Rural Manners
by
Joseph Addison
(Summary)
The essay sheds light on the concept of
good manners of Addison's time. It also shows us the way in which life in the
town influences country life. In the age, which had just ended, good manners
included a display of overformal polity, which can only be called an excess of
good breeding. The country still conforms to the earlier notion of politeness.
In fact, cases of ceremonial precedence are taken to an extreme in rural areas,
where they become a positive nuisance; For example, according to the strict
requirements of the protocol, guests take so long to sit and wait until the
dinner is cooled by that time. The country, says Addison, has so far been safe
from one perversion of polite conversation in the town of which Addison seems
to be full of horror that is, talking in a licentious manner.
Addison was a lively conversationalist;
His conversation in the circle of his intimate friends was more enjoyable than
his writings. Pope and Swift were forced to accept Addison's superior gifts.
His mistake, as a person was, that he always loved being surrounded by his
fans. All these people were very inferior in capacity and some of them had
serious defects. There is no doubt, that Addison could see through the faults
of his friends yet it was impossible to escape entirely the vitiating influence
of such constant adulation.
One major distinction between the
manners in the town and the country is that many formalities and ceremonials,
which once formed a part of civilized life in the city, but are no more in
vogue now- are still observed in the countryside. The mark of good breeding in
the city now, says Addison, is the unaffected behaviour rather than an
overformal courtesy. In the countryside good breeding is carried to ridiculous
extremes, so that it becomes troublesome at social occasions like dinners as
one is expected to sit according to the rigorous precedence of mark and status.
A country gentleman might make one as many bows as would last courtier for a
whole week.
According to Addison, wives of country
justices make more ado on this score than even duchesses. It does not matter
that by the time the seating problem is resolved, the dinner might have become
cold. Even a sensible man like Will Wimble has been infected with the
extravagant formality of country life. He may have been fishing all morning,
but he will not help himself until the spectator has been served.
A revolutionary change has occurred in
the field of polite conversation. It used to be the chief distinction of the
conversation of a well-bred man that he scrupulously avoided all terms which
had the least tincture of vulgarity. Only the clown could speak in an obscene
language. Now the pendulum has swung to the other extreme. Fashionable men of
town now take pleasure in speaking in a coarse and uncivilized manner. In fact,
a clown would blush at their lack of restraint and decorum in speech. We are
fortunate, says Addison, that this piece of good breeding has not so far
reached the country.
In matters of dress the country people
are very much behindhand. The countryside women are trying to excel each other
by wearing the tallest head dresses which have already passed out of fashion in
the town. On this matter the author promises to write in detail in a later
essay.
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