whether thynke you it more shame that you should shew to TO THE have of your owne, or that she should knowe you filche from READER others? You knowe Cæsar was a brave Gentleman, but yet he was a Scholler, but yet he wrote Bookes, but yet he came in print. Marcus Aurelius was an Emperour, but he was learned, and set foorth learned woorkes. Therefore (Gentlemen) never deny your selves to be Schollers, never be ashamed to shewe your learnyng, confesse it, professe it, imbrace it, honor it: for it is it which honoureth you, it is only it which maketh you men, it is onely it whiche maketh you Gentlemen: And marke this when you wyll, yf there be any in any place, which seeketh to come up, or benefite hym selfe by flatterie, by briberie, by slaverie, by villanie, I dare warrant you he is altogether unlearned: for havyng no good partes, no good giftes in hym which may preferre hym, he flyeth to those sinister shyftes as his surest stayes: whereby you see that it is Learnyng which accomplisheth a Gentleman, and the want of it which blemisheth hym: and that neither comlinesse of personage, neither gaynesse of garmentes, neither any exteriour Ornamentes are to be compared to the lineamentes of Learning, without which, though a man shake the feather after the best fashion, and take upon hym never so bygly, he shall never be accounted of amongst the wyse, nor never be filed on the roale of ryght and sufficient Gentlemen. And this I hope wyll satisfie those which mislyke that Gentlemen should publishe the fruites of their studie, especially seeing thereby Learning is advaunced, and a great number pleasured and profited: and seeing the only way to win immortalitie, is either to doo thinges woorth the writing, or to write thynges woorthy the readyng? And yf they objecte that that seeking of immortalitie, is a signe of vayne glory: to answere them playnely and humanely, I am flat of this minde, that they which passe not of prayse, wyll never doo any thyng woorthy prayse. There are some others yet who wyll set lyght by my labours, because I write in Englysh: and those are some nice Travaylours, who returne home with such quæsie stomackes, that nothing wyll downe with them but French, Italian, or Spanishe, and though a woorke be but meanely written in one TO THE of those tongues, and finely translated into our Language, yet READER they wyll not sticke farre to preferre the Originall before the Translation: the cause is partly, for that they cannot so soone espie faultes in a forraigne Tongue as in their owne, which maketh them thynke that to be curraunt, which is but course, and partly for that strange thynges doo more delight them, then that which they are dayly used to: but they consider not the profite which commeth by readyng thynges in their owne Tongue, whereby they shall be able to conceive the matter much sooner, and beare it away farre better, then yf they reade it in a strange Tongue, whereby also they shall be inabled to speake, to discourse, to write, to indite, properly, fitly, finely, and wysely, but the woorst is, they thinke that impossible to be doone in our Tongue: for they count it barren, they count it barbarous, they count it unworthy to be accounted of: and, which is woorse, as I myselfe have heard some of them, they report abrode, that our Countrey is barbarous, our maners rude, and our people uncivile: and when I have stoode with them in the comparison betweene other Countreys and ours, and poynted with my finger to many grosse abuses, used in the places where we have ben, when by no reason they have ben able to defende them, they have shronke in their necke, and tolde me that it was the fashyon of the Countrey: not considering that the maners and fashions of eche Countrey, are the only thing that make it counted barbarous or civile, good or bad. But for our Countrey, I am persuaded that those which know it, and love it, wyl report it for the civilest Countrey in the worlde: and if it be thought to be otherwyse by strangers, the disorders of those traveylers abrode are the chiefe cause of it. And to speake but of the lyghtest, their envying one another, their depraving one another, their flowting one another, their falling out one with another, their fighting one with another in the open streete (as with blushyng I have often behelde in Paris) their contemning of their Countrey fashions, their apish imitation of every outlandish Asse in their gestures, behavour, and apparell, are the only causes that make Strangers count our Countrey and our people barbarous for at home it is well knowne that we live in lawes as orderly, in maners as decently, in apparrell as comly, TO