sent of embassage unto a prince ought to think a king to be but a
man, and, in reverence and humility, boldly to say his message unto
him.” Surely a man of good sense might do this, irrespective of his
birth, particularly at a time when the unskilfulness and ignorance of
gentlemen were so great as to pass into a proverb, and “He shooteth
like a gentleman fair and far off,” implied not only ill-shooting
with bows and arrows, “but it extended farther and reached to greater
matters, all to the dispraise of ignorant gentlemen.”
It is so common a matter with us to refer to the days in which this
author wrote, as days in which old knights and country gentlemen
maintained such hospitality as has seldom been since witnessed, that we
are surprised to find complaint made, in this treatise, of something
just the contrary. The author enjoins these knights and gentlemen to
repair less to London, and be more seen dispensing hospitality in their
own houses. “In the ancient times,” he says, “when curious buildings
fed not the eye of the wayfaring man, then might he be fed and have
good repast at a gentleman’s place, so called. Then stood the buttery
door without a hatch; yeoman then had no cause to carve small dishes;
Flanders cooks had then no wages for their devices, nor square tables
were not used. This variety and change from the old English manner hath
smally enriched gentlemen, but much it hath impoverished their names,
not without just punishment of their inconsistency in that behalf.” Let
me add, that the writer thinks the country knight or gentleman would
do well were he to exercise the office of justice of the peace. He is
sorely afraid, however, that there is a disqualification, on the ground
of ignorance. A moralist might have the same fear just now, without
coming to the same conclusion. Our author, for instance, argues that
reverence is to be paid to the noble, _quand même_. Let him be ignorant
and tyrannical, yet to reverence him is to give example of obedience to
others. This is very poor logic, and what follows is still worse; for
this writer very gravely remarks, that “We ought to bear the offences
of noble men patiently, and that if these forget themselves, yet ought
not smaller men to be oblivious of their duty in consequence, and fail
in their respect.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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