Page:The Book of the Courtier.djvu/234

 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE COURTIER first time, she again had the better of him. At last, seeing that she would be able to checkmate the gentleman, the monkey tried a new trick to guard against being struck again; and with- out showing what she was at, she quietly put her right paw under the gentleman's left elbow, which was luxuriously resting on a taffety'" cushion, and (quickly snatching the cushion) with her left paw she at the same time checkmated him with a pawn, while with her right she held the cushion over her head as a shield against his blows; she then leaped joyfully to the king as if to parade her victory. Now you see how wise, wary and dis- creet the monkey was." Then messer Cesare Gonzaga said: " It must be that this was a doctor among monkeys, and of great authority; and I think that the Republic of Indian Mon- keys sent her to Portugal to make a name in a foreign land." Thereupon everyone laughed, both at the story and at the ad- dition given to it by messer Cesare. 57-— So, continuing the discussion, messer Bernardo said : " You have now heard what occurs to me concerning those pleasantries that render the effect of a thing by continuous talk; therefore it is now well to speak of those that consist in a single saying and have a quick keenness compressed into a phrase or word. And just as in the first kind, — that of humourous talk, — we must in our narrative and mimicry avoid resembling buffoons and parasites and those who make others laugh by their sheer absurdities, so in these short sayings the Courtier must take care not to appear malicious and spiteful, and not to utter witticisms and argusie solely to annoy and cut to the quick ; because for the sin of their tongue such men often suffer in all their members. 58.—" Now of the ready pleasantries that are contained in a short saying, those are keenest that arise from ambiguity. Yet they do not always move to laughter, for they are oftener ap- plauded as ingenious than as comic. As was said a few days since by our friend messer Annibal Paleotto'" to someone who was recommending a tutor to teach his sons grammar, and who, after praising the tutor as very learned, said that by way of sti- pend the man desired not only money but a room furnished for living and sleeping, because he had no letto (bed): whereupon 134