Valentino

by Niccolo Machiavelli

peoples my friends, and I should have lived, if no longer, at least

  more peacefully, and have left you a state without a doubt smaller,

  but one more secure and established on a surer foundation. But

  Fortune, who insists upon having the arbitrament of human affairs, did

  not endow me with sufficient judgment to recognize this from the

  first, nor the time to surmount it. Thou hast heard, for many have

  told thee, and I have never concealed it, how I entered the house of

  thy father whilst yet a boy--a stranger to all those ambitions which

  every generous soul should feel--and how I was brought up by him, and

  loved as though I had been born of his blood; how under his governance

  I learned to be valiant and capable of availing myself of all that

  fortune, of which thou hast been witness. When thy good father came to

  die, he committed thee and all his possessions to my care, and I have

  brought thee up with that love, and increased thy estate with that

  care, which I was bound to show. And in order that thou shouldst not

  only possess the estate which thy father left, but also that which my

  fortune and abilities have gained, I have never married, so that the

  love of children should never deflect my mind from that gratitude

  which I owed to the children of thy father. Thus I leave thee a vast

  estate, of which I am well content, but I am deeply concerned,

  inasmuch as I leave it thee unsettled and insecure. Thou hast the city

  of Lucca on thy hands, which will never rest contented under they

  government. Thou hast also Pisa, where the men are of nature

  changeable and unreliable, who, although they may be sometimes held in

  subjection, yet they will ever disdain to serve under a Lucchese.

  Pistoia is also disloyal to thee, she being eaten up with factions and

  deeply incensed against thy family by reason of the wrongs recently

  inflicted upon them. Thou hast for neighbours the offended

  Florentines, injured by us in a thousand ways, but not utterly

  destroyed, who will hail the news of my death with more delight than

  they would the acquisition of all Tuscany. In the Emperor and in the

  princes of Milan thou canst place no reliance, for they are far

  distant, slow, and their help is very long in coming. Therefore, thou

  hast no hope in anything but in thine own abilities, and in the memory

  of my valour, and in the prestige which this latest victory has

  brought thee; which, as thou knowest how to use it with prudence, will

  assist thee to come to terms with the Florentines, who, as they are

  suffering under this great defeat, should be inclined to listen to

  thee. And whereas I have sought to make them my enemies, because I

  believed that war with them would conduce to my power and glory, thou

  hast every inducement to make friends of them, because their alliance

  will bring thee advantages and security. It is of the greatest

  important in this world that a man should know himself, and the

  measure of his own strength and means; and he who knows that he has

  not a genius for fighting must learn how to govern by the arts of

  peace. And it will be well for thee to rule they conduct by my

  counsel, and to learn in this way to enjoy what my life-work and

  dangers have gained; and in this thou wilt easily succeed when thou

  hast learnt to believe that what I have told thee is true. And thou

  wilt be doubly indebted to me, in that I have left thee this realm and

  have taught thee how to keep it."

  After this there came to Castruccio those citizens of Pisa, Pistoia,

  and Lucca, who had been fighting at his side, and whilst recommending

  Pagolo to them, and making them swear obedience to him as his

  successor, he died. He left a happy memory to those who had known him,

  and no prince of those times was ever loved with such devotion as he

  was. His obsequies were celebrated with every sign of mourning, and he

  was buried in San Francesco at Lucca. Fortune was not so friendly to

  Pagolo Guinigi as she had been to Castruccio, for he had not the

  abilities. Not long after the death of Castruccio, Pagolo lost Pisa,

  and then Pistoia, and only with difficulty held on to Lucca. This

  latter city continued in the family of Guinigi until the time of the

  great-grandson of Pagolo.

  From what has been related here it will be seen that Castruccio was a

  man of exceptional abilities, not only measured by men of his own

  time, but also by those of an earlier date. In stature he was above

  the ordinary height, and perfectly proportioned. He was of a gracious

  presence, and he welcomed men with such urbanity that those who spoke

  with him rarely left him displeased. His hair was inclined to be red,

  and he wore it cut short above the ears, and, whether it rained or

  snowed, he always went without a hat. He was delightful among friends,

  but terrible to his enemies; just to his subjects; ready to play false

  with the unfaithful, and willing to overcome by fraud those whom he

  desired to subdue, because he was wont to say that it was the victory

  that brought the glory, not the methods of achieving it. No one was

  bolder in facing danger, none more prudent in extricating himself. He

  was accustomed to say that men ought to attempt everything and fear

  nothing; that God is a lover of strong men, because one always sees

  that the weak are chastised by the strong. He was also wonderfully

  sharp or biting though courteous in his answers; and as he did not

  look for any indulgence in this way of speaking from others, so he was

  not angered with others did not show it to him. It has often happened

  that he has listened quietly when others have spoken sharply to him,

  as on the following occasions. He had caused a ducat to be given for a

  partridge, and was taken to task for doing so by a friend, to whom

  Castruccio had said: "You would not have given more than a penny."

  "That is true," answered the friend. Then said Castruccio to him: "A

  ducat is much less to me." Having about him a flatterer on whom he had

  spat to show that he scorned him, the flatterer said to him:

  "Fisherman are willing to let the waters of the sea saturate them in

  order that they make take a few little fishes, and I allow myself to

  be wetted by spittle that I may catch a whale"; and this was not only

  heard by Castruccio with patience but rewarded. When told by a priest

  that it was wicked for him to live so sumptuously, Castruccio said:

  "If that be a vice than you should not fare so splendidly at the

  feasts of our saints." Passing through a street he saw a young man as

  he came out of a house of ill fame blush at being seen by Castruccio,

  and said to him: "Thou shouldst not be ashamed when thou comest out,

  but when thou goest into such places." A friend gave him a very

  curiously tied knot to undo and was told: "Fool, do you think that I

  wish to untie a thing which gave so much trouble to fasten."

