“In my opinion, therefore, the end of the perfect courtier is. . .to win for himself the mind and favour of the prince he serves that he can and always will tell him the truth about all he needs to know, without fear or risk of displeasing him.” – thus gives Baldassare Castiglione his thesis, through the voice of a nonchalant courtier Ottaviano, portraying sprezzatura, on the role of an ideal courtier in his The Book Of The Courtier published in 1528. The work can be taken as a fictionalized depiction of Castiglione’s own experience at the court of Duke Guidobaldo da Montefeltro of Urbino, narrated in the form of series of conversations between few fictional courtiers. Here, taking Count Lodovico and Frederico as “the perfect courtier”, the spirit of renaissance humanism is reflected in Castiglione’s emphasis on the development of the character of a prince as guided, advised and channelized by a courtier who must have the qualities of a good wit, charm, prudence and scholarliness.
The principle goal of an ideal courtier is to instill into the prince the seeds of virtue that befits a ruler, like justice, liberality, munificence and nobility, through constant encouragement and deterrence from the path of evil. As the merit of any good deed has two elements, i.e. choosing a virtuous end for intentions, and the knowledge of finding a convenient and suitable way for its achievement, thus for the prince to achieve the ultimate goal of establishing a good state he needs to be protected from temptations, liars, flatterers, slanderers, etc. by the ability of the courtier.
The root vice in any human is falsehood, and it is the cause of the formation of ignorance and conceit in those princes who are drunk in their own power. If any prince is surrounded by unscrupulous men who prefers to let him live wickedly to win his favours as flatterers and thus to gain materialistically from the intimacy, or maybe are simply too afraid to criticize the falseness of the prince, this fosters ignorance in his mind of the world and of himself which in turn makes him hate reason and justice. By letting themselves get carried away by self-conceit, evil princes result in the decadence of themselves and of the states. It is here that the vital element of a true courtier is missed the most, one who would “tell them the truth and remind them of what is right.” Castiglione gives few examples from the annals of history of bad rulers like Cimon being censured for being attracted to wind, Scipio for loving sleep and Lucullus for loving banquets. But even these men took meticulous counsel from wise. Thus the princes need critical assistance of philosophers and courtiers to show the path to virtue, good governance and a prosperous state.
A courtier must win over the prince’s mind, be intimate, to gradually plant the inception of a virtuous journey with continence, fortitude, justice and temperance. To bring back a corrupted prince, to “enable him to relish the sweet fruit which lies under the slight bitterness first tasted by one who is struggling against his vices” is the job of the courtier through inspiration, education and advice. But this exercise must be moderated by the introduction of different entertainments like music, arms, horses, verse, conversation of love, etc to keep the prince absorbed and to give a holistic education, thus making the advice-making much more organic in texture and spirit.
As an answer to the query of the Duchess, signore Ottaviano gives an extensive and intensive catalogue of advices that an ideal courtier is to give to his prince. A prince has bipartite nature of his life, one that of clear insight and judgment and the other that of lawful commands and proper manner, thus a dialectic synthesis of reason of thought and humaneness of soul somewhat reflecting Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics; thus the prince must not only give enduring laws and ordinances to the people, but also ensure their execution and himself perform them. A courtier must advice the prince not to be always warlike but to strive for the attainment of peace and thereafter make the best use of the blissful leisure without drowning into malevolent opulence and decadence. He must also sow the seeds of practical virtues of fortitude, steadfastness, patience, resolution, etc. which are needed in the time of war to get the moral virtues in the time of peace which includes justice, continence, temperance, charity, etc.
A prince must be strong-willed enough to punish the wicked, but must use the element of punishment not as vindictive, but as reformative. This is essentially because the rule of the prince over his subjects must not be that of a master over slaves, but that of a father over his sons, thus forwarding the idea of 'pater familias'.
