Page:The Book of the Courtier.djvu/20

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CONTENTS

Page
THE THIRD BOOK OF THE COURTIER 171

1: Excellence of the court of Urbino to be estimated in much the same way in which Pythagoras calculated the stature of Hercules. 2-3: Bantering preliminaries to the discussion on the Court Lady. 4: Qualities common to the Courtier and to the Court Lady. 5-6: The Court Lady to be affable, modest and decorous; to follow a middle course between prudishness and over-freedom; to avoid scandal-mongering; her conversation to have variety. 7-9: Physical and mental exercises of the Court Lady; her dress. 10-8: Women's importance; certain aspersions refuted, 19-20: Examples of saintly women contrasted with hypocritical friars. 21-7: Examples of women famous for virtue, manly courage, constancy in love, pudicity. 28-33: Examples of women who in ancient times did good service to the world in letters, in the sciences, in public life, in war. 34-6: More recent examples of women noted for their virtue. 37-49: Chastity and continence. 50: Dangers to which womanly virtue is exposed. 51-2: Further praise of women. 53-5: The Court Lady's demeanour in love talk. 56-9: Her conduct in love. 60-73: The way to win and keep a woman's love; its effects and signs; secrecy in love. 74-5: Pallavicino's aspersions against women. 76-7: Ottaviano Fregoso is deputed to expound the other qualities that add to the Courtier's perfections.

THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE COURTIER 243

1-2: Eulogy of several other interlocutors whose death had recently occurred. 3-6: Ottaviano Fregoso resumes the interrupted discussion, considers the Courtier's relations with his prince, and urges the duty of employing his qualities and accomplishments so that his prince may be led to seek good and shun evil. 7-10: Princes need to know the truth, their difficulty in finding it, and the Courtier's duty to encourage them in the path of virtue. 11-2: Virtue not wholly innate, but susceptible of cultivation. 13-6: Ignorance the source of nearly all human errour. 17-8: Temperance the perfect virtue, because it is the fountain of virtues. 19-24: Monarchy vs. commonwealth. 25-6: Whether a contemplative or an active life is more befitting a prince. 27-8: Peace the aim of war; the virtues befitting each. 29: Right training of princes to begin in habit and to be confirmed by reason. 30: Humourous digression. 31: Governo misto. 32-5: Attributes of a good prince: justice, devoutness, love of his subjects, and mild sway. 36-9: Grand public works; the Crusades; eulogy of several young princes. 40: Princes must avoid certain extremes. 41: Princes must attend to details personally. 42: Eulogy of the youthful Federico Gonzaga. 43-8: Arguments supporting the theory that the Courtier's highest aim is the instruction of his prince. 49-52: Whether the Courtier ought to be in love; Bembo appointed to discourse on love and beauty. 53-4: Evils and perils of sensual love. 55-6: Digression concerning the love of old men. 57-60: True beauty, the reflection of goodness. 61-4: In what manner the unyouthful Courtier ought to love; rational love contrasted with sensual love. 65-7: Contemplation of abstract beauty. 68-9: Contemplation of divine beauty. 70-1: Bembo's invocation to the Holy Spirit. 72: Instances in which a vision of divine beauty has been granted to mortals. 73: Termination of the discussion at dawn.

PRELIMINARY NOTES,— Life of the Author, etc. 313
NOTES TO THE DEDICATORY LETTER 317
NOTES TO THE FIRST BOOK OF THE COURTIER 325
NOTES TO THE SECOND BOOK OF THE COURTIER 355
NOTES TO THE THIRD BOOK OF THE COURTIER 387
NOTES TO THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE COURTIER 407
LIST OF EDITIONS OF THE BOOK OF THE COURTIER 417
INDEX 423