THE SOCIAL SIDE OF GARDENS 
“ there were sweet discourses upon stringed instruments, 
with songs whose words and music had often been 
composed by one of the company.” For in these 
chosen assemblies one found not only the high nobility 
of birth, but also the lofty companionship of men of 
genius and talent; often the two met in the same man, 
as with Baldassare himself. 
Strange masques and lovely eclogues were presented 
before the guests, the actors being drawn from their 
ranks and, since the little plays were written by one or 
more among them, personal allusions, veiled sarcasms, 
and delicate flatteries which would have been lost to the 
world at large, aroused in the chosen audience “much 
approval and the most joyous laughter.” There were 
dances too, and mock battles fought to a measured 
time, with stately steps and clash of blades. Great 
stone seats over which rugs were thrown were arranged 
for the ease of the company, and often the moon rose to 
find the lingering guests, loath to leave, listening to the 
verses recited by some fair girl with the gift of impro¬ 
vising, or vying with each other in the criticism of a 
recent work of art or literature. 
Even so long ago as the thirteenth century, three 
hundred years before the white light of the Renaissance 
was to break over the world, the love of gardens awoke 
with the dawning perception of what we mean nowa¬ 
days by social intercourse between the sexes, and the art 
of conversation went forth into the green world of grow- 
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