“For if I knew how to teach my prince and instruct him in all the virtuous ways. . .I would think nothing more was needed for me to have achieved well enough for the purposes of a good courtier.” – shows the primary importance of teaching of virtue in the role of a courtier. Here a question arises as whether to teach the prince virtues through theoretical argument or day-to-day practice, and Castiglione answers it as “as intellectual virtue is perfected by teaching, so moral virtue is perfected by practice.” A prince’s education should be advised to start with practice, as practice enables to govern the instincts not yet under the control of reason and thus commanding a discipline to reach a worthy end. It is then that intellect, fostered through arguments, should mould it to achieve perfection.
An interesting thing to note here is that Castiglione also expresses his own political theory of an ideal governmental structure in a state. This he does through the speech of Ottaviano where he tells the Duchess that he would advice a prince to form the state as a well balanced symmetry between three forms of governance, i.e. rule by the prince, rule by the best and rule by the common people, thus a monarchy with the active elements of oligarchy and sort of democracy.
A courtier must show the prince his responsibilities and guide him in their implementation. The principle duties being justice, appointment of the wise and judicious men of probity in varied posts, distribute honours and medals according to merit, issuing strict laws and obeying the laws himself. A prince, very importantly, must be religious in the true sense of the term and be free from any shards of superstition; as to revere Lord God means being in the happy side of good fortune and also maintaining an ideal figure to his subjects. A prince must rule his nation neither too oppressively, lest causing a rebellion, nor too tolerantly, lest resulting in the general decadence of the nation into corruption, but he should follow a middle path to be loved, adored, revered, respected and followed by the subjects. To quench the intrinsic restlessness of the public, which is fostered by neglect, cowardice and worthlessness of bad prince, a good prince must follow the courtier’s advice to set up a strong and just rule.
Another courtier, Cesare Gonzaga critisises Ottaviano as, with the effect of so many instructions, the courtier will become less of a courtier and more of a schoolmaster, and the prince more of a governor; and he adds the need of a monarch to live primarily a life of luxury and conquest. To this signore Ottaviano replies that for a true prince no more a relevant praise is there than to be a good governor as he should primarily govern his nation than spend more and more in the name of kingly opulence and engage in excessive warfare.
“So it follows that the courtier, whose instruction is to make the prince excellent, must be more excellent than the prince himself.” – opines Magnifico Giuliano, echoing a similar assertion by the Duchess that if an ideal courtier is truly an accumulation of all the aforesaid virtues that he teaches the prince, then he ought to be a great and better prince himself. It’s quite interesting to see Ottaviano’s superb rhetorical defense in this verbal ensnarement. He first retorts diplomatically by saying that a courtier knows better how to speak than to act, thus highlighting the role of a courtier as an adviser, then points to the argument that a courtier’s advices and instructions are not the sole cause of what the prince is to be, as the latter must be “naturally inclined and suited to his role”, or else the courtiers efforts will bear no fruit. Here one is immediately reminded the problem between ‘nature and nurture’ found in Erasmus’ The Education of a Christian Prince and even see the shadow of Pico Della Mirandola’s Oration on the Dignity of Man where one finds a treatise on the ideals of human capacity, assertion, self-fashioning, etc.
Just like farming on sterile land is futile and fruitful in fertile land – “The farmer is not by himself responsible for the harvest, but without him all the other things would be of little or no use.” – so is the role of the courtier like a whetstone which sharpens iron, but cuts nothing itself. Here Castiglione almost pre-echoes the modern bureaucratic diplomacy through the balanced use of subjective meaning of a thesis and the externalized performative use of rhetoric in its argument.
One may point out drawbacks in the book regarding Castiglione’s use of differentiating human character into clichéd conventions or in his lack of flexibility in political ideology, but still The Book Of The Courtier remains an important courtesy book and renaissance treatise on political thought.
Thus to habituate the prince in the virtues gradually through a holistic education, safeguard him the deceiving traps of flatterers, prevent him from getting infected from self-conceit and thus to ensue prosperity of the state is what an ideal courtier is ought to do, or in Castiglione’s own words – “…just as the aim of a doctor should be to make men healthy, so the aim of the courtier is to make his prince virtuous.”
Shubhankar Das@PG1
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