Neither must a man, to make other men merie, speake foule and filthie wordes, nor make ilfavoured gestures, distorting his countenaunce, & disfiguring his bodie: For, No man should, for other mens pleasures, dishonest & dishonour him self. It is an arte for a Juggler & jester to use: it doth not become a gentleman to do so. We must not then, imitate ye common and rude behaviours of Dioneo. Madonna Aldruda Alzate La coda.
Nor we must not counterfet our selves to be fooles & unsavorie doltes: but as time & occasion serveth, tell some pretie tale or some news, never heard of before, he yt can: & he yt cannot, let him hold his peace. For, these be ye partes of ye wit: which, if they be sodain & prety, give a proofe & a shew of ye quicknes of ye wit, & the goodnes of ye maners of him yt speakes them: which thing doth verie much please men & makes them our lovers & friends. But if they be otherwise, they woorke them a contrary effect. For, a man would weene the asse would play his parte: or yt some hody dody & louberly lout would friske and daunce in his doublet. There is another pleasaunte kind of communication, & yt is when ye pleasure & grace doth not consist in one merrie conceite alone, but in long & continued talke: which would be well disposed, wel uttered, & very wel set forth, to shew ye maners, ye fashions, ye gestures & behaviours of them we speke, of so properly & lively, as ye hearer should think that he heareth them not rehearsed, but seeth them with his eyes do those very things he heares them to speak of: which be very well observed by the gentlemen and gentlewomen both, in Boccace: although yet otherwhile (if I be not deceived) they do affect and counterfet, more then is sightly for a gentleman or gentlewoman to doe, like to these Comedie Players. And to doe this well, you must have the matter, the tale, or the story, you take uppon you to tell, perfect in your minde: and woordes so redy and fit, that you neede not say in the end: "That thing, and tother thing: This man, what doe you call him: That matter, helpe me to terme it:" And, "remember what his name is." For this is just the trot of the knight of the Lady Horetta. And if you doe reherse any chaunce, in which there be many speakers: you must not say, "He said and he aunswered:" bycause this worde (He) serveth for all men. So that the hearer that harkens unto it, is easily deceived, and forgets whome you meane. Then, it behoves them that discourse matters at length, to use proper names, & not to chaunge them after.
And more over, a man must beware that he say, not those things, which unsaide in silence would make ye tale pleasaunt inoughe and peradventure, geve it a better grace to leave them out. As to say thus. "Such a one, that was the sonne of such a one, that dwelt in Cocomer streete: do you knowe him? he maried the daughter of Gianfigliazzi, the leane scragge, that went so much to Saint Laraunce. No? do not you know him? why? do you not remember the goodly straight old man that ware long haire downe to his shoulders?" For if it were nothing materiall to the tale, whether this chaunce befell him, or him: all this long babble, and fond and folishe questions, were but a tale of a Tubbe: to no purpose, more then to weary mens eares that harken to it, and long to understand the end. As peradventure our Dant hath made this fault otherwhile, where he sayeth:
"And borne my parents were of yoare in Lumbardie,
And eke of Mantuaes soile they both by country be."
For, it was to no purpose, whether his mother were borne at Gazuolo, or ells at Cremona.
But I lerned once of a straunger, a Rethorician very lerned, a necessarie lesson concerning this poinct: that Men must dispose and order their tale, first with bynames, and then rehearse them (as neede is) that be proper. For, the bynames alwayes beare the respect of the persones qualitie: but the other are to be used at the Fathers discretion, or his whome they concerne.
And therfore, that bodie whome in your thought and imagination to your selfe, you doe conceive, might be Lady Covetousnes her selfe: in speache you shall call Maister Erminio Grimaldi: if suche be the common opinion, the countrie hathe of him. And, if there be no man in place where you dwell, so notoriously knowne as might serve the turne fit for your purpose: you must then imagine the case further of, and set him a name at your pleasure. It is very true, that With muche greater pleasure we harken and better beholde (as it were with our eyes) what soever is told us of men of our acquaintance, if the matter be suche as toucheth their maners: then what we doe heare of straungers and men unknowne unto us. And the reason is this: when wee doe knowe, that suche a man is woont to doe so: we doe easily beleeve, he hathe doone so indeede: and wee take asmuche knoweledge of him, as if wee were present: where it chaunceth not so with us, in the case of a straunger.
Our wordes (be it in longe discourses or other communication) Must be so plaine, that all the companie may easily understand them: and withall, for sounde and sense they must be apt and sweete. For if you be to use one of these two wordes: you shall rather say, Il ventre: then L'Epa. And where your country speache will beare it, you shall rather say: La Pancia, then il Ventre: Or, il Corpo. For, by these meanes you shalbe understoode, and not misse understoode, as we Florentines say, nor be darke and obscure to the hearers. The which thing our Poet, meaning to eschewe: in this very woorde it selfe (I beleve) sought to finde out another, not thinking muche of his paines (bycause it liked him wel) to seeke farre to borrow it els where. And said:
Remember how the Lorde a man was faine to be,