The Book of the Courtier

by Baldassare Castiglione

  ‘I would maintain, therefore, that the prince should adopt these and various other appropriate policies so that his subjects should not begin to hanker after new things or a change in government, which they invariably do either in the hope of some gain or indeed honour, or from fear of loss or shame. This restlessness is inspired sometimes by a desperate hatred and anger aroused by the injuries and insults they suffer because of the greed, insolence and cruelty, or the lust, of those who are over them; sometimes by the contempt that is fostered by the neglect, cowardice and worthlessness of princes. These two errors should be avoided by winning the love and allegiance of the people; and this is done by favouring and rewarding the good and by prudently, and sometimes severely, preventing the evil and seditious from growing powerful, something which is easier to do beforehand than it is to crush them once they are strong. I should say that to prevent the people falling into such errors the best way is not to allow them to adopt evil practices, and especially those which become established gradually; for these are the hidden plagues which destroy cities before they can be remedied or even detected. I should advise the prince to endeavour by these policies to keep his subjects tranquil and to ensure that they enjoy spiritual and physical well-being and constant prosperity, the last, however, being promoted for the sake of the former, since unlike bodily well-being and good fortune, spiritual riches are more advantageous the greater and more copious they are. Then if his subjects are good and worthy, and properly directed towards the goal of happiness, the prince will be a very great lord; for it is a great and true dominion in which the subjects are good, properly governed and well ordered.’

  At this, signor Gaspare remarked: ‘If all the prince’s subjects were good, then I think he would be only a petty lord, seeing that the good never number more than a few.’

  Signor Ottaviano answered: ‘If some Circe were to turn all the subjects of the King of France into wild beasts, would you not consider that he would then be only a petty lord, even ruling over so many thousands of creatures? And on the other hand, if all the flocks pastured on these mountains of ours were to turn into wise men and valorous knights, wouldn’t you consider that the herdsmen in charge of them, and by whom they were obeyed, had become great lords? So you see that it is not the number of their subjects but their worth that makes princes great.’

  The Duchess and signora Emilia, and all the others, had for a good space of time been listening very attentively to what signor Ottaviano was saying. But then, after he had paused for a while, as if he had finished, Cesare Gonzaga began:

  ‘To be sure, signor Ottaviano, no one can deny that your precepts are very good and useful. Nevertheless, if you fashioned your prince with their help, I would believe you deserved the name of good schoolmaster rather than good courtier, and he would be a good governor rather than a great ruler. Of course, I am not arguing that the prince is not concerned with ensuring that his subjects are well governed with justice and good customs. Nevertheless, it seems to me that it is enough that they should choose good ministers to take charge of such things, and that their true function is far more important. So if I felt I was the excellent courtier whom these gentlemen have created, and enjoyed the favour of my prince, certainly I would never lead him to do anything blameworthy, but to achieve the noble end that you describe, and which I agree should be the fruit of the courtier’s deeds and labours, I should seek first to implant in his soul a certain greatness, along with a regal splendour, a readiness of spirit and an unconquerable valour in arms that should make him so loved and respected by all that chiefly for this would he be famous and renowned in the world. I should also say that his greatness must be accompanied by a certain friendly gentleness, a gracious and amiable humanity and an accomplished manner of discreetly favouring both his subjects and strangers, in varying degree according to their merit; although he must always pay heed to the majesty that befits his rank and never allow his authority to be diminished in the slightest by lowering himself too far or, still less, excite hatred by too unbending a severity. He should be a prince of great splendour and generosity, giving freely to everyone because, as we say, God is the treasurer of generous rulers. He should hold magnificent banquets, festivals, games and public shows, and keep a great many fine horses for use in peace or war, as well as falcons; hounds and all the other things that pertain to the pleasures of great lords and their subjects: after the manner of signor Federico Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua, in our own day, who in this regard seems more like King of Italy than the ruler of a city.10 I would also seek to persuade him to erect great buildings, both to do him honour in his lifetime and to be memorials after his death: as did Duke Federico in building this noble palace, and as Pope Julius is now doing in constructing the church of St Peter’s and the street leading from the Palace to his terrace of the Belvedere and many other edifices, and as did also the ancient Romans, of which we see so many remains at Rome, at Naples, at Pozzuoli, at Baia, at Cività Vecchia, at Porto and in so many places, outside Italy as well, giving wonderful testimony to the great stature of those inspired men. The same was done by Alexander the Great who, not content with the fame he had deservedly won from having conquered the world by arms, built Alexandria in Egypt, Buce-phalia in India and yet other cities in other countries. And Alexander also thought of reducing Mount Athos to the form of a man, and of building a most spacious city in the left hand, and in the right a vast basin where all the rivers that rise there were to gather before overflowing into the sea. This was a truly noble inspiration, and indeed worthy of Alexander the Great.11 These are the kind of activities, signor Ottaviano, that I think fitting for a true and noble prince and likely to win him glory in peace or war. They are more suitable than attending to all and every detail of government, and being concerned to fight merely to subjugate and conquer those who deserve to be subjugated, or promoting the interests of his subjects or depriving of political power those who govern badly. For if the Romans, Alexander, Hannibal and all the rest had been concerned with these matters, they would never have attained the height of glory that they did.’

