THE SECOND BOOK OF THE COURTIER making the peasant stay and hold the twine against that side of it which was farthest from the one that looked up the little lane. When he reached this other side, he stuck a nail into the wall, tied the twine to it, and leaving the man there he quietly went off with the capons up the little lane. The peasant stood still a long time waiting for Ponzio to finish the measurement; at last, — after he had several times said: ' W^hat are you doing there so long?' — he went to look, and found that it was not Ponzio who was holding the twine, but a nail stuck in the wall, and that this was all the pay left him for the capons. Ponzio played numberless tricks of this sort. " There have also been many other men who were amusing in like manner, such as Gonnella, Meliolo in his day, and at the present time our friends Fra Mariano" and Fra Serafino" here, and many w^hom you all know. And doubtless this method is well enough for men who have no other business, but I think the Courtier's practical jokes ought to be somewhat farther removed from scurrility. Care must be taken also not to let practical joking degenerate into knavery, as we see in the case of many rogues, who go through the world with sundry wiles to get money, now pretending one thing and now another. Moreover the Courtier's tricks must not be too rude; and above all let him pay respect and reverence to women in this as in all other things, and especially where their honour may be touched." go.— Then my lord Gaspar said: " Indeed, messer Bernardo, you are too partial towards X women. And why would you have men pay more respect to women than women to men? Should not our honour be as dear to us, forsooth, as theirs to them? Do you think that women ought to taunt men with words and nonsense without the least restraint in anything, and that men should quietly endure it and thank them into the bargain? " Then messer Bernardo replied: " I do not say that in their pleasantries and practical jokes women ought not to use towards men the same respect which we have before described; but I do say they may taunt men with unchastity more freely than men may taunt them. And this is because we have made unto ourselves a law, whereby 162
