Note 42 — THE FIFTY COURTESIES FOR THE TABLE, OF FRA BONVESINO[13] DA RIVA.

‘Uomin di corte.’ This term was first applied to heralds, chamberlains, and the like court-officials: subsequently to the entertainers of a court, ‘giullari,’ jesters, and buffoons: and in process of time it came to include courtiers of whatever class. In the early writers—such as Barberino, Boccaccio, &c.—it is not always easy for a translator to pitch upon the precise equivalent: the reader should understand a personage who might be as romantic as a Troubadour, or as quaint as a Touchstone—but tending rather towards the latter extreme.