So stands the staffe in the chimny corner.
And if you speake not so slowe, as if you were unlustie: nor so hasty, as if you wer hungrie: but as a wise and a temperate man should doe. Likewise, if you pronounce youre woords and your sillables with a certaine grace & sweetnes: not as a Scholemaister yt teacheth young Children to read & to spell. Neither must you mumble them nor supp them up, as if they were glued & pasted together one to another. If you remember these and such other rules and precepts: youre talke will be liked, and heard with pleasure enoughe: and you shall well maintaine the state and countenaunce, that well besemeth a gentleman well taught and honest.
Besids these, there be some, that never hould their tounge. And as the shippe that sailes, doth not presently stand still, by taking downe the sailes: So doe they runne forward, as caried away with a certaine braide: and loosing the matter of their talke, yet leave not to babble, but either repeate that againe that is said, or els speake still they cannot tell what.
And there be other so full of babble, that they will not suffer another to speake. And as wee doe see otherwhile, uppon the flowers in the countrie where they thresh corne, one Pullet pull the corne out of the others beake: so doe they catche the tale out of his mouth yt beganne it, and tell it them selves. And sure, suche maner of people, induce men to quarell and fight with them for it. For, if you doe marke it wel: Nothing moves a man sooner to anger: then when he is soudainely cut short of his will and his pleasure, be it of never so little and small importaunce. As when you gape wide with yawning: another should thrust his hand in your mouth: or when you doe lift your arme redy to hurle a stone: it is soudainly staide by one that stands behinde you. Even then, as these doings, and many moe like unto these, which tend to hinder the will and desire of another (albeit but in way of sporte & of play) are unseemely, and would be eschewed: So in talke and communication with men, wee should rather pull one, and further their desiers, by what meanes we can, then stop them and hinder them in it.
And therefore, If any man be in a redines to tell his tale: it is no good maner to interrupte him: nor to say that you doe knowe it well. Or, if hee besprinckle his tale here and there, with some prety lie: you must not reprove him for it, neither in wordes nor in gesture, as shaking your hed, or scowling uppon him, as many be wont: gloriously vaunting them selves, that they can, by no meanes, abide the taste of a Lie.... But, this is not the reason of this, it is the sharpenes and sowernes of their owne rusticall & eager Natures, which makes them so venemous & bitter in all companies they come: that no man cares for their acquaintance.
Likewise, It is an illfavoured condition to stop another mans tale in his mouth: and it spites him asmuche, as if a man should take him by the sleeve & hould him backe, even when he is redie to runne his course. And when another man is in a tale, it is no good maner for you, by telling the company some newes, & drawing their mindes to other matters, to make them forsake him cleane, and leave him alone. For, it is an uncourtious parte for you to leade and carry away the company: which the other (not you) hath brought together.
And, when a man tells his tale, you must geve good eare unto him: that you may not say otherwhile, O what?: Or, how?: which is many a mans fashion to doe. And this is asmuch trouble and paine to him that speaketh: as to shoofle against ye stones, to him that goeth. All these fashions, and generally, that which may stoppe, and that which may traverse the course of another mans talke, must be shunned.
And, if a man tell his tale slowe like a drawe-latche: you must not yet hasten him forwarde, nor lende him woordes, although you be quicker in speache then hee. For, many doe take that ill, and specially suche, as persuade themselves they have a Joly grace in telling a tale. For, they doe imagine you thinke not so well of them, as they themselves doe: And that you would geve them instructions in their owne Arte: as Merchaunts that live in greate wealth & plentie, would count it a greate reproche unto them, that a man should proffer them money, as if they lived in lacke, & were poore and stoode in neede of releefe. And you must understand, that, Every man in his owne conceite, thinkes he can tell his tale well: althoughe for modestie sake he deny it. And I cannot gesse how it cometh to passe, that the veriest foole doth babble most: which over muche prattle, I would not have a gentleman to use, and specially, if his skill be but scant in the matter in talke: Not onely, bycause it is a hard matter: but, He must run in many faults that talkes muche: but also, bycause a man weenes, that, He that talkes all the talke to him selfe, woulde (after a sorte) preferre him self above them all that heare him, as a Maister would be above his scholers. And therfore, It is no good maner for a man to take uppon him a greater state, then doth become him. And in this fault, not men alone, but many countries fall into, so cackling and prattling: that, woe be their eares that geve them hearing.
But, as over muche babble makes a man weary: so doth over muche Silence procure as greate disliking. For, To use silence in place where other men talke to and fro: is in maner, asmuche a fault, as not to pay your share and scot as other men doe. And as speache is a meane to shewe men your minde, to whome you speake: so, doth Silence againe make men wene, you seke to be unknowne. So yt, as those people which use to drinke muche at feastes, and make them selves drunke, are wont to thrust them out of their companie, that will not take their drinke as they doe: So be these kinde of mute & still fellowes, coldly welcome to pleasaunt and mery companie, that meete to passe the time away in pleasure and talke. So that, It is good maner for a man to speake, and likewise to hold his peace, as it comes to his turne, and occasion requires.
As an old Chronicle maketh mention. There was in the parts of Morea, a very good workman in stone: Who for ye singular good skill he had in his Art, was called (as I take it) Maestro Chiarissimo. This man (now well strooken in yeares) made a certaine treatise, & therin gathered together al ye precepts & rules of his arte: as the man yt had very good skill to doe it: shewing in what sorte the proportions and lineaments of the body, should be duely measured, as well everyone a parte by it selfe, as one respecting another: yt they might justly & duely be answerable ye one to the other: which treatise of his, he named Regolo. Meaning to shewe, that according to that, all the Images and pictures, that from thensforth any workeman should make, should be squared & lined forth: as ye beames, and ye stones, and the walles, are measured by ye rules & precepts of that booke. But, for that it is a muche easier matter to speake it, then to worke it, or doe it: and besides that, The greatest number of men, especially of us that be prophane and not learned, have our senses much quicker then our understanding, and consequently, better conceive particular things and Examples, then the generall propositions and Syllogismes (which I might terme in plainer speache, Reasons) for this cause this worthy man I speake of, having regard to the Nature of workemen: whose capacities are unfit and unable to weeld the weighte of generall Precepts and rules: and to declare more plainely, with all his cunning and skill: having found out for his purpose, a fine marble stone, with muche labour and paine, he fashioned and shaped an Image of it, as perfectly proportioned in every parte and member: as the precepts and rules of his treatise had before devised. And as he named the booke, so did he name that Image, and called it by name of Regolo.