The ideal of a gentleman, or, A mirror for gentlefolks : a portrayal in literature from the earliest times / by A. Smythe-Palmer.

  • Palmer, Abram Smythe.
Date:
[1908]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The ideal of a gentleman, or, A mirror for gentlefolks : a portrayal in literature from the earliest times / by A. Smythe-Palmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    23/542 (page 7)
    If one has a courteous disposition. He does justly whatever he does. XIII cent. Welhische Gast,\\. 3,916-22 \Booke of Precedence, E.E.T.S. pt. ii, p. 103]. This word ‘ courtesy ’ expressed the most highly refined good breeding, founded less upon a knowledge of ceremonious politeness, though this was not to be omitted, than on spon- taneous modesty, self-denial, and respect for others, whic ought to spring from the heart. Hallam, Middle Ages, ch. ix, pt. 2. Selden, Titles of Honor, says : Gentilis among the Romans meant such as were of the same name and stock, free born retaining ‘ their Roman libertie, and whose ancestors were always free.’—p. 856. _ So Horace uses ‘ sine gente ’ for one that is a slave or had servile ancestors. {Sat. 2, 5). ^ t,- Thus ‘gentilman properly denoted one ennobled by his stock’ and its synonyms were yevvacos, generosus, wohl-geboren. When the Goths overran the Roman Empire, the names harhari and gentiles homines which the Romans applied to their conquerors rose in honour and esteem, while the appella- tion ‘ Roman ’ fell into contempt. Thus Gentile, originally synonymous with Barbarian, acquired an honourable sense as distinguishing the Goth from the vanquished an tributary Roman, and the names gentiles homines, gentilsomes, gentils hommes, gentilshomhres or gentil men,^ were given to noblemen or men of good family. In Spam the P^o^dest boast of a noble was that he was the ‘ son of a Goth [films Gothi), fijodalgod, or hijodalgoda, an ‘hidalgo.’ (So Selden, Titles of Honour, p. 865). A Romance poet says :—- Et rnaint franc baceler illuec Feist cevalier avec son fil Qui furent franc ome et gentil. Phil. Mouskes, in Du Cange s.v. Genhlts. Hampson, Origines PatricicB, pp. 91-3 (1846). In strict propriety ' gentleman ’ belongs to none who is not