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.
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![falls upon. He is in nature kind, in demeanour courteous, in allegiance loyal, and in religion zealous, in service faithful, and in reward bountiful. . . . His apparel is more comely than costly, and his diet more wholesome than excessive ; his exercise more healthful than painful, and his study more for knowledge than pride ; his love is not wanton nor common, his gifts not niggardly nor prodigal, and his carriage neither apish nor sullen. In sum, he is an approver of his pedigree by the nobleness of his passage, and m the course of his life an example to his posterity. N. Breton, The Good and the Bad, i6i6. A high spirited man.—Is one that lookes like a proud man, but is not: you may forgiue him his lookes for his worth sake, for they are only too proud to be base. One whom no rate can buy off from the least piece of his freedome, and make him digest an unworthy thought an houre. Hee cannot crouch to a great man to possesse him, nor fall low to the earth, to rebound neuer so high againe. Hee stands taller on his owne bottome, then others on the aduantage ground of for- tune, as hauing solidly that honour, of which Title is but the pompe. Hee does homage to no man for his great styles sake, but is strictly just in the exaction of respect againe, and will not bate you a Complement. He is more sensible of a neglect then an undoing, and scornes no man so much as his surly threatner. A man quickly fired, and quickly laid downe with satisfaction, but remits an injury sooner then words. Onely to himselfe he is irreconcileable, whom hee neuer for- gives a disgrace, but is still stabbing himselfe with the thought of it, and do disease that he dyes of sooner. Hee is one that had rather perich [perish], then bee beholding for his life, and strives more to bee quitte with his friend then his enemy. Fortune may kill him, but not deject him, nor make him fall into a[n] humbler key then before, but he is now loftier then euer in his owne defence, you shall heare him talke still after thousands ; and he becomes it better, then those that haue it. One that is aboue the world and its drudgery, and cannot pull downe his thoughts to the pelting businesses of it [life]. He would sooner accept the Gallowes then a meane trade, or anything that might disparage the height of man in him. 1628, J. Earle, Micro-Cosmographie, p. 91 (ed. Arber).](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29008529_0054.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
