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.

    512/542 (page 496)
    Now for your behaviour ; let it be free and negligent, not clogged with ceremony or observance . . . measure not thy carriage by any man’s eye, thy speech by no man’s ear, but be resolute and confident in doing and saying, and this is the grace of a right gentleman as thou art. . . . There’s no prescription for gentility but good clothes and impudence. Chapman, Mayday, act i, sc. 2. Touching Mechanicall Arts and Artists, whosoeuer labour for their liuelihood and gaine, haue no share at all in Nobilitie or Gentry : As Painters, Stage-players. . . . We ought to giue credit to a Noble or Gentleman, before any of the inferior sort. 1627, H. Peacham, The Compleat Gentleman, p. 13. [Timothy Hoyden, the yeoman’s son, desires to be made a gentleman. He consults with his friends.] Moneylack : Well, sir, we will take the speediest course with you. Hoyd. : But must I bleed. Money. : Yes, you must bleed ; your father’s blood must out. He was but a yeoman, was he ? Hoyd. : As rank a clown (none dispraised) as any in Somersetshire. Money. : His foul rank blood of bacon and pease porridge must out of you to the last dram. Springe : Fear nothing, sir. Your blood shall be taken out by degrees ; and your veins replenished by pure blood still, as you lose the puddle. Hoyd. : I was bewitched, I think, before I was begot, to have a clown to my father, yet my mother said she was a gentlewoman. Springe : Said ! what will not women say ! Money. : Be content, sir ; here’s half a labour saved ; you shall bleed but of one side. The mother vein shall not be pricked. 1634, Broome, The Asparagus Garden. A nobleman of this time [Henry VHI] in contempt of learn- ing said that it was for Noble mens sonnes enough towinde their home, and carry their hawke faire, and to leave study and