The Book of the Courtier
Castiglione uses _virtù_ in the sense of our “virtue,” he more often
gives it its etymological meaning of “manliness,” which the present
translator has generally rendered by “worth.” In considering a word like
this, we must take into account the character of him who uses it. To
Machiavelli, as no doubt to most of his contemporaries in Italy, _virtù_
meant simply that combination of strength, courage, tenacity and cunning
that enables a man to achieve his ends,—whether good or bad.
NOTES TO THE THIRD BOOK OF THE COURTIER
Note 331 page 171. Achaia, here used as synonymous with Greece, was the
name given to that country when conquered by the Romans and made a
province. Olympia was not in Achaia proper, but in the adjoining
district of Elis, some forty miles south of the modern Patras. The site
has been thoroughly excavated by German archæologists, the most noted
discovery being that of the “Hermes” of Praxiteles and the “Victory” of
Pæonius.
Note 332 page 172. That is to say, nude. According to the familiar Greek
myth, Eris (goddess of discord), to avenge her exclusion from the
nuptials of Peleus and Thetis, threw among the wedding guests a golden
apple inscribed “To the Fairest.” A dispute arising between Aphrodite,
Hera and Athena concerning the apple, Zeus appointed the shepherd Paris
to decide their claims. The prize having been awarded to Aphrodite, she
aided Paris to carry off the beautiful Helen of Sparta, and thus gave
rise to the Trojan War.
Note 333 page 173. The Order of St. Michael was instituted in August
1469, by Louis XI of France, and was highly esteemed down to
Castiglione’s time, but later suffered in estimation, owing to the
freedom with which membership was bestowed. Francis I wore the insignia
of the order at the battle of Pavia, 1525.
Note 334 page 173. The Order of the Garter was instituted by Edward III
of England in 1344. He assigned to its use the chapel (at Windsor) of
St. George, who was its patron saint. Duke Guidobaldo of Urbino having,
like his father, been made a knight of the order, Castiglione went to
England in 1506 to receive the insignia on the duke’s behalf.
Note 335 page 173. The Order of the Golden Fleece was instituted by Duke
Philip the Good of Burgundy (paternal grandfather of Charles V’s
paternal grandmother) in 1429 in honour of his third marriage, to
Elizabeth of Portugal. Its badge, a golden ram, is shown in our
portraits of Charles V and his grandfather Maximilian I.
Note 336 page 173. The king of Persia at this time was Ismail Sufi I,
(born 1480; died 1524). He was descended from a family of noted piety,
whose peculiar beliefs became the origin of the national Persian faith.
Having been proclaimed shah in 1499, after nearly a century of
disorderly government by the successors of Timur the Tartar, he spent
most of his reign in enlarging and assuring his dominions, and founded
the dynasty that was to rule Persia until 1736. He waged an unsuccessful
war with Selim I of Turkey, the son and successor of Bajazet II, and
died while on a pilgrimage to his own father’s tomb. His subjects
revered him as a saint.
Note 337 page 174. The ‘Lady whom I know’ is of course the Duchess.
Note 338 page 175. PYGMALION will be remembered as the legendary
sculptor-king of Cyprus, who fell in love with an ivory statue that he
had made of a beautiful girl, and prayed to Aphrodite to breathe life
into it. His prayer being granted, he married the girl, who was called
Galatea.
Note 339 page 181. The opinions here ascribed to Plato, are found in the
Fifth Book of his “Republic,” but seem to have undergone serious change
when he wrote his “Laws.”
Note 340 page 182. The comparative merits of man and woman were much
discussed in Greek antiquity and during the Renaissance, and form the
subject of a copious literature in which Castiglione’s contribution
occupies no unimportant place.
Note 341 page 184. The reference here is to a fragment of the so-called
Orphic Hymns, beginning: “Jove the End, Jove the Beginning, Jove the
Middle, all things are of Jove: Jove Male, Immortal Virgin Jove.” In
this and other respects the theogony to which the name of Orpheus is
attached, is closely related to the most ancient religious systems of
India.
Note 342 page 185. The author probably refers to Aristotle’s Tenth
Problem.
Note 343 page 188. The reference here is doubtless to Jerome’s 54th
Epistle (on Widowhood), and to his first tract against Jovinianus, both
written about 394 A.D. He was born in what is now the Hungarian town of
Stridon about 340, and died in a monastery at Bethlehem 420 A.D. Perhaps
his best remembered work is the Vulgate or Latin translation of the
Bible.
Note 344 page 189. “If not chastely, then discreetly.”
Note 345 page 190. OCTAVIA, (born 70; died 11 B.C.), was a great-niece
of Julius Cæsar, and became the second wife of the triumvir Mark Antony
for the purpose (ultimately vain) of cementing the alliance between him
and her brother Augustus. Her beauty, accomplishments and virtues proved
unavailing against the wiles of Cleopatra, who induced Antony to divorce
her. After Antony’s death, she remained true to the interests of his
children, including those by his first wife and by Cleopatra. Through
the two daughters that she bore to Antony, she became the grandmother of
the Emperor Claudius, and great-grandmother of his predecessor Caligula
and of his successor Nero.
Note 346 page 190. PORCIA’S first husband was Marcus Bibulus, who was
Consul with Cæsar in 59 B.C. She inherited her father’s republican
principles, courage and firm will, and was her second husband Brutus’s
confidante in the conspiracy against Cæsar. On his death at Philippi in
42 B.C., she put an end to her life.
Note 347 page 190. CAIA CÆCILIA TANAQUIL appears in Roman legend as the
second wife of King Tarquinius Priscus, endowed with prophetic powers,
closely connected with the worship of the hearth-deity, expert in
healing, and a model of domestic virtues. The traditional date of her
husband’s reign is 616-578 B.C.