  Castruccio said to one who professed to be a philosopher: "You are

  like the dogs who always run after those who will give them the best

  to eat," and was answered: "We are rather like the doctors who go to

  the houses of those who have the gre
atest need of them." Going by

  water from Pisa to Leghorn, Castruccio was much disturbed by a

  dangerous storm that sprang up, and was reproached for cowardice by

  one of those with him, who said that he did not fear anything.

  Castruccio answered that he did not wonder at that, since every man

  valued his soul for what is was worth. Being asked by one what he

  ought to do to gain estimation, he said: "When thou goest to a banquet

  take care that thou dost not seat one piece of wood upon another." To

  a person who was boasting that he had read many things, Castruccio

  said: "He knows better than to boast of remembering many things."

  Someone bragged that he could drink much without becoming intoxicated.

  Castruccio replied: "An ox does the same." Castruccio was acquainted

  with a girl with whom he had intimate relations, and being blamed by a

  friend who told him that it was undignified for him to be taken in by

  a woman, he said: "She has not taken me in, I have taken her." Being

  also blamed for eating very dainty foods, he answered: "Thou dost not

  spend as much as I do?" and being told that it was true, he continued:

  "Then thou art more avaricious than I am gluttonous." Being invited by

  Taddeo Bernardi, a very rich and splendid citizen of Luca, to supper,

  he went to the house and was shown by Taddeo into a chamber hung with

  silk and paved with fine stones representing flowers and foliage of

  the most beautiful colouring. Castruccio gathered some saliva in his

  mouth and spat it out upon Taddeo, and seeing him much disturbed by

  this, said to him: "I knew not where to spit in order to offend thee

  less." Being asked how Caesar died he said: "God willing I will die as

  he did." Being one night in the house of one of his gentlemen where

  many ladies were assembled, he was reproved by one of his friends for

  dancing and amusing himself with them more than was usual in one of

  his station, so he said: "He who is considered wise by day will not be

  considered a fool at night." A person came to demand a favour of

  Castruccio, and thinking he was not listening to his plea threw

  himself on his knees to the ground, and being sharply reproved by

  Castruccio, said: "Thou art the reason of my acting thus for thou hast

  thy ears in thy feet," whereupon he obtained double the favour he had

  asked. Castruccio used to say that the way to hell was an easy one,

  seeing that it was in a downward direction and you travelled

  blindfolded. Being asked a favour by one who used many superfluous

  words, he said to him: "When you have another request to make, send

  someone else to make it." Having been wearied by a similar man with a

  long oration who wound up by saying: "Perhaps I have fatigued you by

  speaking so long," Castruccio said: "You have not, because I have not

  listened to a word you said." He used to say of one who had been a

  beautiful child and who afterwards became a fine man, that he was

  dangerous, because he first took the husbands from the wives and now

  he took the wives from their husbands. To an envious man who laughed,

  he said: "Do you laugh because you are successful or because another

  is unfortunate?" Whilst he was still in the charge of Messer Francesco

  Guinigi, one of his companions said to him: "What shall I give you if

  you will let me give you a blow on the nose?" Castruccio answered: "A

  helmet." Having put to death a citizen of Lucca who had been

  instrumental in raising him to power, and being told that he had done

  wrong to kill one of his old friends, he answered that people deceived

  themselves; he had only killed a new enemy. Castruccio praised greatly

  those men who intended to take a wife and then did not do so, saying

  that they were like men who said they would go to sea, and then

  refused when the time came. He said that it always struck him with

  surprise that whilst men in buying an earthen or glass vase would

  sound it first to learn if it were good, yet in choosing a wife they

  were content with only looking at her. He was once asked in what

  manner he would wish to be buried when he died, and answered: "With

  the face turned downwards, for I know when I am gone this country will

  be turned upside down." On being asked if it had ever occurred to him

  to become a friar in order to save his soul, he answered that it had

  not, because it appeared strange to him that Fra Lazerone should go to

  Paradise and Uguccione della Faggiuola to the Inferno. He was once

  asked when should a man eat to preserve his health, and replied: "If

  the man be rich let him eat when he is hungry; if he be poor, then

  when he can." Seeing on of his gentlemen make a member of his family

  lace him up, he said to him: "I pray God that you will let him feed

  you also." Seeing that someone had written upon his house in Latin the

  words: "May God preserve this house from the wicked," he said, "The

  owner must never go in." Passing through one of the streets he saw a

  small house with a very large door, and remarked: "That house will fly

  through the door." He was having a discussion with the ambassador of

  the King of Naples concerning the property of some banished nobles,

  when a dispute arose between them, and the ambassador asked him if he

  had no fear of the king. "Is this king of yours a bad man or a good

  one?" asked Castruccio, and was told that he was a good one, whereupon

  he said, "Why should you suggest that I should be afraid of a good

  man?"

  I could recount many other stories of his sayings both witty and

  weighty, but I think that the above will be sufficient testimony to

  his high qualities. He lived forty-four years, and was in every way a

  prince. And as he was surrounded by many evidences of his good

  fortune, so he also desired to have near him some memorials of his bad

  fortune; therefore the manacles with which he was chained in prison

  are to be seen to this day fixed up in the tower of his residence,

  where they were placed by him to testify for ever to his days of

  adversity. As in his life he was inferior neither to Philip of

  Macedon, the father of Alexander, nor to Scipio of Rome, so he died in

  the same year of his age as they did, and he would doubtless have

  excelled both of them had Fortune decreed that he should be born, not

  in Lucca, but in Macedonia or Rome.

  End of the Apparatus Library Etext of The Prince, Etc.,by Machiavelli