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Joseph Addison [ Art and Literature / Politics ]

… prose style was often emulated by later periodical essayists and his character was presented as exemplary of the polite manners that he sought to describe and defend in his works. Addison was also well known as a prominent Whig politician … People > Politics Keywords Addison Whig Periodical essay Tatler Spectator Coffeehouse Literature Wit Politeness Manners Joseph Addison (1672-1719) was an important theorist of English sociability in the early eighteenth century. He … had been at the heart of late seventeenth-century Whiggery and much more so on promoting moderation, trade, and sociable manners unmarred by the religious divisions that had spurred the development of the party in the age of Charles II and …

Beau Nash [ Fashion ]

… the emergence of a British model of sociability in a decisive way. Through his conviviality, his influence on dress and manners, he participated in the forging of a refined and polite nation. This entry attempts to assess his action without downplaying his moral ambiguity. People > Fashion Keywords Bath Fashion Gaming Social codes Manners Master of Ceremonies Politeness Refinement Spa Wit Richard Nash, who was born in Swansea in 1674, has gone down … Bath doctors such as Dr William Oliver who paid tribute to his generosity in A Faint Sketch of the Life, Character, and Manners, of the Late Mr Nash 2 and Dr George Cheyne who often joked with him about the principles of good health. In …

Female Beauty [ Taste & Manners ]

… used to advocate and challenge established moral virtues, cultural beliefs and women’s self-creation. Concepts > Taste & Manners Keywords Women Appearance Beauty Aesthetics Manners Conduct ‘Female beauty’, wrote Oliver Goldsmith in  An History of the Earth  (1776), ‘is always seen to improve … Could a person be beautiful without being beautiful on the inside? When issues of virtue, morality, sensibility, and manners were considered in terms of their relationship with physical attractiveness, beauty was still being understood as …

Hannah More (and philanthropic sociability) [ Religion & Philanthropy / Politics & Society / Religious Belief ]

… later her membership of the evangelical group, the Clapham Sect, to embark on crusades against poverty, the perverted manners of the Great, the ill-conceived education of women and the evils of slavery. She devised an original … Practices > Politics & Society Practices > Religious Belief Keywords Bluestocking Education Evangelicalism Friendship Manners Philanthropy Poverty Reformation Religion Slavery Women Wilberforce Hannah More (1745-1833), who was one of the … As a matter of fact, she used her pen and her literary talents to promote four main causes, the reformation of manners, the abolition of slavery, the education of women and the alleviation of poverty. Having started as a provincial …

Laughter [ Communication ]

… in sociability quite like laughter. Practices > Communication Keywords Laughter humour Wit Taste Politeness impoliteness Manners civil society In May 1787, author-turned cleric Thomas Monro devoted an issue of his short-lived periodical to … eighteenth-century intellectual circles, however, good humour and laughter were not simply a matter of superficial good manners; they were elevated as an essential prop to civil society. The third earl of Shaftesbury’s essay,  Sensus … and contested with geniality, and without descending into fractiousness. Moreover, well-targeted ridicule would refine manners and morals: laughing at another’s foibles would gently correct unsociable behaviour. In Shaftesbury’s words, ‘we …

James Boswell [ Art and Literature ]

… which placed a limit on his capacity for sociability. People > Art and Literature Keywords Edinburgh London alcohol Manners charm sex Boswell, who was born into a Scottish Presbyterian legal and landowning family in 1740, suffered all … Addison’s character in sentiment, mixed with a little of the gaiety of Sir Richard Steele’, to which he will add ‘the manners’ of his friend the Edinburgh actor ‘Mr Digges’ ( London Journal  89).  A proper balance of sentiment, humour and manners, in other words, is necessary for Boswellian sociability, no matter what the activity, and notwithstanding the …