talks
softly? In regard to this I leave experiment to decide: make a man
speak gently to you and note his lips.

[Sidenote: The Ages of Man]

89.

How the ages of man should be depicted: that is, infancy, childhood,
youth, manhood, old age, decrepitude. How old men should be depicted
with lazy and slow movements, their legs bent at the knees when they
stand still, and their feet placed parallel and apart, their backs
bent, their heads leaning forward and their arms only slightly extended.

How women should be represented in modest attitudes, their legs close
together, their arms folded together, their heads bent and inclined to
one side. How old women should be represented with eager, vehement and
angry gestures, like the furies of Hades; the movement of the arms and
the head should be more violent than that of the legs. Little children
with ready and twisted movements when sitting, and when standing up in
shy and timid attitudes.

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90.

You will do as follows if you wish to represent a man talking to a
number of people: you must consider the matter which he has to treat,
and suit his action to the subject; that is to say, if the matter is
persuasive, let his action be appropriate to it; if the matter is
argumentative, let the speaker hold one finger of the left hand with
two fingers of the right hand, closing the two smaller ones, and with
his face turned towards the people and his mouth half open, let him
seem to be about to speak, and if he is sitting let him appear as
though about to rise, with his head forward; if you represent him
standing up, let him lean slightly forward, with his body and head
towards the people. You must represent the people silent and
attentive, looking at the orator's face with gestures of admiration,
and depict some old men with the corners of their mouths pulled down in
astonishment at what they hear, their cheeks drawn in and full of
lines, their eyebrows raised, and thus causing a number of wrinkles on
the forehead; again, some must be sitting with the fingers of their
hands clasped and resting on their knee; another, a bowed old man, with
one knee crossed over the other, and on the knee let him hold his hand,
and let his other elbow rest on his hand, and let the hand support his
bearded chin.

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91.

You must represent an angry man holding some one by the ear, beating
his head against the ground, with one knee on his ribs, his right arm
raising his f