Courtier as an Adviser

Baldassare Castiglione wrote Il Cortegiano beginning it in 1508 somewhat after the Platonic model like Republic. In 1561, Sir Thomas Hoby translated it into English as The Book of the Courtier. The book provides some prescriptive ways that make an ideal or a perfect courtier. As one of the seminal courtesy books of the Renaissance, it is made up of a series of dialogues, debates on various topics of interest to the courtiers who wish to act in the best possible manner. The fictional conversation is made to occur over the course of four evenings amongst the courtiers of the Duke of Urbino in 1507 (where Castiglione himself was part of the Duke’s court), it defines and appropriates the role of the courtier as an adviser. A courtier is said to be the royal adviser of the prince and his court. An ideal courtier is to blend in the characteristics of being graceful, unassuming and courageous individual. He must be committed to justice, truth, wise counsel and never boast of his accomplishments and hanker after rewards. Along with these dispositions, he is expected to have a warrior spirit, be athletic and having knowledge of humanities and fine arts. He is to be equally skilled in music and dancing.

A courtier plays an infinitely delicate role in the court. Though the concept of an ideal courtier is unusual, yet he is to be effortlessly discreet along with the qualities of temperance, fortitude, liberality and all the virtues that foster the peace of mind. He will never enrage the prince and must ensure that the ruler or prince does not make decisions opposed to the welfare of his state and the people. If he knows that his prince is of an evil intention, he should dare to oppose him in a gentle manner and bring him onto the path of virtue. By the supremeness of power, or being flattered by friends and obsessed with pleasure-seeking and amusements, the prince cannot accept anyone else’s advice or opinion. “They believe that it is easy to know how to rule and that successful governance requires no art or training other than brute force” (p.286, The Fourth Book of the Courtier) .They think true happiness lies in what they want to do. Some of them hate reason and justice believing these as hindrance to their desires and these reduce them to servitude. Their irrationality makes them ignorant of themselves and the world around them. This dark veil of ignorance is the cause of all human errors. The only way to remove this is to enlighten human souls through virtues, skillful practice and reasons. A good, rational prince is always advantageous to the mankind. As an adviser, the chief function of a courtier is to make his prince virtuous through which he can relish the innocent pleasures. Virtue helps people to distinguish between true and false knowledge. A man who lacks true knowledge easily falls to vice. Like Machiavelli, Castiglione is not speaking of the prescribed Christian ‘virtues’ but of ‘virtue’ as a state of being. He is not overtly disturbed by the presence of vice in the court. He explains that virtue can not exist without vice nor justice without injustice. So he considers the truly competent courtier as a stabilising force among these binary oppositions.

A courtier will encourage the ruler to learn from a master whom he qualifies as someone of deservedly superior knowledge than someone who speaks in the name of authority. It is the superior God or Nature who endows men with the noble qualities. In the Fourth Book of the Courtier, Castiglione points out that it is difficult to learn the qualities instructed by the courtiers to their lords unless Nature herself provides these to human beings. Since these qualities are natural, it is even shameful to be lacking. The potentiality for these virtues is rooted within the human soul and education enhances these faculties. So, the duty of the courtier as an adviser is to motivate the prince to develop his faculties of noble qualities.

There are two ways of exercising the power of rule: domination of some masters over their slaves or the way the soul commands the body and the way some princes rule their citizen through laws or the way reason commands human desires. True freedom lies in living under the good laws. To build a prosperous nation with an assurance of providing its people the true freedom; a true, benevolent ruler is inevitable and necessary. An ideal courtier is capable of making such good princes. So a good prince is inseparably related to an ideal courtier. Contrary to it, if a dishonest courtier misleads a prince, he must be punished. The courtier whose instruction is to make the prince so excellent must be of more excellent than the prince himself. It is really important to make an honest courtier for the sake of a greater interest of a nation. The courtier must remember his real tasks: to guide the undecided, perplexed prince towards firm and realistic path and inspire him to build an approachable relationship with his subjects. “The ruler is good when his people are good, because the prince’s life acts as a model and guide for the citizen, and the way he behaves necessarily governs the behaviour of all the others” (Courtier, p.300).

‘Sprezzatura’, one of the important rhetorical devices, is required to be an ideal courtier. The author defines the Italian word in his book as ‘nonchalance’, ‘careful negligence’ and ‘effortless and ease’. The ideal courtier is someone who “ conceals art and presents what is done and said as if it was done without effort and virtually without thought”(Courtier,31). ‘Grazia’ or grace, not presented here with its religious overtones, but as a quality tempered by ‘gravitas’ or dignity-these two qualities assure a courtier that his speech does not seem affected or forced. The grazia can be achieved through sprezzatura. A courtier must remain unnoticeable in the art of presenting his personality. Castiglione’s emphasis on creating ‘natural impression’ of the courtier reiterates the notion of Ovid who advised the young men of the court to cultivate casual look of neglect in order to exude self-confidence. With a disciplined and benevolent intent, the courtier can manage to speak consistently the truth that would allow him to become a trusted and useful adviser in the court. He must express himself in an appropriate manner which is to have worthwhile effect. If his thoughts expressed by words are not witty, fine, acute, elegant and solemn, it would have little or no significance.

The ideal Renaissance courtier recognises himself as bound by codes of deference towards whomever he is serving. Yet at the same time, he remains loyal to his own sense of right and wrong. He must respect his own values during his interactions with his equals and superiors. The Book of the Courtier is not only a treatise on the behaviour of an ideal courtier as adviser but a meditation on the meaning of a graceful life. Castiglione advises the noble of Italy how to position themselves in a new social situation where advancement comes only by pleasing the princes. The way of pleasing the princes is to aid them in ruling. A perfect courtier can contribute in the development of the state by advising them .The book thus has a worth that transcends the time it was written for.