The ideal of a gentleman, or, A mirror for gentlefolks : a portrayal in literature from the earliest times / by A. Smythe-Palmer.
- Abram Smythe Palmer
- Date:
- [1908]
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.
47/542 page 31
![Crist wol, we clayme of him our gentillesse Not of our eldres for hir [their] old richesse. For thogh they yeve [give] us al hir heritage, For which we clayme to been of heigh parage, Yet may they nat biquethe, for no-thing. To noon of us hir vertuous living. That made hem gentilmen y-called be ; And bad us folwen [follow] hem in swich degree. Chaucer, Wif of Bathes Tale, 11. 1109-24, ed. Skeat. Ther be ix aitycles of gentilnes, and of theym v bene amorows [lovable] and iiij soveren. The v amorows gentilneses ben thees, Lordeli of cowntenawnce, Treteable in language, Wyse in his answere, Perfite in gouernawnce, and Cherefull to faythfulnes. The iiij, souerayn gentilneses ben theis, Fewe othes in sweryng, Boxom to goddis byddyng, Knowyng his owne birth in beryng, and to drede his souerayn to offende. i486. Dame Juliana Berners, Bohe of Saint Albans, n.p. Merchant: Why what callyst thou a gentylman tel me. Knight: Mary I call them gentylmen that be Born to grete landys by inherytaunce As myn auncestours by contynuaunce Haue had this v.c. yere of whom now I Am desendid and commyn lynyally Beryng the same name and armys also That they bare this v.c. yere agoo. . . . Merch. : I call hym a gentylman that gentilly Doth gyf unto other men louyngly Such thing as he hath of hys own proper But he that takith ought away from a nother And doth gyf hym no thyng agayn therefore Owght to be callyd a chorle euermore. [1535] Of Gentylnes and Nobylyte, A dyaloge betwenthe Mar- chant the Knyght and the plowman dysputyng who is a verey gentylman . . . compiled in maner of an enterlude with divers toys and gestis addyd therto to make mery pastyme and disport (J. Rastell). A. i. verso. Nobilitie is nothing else than a certain eminency, or notice](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29008529_0049.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
