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.

    25/542 (page 9)
    apprenclre honur et gentilesse.^ And in an English gloss of this age, ‘ gentilitas ' is rendered ‘ paynemerye paganry, having manifest reference to the origin of the term in the distinction between the vanquisher of the Roman [gentilis] and the vanquished. However in the following century, the English word gentleman occurs for a man of noble family ; thus Edward, Duke of York, in 1405, writes to his followers in Wales that he will pay their arrears . . . ‘ and this y behote [promise] you on my trouthe and as y am a trewe gentil man.’ [^Acts of Privy Council, i Hen. IV, 1399, vol. i, p. 272.] R. T. Hampson, Origines Patvicice, 1846, pp. 348-50. The name gentilis, as expressing non-Roman, was taken to themselves by the conquering invaders from the North as an honourable epithet, synonymous with free, noble and victorious. Selden, Titles of Honour, pp. 862-3. When Gallia was conquered by the Francs, or ancient French, the Gaules, who were at that time Christians, tearmed the conquerors, by reason of their Heathenish Religion, Gentils or Gentils hommes [i.e. heathen men]. 1660, Cotgrave, French Dictionary, s.v. Gentil. Christianity in its influence on the Teutonic peoples wrought a remarkable change in elevating and refining the old manli- ness of the race. It brought into the dangerous life of the warrior the sense of a common humanity, the great idea of self-sacrificing duty. It was this religion of mercy and peace, and yet of strength and purpose, which out of the wild and conflicting elements of what we call the age of chivalry gradu- ally formed a type of character in which gentleness, generosity, sympathy were blended with the most daring courage—the Christian soldier [and gentleman]. Dean Church, Gifts of Civilization, p. 241. The word ‘ gentleman ’ is from the Norman-French gentil- homme and denotes originally a man of birth and family, of distinguished ancestry. If we go farther back it is from the Latin gentilis {homo), one belonging to the same class or family {gens).