one was about to say, as if he took himself up, breeds a greater appetite in him with whom you confer to know more.
And because it works better when any thing seemeth to be gotten from you by question than if you offer it of yourself, you may lay a bait for a question, by showing another visage and countenance than you are wont; to the end, to give occasion for the party to ask what the matter is of the change, as Nehemiah218 did: “And I had not, before that time, been sad before the king.”
In things that are tender and unpleasing, it is good to break the ice by some whose words are of less weight, and to reserve the more weighty voice to come in as by chance, so that he may be asked the question upon the other’s speech; as Narcissus did, in relating to Claudius the marriage219 of Messalina and Silius.
In things that a man would not be seen in himself, it is a