Gentleman [ Taste & Manners / Politics & Society ]
… example, the writings of Lord Shaftesbury (1671-1713). However, the rise of cheaper print media, and in particular the periodical, meant that this art could now be disseminated to a wider audience that included the literate middling sort. … Spectator and Tatler were two such vehicles . The young Dudley Ryder (1691-1756), a Hackney draper’s son, read these periodicals inter alia to fit himself for advancement through polite conversation. He rose to become a Member of … attitudes were now decried as outmoded and amoral. The reviewer for the Gentleman’s Magazine , the leading monthly periodical with a distinctly middling-sort national readership, regarded Chesterfield as using polite sociability as a …
Benevolence | Middling sort | Politeness | Rank
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