I dislike that he who serves Should, in serving, speak of the doctor; Unless maybe by way of obeying, When he has it in command from him. In giving water thou shalt be careful, Considering the time and place: Where there is little, little; In the cold time, less cold—and, if very cold, warm. When the sun is very hot, Bring it abundantly, but mind the people’s clothes. Observe the station and the ages, With regard to whom thou shalt begin with, if there is none to tell thee.[35] At table it behoves Not to give bad or offensive news; Unless delay might produce Danger—and then only to the person concerned. Be thy mouth abstinent From eating while the first table is set. In drinking do likewise, So far as gratification goes, but thirst excuses thee: Which if thou feelest, accustom thyself Not to drink underhand, nor of the best. Neither is a servant liked Who afterwards is long over his eating, If he is where he _can_ do this; And still less he who sulks if he is called When he has not yet done eating; For he serves best who serves other than his gullet.’ Before parting from the _Documenti d’Amore_, I will summarize a few more of Barberino’s dicta on points of courtesy and demeanour in general. There are seven offences in speaking: 1. Prolixity; 2. Curtness; 3. Audacity; 4. Mauvaise Honte; 5. Stuttering; 6. Beating about the bush; 7. Restlessness of gesture, and this is the least supportable of all. Remedies against all these evils are assigned. For the 6th, as we are told, the (then) modern usage is to speak out what you have to say with little or no proem. As to the 7th, the moving about, as a child would do, the hands, feet, or head, or the using action in speech, shows deficient firmness. See that you stand firm. Yet all this is to be modified according to place, time, and the auditory. (It is amusing to find the dignified Tuscan of the thirteenth to fourteenth century reprobating that luxuriance of gesture which is one of the first things to strike an English eye in Italy down to our own day—more especially in the southern parts of the country. To have striven to obey Barberino’s precept, under pain of being pronounced bad company, must have proved hard lines to some of his contemporaries and catechumens.) If you chance into uncongenial company, take the first opportune occasion for getting away, with some parting words that shall not bewray your antipathy. To casual companions speak on their own respective subjects; as of God to the clergy, health to doctors, design to painters. ‘With ladies of refinement and breeding, laud and uphold their honour and state by pleasant stories not oftentimes told already. And, if any one is contrary and froward, reply in excuse and defence; for it is derogatory to contend against those the overcoming of whom is loss.’