Gentleman [ Taste & Manners / Politics & Society ]
… of California Press, 1996), p. 209. Definitions of ‘gentleman’ in Dr Samuel Johnson ’s Dictionary of the English Language , first published in 1755, captured this societal change. The leading definition was the traditional one: ‘A man … goodwill, sincerity and honesty in conversation in society, and to avoid disputation, drunkenness, coarseness, and lewd language. The link to middling-sort lives and values as explored by Margaret Hunt was explicit: honesty in conversation … in trade and business, and the ‘knowledge of a man of business’ was more important than Latin and Greek, the Classical languages closely associated with an elite rather than a practical education. 6 5 . Samuel Richardson, Letters Written to …
Benevolence | Middling sort | Politeness | Rank
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