ABSTRACT
Dissimulation gained favor as the speech act designated to negotiate the increasing segregation of public and private spheres. 'Early modern dissimulation', notes Jon Snyder, 'involved first and foremost the exercise of strict self-control over the expression of thoughts, emotions, or passions'. The semantic elasticity of dissimulation becomes even more pronounced in the Diccionario de autoridades published between 1726 and 1739, but relying heavily on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century sources. Dissimulation makes its appearance in the popular sixteenth-century Spanish courtesy manual, Lucas Gracian Dantisco's Galateo espanol, with a mixed range of valuations. Gracian Dantisco was a notary later charged with cataloguing the vast inventory of Philip II's library at the Escorial palace. The Galateo espanol, as a code of amiability aimed at winning allies at court, shows more concern for what sociolinguists call 'positive face', or enhancing one's own prestige before others than for avoiding 'negative face' or embarrassing social encounters.
