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GENTLEMAN (from Lat. gentilis, " belo...

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 606 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GENTLEMAN (from See also:Lat. gentilis, " belonging to a See also:race or gens," and " See also:man "; Fr. gentilhomme, Span. gentil hombre, Ital. gentil huomo, in its See also:original and strict signification, a See also:term denoting a man of See also:good See also:family, the Lat. generosus (its invariable transl ation in See also:English-Latin documents). In this sense it is the See also:equivalent of the Fr. gentilhomme, " nobleman," which latter term has in See also:Great See also:Britain been See also:long confined to the See also:peerage (see See also:NoBILITY); and the term " gentry " (" gentrice" from O. Fr. gentelise for gentelise) has much of the significance of the Fr. noblesse or the Ger. Adel. This was what was meant by the rebels under See also:John See also:Ball in the 14th See also:century when they repeated: " When See also:Adam delved and See also:Eve span, Who was then the gentleman ?" See also:Selden (Titles of Honor, 1672), discussing the See also:title " gentleman," speaks of " our English use of it " as " convertible with nobilis," and describes in connexion with it the forms of ennobling in various See also:European countries. See also:William See also:Harrison, See also:writing a century earlier, says " gentlemen be those whom their race and See also:blood, or at the least their virtues, do make See also:noble and known." But for the See also:complete gentleman the See also:possession of a coat of arms was in his See also:time considered necessary; and Harrison gives the following See also:account of how gentlemen were made in See also:Shakespeare's See also:day: . . gentlemen whose ancestors are not known to come in with William See also:duke of See also:Normandy (for of the Saxon races yet remaining we now make none accompt, much less of the See also:British issue) dp take their beginning in See also:England after this manner in our times. Who socver studieth the See also:laws of the See also:realm, who so abideth in the university, giving his mind to his See also:book, or professeth physic and the liberal sciences, or beside his service in the See also:room of a See also:captain in the See also:wars, or good counsel given at See also:home, whereby his See also:commonwealth is benefited, can live without See also:manual labour, and thereto is able and will See also:bear the See also:port, See also:charge and countenance of a gentleman, he shall for See also:money have a coat and arms bestowed upon him by heralds (who in the See also:charter of the same do of See also:custom pretend an- , tiquity and service, and many See also:gay things) and thereunto being made so good cheap be called See also:master, which is the title that men give to esquires and gentlemen, and reputed for a gentleman ever after. Which is so much the less to be disallowed of, for that the See also:prince doth lose nothing by it, the gentleman being so much subject to taxes and public payments as is the See also:yeoman or husbandman, which he likewise doth bear the gladlier for the saving of his reputation.. Being called also to the wars (for with the See also:government of the commonwealth he medleth little) what soever it cost him, he will both See also:array and See also:arm himself accordingly, and show the more manly courage, and all the tokens of the See also:person which he representeth. No man hath hurt by it but himself, who peradventure will go in wider buskins than his legs will bear, or as our See also:proverb saith, now and then bear a bigger See also:sail than his See also:boat is able to sustain." 1 In this way Shakespeare himself was turned, by the See also:grant of his coat of arms, from a " vagabond " into a gentleman. The fundamental See also:idea of " gentry," symbolized in this grant of coat-See also:armour, had come to be that of the essential superiority of the fighting man; and, as Selden points out (p.

707), the fiction was usually maintained in the granting of arms " to an ennobled person though of the long Robe wherein he hath little use of them as they mean a See also:

