Qui fut l'auteur de la premiere Ambassade: 'La necessité en fut l'inventrice, quand la Deesse Pandore sema par le monde les calamitez & les travaux au lieu des biens que les Dieux luy avoient deposez. Apres ce siecle doré & heureux, que les hommes commencerent à habiter les maisons, & à diviser le propre d'avec celuy d'autruy, ce fut lors que les Ambassades furent introduites, pour essayer en remonstrant l'équité, à recouvrer ce que l'ambition & la force des uns, avoit usurpé sur la simplicité & la foiblesse des autres; ou bien pour d'autres negoces & traitez: On dit que le Roy Bellus fut le premier qui se servit de ce moyen: mais les Poëtes l'attribuent a Palamedes.'—Ibid., pp. 53–4.
(2) Wicquefort, L'Ambassadeur et ses Fonctions, translated into English by John Digby under the title, The Embassador and his Functions:[1]
Of the Function of the Embassador in general: a Messenger of Peace; an honourable Spy: 'I make use of this Word on purpose to distinguish between the Functions and the Actions of an Embassador; because the ones have a nearer Relation to the Character, and the others to the Person. The Embassador does not always negotiate; that is to say; he ought not always to act the Embassador every where, and on all Occasions. I said elsewhere, that he ought to have a Tincture of the Comedian,[2] and I must here add, That perhaps in the whole Commerce of the World, there is not a more comical Personage than the Embassador. There is not a more illustrious Theatre than a Court; neither is there any Comedy, where the Actors seem less what they are in effect, than Embassadors do in their Negotiation; and there is none that represents more important Personages. But as the best Actor is not always upon the Stage, but changes his manner of Behaviour after the Curtain is drawn; so the Embassador who has play'd his part well in the Functions of his Character, ought to act the Man of Honour and the Gentleman, when he comes to act the Comedian … This compound of Formalities, Decencies, and Circumspections may indeed form a politick Pedant, but not a perfect Embassador, who ought to be a consummate gallant Man, that is to
