With head a little bowed, for to go in that loose-reined way Looks most boorish; and stare not up at the height Of every house thou comest to. Mind that thou move not about Like a man from the country—wriggle not like an eel: But go steadily along the road and among the people. When thou art asked for a loan, delay not. If thou art willing to lend, make not the man linger so long That the favour shall be lost before it is rendered. And, when thou art in company, always follow Their modes and their liking; for thou must not want To be just suiting thine own taste, nor to be at odds with them. And always be heedful that thou give not any gross glances At any woman living, in house or street; For he who does thus, and calls himself a lover, Is esteemed a blackguard.[9] And I have seen before now A man lose position by a single act of levity;[10] For in this country such goings-on are not admired. And take heed in every case that Love, with his arts, Inflame not thy heart. With severest pain Wouldst thou consume thy life; nor couldst thou be numbered In my following, wert thou in his power.[11] Now return in-doors, for it is the time; And be liberal and courteous, so that in every country All thy belongings be deemed pleasurable.’ [Sidenote: BONVICINO DA RIVA.] We now pass from Florence to Lombardy—from Ser Brunetto Latini to Fra Bonvicino da Riva—from the lawyer and official to the friar and professor. The poem of Fra Bonvicino, _The Fifty Courtesies for the Table_, will be our principal _pièce de résistance_, and presented accordingly in its own garnishing of old Italian as well as in English. Not that it is by any means the best or most important piece of work that we have to bring forward; but its rarity, its dialectic interest for students of old Italian, and its precision and detail with regard to one of the essentials of courtesy—the art of dining—give it exceptional value for our direct purpose. The poem is supposed to have been written about 1290.