Page:The Book of the Courtier.djvu/235

 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE COURTIER messer Annibal at once replied: 'And how can he be learned if he has not letto (read)?' You see how well he played upon the double meaning of the phrase, non aver letto [to have no bed, or, not to have read]. " But while this punning witticism has much sharpness, where a man takes words in a sense different from that in which everyone else takes them, it seems (as I have said) to excite wonderment rather than laughter, except when it is combined with some other kind of saying. " Now that kind of witticism which is most used to excite laughter, is when we are prepared to hear one thing and the speaker says another, and it is called 'the unexpected.' And if punning be combined with this, the witticism becomes most spicy : as the other day, when there was a discussion about mak- ing a fine brick floor (un hel ntattonato) for my lady Duchess's closet, after much talk you, Giancristoforo, said: ' If we could fetch the Bishop of Potenza"* and flatten him out well, it would be the very thing, for he is the craziest creature born (il piu hel tnatto nato)' Everyone laughed heartily, for by dividing the word ntatto-nato you made the pun. Moreover saying that it would be well to flatten out a bishop and lay him in the floor of a room, was unexpected to the listener; and so the sally was very keen and laughable. 59-—" But of punning witticisms there are many kinds; therefore we must be careful and play very lightly with our words, and avoid those that make the sally flat or that seem forced; and also those (as we have said) that are too biting. As where several companions found themselves at the house of one of their friends who was blind of one eye, and the blind man bade the company stay to dinner, all took their leave save one, who said: 'I will stay with you because I see you have a vacant place for one;' and at the same time he pointed with his finger to the empty socket. You see this is too bitter and rude, for it wounded without cause, and the speaker had not first been stung himself. Moreover he said that which might be said of all blind men; and such universal things give no pleasure, because it seems possible that they may have been thought out before- hand. And of this kind was that gibe at a man without nose : 135