Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. Printererrors have been changed, and they are indicated witha mouse-hoverand listed at theend of this book.
What to Say and How to Say It
BY
MARY GREER CONKLIN
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
NEW YORK AND LONDON
1912
Copyright, 1912, by
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
All rights reserved for all countries
[Printed in the United States of America]
Published November, 1912
IN LOVING MEMORY
TO
A. E. C.
WHOSE DELIGHTFUL CONVERSATION STIMULATED MY YOUTH
AND
IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT
OF THEIR SEVERE CRITICISM AND FRIENDLY AID
TO
CHARLES TOWNSEND COPELAND
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH AT HARVARD COLLEGE
AND
FRANK WILSON CHENEY HERSEY
INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH AT HARVARD COLLEGE
"The best book that was ever written upon good breeding," said Dr.Johnson to Boswell, "the best book, I tell you, Il Cortegiano byCastiglione, grew up at the little court of Urbino, and you should readit." Il Cortegiano was first published by the Aldine Press at Venice,in 1528. Before the close of the century more than one hundred editionssaw the light; French, Spanish, English, and German versions followedeach other in rapid succession, and the Cortegiano was universallyacclaimed as the most popular prose work of the Italian Renaissance."Have you read Castiglione's Cortegiano?"[8] asks the courtierMalpiglio, in Tasso's dialog. "The beauty of the book is such that itdeserves to be read in all ages; as long as courts endure, as long asprinces reign and knights and ladies meet, as long as valor and courtesyhold a place in our hearts, the name of Castiglione will be held inhonor."
In his Book of the Courtier, Castiglione said very little aboutperfection of speech; he discust only the standard of literary languageand the prescribed limits of the "vulgar tongue," or the Italian inwhich Petrarch and Boccaccio had written. What he says about grace,however, applies also to conversation: "I say that in everything it isso hard to know the true perfection as to be well-nigh impossible; andthis because of the variety of opinions. Thus there are many who willlike a man who speaks much, and will call him pleasing;[9] some willprefer modesty; some others an active and restless man; still others onewho shows calmness and deliberation in everything; and so every manpraises or decries according to his mind, always clothing vice with thename of its kindred virtue, or virtue with the name of its kindred vice;for example, calling an impudent man frank, a modest man dull, anignorant man good, a knave discreet, and so in all things else. Yet Ibelieve that there exists in everything its own perfection, althoconcealed; and that this can be determined through rational discussionby any having knowledge of the thing in hand."
If this superb courtie