shield." At the last the wearing of a See also:sword on all occasions was the outward and visible sign of a " gentleman "; and the custom survives in the sword worn with " See also:court See also:dress." This idea that a gentleman must have a coat of arms, and that no one is a " gentleman" without one is, however, of comparatively See also:late growth, the outcome of the natural See also:desire of the heralds to magnify their See also:office and collect fees for registering coats; and the same is true of the conception of " gentlemen " as a See also:separate class. That a distinct See also:order of " gentry " existed in England very See also:early has, indeed, been often assumed, and is supported by weighty authorities. Thus; the late See also:Professor See also:Freeman (Ency. Brit. xvii. p. 540 b, 9th ed.) said: " Early in the 11th century the order of ` gentlemen ' as a separate class seems to be forming as something new. By the time of the See also:conquest of England the distinction seems to have been fully established." See also:Stubbs (Const. Hist., ed. 1878, iii. 544, 548) takes the same view. See also:Sir See also:George Sitwell, however, has conclusively proved that this See also:opinion is based on a wrong conception of the conditions of See also:medieval society, and that it is wholly opposed to the documentary See also:evidence. The fundamental social cleavage in the See also:middle ages was between the nobiles, i.e. the tenants in See also:chivalry, whether earls, barons, knights, esquires or franklins, and the ignobiles, i.e. the villeins, citizens and burgesses;2 and between the most powerful noble and the humblest See also:franklin there was, until the 15th century, no " separate class of gentlemen." Even so late as 1400 the word " gentleman " still only had the sense of generosus, and could not be used as a See also:personal description denoting See also:rank or quality, or as the title of a class. Yet after 1413 we find it increasingly so used; and the See also:list of landowners in 1431, printed in Feudal See also:Aids, contains, besides knights, esquires, yeomen and husbandmen (i.e. See also:house-holders), a See also:fair number who are classed as " gentieman." Sir George Sitwell gives'a lucid explanation of this development, the incidents of which are instructive and occasionally amusing.

The immediate cause was the See also:

statute r See also:Henry V. cap. v. of 1413, which laid down that in all original writs of See also:action, personal appeals and indictments, in which See also:process of See also:outlawry lies, the " See also:estate degree or See also:mystery " of the See also:defendant must be stated, as well as his See also:present or former See also:domicile. Now the See also:Black See also:Death (1349) had put the traditional social organization out of See also:gear. Before that the younger sons of the nobiles had received their See also:share of the See also:farm stock, bought or hired See also:land, and settled down as agriculturists in their native villages. Under the new conditions 1 Description of England, bk. ii. ch. v. p. 128. Henry See also:Peacham, in his Com pleat Gentleman (1634), takes this See also:matter more seriously. "Neither must we See also:honour or esteem," he writes, " those ennobled, or made See also:gentle in blood, who by mechanic and See also:base means have raked up a See also:mass of See also:wealth . . . or have See also:purchased an See also:ill coat (of arms) at a good See also:rate; no more than a player upon the See also:stage, for wearing a See also:lord's See also:cast suit: since nobility hangeth not upon the See also:airy esteem of vulgar opinion, but is indeed of itself essential and See also:absolute " (Reprint, p. 3). Elsewhere (p. 161) he deplores the abuse of See also:heraldry, which had even in his day produced " all the See also:world over such a medley of coats " that, but for the commendable activity of the earls marshals, he feared that yeomen would soon be " as rare in England as they are in See also:France." See also an amusing instance from the time of Henry VIII., given in " The Gentility of See also:Richard See also:Barker," by See also:Oswald Barron, in the Ancestor, vol. ii. (See also:July 1902).

2 Even this See also:

classification would seem to need modifying, For certain of the great patrician families of the cities were certainly nobiles. this became increasingly impossible, and they were forced to seek their fortunes abroad in the See also:French wars, or at home as hangers-on of the great nobles. These men, under the old See also:system, had no definite status; but they were generosi, men of See also:birth, and, being now forced to describe themselves, they disdained to be classed with franklins (now sinking in the social See also:scale), still more with yeomen or husbandmen; they See also:chose, therefore, to be described as " gentlemen." On the See also:character of these earliest "gentlemen" the records throw a lurid See also:light. According to Sir George Sitwell (p. 76), " the premier gentleman of England, as the matter now stands, is ` See also:Robert Ercleswyke of See also:Stafford, gentilman,' " who had served among the men-at-arms of Lord See also:Talbot at See also:Agincourt (ib. See also:note). He is typical of his class. " Fortunately—for the gentle reader will no doubt be anxious to follow in his footsteps—some particulars of his See also:life may be gleaned from the public records. He was charged at the See also:Staffordshire Assizes with housebreaking, wounding with See also:intent to kill, and procuring the See also:murder of one See also:Thomas See also:Page, who was cut to pieces while on his knees begging for his life." If any earlier claimant to the title of " gentleman " be discovered, Sir George Sitwell predicts that it will be within the same See also:year (1414) and in connexion with some similar disreputable proceedings.' From these unpromising beginnings the separate order of " gentlemen " was very slowly evolved. The first "gentleman" commemorated on an existing See also:monument was John Daundelyon of See also:Margate (d. c. 1445); the first gentleman to enter the House of See also:Commons, hitherto composed mainly of " valets," was " William See also:Weston, gentylman "; but even in the latter See also:half of the 15th century the order was not clearly established. As to the connexion of " gentilesse " with the See also:official grant or recognition of coat-armour, that is a profitable fiction invented and upheld by the heralds; for coat-armour was but the badge assumed by gentlemen to distinguish them in See also:battle, and many gentlemen of long descent never had occasion to assume it, and never did. This fiction, however, had its effect; and by the 16th century, as has been already pointed out, the official view had become clearly established that " gentlemen " constituted a distinct order, and that the badge of this distinction was the heralds' recognition of the right to bear arms.

