Page:The Book of the Courtier.djvu/261

 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE COURTIER having come to himself, the miser insisted that his servant should pay him for the rope that had been cut. " Of the same sort also seems to be what Lorenzo de' Medici said to a dull buifoon: 'You would not make me laugh if you tickled me.' And in like fashion he answered another simpleton who had found him abed very late one morning, and who had reproved him for sleeping so late, saying: 'I have already been at the New Market and the Old, then outside the San Gallo gate and around the walls for exercise, and have done a thousand things besides; and you are still asleep?' Then Lorenzo said: ' What I dreamed in one hour is worth more than what you accomplished in four.' 71.—" It is also fine when in a retort we censure something without apparently meaning to censure it. For instance, the Marquess Federico of Mantua,"" father to our lady Duchess, being at table with many gentlemen, one of them said after eat- ing an entire bowl of stew: ' Pardon me, my lord Marquess;' and so saying he began to gulp down the broth that remained. Then the Marquess said quickly: *Ask pardon rather of the swine, for you do me no wrong at all.' " Again, to censure a tyrant who was falsely reputed to be gen- erous, messer Niccolo Leonico'" said: 'Think what generosity rules him, for he gives away not his own things only, but other men's as well ! ' 72.—" Another very pretty form of pleasantry is that which consists in a kind of innuendo, when we say one thing and tacitly imply another. Of course I do not mean another thing of a completely different kind, like calling a dwarf gigantic and a negro white or a very ugly man handsome, for the difference is too obvious, — although even these sometimes cause laughter; but I mean when with stern and serious air we humourously say something in jest which is not our real thought. For instance, when a gentleman told a palpable lie to messer Agostino Fogli- etta"^ and affirmed it stoutly on seeing that he had much difficulty in believing it, messer Agostino said at last: 'Fair sir, if I may ever hope to receive kindness from you, do me the favour to be content even if I do not believe anything you say.' But as the other repeated, and under oath, that it was the truth, he finally 145