Asot. Certainly.
Abstem. So needest thou for such a thirst a physician, not an inn-keeper, and a drug from the chemist, not one fetched from the providers of banquets. What you describe is not thirst but disease, and a perilous one, too!
XIX
REGIA—The King’s Palace
Agrius, Sophronius, Holocolax
In this dialogue, the Royal Dwelling or Palace and its parts, persons, and functions are described, as to which see Vincentius Lupanas, in his book de Magistratibus Francorum. For our Vives here chiefly describes the palace of a French king. The persons represented in the dialogue are fitly named from the Greek. For Agrius is with them a country rustic, unskilled in court-life. Sophronius is a prudent, modest, and cautious man. Holocolax is altogether a flatterer, and one who (as Terence says) has commanded himself to agree to everything, of which sort of men there is always so large an assembly in courts. There are two parts of the dialogue, the Exordium and Narratio.
I. Introduction (Exordium)
Agri. Why is it so many accompany the king in such varied styles of dress?
Soph. Nay, rather look on their countenances than on their finery. For their faces are more varied and diverse than their decorations and clothes.
Agri. What reason is there for this difference also of bearing?