This is the passage in which the speakers discuss the fickleness of the prince and the way in which a virtuous courtier can fall simply due to the arbitrary power of Fortune. Hoby’s translation follows Castiglione closely: ‘But because fortune, as in manye other thinges, so in the opinion of men seemeth to beare a great stroke, it is sometime seen that a gentleman, how well conditioned ever he be, & endowed with many qualities, shall be litle set by of a great man…’

The passage also contains a notable mistranslation. As the speaker describes the general mockery and mean behaviour that the unlucky courtier who has fallen in the prince’s favour will be subjected to, the Italian reads ‘dargli la caccia’, literally meaning the other courtiers will ‘hunt him’, ‘set on him’ (like prey), or even ‘get their knives into him’. Hoby’s translation instead reads ‘make him a Cousin’ (i.e. deceive or make a fool of him), which fails to reflect the violent, dog-eat-dog atmosphere evoked by the original phrase. There are very few places, however, where Hoby’s understanding of the original slips like this: in general, his lengthy periods in Venice and Padua equipped him with a fluent and flexible grasp of the Italian language.

Thomas Hoby (trans.), The Courtyer of Count Baldessar Castilio (London: William Seres, 1561), sig. P4^r. Cambridge University Library, LE.6.88.