Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Setting the Scene: The Arrival of the Duel and a Brief History to 1750
- 2 Fashion and Physicality
- 3 Politeness, Interest and Transgression: Social Interaction and the Causes of Duelling
- 4 Controversies and Calculations: The Incidence and Distribution of Duelling
- 5 Guts and Governance: Honour Culture and Colonial Administration
- 6 Dangerous Friends: Conciliation, Counsel and the Conduct of English Duelling
- 7 Th e Contest in the Courtroom: Duelling and the Criminal Justice System
- 8 The Years of Decline, the European Middle and the Domestic Duellists
- 9 The Reformation of Space, Place and Mind
- 10 Dishonourable Duellists and the Rationalisation of Punishment and Warfare
- Conclusion
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - Politeness, Interest and Transgression: Social Interaction and the Causes of Duelling
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 March 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Setting the Scene: The Arrival of the Duel and a Brief History to 1750
- 2 Fashion and Physicality
- 3 Politeness, Interest and Transgression: Social Interaction and the Causes of Duelling
- 4 Controversies and Calculations: The Incidence and Distribution of Duelling
- 5 Guts and Governance: Honour Culture and Colonial Administration
- 6 Dangerous Friends: Conciliation, Counsel and the Conduct of English Duelling
- 7 Th e Contest in the Courtroom: Duelling and the Criminal Justice System
- 8 The Years of Decline, the European Middle and the Domestic Duellists
- 9 The Reformation of Space, Place and Mind
- 10 Dishonourable Duellists and the Rationalisation of Punishment and Warfare
- Conclusion
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Although, Col. Bayley had given way to the ‘capricious emanations’ from his brain, it nevertheless caused him to consider his own conduct both foolish and regretful (see previous chapter). Despite the latent potential for violence lying within the breast of many a gentleman, it will soon become apparent that most – the overwhelming majority, I will suggest – of gentlemen conducted their lives without resort to so serious a hazard as a duel. The instinct for self-preservation was not still-born in the English gentleman and although I have referred to the tensions that existed when gentlemen vied for attention or sought to impose themselves upon public space, nevertheless it is self-evident that even the most trying of social gatherings did not engender a blood bath. In truth, reference to the obligations of honour was rarely made save where the norms of gentlemanly behaviour had been so violated that no equable resolution was possible.
In the seventeenth century the norms of behaviour had been established by the values of courtliness; but by 1700, courtliness had given way to politeness, as espoused by Addison and Steele and the Spectator. Politeness, according to Klein:
was situated in company, in the realm of social interaction and exchange, where it governed the relationship of the self to others. While allowing for differences among selves, politeness, was concerned with coordinating, reconciling or integrating them.
Politeness was not a value-free step towards general civility, rather, as Langford asserts, the new values of politeness marked a claim, even a demand, on the part of the relatively well placed to be acknowledged and accommodated.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A Polite Exchange of BulletsThe Duel and the English Gentleman, 1750-1850, pp. 43 - 62Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2010