Nor we must not counterfet our selves to be fooles & unsavorie doltes: but as time & occasion serveth, tell some pretie tale or some news, never heard of before, he y^t can: & he y^t cannot, let him hold his peace. For, these be y^e partes of y^e wit: which, if they be sodain & prety, give a proofe & a shew of y^e quicknes of y^e wit, & the goodnes of y^e maners of him y^t speakes them: which thing doth verie much please men & makes them our lovers & friends. But if they be otherwise, they woorke them a contrary effect. For, a man would weene the asse would play his parte: or y^t some hody dody & louberly lout would friske and daunce in his doublet. There is another pleasaunte kind of communication, & y^t is when y^e pleasure & grace doth not consist in one merrie conceite alone, but in long & continued talke: which would be well disposed, wel uttered, & very wel set forth, to shew y^e maners, y^e fashions, y^e gestures & behaviours of them we speke, of so properly & lively, as y^e hearer should think that he heareth them not rehearsed, but seeth them with his eyes do those very things he heares them to speak of: which be very well observed by the gentlemen and gentlewomen both, in Boccace: although yet otherwhile (if I be not deceived) they do affect and counterfet, more then is sightly for a gentleman or gentlewoman to doe, like to these Comedie Players. And to doe this well, you must have the matter, the tale, or the story, you take uppon you to tell, perfect in your minde: and woordes so redy and fit, that you neede not say in the end: "That thing, and tother thing: This man, what doe you call him: That matter, helpe me to terme it:" And, "remember what his name is." For this is just the trot of the knight of the Lady Horetta. And if you doe reherse any chaunce, in which there be many speakers: you must not say, "He said and he aunswered:" bycause this worde (He) serveth for all men. So that the hearer that harkens unto it, is easily deceived, and forgets whome you meane. Then, it behoves them that discourse matters at length, to use proper names, & not to chaunge them after. And more over, a man must beware that he say, not those things, which unsaide in silence would make y^e tale pleasaunt inoughe and peradventure, geve it a better grace to leave them out. As to say thus. "Such a one, that was the sonne of such a one, that dwelt in Cocomer streete: do you knowe him? he maried the daughter of Gianfigliazzi, the leane scragge, that went so much to Saint Laraunce. No? do not you know him? why? do you not remember the goodly straight old man that ware long haire downe to his shoulders?" For if it were nothing materiall to the tale, whether this chaunce befell him, or him: all this long babble, and fond and folishe questions, were but a tale of a Tubbe: to no purpose, more then to weary mens eares that harken to it, and long to understand the end. As peradventure our Dant hath made this fault otherwhile, where he sayeth: