SR
← Menosprecio de Corte y Alabanza de Aldea (Contempt of Court and Praise of Village)/Book 1 · Menosprecio de corte y alabanza de aldea
Chapter 4MenosprAldea.1.4

Capítulo III: QUE NO CONVIENE AL CORTESANO DEXAR LA CORTE PORQUE ESTÉ DESFAVORESCIDO, SINO POR PEN SAR QUE FUERA DE ALLÍ SERA MAS VIRTUOSO.

The Necessity of Deliberation

The author draws upon classical wisdom to argue that significant life decisions, especially those involving the court, require deep reflection rather than impulsive action.

In his notes, the philosopher Publio Mino used to say:1 What must be done only once should be carefully considered for a long time. This maxim is weighty to read, worth knowing, and even necessary to learn: by it we are warned that we ought to think first for many days about what we will later have to do in a single act. When King Demetrius, son of the great King Antigonus, was asked by his captain Patroclus why he wouldn't engage his enemy Ptolemy in battle—given that he was braver in spirit and had a stronger army—he replied: "In quibus poenitentia non habet locum magno pondere attentandum est." What he meant by these words, then, was this: things that no one can repent of once they are done must be undertaken only after very careful deliberation. When the Theban ambassadors pressed Agesilaus, a renowned Lycaonian captain, for an answer to their proposal, he replied: "An nescitis quod ad utilia deliberandum mora est tutissima?"—as if to say, "Don't you know, Thebans,"2 that when a person must decide on a matter where their life is at stake, there is nothing safer than delay! In his life of Sertorius, Plutarch highly praises him for being very deliberate in serious affairs until he made up his mind, and for being very consistent afterward in what he had decided. In the second book of De Caesaribus, Suetonius writes these words about the Emperor Augustus: He didn't form friendships lightly, and once he had them, he held onto them with the utmost constancy. This means that Augustus was neither hasty in forming friendships nor fickle in letting them go. From these such notable examples one can gather how deep an error people fall into who are hasty in what they do and headstrong in the counsel they take.3 We won't put on clothes until they're dry, or taste fruit until it's ripe, or eat meat until it's well cured, or drink wine until it's aged, or build a house with anything but dry wood; so why do we want to take on business with green, unripe counsel—the kind that will smoke us more than warm us?4 .5 Matters that touch the core of honor and the peace of one's life have to be carefully weighed long before they are decided. The prudent and sensible person, if he thinks an hour about what he has to say, should think ten about what he has to do. In the end, words are just words, and someone who makes a mistake can take them back immediately; but rash and poorly executed actions can't be fixed or, at times, even mended.6

The Vanity of Courtly Promises

Courtiers often claim they wish to leave the vanity of the court, but these resolutions are usually born of temporary frustration rather than true virtue.

Among all vanities, the greatest vanity of all is that men study how they ought to debate, plead cases, judge, and speak, and that no one takes the trouble to learn how he ought to live—especially since dying well depends on living well. Those who project gravity and maintain authority should be very careful not to be branded as headstrong in their commitments or fickle in their actions; the greatest fault you can find in a person is to see them as a liar in what they say and inconstant in what they undertake.7 The man with a modest face and a generous heart must look carefully at what he begins and what he takes on; and if it is just and doable, he should die rather than turn back—because it is in the hardest enterprises that men make themselves truly famous.8 If it had not been hard and almost impossible for Achilles to kill Hector, for Agesilaus to defeat Biante, for Alexander to defeat Darius, for Caesar to defeat Pompey, for Augustus to defeat Mark Antony, for Sulla to defeat Mithridates, for Scipio to defeat Hannibal, for Marcus Furius to defeat Pyrrhus, and for good Trajan to defeat Decebalus, those so illustrious men would never have been named throughout the world as they are.9 Returning to the point: it's worth noting that the proverb most used among courtiers is to say at every turn, "To tell the truth, my friend, I want to leave this damned court and go home to live, because life at this court isn't living, but a continual dying." How many have I heard promise this, and how very few have I seen keep it!10 Because the court's hook is of such a kind that once it catches a man, it gives him line, but it does not let him go.11 When the courtier runs short of money, someone gives him offense, he loses a lawsuit, or he leaves the council empty-handed, right then very virtuous desires take hold of him and he professes a thousand holy resolutions—so that his repentance does not come from the wrongs he has done, but from the affairs that have not gone well for him.12 No one will stay good for long if they become good out of necessity rather than for the love of truth; for what isn't done of one's own free will cannot be called virtue.13 You can see this in the fact that if Fortune turns her wheel so that a courtier's wealth increases, he is promoted, or someone flatters him, his holy desires cool at once and the resolutions he had gathered are forgotten.14 In the heart of the courtier who is a true Christian and not a man of the world, the favor of getting ahead and the fervor of saving himself wage a very great contest with each other; for the courts of princes are where men can rise—and also where they often lose themselves.15 So adversity turns them into Christians, and prosperity into courtiers.16 We've already said that most who leave the court do so because they are poor, out of favor, insulted, aging, or being sent into exile; for every one who leaves by his own choice, a hundred withdraw out of necessity. Health is so desired, honor so appetizing, wealth so sweet, and favor so flattering, that we see countless people chase them and very few scorn them.17 Oh, what a heroic heart the person has who leaves the court, withdraws from his old company, forgets himself, and scorns the favor he once held! The truth is, true contempt of the world and turning your back on the court happen when the courtier is rich in property, robust in strength, healthy in body, young, and high in standing as a favorite; because then everyone will praise him for leaving the court as a wise man, rather than fleeing it in shame. We say all this to warn the one who leaves the court and wants to go home not to leave it angry or heated; because it could be that after his anger has passed and he has come to himself, he would not dare return to court out of shame, nor be able to enjoy the peace of his own house.

