how prince giglio behaved himself
and now let us speak about prince giglio, the nephew of the reigning monarch of paflagonia.it has already been stated, in page seven, that as long as he had a smart coat to wear, a good horse to ride, and money in his pocket, or rather to take out of his pocket, for he was very good-natured, my young prince did not care for the loss of his crown and sceptre, being a thoughtless youth, not much inclined to politics or any kind of learning.so his tutor had a sinecure.giglio would not learn classics or mathematics, and the lord chancellor of paflagonia, squaretoso, pulled a very long face because the prince could not be got to study the paflagonian laws and constitution; but, on the other hand, the king's gamekeepers and huntsmen found the prince an apt pupil; the dancing-master pronounced that he was a most elegant and assiduous scholar; the first lord of the billiard table gave the most flattering reports of the prince's skill; so did the groom of the tennis court; and as for the captain of the guard and fencing master, the valiant and veteran count kutasoffhedzoff, he avowed that since he ran the general of crim tartary, the dreadful grumbuskin, through the body, he never had encountered so expert a swordsman as prince giglio.
i hope you do not imagine that there was any impropriety in the prince and princess walking together in the palace garden, and because giglio kissed angelica's hand in a polite manner.in the first place they are cousins; next, the queen is walking in the garden too (you cannot see her, for she happens to be behind that tree), and her majesty always wished that angelica and giglio should marry: so did giglio: so did angelica sometimes, for she thought her cousin very handsome, brave, and good-natured: but then you know she was so clever and knew so many things, and poor giglio knew nothing, and had no conversation.when they looked at the stars, what did giglio know of the heavenly bodies? once, when on a sweet night in a balcony where they were standing, angelica said, 'there is the bear.' 'where?' says giglio.