George Washington's Rules of Civility: Traced to their Sources and Restored by Moncure D. ConwayWashington, George
History
George Washington's Rules of Civility: Traced to their Sources and Restored by Moncure D. Conway
Washington, George
Etiquette
[Footnote 1: In the edition of Hawkins (1663) bound up with Part II. in
the British Museum (bearing on the cover the name and arms of the
"Hon'ble Thos. Greville") there is just one precept concerning women:
"If thou art yet unmarried, but intendest to get thee a wife modest,
rather than beautiful, meddle not with those Ladies of the Game, who
make pageants of their Cheeks, and Shops of their Shoulders, and
(contrary to all other Trades) keep open their Windows on the
Sabbath-day, impudently exposing their nakedness to the view of a whole
Congregation," &c. There are, in an appendix, pictures of a
puritanically shrouded "Virtue," and a "Vice" who, apart from the
patches on her face, singularly resembles a portrait of pretty Lady
Ferrars in Codrington's book (_ante_, p. 21) ed. 1672.]
On the whole, though it is very uncertain, the balance of probabilities
seems to favour the theory that the Rules of Civility, found in a
copy-book among school exercises, exceedingly abbreviated, and marked by
clerical errors unusual with Washington, were derived from the oral
teachings of his preceptor; that this Frenchman utilised (and was once
or twice misled by) the English version along with the original, which
had been used as a manual in his Rouen College.
The Marie family of Rouen,--from which came the Maryes of Virginia,--is
distinguished both in Catholic and Huguenot annals. Among the eminent
Jesuit authors was Pierre Marie, who was born at Rouen, 1589, and died
at Bourges, 1645. He was author of "La Sainte Solitude; ou les
Entretiens solitaires de l'ame," and of "La Science du Crucifix: en
forme de méditations." The family was divided by the Huguenot movement,
and a Protestant branch took root in England. Concerning the latter,
Agnew (_French Protestant Exiles_, i. p. 100) gives the following
information:--
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