all she could to protect it from falsehoods, rumors and ill repute, for without her virtue, she could achieve nothing and have no honour. To help her protect her virtue, Magnifico gave her various attributes like, continence, magnanimity, temperance, fortitude of spirt and prudence. The Court lady's areas of knowledge were to be similar to the courtier's. She was to know the humanities, Greek, Latin, the poets, orators and historians, and even things that she herself did not practice, like sport, to help her be a better judge of the gentlemen of the Court. It was also expected that she would be skilled in painting, literature, and the activities of the Court, like dancing and games. Essentially, the Court lady and courtier were very much alike, only differing slightly with regards to the ideas of virtue, chastity, femininity, gracefulness and modesty. The prescribed social expectations, mannerisms, and areas of knowledge were virtually identical for both. Magnifico hoped that by endowing his Court lady with so many valuable traits and characteristics "she will be not only loved but also revered by all and perhaps worthy to stand comparison with our courtier."Although cut from essentially the same mold, there was an interesting and at times heated debate between the characters in "The Courtier" regarding the equality between the Court lady and the courtier. Following the traditional pro and contra style, Gaspare and Ottaviano viciously attacked the characteristics of women and claimed they were inferior to men while Magnifico and Caesar played the part of the defenders and glorifiers of women. Gaspare argued that being a women was a defect of Nature, like a kind of disease and also that women actually instinctively desired to be men. He also suggested that Magnifico's Court lady was an impossibility because no women could ever possess the same qualities as the male courtier. Magnifico in turn, valiantly refuted Gaspare, a...