The Deception of the Human Heart

True withdrawal requires a profound understanding of one's own heart and a rejection of the false appearances that dominate court life.

A choleric, short-tempered man has no business being a courtier; because if he stops to brood over all the insults, disfavors, and bitter troubles they deal him at court and sets his mind on avenging them, he can take it as certain that the wrongs he received in a single month alone will give him ten years of revenge to work through.18 Anyone who leaves the court must leave for good. If he returns because he’s grown tired of home, we should consider him a lost cause, like a man who has already received the last rites.19 The man who sinned, mended his ways, and went back to sinning sins worse than he did before; in the same way, the man who went to court, left the court, and returned to court is not, I say, the best man at court; because he did not come back meaning to amend his life, but to improve his estate and his person.✦20 Returning to our main point: if we asked an old man to recount his life—everything he attempted, said, thought, sought, found, lost, succeeded at, and failed at—we would all conclude that his life had been nothing but a well-disguised madness.21 May the reader forgive the wound this deals the author who says it and the pen that writes it—namely, that there is no man so prudent in this life that he does not have a touch of folly; and if they call one man wise and another a fool, it is not because the first is not a fool like the other, but because the other knows better how to hide his folly than he does. If any get right what they do, they are none other than those who pull their bodies back from many vices and rein in their hearts from vain desires; because our body is more than a neighbor to us in company, and more than an enemy in its appetites.2223 It is harder to control the heart than to govern the body, because the body eventually tires of sinning, but the heart never tires of wanting. We quickly learn the body's condition and constitution, but we never truly understand that traitor, the heart—much less satisfy it. At every turn, it wears us out demanding one thing, only to be sick of it two days later.24 How hard it is to know the human heart!✦ Which seems very clear, because many times it makes us take hypocrisy for devotion, ambition for greatness, stinginess for thrift, cruelty for zeal, bold freeness for eloquence, cold reserve for severity, folly for gravity, and dissoluteness for diligence.25 It happens not just a few times, but very often, that a person is prone to say to another: Come now — I know you well: not only what you do, but I even know what you think — though the truth is that he himself does not know himself, and yet he pretends to know the other man.26 From all this one can conclude that each man should keep working at court, because the very day he goes off to withdraw to his own house, the parish priest can mark out his grave for him.27 And if such a courtier is virtuous, mild, honest, and quiet, let him leave the court to God and go withdraw to his own house; and there he will see and know that he never knew what living was until after he had withdrawn.

Read the original Latin

Publio Mino el filósofo, en sus anotaciones dėzía:

Deliberandum est diu quod faciendum est semel.

Grave para leer y digna de saber y aun necessaria de aprender es esta sentencia, por la qual somos avisados que nos conviene pensar primero en muchos días lo que después emos de hazer en uno.