  To this, signor Ottaviano replied with a smile:

  ‘Those who were not concerned with such matters would have done better to have been so; although if you reflect on it you will find many who were, and especially those first rulers of the ancient world, Theseus and Hercules. And you must not suppose that Procrustes and Sciron, Cacus, Diomed, Antaeus and Geryon, against whom these magnanimous heroes endlessly waged war to the death, were other than cruel and impious tyrants.12 So for his having freed the world from such unbearable monsters (as these tyrants must be called) temples and sacrifices were made to Hercules and divine honours paid to him. For the extirpation of tyrants is a service so beneficial to the world that he who performs it deserves a far greater reward than is appropriate for mortals. Now, of those you have named, doesn’t it seem to you that Alexander’s victories brought advantages to those whom he conquered, since he taught so many good customs to those he overcame that they changed from wild beasts into men? He built so many fine cities in lands that had been sparsely populated, introduced them to a civilized way of life, and, as it were, so united Asia and Europe by the ties of friendship and holy laws that those he conquered were happier than others. For he taught marriage to some, and to others agriculture or religion; he taught others not to kill their parents but to support them in their old age, others to abstain from copulating with their mothers, and a thousand other things that could be cited as evidence of the benefits his victories brought to the world.

  ‘However, leaving aside the ancient world, what more noble, glorious and beneficial enterprise would there be than for Christians to devote their strength to subjugating the infidels? Would not this war be as advantageous for the conquered as for the conquerers, were it to prove successful and cause so many thousands to turn from the false sect of Mohammed to the true light of Christianity? Remember that after he had been banished from his own country and received by the Kin
g of Persia and favoured and honoured with innumerable, costly gifts, Themistocles said to his family: “My friends, if we had not been ruined when we were, then we would indeed have been ruined….”13

  ‘The Turks and the Moors would rightly be able to say the same, were they conquered by the Christians, for they would find salvation through their defeat. And I trust that we may yet see this happy state of affairs come to pass, if God allows Monseigneur d’Arigoulême (who shows such promise as was stated by the signor Magnifico a few evenings ago) to live to wear the crown of France, and that of England the lord Henry,14 Prince of Wales, who is now growing up in all virtue under his great father, like a tender shoot beneath the shade of a noble and fruitful tree, to renew it when the time comes with far greater beauty and fruitfulness. For, as our Castiglione writes from England, promising to tell us much more on his return, it seems that in this prince Nature has wished to show her power by bringing together in a single body enough virtues for a host of men.’

  Then Bernardo Bibbiena remarked: ‘Very great promise is also shown by Don Carlos,15 Prince of Spain, who although he is not yet ten years old displays already such intelligence and such convincing signs of goodness, prudence, modesty, magnanimity and every kind of virtue that if, as many think, he is to be the Emperor of Christendom it is to be believed that he must eclipse the name of many ancient emperors and equal the fame of the most famous men who have ever lived.’

  Signor Ottaviano added: ‘Thus I believe that these inspired princes have been sent to us by God and have been made by Him to resemble each other in youth, in military prowess, in state, in physical beauty and constitution so that they may also join together in this worthy intention. And if there must ever be any envy or emulation among them, let it be in the wish each one shows to be the first, the most fervent and the most determined in so glorious an enterprise. However, let us now leave this matter and return to our subject. I maintain therefore, Cesare, that the things you wish the prince should do are most important and commendable; but you must realize that if he does not know what I have said he should, and has not formed his mind in that manner and directed it to the path of virtue, he will scarcely understand how to be magnanimous, generous, just, courageous and prudent, or to have any of the other qualities expected of him. Nor would I wish him to have these qualities for any reason other than the capacity to apply them: for just as those who build are not all good architects, so those who give are not all generous. This is because virtue never injures anyone, and yet there are many who rob in order to give, and are generous with the belongings of others. Some give to whom they shouldn’t, and leave in wretchedness and misfortune those to whom they are indebted. Others give with a certain ill grace and almost disdain, so that it is plain they are doing so against their will. Others not only do not conceal what they are doing but summon witnesses and more or less proclaim their generosity in public. Others foolishly empty the fountain of their generosity at one go, with the result that there is nothing left.

