her sister threw her a cord which they had
to bind the corn, and although the cord reached her hands several times
(for she was still near the bank), the steadfast and determined girl
always refused it and put it from her; and thus rejecting every aid that
might save her life, she soon died: nor was she moved by nobility of
birth, nor by fear of most cruel death or of infamy, but solely by grief
for her lost virginity.[416]
From a photograph, specially made by Signor Lanzoni, of a part of the
fresco, “The Return of Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga,” in the _Sala