Page:The Book of the Courtier.djvu/232

 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE COURTIER much laughter when they are beyond measure: like those we sometimes hear from certain mouths regarding greatness or courage or nobility; or sometimes from women, regarding beauty or fastidiousness. As was not long since the case with a lady who remained sad and abstracted at some great festival; and when asked what she was thinking about that should make her so gloomy, she replied: 'I was thinking of a matter that troubles me greatly whenever it occurs to me, nor can I lift it from my heart; and this is, that on the universal Judgment Day, when all men's naked bodies must rise and appear before the tribunal of Christ, I cannot endure the distress I feel at the thought that my body will have to be seen unclothed among the rest.' Being extravagant, such affectations as these cause laughter rather than tedium. "You all are familiar with those splendid lies so well com- posed that they move to laughter. A very excellent one was but lately told me by a friend of ours who never suffers us to be without them." 55 — Then the Magnifico Giuliano said: " Be that as it may, it cannot be more excellent or more inge- nious than one which a fellow-Tuscan of ours, a merchant of Lucca, affirmed the other day as a positive fact." " Tell it to us," added my lady Duchess. The Magnifico Giuliano replied, laughing: " This merchant, so he tells the story, once finding himself in Poland, decided to buy a quantity of sables with the intention of carrying them into Italy and making great profit thereby. And after much effort, being unable to enter Muscovy himself (by reason of the war that was then waging between the King of Poland and the Duke of Muscovy), he arranged with the help of some people of the country, that on an appointed day certain Muscovite merchants should come with their sables to the fron- tier of Poland, and he promised to be there in order to strike the bargain. Accordingly, proceeding with his companions towards Muscovy, the man of Lucca reached the Dnieper, which he found all frozen as hard as marble, and saw that the Muscovites (who on account of the war w^ere themselves suspicious of the Poles) were already on the other bank, but approached no 132