THE FIRST BOOK OF THE COURTIER
"In Sallust, Caesar, Varro109 and the other good writers, some terms are found used differently from the way Cicero uses them; and yet both ways are proper, for the excellence and force of a language lie in no such trifling matter: as Demosthenes well said to Æschines, who tauntingly asked him whether certain words that he had used (although not Attic) were prodigies or portents; and Demosthenes laughed and replied that the fortunes of Greece did not hang on such a trifle. So I too should care little if I were reproved by a Tuscan for having said satisfatto rather than sodisfatto, honorevole for horrevole, causa for cagione, populo for popolo, and the like."
Then messer Federico rose to his feet and said:
"Hear me these few words, I pray."
"The pain of my displeasure," replied my lady Emilia, laughing, "be upon him who speaks more of this matter now, for I wish to postpone it to another evening. But do you. Count, go on with the discussion about the Courtier,— and show us what a fine memory you have, which I think you will do in no small measure, if you are able to take up the discussion where you left it."
40.— "My Lady," replied the Count, "I fear the thread is broken; yet if I am not wrong, methinks we were saying that the pest of affectation imparts extreme ungracefulness to everything, while on the other hand simplicity and nonchalance produce the height of grace: in praise of which, and in blame of affectation, we might cite many other arguments; but of these I wish to add only one, and no more. Women are always very eager to be — and when they cannot be, at least to seem — beautiful. So where nature is somewhat at fault in this regard, they try to piece it out by artifice; whence arise that painting of the face with so much care and sometimes pains, that plucking of the eyebrows and forehead, and the use of all those devices and the endurance of that trouble, which you ladies think to keep very secret from men, but which are all well known."
Here madonna Costanza Fregosa laughed and said:
"It would be far more courteous for you to keep to your discussion, and tell us of what grace is born, and talk about Courtiership,— than to try to unveil the weaknesses of women, which are not to the purpose."
