THE KING'S MIRROR 181 



your suit. If they undertake your business, they can 

 best find time and occasion for audience and speech 

 with the king, as they often have speech with him/If O 

 you are to present your request at a time when the king f r y 

 is at the table, get sure information whether he is in 7* , 



good spirits and pleasant humor?! If you should observe/ 

 that his disposition is somewhat irritable, or that he is 

 displeased about something, or that he has such im- 

 portant affairs to consider that you think your business 

 for that reason cannot be taken up, then let your suit 

 rest for the time being and seek to find the king in better 

 humor some other day. But if you find that he is in 

 merry mood and has no business to take up of such 

 importance that you may not very well state your 

 errand/ wait, nevertheless, till he has nearly finished 

 his meaLy 



Your costume you should plan beforehand in such a 

 way that you come fully dressed in good apparel, the 

 smartest that you have, and wearing fine trousers and 

 shoes. You must not come without your coat; and also 

 wear a mantle, the best that you have. For trousers 

 always select cloth of a brown dye. It seems quite proper 

 also to wear trousers of black fur, but not of any other 

 sort of cloth, unless it be scarlet. Your coat should be 

 of brown color or green or red, and all such clothes are 

 good and proper. Your linen should be made of good 

 linen stuff, but with little cloth used; your shirt should 

 be short, and all your linen rather light. Your shirt 

 should be cut somewhat shorter than your coat; for no 

 man of taste can deck himself out in flax or hemp. Be- 

 fore you enter the royal presence be sure to have your 