El rey Demetrio, hijo que fué del gran rey Antigono, preguntado por su capitán Patroclo por qué no dava la batalla a su enemigo Tolomeo, pues en ánimo era más esforçado y en exército más poderoso que él, respondió: In quibus poenitentia non habet locum magno pondere attentandum est. Quería, pues, estas palabras dezir: en las cosas que después de hechas nadie se puede arrepentir, sobre muy grande acuerdo se han de emprender. Agesilao, muy ilustre capitán que fué de los licaonios, como le diessen priessa los embaxadores de los tebanos que les respondiesse a una embaxada que le habían traído, respondió: An nescitis quod ad utilia deliberandum mora est tutissimato Como si dixera: jagora tenéis por saber, io tebanos! , que para determinarse uno en lo que le va la vida no ay cosa más segura que la tardança! Plutarco, en la vida de Sertorio le loa mucho de que en los negocios graves era muy grave hasta se determinar y que después era muy constante en lo que se determinava. Suetonio, en el segundo libro De Caesaribus dize de Augusto el emperador estas palabras:

Amicitias neque facile admisit et constantissime retinuit. Que quiere dezir: los amigos que Augusto tenía ni era apressurado en tomarlos ni liviano en dexarlos. Destos tan notables exemplos se puede coligir en quánto yerro caen los hombres que son en sus hechos acelerados y en sus consejos voluntariosos. No queremos vestir la ropa sin que esté enxuta, ni gustar la fruta sin que esté madura, ni comer la carne sin que esté manida, ní bever el vino sin que sea añejo, ni edificar casa sino con madera seca; ¿por qué queremos emprender negocios con consejos verdes, con los quales antes nos ahumaremos que nos escalentaremos? . Las cosas que tocan al punto de la honra y al reposo de la vida mucho antes se han de tantear que no que se vengan a determinar. El hombre prudente y cuerdo, si piensa una hora en lo que ha de dezir, ha de pensar diez en lo que ha de hazer. Las palabras al fin son palabras, y puédese uno que erró retractarse luego dellas; mas de las obras inconsideradas y borradas, ni las pueden enmendar ni aun a las vezes remendar.

Entre todas las vanidades, la mayor vanidad de todas es que estudian los hombres en cómo han de disputar, abogar, juzgar y hablar, y que ninguno se ocupa en saber cómo ha de bivir; mayormente que el bien morir depende del bien bivir. Los hombres que presumen de gravedad y se conservan en autoridad deven estar siempre muy avisados en que no los noten de capitosos en lo que emprenden ni de mudables en lo que hazen; porque el mayor defecto que en un hombre se puede hallar es tenerle por mentiroso en lo que dize y por inconstante en lo que emprende. El de rostro vergonzoso y coraçón generoso ha de mirar lo que comiença y de lo que se encarga; y si fuere cosa justa y hazedera, deve morir y atrás no tornar; porque en los negocios muy dificultosos allí es do se hazen los hombres muy afamados. Si no fuera dificultoso y casi imposible Aquiles matar a Héctor, Agesilao vencer a Biante, Alexandro a Darío, César a Pompeyo, Augusto a Marco Antonio, Sile a Mitridates, Escipión a Aníbal, Marco Furio a Pirro y el buen Trajano a Decebalo, nunca aquellos tan ilustres varones fueran como son en todo el mundo nombrados. Viniendo, pues, al propósito, es de notar que el proverbio más usado entre los cortesanos es dezir a cada palabra: «A la verdad, señor compadre, quiero ya esta maldita de corte dexar e irme a mi casa a morar: porque la vida desta corte no es bivir, sino un continuo morir. 10 a quántos he oído yo esta palabra prometer y a quán poquitos la he visto cumplir! ; porque el ançuelo de la corte es de tal calidad que al que una vez prende, dale cuerda, mas no le suelta.

Quando al cortesano le falta el dinero, le bazen algún enojo, no salió con algún pleito, o salió de la consulta en blanco, a la hora son con él muy virtuosos desseos y hace profesión de mil propósitos sanctos; de manera que aquel arrepentimiento no le viene de los males que ha hecho, sino de los negocios que no le han bien sucedido. Nunca permanescerá mucho en la bondad el que viene a ser bueno no por amor de la verdad, sino cons—treñido de necessidad; porque no se puede llamar virtud lo que no se haze de voluntad.

