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.

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    and intimate acquaintance with the class, I can say that I have rarely, if ever, known him to make a mistake. S. T. Heard, The Spectator, Jan. 19, 1907. Lady de Clifford told the Regent, in resigning the appoint- ment of governess to the young princess, ‘ that he had shown her that the word of honour of a prince and that of a gentleman were too very different things. Lord Albemarle, Fifty Years of My Life, i, 340. Our landlord informed us, with a sort of apologetic tone> that there was a Scotch gentleman to dine with us. ‘ A gentleman !—what sort of a gentleman ? ’ said my companion, somewhat hastily. ‘Why a Scotch sort of gentleman, as I said before returned mine host; ‘ they are all gentle, ye mun know, though they ha’ narra shirt to back; but this is a decentish hallion [clown] —I trow he’s a dealer in cattle. 1817, Sir W. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. iv. ‘ The gentleman who has purchased Ellangowan—you know who I mean, I suppose ? ’ ‘Yes, sir ’, answered the young man ; ‘ but I should hardly have expected to hear you quote such authority. Why, this fellow—all the world knows him to be sordid, mean, tricking ; and I suspect him to be worse. And you yourself, my dear sir, when did you call such a person a gentleman in your life before ? ’ ‘ Why, Charles, I did not mean gentleman in the precise sense and meaning, and restricted and proper use, to which, no doubt, the phrase ought legitimately to be confined ; but I meant to use it relatively, as marking something of that state to which he has elevated and raised himself—as designing, in short, a decent and wealthy and estimable sort of a person.’ 1829, Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xlvii. Maggie says ye’re gentle, but a shilling maks a’ the differ- ence that Maggie kens, between a gentle and a simple, and your crowns wad mak ye a prince of the blood in her een. But I am ane that ken full weel that ye may wear good claiths, and have a saft hand, and yet that may come of idleness as weel as gentrice. 1832, Scott, Redgauntlet, Letter xi.