  ‘Therefore in this as in other things one must know and govern oneself with the prudence that should accompany all the virtues, which, being the happy mean, are midway between the two extremes, which are the vices. And so a man who lacks knowledge easily falls into vice. For just as it is difficult to find the middle or mean point of a circle, so it is difficult to find the point of virtue set midway between two extremes, one vicious because of excess, the other because of insufficiency; and we tend now to the one, now to the other of these extremes. This we see from the pleasure or displeasures aroused within us, for the one extreme causes us to do what we shouldn’t, and the other to neglect doing what we should. However, pleasure is by far the more dangerous, since it only too easily persuades and corrupts our judgement. Yet since it is so difficult to know how far one is from the mean, we should readily withdraw, little by little, away from the extreme to which we know we usually tend, like a man straightening a crooked timber. For by this method we draw near to virtue which, as I have said, consists in the happy mean. And this is the reason that we make mistakes in many ways, but perform our proper office and duty in only one way; like archers who have only one way of hitting the target but many ways of missing. For example, very often, in his anxiety to be considerate and affable, a prince will do countless things that are far from appropriate to his rank and lower himself so much that he comes to be despised. Another, to make his dignity and majesty more authoritative, will become harsh and intolerant; and another, in order to be thought eloquent, will adopt all kinds of mannerisms, indulge in circumlocutions and affected phrases, and study his own speech so carefully that he bores everyone stiff.

  ‘So, Cesare, do not call just a detail anything that can in any way improve a ruler, however trivial it may seem. And don’t think that I take it as blame when you say that my precepts would make a good governor rather than a good prince; for there could be no greater nor more relevant praise than to call a prince a good governor. So if it were for me to educate him, I should wish him to pay attention not only to the subjects we have mentioned but also to lesser things still; and to understand as far as possible every single question that affects his people, and never to believe or trust any of his ministers so much as to hand over to him alone the bridle and control of all government. For there is no one who is capable in everything, and far more harm is caused when rulers are too trusting than when they are distrustful, which, indeed, is not only sometimes harmless but often brings considerable advantages. Yet in this matter the prince must possess good judgement, and discern who is worthy of credence and who not. I would like him to take care to understand and be critical of his ministers’ actions; to clear away and cut short any disputes among his subjects; to act among them as a peacemaker and bind them together by marriage-ties; to make his city united and peaceful in friendship, as if in one family, populous, not poor, tranquil, full of good craftsmen; to favour the merchants and also help them financially; to practise a generous and worthy hospitality towards strangers and priests; and to curb all excesses. For often seemingly unimportant mistakes made in these matters cause the downfall of states. It is right, therefore, that the prince should place a limit on the magnificence of private buildings and banquets, on the size of dowries, on luxury and on ostentation in jewellery and dress, which is simply an addition to human folly; for not only do women often dissipate the wealth and substance of their husbands because of their ambitions and jealousies, but also sometimes in return for some little jewel or trinket they will sell their honour to anyone who wants to buy it.’

  At this, Bernardo Bibbiena laughed and said:

  ‘Signor Ottaviano, you are joining forces with signor Gaspare and Frisio.’

  Laughing also, signor Ottaviano replied: ‘That dispute is finished, and I do not wish to renew it. So I shall say nothing more about women, and return to my prince.’

  Frisio put in: ‘You may leave him without any worry now, and rest content that he is as you have created him. For without doubt it would be easier to find a lady with the qualities specified by the Magnifico than a prince with those specified by you. So I am afraid that he is like Plato’s republic, and that we shall never see the like of him, except perhaps in heaven.’

  Signor Ottaviano replied: ‘We can still hope for things that are possible, however difficult they may be. So perhaps we shall yet see him on earth in our own times; for although heaven is so reluctant to produce excellent princes that scarcely one has been seen over many centuries, such good fortune may well come our way.’

  Then Count Lodovico added: ‘I am myself quite hopeful of this; for apart from those three great princes whom we have named, of whom we may expect what has been said to befit the finest example of perfect ruler, there are to be found in Italy today several princes’ sons who, although they may not be destined to such great power, may perhaps make up for this by their prowess; and the one among them all whose disposition seems best and who shows the greatest promise seems, in my opinion, to be signor Federi
co Gonzaga,16 the eldest son of the Marquess of Mantua and the nephew of our gracious Duchess. For in addition to the fine manners and discretion he shows at so tender an age, those who have charge of him tell wonderful things about his talent, his thirst for honour, his magnanimity, courtesy, generosity and love of justice. So from these good beginnings one cannot but expect the finest results.’