Post by Steam Girl on Oct 30, 2008 11:09:33 GMT -5
Gentlemen
Gail L. Savage
Gentlemen stood at the foremost ideal of manliness
The figure of the gentleman has its roots in the chivalric ideal. Essentially a warriors creed, the ethics of chivalry enjoined bravery and loyalty upon brotherhood that established itself as hereditary.
The definition of gentlemanliness underwent further elaboration during the Renaissance to include attributes of courtesy, wit, and education.
Gentlemanly conduct remained an obligation of rank and did not by itself define or identify rank.
To apply gentlemanliness to the 19th Century society required imaginative reinterpretation.
Victorian men girded themselves to meet a challenge, their medieval dragons. Muscular Christianity put a premium on action and physical prowess.
Sport became a gentlemanly prerogative. Public schools directed the native energy of English boys towards right conduct (the same ideas used upon the founding of Boy Scouts).
Birth was no longer an adequate function as the sole criteria for status, character could now be pressed into service.
Gentlemanliness was assimilable to the professions, old and new, though to seek material gain was considered ungentlemanly.
Gail L. Savage
Gentlemen stood at the foremost ideal of manliness
The figure of the gentleman has its roots in the chivalric ideal. Essentially a warriors creed, the ethics of chivalry enjoined bravery and loyalty upon brotherhood that established itself as hereditary.
The definition of gentlemanliness underwent further elaboration during the Renaissance to include attributes of courtesy, wit, and education.
Gentlemanly conduct remained an obligation of rank and did not by itself define or identify rank.
To apply gentlemanliness to the 19th Century society required imaginative reinterpretation.
Victorian men girded themselves to meet a challenge, their medieval dragons. Muscular Christianity put a premium on action and physical prowess.
Sport became a gentlemanly prerogative. Public schools directed the native energy of English boys towards right conduct (the same ideas used upon the founding of Boy Scouts).
Birth was no longer an adequate function as the sole criteria for status, character could now be pressed into service.
Gentlemanliness was assimilable to the professions, old and new, though to seek material gain was considered ungentlemanly.