Puédese esto conoscer en que, si la fortuna buelve su rueda de manera que al tal cortesano sorescienten en hazienda, adelanten en honra o le digan alguna halagüeña palabra, luego los sanctos desseos se le resfrían y los recogidos propósitos se le olvidan. En el coraçón del cortesano que es verdadero cristiano y no mundano muy gran competencia traen entre sí el favor del medrar y el fervor de se salvar; porque en las cortes de los principes es a do los hombres pueden valer y aun . 46 por manera que la adversidad los torna cristianos y la prosperidad cortesanos. Ya emos dicho que los más que se van de la corte es porque están pobres, o se veen desprivados, o se sienten affrentados, o se hallan viejos, o que los embían desterrados; de manera que si uno se va por voluntad, ciento se absentan de necessidad. Es tan desseada la salud, es tan apetitosa la honra, es tan sabrosa la hazienda y es tan halagüeña la privança, que vemos a infinitos procurarla ya muy poquitos menospresciarla. ¡O quán heroico coraçón tiene el que la corte dexa y de la antigua conversación e aparta y a sí mismo olvida y la privança que tenía menos prescia! A la verdad, el verdadero menosprescio del mundo y dar de mano a la corte es quando el cortesano está en hazienda rico, en fuerça robusto, en el cuerpo sano, en la edad moço y en el valer privado; porque entonces loarle han todos que dexó la corte de cuerdo y no que se fué della corrido. Todo esto dezimos para avisar al que se sale de la corte y se quiere ir a su casa no se vaya della enojado o apassionado; porque podría ser que después que se le uviesse quitado el enojo y tornado en sí no ossasse tornar a la corte de vergüença ni pudiesse goçar del reposo de su casa.

Los hombres superbos sano; porque si todas las affrentas y disfavores y sinsabores que a uno hazen en la corte se para a las pensar y piensa de las vengar, téngase por dicho que en solas las que rescibió en un mes terná que vengar en diez años. El que dexare la corte, de tal manera la ha de dexar, que sea para jamás a ella bolver; porque si a ella torna y de estar en su casa se cansa, como a hombre oleado le emos de tener ya por perdido. El que pecó y se enmendó y tornó a pecar, más peca que antes pecava; por semejante manera, el que fué a la corte y de xó la corte y se tornó a la corte, digo que no es el mejor de la corte; porque el tal no tornó con intención de enmendar la vida, sino de mejorar su hazienda y su persona. Tornando, pues, a nuestro propósito, es de saber que si a un hombre anciano preguntássemos el discurso de su vida y él nos dixesse todo lo que ha emprendido, hablado, acometido, pensado, buscado, hallado, perdido, acertado y errado, todos le diríamos que no avía sido su vide sino una muy disimulada locura. Perdone el lector que esto le yere al auctor que lo dize y a la pluma que lo escrive, es a saber, que no ay hombre tan prudente en esta vida que no tenga un resabio de locura; y si llaman a uno sabio y a otro loco, no es porque él no es también loco como el otro, sino porque el otro sabe mejor encubrir su locura que no él hazen, no son otros sino los que retraen sus cuerpos de muchos vicios y refrenan sus coraçones de vanos desseos; porque nuestro cuerpo esnos en la compañía más que vezino y en los apetitos más que enemigo. Más trabajoso es de refrenar el coraçón que no de governar el cuerpo; porque el cuerpo cánsase de pecar, mas el coraçón nunca de dessear. Al cuerpo luego le conoscemos la condición y aun la complisión; mas al traidor del coraçón nunca le acabamos de entender, y mucho menos de contentar; porque a cade passo nos fatiga que le demos una cosa y dende a dos días está ya enhastiado della. O quán difficultoso es de conoscer el coraçón del hombre!

; lo qual paresce muy claro, porque muchas vezes nos haze entender que la hipocrisía es devoción, la ambición que es grandeza, la escaseza que es grangería, la crueldad que es celo, la desemboltura que es eloquencia, la estrañeza que es severidad, la locura que es gra vedad y la disolución que es diligencia. No pocas, sino muchas vezes suele un hombre dezir a otro:

Andad, que bien os conozco yo a vos no sólo lo que hazéis, mas a un sé lo que pensáist: como sea verdad que él mismo no conosce a sí mismo y presume de conoscer al otro. De todo esto se puede coligir que cada uno trabaje la corte, porque el tai día que se fuere a retraer a su casa le puede el cura señalar la sepultura. E si el tal cortesano fuere virtuoso, manso, honesto y quieto, dé la corte a Dios y váyase a retraer a su casa, y allí verá y conoscerá que nunca supo qué cosa era el bivir sino después que se vino a retraer.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩2Pet.2.20-2Pet.2.22 — For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, their last state has become worse than the first. 2Pet.2.21 — For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 2Pet.2.22 — It has happened to them according to the true proverb: 'A dog returns to its own vomit,' and 'A sow, after washing herself, returns to wallowing in the mud.'
  2. ↩Jer.17.9 — The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and desperately sick — who can know it?