THE in diet as delicately, in lodging as curiously, in buildinges as READER sumptuously, in all thinges as aboundantly, and every way as civilly, as any Nation under Heaven. For the barbarousnesse of our tongue, I must lykewyse say that it is much the worse for them, and some such curious fellowes as they are: who if one chaunce to derive any woord from the Latine, which is insolent to their eares (as perchaunce they wyll take that phrase to be) they foorthwith make a jest at it, and terme it an Inkehorne terme. And though for my part I use those woords as litle as any, yet I know no reason why I should not use them, and I finde it a fault in my selfe that I do not use them: for it is in deed the ready way to inrich our tongue, and make it copious, and it is the way which all tongues have taken to inrich them selves: For take the Latine woords from the Spanish tongue, and it shall be as barren as most part of their Countrey: take them from the Italian, and you take away in a manner the whole tongue: take them from the Frenche, and you marre the grace of it: yea take from the Latine it selfe the woords derived from the Greeke, and it shall not be so flowing and flourishing as it is. Wherefore I marveile how our English tongue hath crackt it credite, that it may not borrow of the Latine as well as other tongues: and if it have broken, it is but of late, for it is not unknowen to all men how many woordes we have fetcht from thence within these fewe yeeres, which if they should be all counted inkepot termes, I know not how we should speake any thing without blacking our mouthes with inke: for what woord can be more plaine then this word plaine, and yet what can come more neere to the Latine? What more manifest, then manifest? and yet in a maner Latine: What more commune then rare, or lesse rare then commune, and yet both of them comming of the Latine? But you wyll say, long use hath made these woords curraunt: and why may not use doo as much for these woords which we shall now derive? Why should not we doo as much for the posteritie, as we have received of the antiquitie? and yet if a thing be of it selfe ill, I see not how the oldnesse of it can make it good, and if it be of it selfe good, TO THE I see not how the newnesse of it can make it naught: WhereREADER upon I infer, that those woords which your selves confesse by use to be made good, are good the first time they are uttered, and therfore not to be jested at, nor to be misliked. But how hardly soever you deale with your tongue, how barbarous soever you count it, how litle soever you esteeme it, I durst my selfe undertake (if I were furnished with Learnyng otherwyse) to wryte in it as copiouslye for varietie, as compendiously for brevitie, as choycely for woordes, as pithily for sentences, as pleasauntly for figures, and every way as eloquently, as any writer should do in any vulgar tongue whatsoever. Thus having (as I hope) satisfied my curious enimies, I am to crave the good wyll of my courteous friendes, desiring you (gentle Reader) to accepte in good part these my labours, which yf they shall lyke you, I shall counte my gayne great, yf not, yet must I needes count my losse but light, in that the doing of it kept me from idlenesse, a thing so daungerous to young Gentlemen, that I wish you al, above al thinges to avoyde it : And so fare you well, from my Lodgeing neere Paules. Yours to imploy Gentle Readers, I have supplyed divers thinges out of the THE FIRST BOOKE OF CIVILE CONVERSATION by Maister Steven Guazzo, Conteining in generall, the fruites that may be reaped by conversation, and teaching how to know good companie from yll PROEME WENT the last yeere to Saluce to doe my duetie to the most famous and excellent Lorde Lewes Gonzaga Duke of Nevers, my olde maister and friende, being very glad that he was come into Italy, Lieutenant general of the most Christian king Charles the ix. A degree which no doubt was due unto him: for were it so, that he had not heretofore wonne it by meanes of his owne valour and service doone to the king for the space of xxii. yeeres, and namely, the day wherein fighting valiantly, being but xix. yeeres old, he was taken prisoner at the battell of S. Quintance, yet it might suffice to make him worthie of a charge so great as that, the blood which he hath shed, not eight monethes since at his returne into Fraunce amongest the enimies of the Catholike faith, and the woundes which yet at this day put us in some doubt of his life and recoverie. Now to returne to my purpose, I found there the gentleman my brother William, who seemed to me to be altogether changed (and yet I had seene him not |