The Banquet | Page 6

men, not only judge
evilly, but, by defamation, they cause others to judge evilly. Wherefore
with such men their apprehension restricts the acknowledgment of
good and evil in each person represented; and I say this also of evil,
because many who delight in evil deeds have envy towards evil-doers.

The third observation is of human frailty, which one accepts on the part
of him who is judged, and from which familiar conversation is not
altogether free. In evidence of this, it is to be known that man is stained
in many parts; and, as says St. Augustine, "none is without spot." Now,
the man is stained with some passion, which he cannot always resist;
now, he is blemished by some fault of limb; now, he is bruised by some
blow from Fortune; now, he is soiled by the ill-fame of his parents, or
of some near relation: things which Fame does not bear with her, but
which hang to the man, so that he reveals them by his conversation; and
these spots cast some shadow upon the brightness of goodness, so that
they cause it to appear less bright and less excellent. And this is the
reason why each prophet is less honoured in his own country; and this
is why the good man ought to give his presence to few, and his
familiarity to still fewer, in order that his name may be received and not
despised. And this third observation may be the same for the evil as for
the good, if we reverse the conditions of the argument. Wherefore it is
clearly evident that by imperfections, from which no one is free, the
seen Presence restricts right perception of the good and of the evil in
every one, more than truth desires. Hence, since, as has been said above,
I myself have been, as it were, visibly present to all the Italians, by
which I perhaps am made more vile than truth desires, not only to those
to whom my repute had already run, but also to others, whereby I am
made the lighter; it behoves me that with a more lofty style I may give
to the present work a little gravity, through which it may show greater
authority. Let this suffice to excuse the difficulty of my commentary.


CHAPTER V.
Since this bread is now cleared of accidental spots, it remains to excuse
it from a substantial one, that is for being in my native tongue and not
in Latin; which by similitude one may term, of barley-meal and not of
wheaten flour. And from this it is briefly excused by three reasons
which moved me to choose the one rather than the other. One springs
from the avoidance of inconvenient Unfitness: the second from the

readiness of well-adjusted Liberality; the third from the natural Love
for one's own Native Tongue. And these things, with the grounds for
them, to the staying of all possible reproof, I mean in due order to
reason out in this form.
That which most adorns and commends human actions, and which
most directly leads them to a good result, is the use of dispositions best
adapted to the end in view; as the end aimed at in knighthood is
courage of mind and strength of body. And thus he who is ordained to
the service of others, ought to have those dispositions which are suited
to that end; as submission, knowledge and obedience, without which
any one is unfit to serve well. Because if he is not subject to each of
these conditions, he proceeds in his service always with fatigue and
trouble, and but seldom continues in it. If he is not obedient, he never
serves except as in his wisdom he thinks fit, and when he wills; which
is rather the service of a friend than of a servant. Hence, to escape this
disorder, this commentary is fit, which is made as a servant to the
under-written Songs, in order to be subject to these, and to each
separate command of theirs. It must be conscious of the wants of its
lord, and obedient to him, which dispositions would be all wanting to it
if it were a Latin servant, not a native, since the songs are all in the
language of our people. For, in the first place, if it had been a Latin
servant he would be not a subject but a sovereign, in nobility, in virtue,
and in beauty; in nobility, because the Latin is perpetual and
incorruptible; the language of the vulgar is unstable and corruptible.
Hence we see in the ancient writings of the Latin Comedies and
Tragedies that they cannot change, being the same Latin that we now
have; this happens not with our native tongue, which, being
home-made, changes at