DE CIVILITATE MORVM On Civility in Manners

Is one to laugh at everything said or done? To laugh at everything is the way of fools: to laugh at nothing is the way of the dull-witted. Therefore, in these matters, as in all other things, it is better to maintain a golden mean.

X X V I.

Who are accustomed to laugh at obscene words or deeds? The most worthless of two-legged creatures, who have an impudent face and a hardened brow meaning they lack shame. A well-bred boy, however, will not laugh; rather, he will compose his face as if he did not understand, or as if he did not see the shameful deed.

X X V I I.

Is it fitting for a boy to be shaken by a sycophantic cringing or fawning laugh? By no means: for just as it is shameful for an honest boy to wail in the manner of a woman if he is in pain, so it is lacking in decorum to burst into a loud guffaw out of immoderate joy.

X X V I I I.

Is it decorous to emit a whinny when laughing, and to spread the mouth wide with wrinkled cheeks and bared teeth? Not at all: for that is the mark of buffoons and fools, this the mark of raging dogs.

X X I X.

To whom