It is unfortunate that this view, which is quite unhistorical and contradicted by the present practice of many undoubtedly " gentle " families of long descent, has of late years been given a wide currency in popular manuals of heraldry. In this narrow sense, however, the word " gentleman " has long since become obsolete. The idea of " gentry " in the See also:

continental sense of noblesse is See also:extinct in England, and is likely to remain so, in spite of the efforts of certain enthusiasts to revive it (see A. C. See also:Fox-See also:Davies, Armorial Families, See also:Edinburgh, 1895). That it once existed has been sufficiently shown; but the whole spirit and tendency of English constitutional and social development tended to its early destruction. The See also:comparative good order of England was not favourable to the continuance of a class, See also:developed during the See also:foreign and See also:civil wars of the 14th and 15th centuries, for whom fighting was the See also:sole honour-able occupation. The younger sons of noble families became apprentices in the cities, and there See also:grew up a new See also:aristocracy of See also:trade. Merchants are still " citizens " to William Harrison; but he adds " they often See also:change estate with gentlemen, as gentle-men do with them, by a mutual See also:conversion of the one into the other." A frontier See also:line between classes so indefinite could not be maintained, especially as in England there was never a " nobiliary prefix " to See also:stamp a person as a gentleman by his 1 The designation " gentilman " is, indeed, found some two centuries earlier. In the Inquisitio maneriorum Ecclesiae S. See also:Pauli Londin, of A.D. 1222 (W.

A. See also:

Hale, Domesday of St See also:Paul's, See also:Camden See also:Soc., 1858, p. 8o) occurs the entry: Adam gentilma dim caret, p' iii. d. This is probably the earliest See also:record of the " See also:grand old name of gentleman "; but Adam, who held half an See also:acre at a See also:rent of three pence—less by half than that held by " See also:Ralph the bondsman" (Rad' le bunde) in the same list—was certainly not a" gentleman." Gentilman " here was a See also:nickname, perhaps suggested by Adam's name, and thus in some sort anticipating the wit of the famous See also:couplet repeated by John Ball's rebels.surname, as in France or See also:Germany? The process was hastened, moreover, by the corruption of the Heralds' See also:College and by the ease with which coats of arms could be assumed without a See also:shadow of claim; which tended to bring the " See also:science of armory " into contempt. The word " gentleman " as an See also:index of rank had already become of doubtful value before the great See also:political and social changes of the 19th century gave to it a wider and essentially higher significance. The change is well illustrated in the See also:definitions given in the successive See also:editions of the See also:Encyclopaedia Britannica. In the 5th edition (1815) " a gentleman is one, who without any title, bears a coat of arms, or whose ancestors have been freemen." In the 7th edition (1845) it still implies a definite social status: " All above the rank of yeomen." In the 8th edition (1856) this is still its " most ex-tended sense "; " in a more limited sense " it is defined in the same words as those quoted above from the 5th edition; but the writer adds, " By See also:courtesy this title is generally accorded to all persons above the rank of See also:common tradesmen when their See also:manners are indicative of a certain amount of refinement and intelligence." The Reform See also:Bill of 1832 has done its See also:work; the " middle classes " have come into their own; and the word " gentleman " has come in common use to signify not a distinction of blood, but a distinction of position, See also:education and manners. The test is no longer good birth, or the right to bear arms, but the capacity to mingle on equal terms in good society. In its best use, moreover, " gentleman " involves a certain See also:superior See also:standard of conduct, due, to quote the 8th edition once more, to " that self-respect and intellectual refinement which See also:manifest themselves in unrestrained yet delicate manners." The word " gentle," originally implying a certain social status, had very early come to be associated with the standard of manners expected from that status. Thus by a sort of punning process the " gentleman " becomes a " gentle-man." See also:Chaucer in the Meliboeus (c. 1386) says: " Certes he sholde not be called a gentil man, that .

