The Book of the Courtier
himself to such a degree that others cannot listen to him for weariness.
41.—“Therefore do not call anything a trifle, messer Cesare, that can
improve a prince in any particular, however slight it be; nor must you
suppose that I think you disparage my precepts when you say that by them
a good governor would be fashioned rather than a good prince; for
perhaps no greater or more fitting praise can be given to a prince than
to call him a good governor. Hence if it lay with me to instruct him, I
would have him take care to heed not only the matters already mentioned,
but those which are much smaller, and as far as possible understand all
details affecting his people, nor ever so believe or trust any one of
his ministers as to confide to that one alone the bridle and control of
all his government. For there is no man who is very apt for all things,
and much greater harm arises from the credulity of lords than from their
incredulity, which not only sometimes does no harm, but often is of the
greatest advantage: albeit in this matter there is need of good judgment
in the prince, to perceive who deserves to be believed and who does not.
“I would have him take care to understand the acts and be the overseer
of his ministers; to settle and shorten disputes among his subjects; to
be the means of making peace among them, and of allying them in
marriage; to have his city all united and agreed in friendship like a
private family, populous, not poor, peaceful, full of good artificers;
to favour merchants and even to aid them with money; to be generous and
splendid in hospitality towards foreigners and ecclesiastics; to
moderate all superfluities, for through the errours that are committed
in these matters, small though they seem, cities often come to ruin.
Wherefore it is reasonable that the prince should set a limit upon the
too sumptuous houses of private folk, upon feasts, upon the excessive
doweries of women, upon their luxury, upon their display in jewels and
vesture, which is naught but a proof of their folly; for besides often
wasting their husbands’ goods and substance through the ambition and the
envy which they bear one another, they sometimes sell their honour to
anyone who will buy it, for the sake of a trinket or some other like
trifle.”
Enlarged from a cast, kindly furnished by M. Pierre Valton, of an
anonymous and probably unique medal in his collection at Paris. See
Armand’s _Les Médailleurs Italiens_, ii, 155, no. 1.
42.—Then messer Bernardo Bibbiena said, laughing:
“My lord Ottaviano, you are taking sides with my lord Gaspar and
Frisio.”
My lord Ottaviano replied, also laughing:
“The dispute is finished, and I am far from wishing to renew it; so I
shall say no more of women, but return to my prince.”
Frisio replied:
“You can very well leave him now, and rest content that he should be
such as you have described him. For without doubt it would be easier to
find a lady with the qualities mentioned by my lord Magnifico, than a
prince with the qualities mentioned by you; hence I fear that he is like
Plato’s Republic, and that we are never to see his equal, unless perhaps
in Heaven.”
My lord Ottaviano replied:
“Although they be difficult, things that are possible may still be hoped
to come to pass. Therefore we shall in our times perhaps yet see him on
earth; for although the heavens are so chary of producing excellent
princes that hardly one is seen in many centuries, this good fortune may
fall to us.”
Then Count Ludovico said:
“I certainly trust that it may be so; for, besides those three great
princes whom we have named, to whom we may look for that which has been
said to befit the highest type of a perfect prince,—there are also to be
found in Italy to-day several princes’ sons, who, although they are not
likely to have such great power, will perhaps fill its place with worth.
And the one among them all who shows the best natural bent, and gives
greater promise than any of the others, seems to me to be my lord
Federico Gonzaga, eldest son of the Marquess of Mantua and nephew to our
lady Duchess here.[463] For besides the gentleness of behaviour and the
discretion which he shows at such a tender age, those who have charge of
him tell wonderful things of his capacity, eagerness for honour,
magnanimity, courtesy, generosity, love of justice; so that from so good
a beginning we cannot but hope for the best of ends.”
Then Frisio said:
“No more of this at present; we will pray God that we may see this hope
of yours fulfilled.”
43.—Here my lord Ottaviano, turning to my lady Duchess with an air of
having finished his discourse, said:
“There, my Lady, is what occurs to me to say about the aim of the
Courtier; wherein, if I shall not have wholly given satisfaction, it
will at least be enough for me to have shown that some further
perfection could be given him in addition to the things mentioned by
these gentlemen; who, methinks, omitted both this and all that I might
say, not because they did not know it better than I, but in order to
save themselves trouble; therefore I will leave them to continue, if
they have anything left to say.”
Then my lady Duchess said:
“Not only is the hour so late that it will soon be time to stop for the
evening, but it seems to me that we ought not to mingle any other
discourse with this; wherein you have gathered so many different and
beautiful things, that we may say (touching the aim of Courtiership) not
only that you are the perfect Courtier whom we seek, and competent to
instruct your prince rightly, but if fortune shall be favourable to you,
that you ought also to be an admirable prince, which would be of great
advantage to your country.”[464]
My lord Ottaviano laughed, and said:
“If I held such rank, my Lady, perhaps it would be with me as it is wont
to be with many others, who know better how to speak than to act.”
