Page:The Book of the Courtier.djvu/285

 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE COURTIER mass faster than he, he answered me: 'It is not possible;' and coming close to my ear, he said: 'You must know, I do not re- cite a third of the silent prayers.' " Again, a priest at Milan having died, Biagino Crivello'" begged his benefice of the Duke,'"' who however was minded to give it to someone else. At last Biagino saw that further argu- ment was of no avail, and said: ' What ! After I have had the priest killed, why will you not give me his benefice?' " It is often amusing also to express desire for those things that cannot be. As the other day, when one of our friends saw all these gentlemen playing at fence while he was lying on his bed, and said: ' Ah, how glad I should be if this too were a fitting Exercise for a strong man and a good soldier ! ' " Moreover it is an amusing and spicy style of talk, and espe- cially for grave and dignified persons, to reply the opposite of what the person spoken to desires, but slowly and with a little air of doubtful and hesitating deliberation. As was once the case with King Alfonso I of Aragon,"^ who gave a servant weapons, horses and clothes, because the fellow said he had the night before dreamed that his Highness had given him all these things; and again not long afterwards the same servant said he had that night dreamed that the king gave him a goodly sum of gold florins, whereupon the king replied : ' Put no trust in dreams henceforth, because they are not true.' Of like sort also was the pope's reply to the Bishop of Cervia,*" who said to him in order to sound his purpose: 'Holy Father, it is said all over Rome, and the palace too, that your Holiness is making me governor.' Then the pope replied: 'Let them talk, — they are only knaves. Have no fear there is any truth in it.' 83 " Perhaps, my Lords, I might collect still many other occa- sions that give opportunity for humourous sallies : such as things said with shyness, with admiration, with threats, out of season, with excessive anger; besides these, certain other conditions that provoke laughter when they occur: sometimes a kind of wondering taciturnity, sometimes mere laughter itself when untimely, But methinks I have now said enough, for I believe that pleasantry which takes the form of words does not exceed the limits we have discussed. 153