. . ne dooth his See also:

diligence and bisynesse, to kepen his good name "; and in the Wife of See also:Bath's See also:Tale: " Loke who that is most vertuous alway Prive and apert, and most entendeth ay To do the gentil dedes that he can And take him for the gretest gentilman," and in the See also:Romance of the See also:Rose (c. 1400) we find " he is gentil bycause he doth as longeth to a gentilman." This use develops through the centuries, until in 1714 we have See also:Steele, in the Tatler (No. 207), laying down that " the appellation of Gentle-man is never to be affixed to a man's circumstances, but to his Behaviour in them," a See also:limitation over-narrow even for the present day. In this connexion, too, may be quoted the old See also:story, told by some—very improbably—of See also:James II., of the monarch who replied to a See also:lady petitioning him to make her son a gentleman, "I could make him a nobleman, but See also:God Almighty could not make him a gentleman." Selden, however, in referring to similar stories " that no Charter can make a Gentleman, which is cited as out of the mouth of some great Princes that have said it," adds that " they without question understood Gentleman for Generosus in the antient sense, or as if it came from Gentilis in that sense, as Gentilis denotes one of a noble Family, or indeed for a Gentleman by birth." For " no creation could make a man of another blood than he is." The word " gentleman," used in the wide sense with which birth and circumstances have nothing to do, is necessarily incapable of strict See also:definition. For "to behave like a gentleman " may mean little or much, according to the person by whom the phrase is used; " to spend money like a gentleman " may even be no great praise; but " to conduct a business like a gentleman " implies a standard at least as high as that involved 2 The prefix " de " attached to some English names is in no sense " nobiliary." In Latin documents de was the equivalent of the English " of," as de la of " at " (so de la See also:Pole for Atte See also:Poole, cf. such names as See also:Attwood, Attwater). In English this " of " was in the 15th century dropped; e.g. the See also:grandson of Johannes de Stoke (John of Stoke) in a 14th-century document becomes John Stoke. In See also:modern times, under the See also:influence of romanticism, the prefix " de " has been in some cases " revived " under a misconception, e.g. " de Trafford," " de Hoghton." Very rarely it is correctly retained as derived from a foreign See also:place-name, e.g. de See also:Grey. in the phrase " noblesse oblige." In this sense of a person of culture, character and good manners the word " gentleman " has supplied a See also:gap in more than one foleign See also:language. The See also:evolution of this meaning of " gentleman " reflects very accurately that of English society; and there are not wanting signs that the process of evolution, in the one as in the other, is not complete. The indefinableness of the word mirrors the indefinite character of " society " in England; and the use by " the masses " of " gentleman " as a See also:mere synonym for " man " has spread pari passu with the growth of See also:democracy. It is a protest against implied inferiority, and is cherished as the modern French See also:bourgeois cherishes his right of duelling with swords, under the ancien regime a See also:prerogative of the noblesse.

Nor is there much See also:

justification for the denunciation by purists of the " vulgarization " and " abuse " of the " grand old name of gentleman." Its• strict meaning has now fallen completely obsolete. Its current meaning varies with every class of society that uses it. But it always implies some sort of See also:excellency of manners or morals.

End of Article: GENTLEMAN (from Lat. gentilis, " belonging to a race or gens," and " man "; Fr. gentilhomme, Span. gentil hombre, Ital. gentil huomo, in its original and strict signification, a term denoting a man of good family, the Lat. generosus (its invariable transl

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