44.—Here the matter having been debated back and forth awhile among the
whole company, with some little contradiction albeit in praise of what
had been said, and it being suggested that it was not yet time to go to
rest, the Magnifico Giuliano said, laughing:
“My Lady, I am so great an enemy to guile, that I am forced to
contradict my lord Ottaviano, who, from having (as I fear) conspired
secretly with my lord Gaspar against women, has fallen into two errours
to my thinking very grave: one of which is, that in order to set this
Courtier above the Court Lady and make him transcend the bounds that she
can reach, my lord Ottaviano has set the Courtier also above the prince,
which is most unseemly; the other is in setting him such a goal that it
is always difficult, and sometimes impossible for him to reach it, and
that even when he does reach it, he ought not to be called a Courtier.”
“I do not understand,” said my lady Emilia, “how it should be so
difficult or impossible for the Courtier to reach this goal of his, nor
yet how my lord Ottaviano has set him above the prince.”[465]
“Do not grant him these things,” replied my lord Ottaviano, “for I have
not set the Courtier above the prince, nor do I think I have fallen into
any errour touching the aim of Courtiership.”
Then the Magnifico Giuliano replied:
“You cannot say, my lord Ottaviano, that the cause which gives a certain
quality to a result, does not always have more of that quality than its
result has. Thus the Courtier, through whose instruction the prince is
to become so excellent, must needs be more excellent than his prince;
and in this way he will also be of greater dignity than the prince
himself, which is most unseemly.
“Then, as for the aim of Courtiership, what you said may be true when
the prince’s age is little different from the Courtier’s, but still not
without difficulty, for where there is small difference in age, it is
natural that there should be small difference in knowledge also; while
if the prince is old and the Courtier young, it is fitting that the old
prince should know more than the young Courtier; and if this does not
always happen, it happens sometimes, and then the goal which you set the
Courtier is impossible. Again, if the prince is young and the Courtier
old, the Courtier can hardly win the prince’s mind by means of those
accomplishments that you have ascribed to him. For to say the truth,
jousting and other exercises of the person belong to young men and do
not befit old men, and music and dancing and festivals and games and
love-making are ridiculous in old age; and methinks they would be very
ill-befitting a director of the prince’s life and behaviour, who ought
to be a very sober person of authority, mature in years and experience,
and (if possible) a good philosopher, a good commander, and ought to
know almost everything.
“Therefore I think that whoever instructs the prince ought not to be
called a Courtier, but deserves a far higher and more honoured name. So
pardon me, my lord Ottaviano, if I have exposed your fallacy; for
methinks I am bound to do so for the honour of my Lady, whom you,
forsooth, would have of less dignity than this Courtier of yours, and I
will not allow it.”
45.—My lord Ottaviano laughed, and said:
“My lord Magnifico, it would be more praise to the Court Lady to exalt
her until she equalled the Courtier, than to abase the Courtier until he
equalled the Court Lady; for it would be by no means forbidden the Lady
to teach the mistress also, and with her to tend towards that aim of
Courtiership which I said befits the Courtier with the prince. But you
seek more to censure the Courtier than to praise the Court Lady; hence I
too shall be allowed to take the Courtier’s part.
“To reply, then, to your objections, I declare I did not say that the
Courtier’s instruction ought to be the sole cause of making the prince
such as we would have him. For if he were not by nature inclined and
fitted to be so, all the Courtier’s care and reminders would be in vain:
just as any good husbandman also would labour in vain if he were to set
about cultivating barren sea-sand and sowing it with excellent seed,
because such barrenness is natural in that place; but when to good seed
in fertile soil, and to mildness of climate and rains suited to the
season, there is added also the diligence of human culture, very
abundant crops are always found to spring up plenteously. Nor is it on
that account true that the husbandman alone is the cause of this,
although without him all the other things would avail little or nothing.
Thus there are many princes who would be good if their minds were
rightly cultivated; and it is of these that I am speaking, not of those
who are like barren ground, and by nature so alien to good behaviour
that no training avails to lead their minds in the straight path.
46.—“And since, as we have already said, our habits are what our actions
make them, and virtue consists in action, it is not impossible or
marvellous that the Courtier should turn the prince to many virtues,
like justice, generosity, magnanimity, the practice whereof the prince
by his greatness can easily put in use and convert into habit; which the
Courtier cannot do, because he has not the means to practise them; and
thus the prince, allured to virtue by the Courtier, may become more
virtuous than the Courtier. Moreover you must know that the whetstone,
although it cuts nothing, yet makes iron sharp. Hence it seems to me
that although the Courtier instructs the prince, he need not on that
account be said to be of more dignity than the prince.
“That the aim of this Courtiership is difficult and sometimes
impossible, and that even when the Courtier attains it, he ought not to