“You ought not to shun being reputed old in wisdom, even if you are young in years; so speak on, and make no more excuse.”
Messer Pietro said:
“Indeed, my Lady, if I must talk about this matter, I should need to go take counsel with my Lavinello’s Hermit.”[[474]]
Then my lady Emilia said, half vexed:
“Messer Pietro, there is no one in the company who is more disobedient than you; therefore it will be well for my lady Duchess to inflict some chastisement upon you.”
Messer Pietro said, again smiling:
“Be not angry with me, my Lady, for love of God; for I will tell what you wish.”
“Then tell it at once,” replied my lady Emilia.
51.—Whereupon messer Pietro, having first remained silent awhile, then settled himself a little as if about to speak of something important, and spoke thus:[[475]]
“My Lords, in order to prove that old men can love not only without blame but sometimes more happily than young men, it will be needful for me to make a little discourse to explain what love is, and in what consists the happiness that lovers may enjoy. So I pray you hear me with attention, for I hope to make you see that there is no man here whom it does not become to be in love, even though he were fifteen or twenty years older than my lord Morello.”