The Wife Is Always and in All Things to Take Counsel with Her Husband

In all affairs of everyday life, the wife is to take counsel with her husband, and to ask him, if she needs anything. Let her be sure that her husband wants her-to keep company with the guests she invites, or the people she calls upon. Let her put on the best garment, if she receives a guest, or herself is invited somewhere to dinner. By all means let her abstain from drinking liquor, for a drunk man is bad enough, but a drunk woman has no place in the world. A woman ought to talk with her lady-friends of handiwork and housekeeping. She must pay attention to any good word that is said in her own house, or in that of her friend: how good women live, how they keep house, manage their household, instruct their children and servants, obey their husbands, and ask their advice in everything, and submit to them. And if there is anything she does not know, let her politely inquire about it.... It is good to meet such good women, not for the sake of eating and drinking with them, but for the sake of good conversation and information, for it is profitable to listen to them. Let not a woman rail at anyone, or gossip about others. If she should be asked something about a person, let her answer: "I know nothing about it, and have heard nothing of it; I do not inquire about things that do not concern me; nor do I sit in judgement over the wives of princes, boiars, or my neighbours."