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Source name form retained as Publio Mino (early modern Spanish orthography); identity of the cited authority is not resolved here.
  2. 2 ↩Source ends the Latin with tutissimato (corrupt); normalized to tutissima for sense. Source jagora / io read as agora / ¡o!
  3. 3 ↩voluntariosos: willful/self-willed in taking counsel—not 'voluntary' in the modern neutral sense; rendered as 'headstrong'.
  4. 4 ↩consejos verdes continues the green-wood metaphor: immature, unseasoned advice. ahumaremos / escalentaremos: green wood smokes before it heats—so rash counsel harms before it helps.
  5. 5 ↩Source sentence is only a period, likely a segmentation artifact from the previous sentence's closing punctuation.
  6. 6 ↩borradas: literally 'blotted/smeared' (as of spoiled writing); here botched, bungled works. enmendar = fully amend; remendar = patch or mend incompletely.
  7. 7 ↩capitosos: rendered 'headstrong' (willful/obstinate); early modern sense is stubborn and self-willed rather than merely capricious.
  8. 8 ↩rostro vergonzoso: not 'ashamed face' but a face capable of honorable shame—modesty/sense of honor. hazedera = hacedera, 'feasible/doable'.
  9. 9 ↩Sile rendered as Sulla (classic Spanish form). Biante left as in the source; identity of Agesilaus's opponent is uncertain. Marco Furio left as Marcus Furius (Camillus).
  10. 10 ↩Normalized leading '10' as a likely page/folio marker or OCR artifact before 'a quántos'; translated as the exclamatory 'How many…'.
  11. 11 ↩dale cuerda: fishing idiom—pay out line / play the catch—while still keeping him hooked.
  12. 12 ↩Source reading «bazen» is treated as «hazen» (they do/give), the only sense that fits the sentence.
  13. 13 ↩Source hyphenation «cons—treñido» is read as «constreñido» (constrained/forced).
  14. 14 ↩Source reading 'sorescienten en hazienda' looks corrupt (likely 'le acresçienten en hazienda'); rendered as 'his wealth is increased,' parallel to 'adelanten en honra'.
  15. 15 ↩Supplied text truncates at 'y aun .'; completed from the same witness as 'y aun a do se suelen perder' (page break/footnote cut the line).
  16. 16 ↩Leading '46' is a page-number artifact from the 1922 print/Wikisource break; stripped.
  17. 17 ↩Read 'ya muy poquitos' as 'y a muy poquitos' (and very few), the natural parallel to 'a infinitos'.
  18. 18 ↩Supplied head «Los hombres superbos sano» is corrupt. Wikisource/1922 witness shows a prior sentence on proud, short-tempered men, then «Al hombre colérico y mal suffrido no le conviene ser cortesano», with «cortesano» split across a page break as «corte- / sano» and footnote apparatus interrupting the run. Translation follows that reconstructed host of the «porque» clause.
  19. 19 ↩«hombre oleado»: a man anointed with the holy oils (extreme unction)—i.e., as good as dead / already written off.
  20. 20 ↩«de xó» read as «dexó» (left).
  21. 21 ↩«vide» read as «vida» (life).
  22. 22 ↩Supplied text fuses two sentences at «que no él hazen». Wikisource restores the break: «…que no él. Si algunos ay que aciertan en lo que hazen, no son otros sino…». Translation follows that corrected reading.
  23. 23 ↩1922 editor notes the wise/fool comparison may invert the intended sense («él sabe mejor…que no el otro»); rendering keeps the source as written.
  24. 24 ↩«a cade passo» read as «a cada passo» (at every step / at every turn).
  25. 25 ↩Source splits 'gravedad' as 'gra vedad' across a line break; translated as 'gravity' (solemn seriousness).
  26. 26 ↩Normalized reading treats «a un sé lo que pensáist» as «aún sé lo que pensáis» (I even know what you think); the printed forms look corrupt or broken by spacing/orthography.
  27. 27 ↩«el tai día» read as «el tal día» (that very day); «tai» is almost certainly a typesetting/OCR slip for «tal».

Menosprecio de Corte y Alabanza de Aldea (Contempt of Court and Praise of Village) companion

Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat

Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.

Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.

  • A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
  • One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
  • Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit
Chosen Portion — Daily Prayer (free iOS app) →