Note 348 page 190. CORNELIA, the mother of the Gracchi (born about 189
B.C.; died about 110 B.C.), wrote letters that had survived in Cicero’s
day and were prized for their style. Even in her own lifetime the Romans
erected a statue in honour of her virtues. Left a widow with twelve
young children, she devoted herself wholly to their training, and
rejected all offers of marriage, including that of Ptolemy.
Note 349 page 191. Plutarch (from whose history the narrative in the
text is a paraphrase) describes ALEXANDRA as being actuated in her
regency solely by ambitious motives. Her husband, Alexander Jannæus, was
the son of Johannes Hyrcanus and brother of Aristobulus I, whom he
succeeded as second King of the Jews after the Babylonish Captivity. His
reign (104-78 B.C.) was marked by atrocities.
Note 350 page 191. The reference here is to MITHRIDATES VI, Eupator,
King (120-63 B.C.) of Pontus on the southern shore of the Black Sea. In
the Life of Lucullus, Plutarch relates that having been utterly defeated
by the Romans in 72 B.C., Mithridates gave order to have his wives
Bernice and Monima put to death together with his sisters Statira and
Roxana, in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of the
enemy,—while he himself took refuge with his son-in-law. Statira is
described by Plutarch as grateful to her brother for not forgetting her
amid his own anxieties, and for providing her the means of an honourable
death.
Note 351 page 191. This HASDRUBAL was the general of the Carthaginians
in their last struggle with Rome. When Scipio captured Carthage in 146
B.C., Hasdrubal surrendered, while it is said that his wife, after
upbraiding him for his weakness, flung herself and her children into the
flames of the burning temple in which they had sought shelter.
Note 352 page 191. In fact, HARMONIA was Hiero’s granddaughter, and the
wife of a Syracusan named Themistus, who (after the death of Hiero in
215 B.C.) was chosen one of the leaders of the commonwealth and
afterwards perished in a fresh revolution. Death was then decreed
against all surviving members of Hiero’s family, and Harmonia was slain
together with her aunts, Demarata and Heraclea.
Note 353 page 192. The reference is of course to the familiar story of
the obstinate dame who persisted in declaring that a certain rent had
been made with scissors, and whose husband vainly tried to change her
mind by plunging her in a pond. Each time she came to the surface, she
cried “Scissors,” until, unable to speak from strangulation, she
stretched forth her hand and made the sign of the instrument with two
fingers. In a coarser form, the story was current in Italy even before
Castiglione’s time.
Note 354 page 192. The conspiracy in question was discovered in 65 A.D.
Tacitus relates that EPICHARIS strangled herself with her girdle while
on the way to be tortured a second time.
Note 355 page 192. LEÆNA was an Athenian _hetaira_ beloved by
Aristogeiton. When he and Harmodius had slain the tyrant Hipparchus in
514 B.C., she was supposed to be privy to their plan, and died under
torture. The statue in question is mentioned by Pausanias and said by
Plutarch (in his essay on Garrulity) to have been placed “upon the gates
of the Acropolis.” Recent archæologists identify its site as being on
the level of the Acropolis, near the southern inner corner of the
Propylæa.
Note 356 page 192. Massilia became the modern Marseilles.
Note 357 page 192. This story is taken from the “Memorable Doings and
Sayings” of Valerius Maximus (_flor._ 25 A.D.), in which Castiglione
mistranslates the Latin word _publicè_ (at the public charge) as
_publicamente_ (publicly).
Note 358 page 192. Of several persons of this name, the one here
referred to was probably the Roman Consul (14 A.D.),—a patron of
literature and a friend of Ovid. Had the Magnifico been allowed to
finish his sentence, he would (following the narrative of Valerius
Maximus) have doubtless added the name of a town in Asia Minor, Julida.
Note 359 page 195. This story (which was used by Tennyson for his play
of “The Cup”) is found in Plutarch’s tract “Concerning Women’s Virtue,”
where the scene is placed in Galatia, in Asia Minor.
Note 360 page 197. The number of the Sibyls is usually reckoned as ten:
Persian (or Babylonian), Libyan, Phrygian, Delphian, Cimmerian,
Erythræan, Samian, Trojan, Tiburtine, and Cumæan,—of which the last was
the most famous.
Note 361 page 197. ASPASIA, (_flor._ 440 B.C.), was born at Miletus in
Asia Minor, but in her youth removed to Athens, where she was celebrated
for her talents and beauty, and became the mistress of Pericles, one of
whose orations she is said by Plato to have composed. Her house was the
centre of intellectual society, and was even frequented by Athenian
matrons and their husbands.
Note 362 page 197. DIOTIMA was a probably fictitious priestess of
Mantinea in the Peloponnesus, reputed to have been the instructress of
Socrates. Her supposed opinions as to the origin, nature and objects of
life, form the subject of Plato’s “Symposium.”
Note 363 page 197. NICOSTRATE or Carmenta was a prophetic and healing
divinity, supposed to be of Greek origin. Having tried to persuade her
son Evander to kill his father Hermes, she fled with the boy to Italy,
where she was said to have given the Roman form to the fifteen
characters of the Greek alphabet that Evander introduced into Latium.
Note 364 page 197. This ‘preceptress ... to Pindar’ was MYRTIS, a lyric
poetess of the 6th century B.C. She is mentioned in a fragment by
Corinna as having competed with Pindar. Statues were erected to her in
various parts of Greece, and she was counted among the nine lyric muses.