Note 41 — Chapter II · THE MARRIED WOMAN

[Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529), the author of the famous Book of the Courtier, Hoby’s translation of which has been recently added to Mr. Henley’s ‘Tudor Translations.’ This book is frequently quoted from and alluded to in the following pages. It purports to be a record of conversations held at the Court of Guidobaldo, Duke of Urbino (1472-1508), upon the qualities that make up the perfect courtier, and many other subjects incidentally. The chief interlocutors who are mentioned in these pages, are the duchess, Elizabeth Gonzaga; Cardinal Pietro Bembo (1470-1547), of so fastidious a taste as to revise his works forty times, the author of Gli Asolani, dialogues on platonic love; Bibbiena; and the coarse and dissolute Pietro Aretino, called Unico (1492-1557), who alternately satirised and sponged on the great; he wrote several witty and indecent comedies, and his letters throw much light on the social life of his time. The reader will find some specimens of his work La Cortigiana (the Courtesan) quoted in Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy.]