God hath indeed, and is, I daresay. But as for their
lords, uncle, if they would afterward wax angry with them for it,
they would, to my mind, do them very great wrong. For it is one of
the things that they specially keep them for. For those who are of
such vainglorious mind, be they lords or be they meaner men, can be
much better contented to have their devices commended than amended.
And though they require their servant and their friend never so
specially to tell them the very truth, yet shall he better please
them if he speak them fair than if he telleth them the truth.

For they be in the condition that Marciall speaketh of in an
epigram, unto a friend of his who required his judgment how he
liked his verses, but prayed him in any wise to tell him even the
very truth. To him, Marciall made answer in this wise:

"The very truth of me thou dost require.
The very truth is this, my friend dear:
The very truth thou wouldst not gladly hear."

And in good faith, uncle, the selfsame prelate that I told you my
tale of--I dare be bold to swear it, I know it so surely--had one
time drawn up a certain treaty that was to serve for a league
between that country and a great prince. In this treaty he himself
thought that he had devised his articles so wisely and composed
them so well, that all the world would approve them. Thereupon,
longing sore to be praised, he called unto him a friend of his, a
man well learned and of good worship, and very well expert in those
matters, as one who had been divers times ambassador for that
country and had made many such treaties himself. When he gave him
the treaty and he had read it, he asked him how he liked it, and
said, "But I pray you heartily, tell me the very truth." And that
he spake so heartily that the other thought he would fain have
heard the truth, and in that trust he told him a fault in the
treaty. And at the hearing of it he swore in great anger, "By the
mass, thou art a very fool!" The other afterward told me that he
would never tell him the truth again.

ANTHONY: Without question, cousin, I cannot greatly blame him. And
thus they themselves make every man mock them, flatter them, and
deceive them--those, I say, who are of such a vainglorious mind.
For if they be content to hear the truth, let them then make much
of those who tell them the truth, and withdraw their ears from them
who falsely flatter them, and they shall be more truly served than
with twenty requests pr