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.
91/542 page 75
![‘ To me the good is Noble, poore or riche,’ Whereby the Poet adjudgetha good man a ryght Noble man. 1563, L. Humfrey, The Nobles, or Of Nobilitye, bk. ii. A Gentleman may be called honourable as wel as a Lorde, for no other thynge is honour then a worthynes in a manne by the whyche he oughte to be honoured for his vertues sake. And I thinke no man canne by reason denye but it becommeth a gentleman to be as vertuous and to haue in him as good con- dicions as a Lorde. 1568, Institucion of a Gentleman, n.p. To atteygne vnto vertue, all gentlemen ought ernestlye to labour and to stryue emonge themselves whyche of them may excel other therin. . . . That gentleman which loueth upright- nes in all his doinges, whyche seketh to excell others in valiency of armes, in knowledge, and dexteritie in all honest thinges, doth not onely deserue the name, but also the estimation of an honourable gentleman. 1568, Institucion of a Gentleman. I speake vnto gentlemen as an expijorter, desyringe theim to cal to remembraunce the laudable symplicitie of their elders. I cal it simplicitie, not that our elders wanted wit, but because they used synglenes in their doynges, they meddled no further then gentlemen behoued, they serched nothing but their owne, they purchased loue and lined quietly thereon, they estemed much the precious Margarit [pearl] called Amor plebis, they affyrmed it to be as muche worthe as all theyr landes and possessions. 1568, Institucion of a Gentleman, n.p. He must be called a gentilman which worketh gentle dedes. No man can justly in joy this name which hath in him leude behavour or unhonest condicions : although he have therwith annexed the valiaunce of Alexander, or if he be sonne to the greatest duke in Europa. 1568, Institucion of a Gentleman, n.p. If thou hast had never so many Noble Ancestors, ’tis nothing to thee ; (vix ea nostra voco). If thou manifest it not in the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29008529_0093.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
