How to Party Like a Scholar, 1558

Domenico Fetti, Malinconia (c. 1620), Louvre

It is not fitting to be melancholy or distracted in the company of others. This may be accepted of people who have long pursued studies in the arts which, as I have heard, are called ‘liberal arts,’ but it should not, under any condition, be allowed of other people.

Giovanni della Casa, Il Galateo overo de’ costumi (trans. Konrad Eisenbichler and Kenneth R. Bartlett)

They’re called liberal arts because they liberate you from the duty to socialize without weeping.