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.

    509/542 (page 493)
    Holland : Well, I say it was never merry world in England since gentlemen came up. Bevils : O miserable age ! Virtue is not regarded in liandi- crafts-men. Shakspere, 2nd Part of Henry VI, iv, 2, 10. First Clown : There is no ancient gentlemen, but gar- deners, ditchers, and grave-makers : they hold up Adam’s profession. Second Clown : Was he a gentleman ? First Clown : He was the first that ever bore arms. Shakspere, Hamlet, v, i, 38. A herald can give arms and marks, he cannot honour ; No more than money can make noble : it may Give place and rank, but it can give no virtue. 1598, B. Jonson, The Staple of News, act hi., sc. r. Since every Jack became a gentleman. There’s many a gentle person made a Jack. Shakspere, Richard III, i, 3, 73. Clown : You denied to fight with me this other day, be- cause I was no gentleman born. See you these clothes ? say, you see them not, and think me still no gentleman born : you were best say these robes are not gentlemen born ; give me the lie, do ; and try whether I am not now a gentleman born. Autolycus : I know you are now, sir, a gentleman born. Clown : Ay, and have been so any time these four hours. ... I was a gentleman born before my father. ... If [a thing] be ne’er so false, a true gentleman may swear it in the behalf of his friend. Shakspere, The Winter’s Tale, act, v, sc. 2, 11. 145 seq. Sogliardo : I have land and money, my friends left me well, and I will be a gentleman, whatsoe’er it cost me. Carlo : A most gentlemanlike resolution. Sog. : All this is my lordship you see here, and those farms you came by. Car : Good steps to gentility too, marry, but, Sogliardo, if you affect to be a gentleman indeed, you must observe