Page:The Book of the Courtier.djvu/397

 THE THIRD BOOK OF THE COURTIER to strike the harder; and verily you are in the wrong and ought henceforth to be gentler." My lady Emilia laughed, and turning to my lady Duchess, said: "You see, my Lady, that our adversaries are beginning to quarrel and differ among themselves." " Call me not so," replied my lord Ottaviano, " for I am not your adversary. This contest has displeased me much, not because I was sorry to see the victory in favour of women, but because it has led my lord Gaspar to revile them more than he ought, and my lord Magnifico and messer Cesare to praise them perhaps a little more than their due; besides which, owing to the length of the discussion, we have missed hearing many other fine things that remained to say about the Courtier." " You see," said my lady Emilia, " that you are our adversary after all; and for that reason you are displeased with the late discussion, and fain would not have had so excellent a Court Lady described; not because you had anything more to say about the Courtier (for these gentlemen have said all they knew, and I think that neither you nor anyone else could add anything whatever), but because of the envy that you have of women's honour." 77-—" Certain it is," replied my lord Ottaviano, " that besides the things that have been said about the Courtier, I should like to hear many others. Still, since everyone is content to have him as he is, I also am content; nor should I change him in aught else, unless in making him a little more friendly to women than my lord Gaspar is, albeit perhaps not so much so as some of these other gentlemen." Then my lady Duchess said: " By all means we must see whether your talents are so great that they can give the Courtier greater perfection than these gentlemen have given him. So please to say what you have in mind : else we shall think that even you cannot add anything to what has been said, but that you wished to detract from the praises of the Court Lady because you think her the equal of the Courtier, who you would therefore have us believe could be much more perfect than these gentlemen have described him." 241