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Idleness and the Ideal of the Gentlemen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Ann Wagner
Ann Wagner*
Affiliation:
Deparment of Dance at St. Olaf College
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Extract

… yong gentylmen ought to avoyde and eschewe Idlenes. For it is … the very mother and noryse of all evyls and myscheves & is the occasion wherby a man doth lerne to do many grevous offences and synnes.

The Boke of Noblnes c. 1550

Received tradition in America has identified the Puritans with the “detestation of idleness” and tended to denigrate them as the originators of this value judgment. Although scholars have written extensively about the Puritan work ethic and the theological framework undergirding the stress on diligence in one's calling, little has been said about the conceptual and cultural background for Puritan opposition to idleness. According to historian Perry Miller, a likely source for such views is England rather than New England. Miller has asserted that, when considering Puritan culture as a whole, “ninety per cent of the intellectual life, scientific knowledge, morality, manners and customs, notions and prejudices, was that of all Englishmen.” The sixteenth-century courtesy literature, that body of treatises intended for the instruction of the aristocracy, confirms that abhorrence of idleness was indeed a hallmark of the ideal advocated for the English Renaissance gentleman. The courtesy treatises demonstrate that the Massachusetts Bay settlers had inherited from their English ancestors a century-old written tradition, wherein idleness had been defined and its sinful consequences unequivocally denounced by those who assumed the task of educating the well-born and the governing classes. Concurrent with the denunciations, courtesy treatises exhorted the gentlemen to good stewardship of time, i.e., to a life primarily of worship and work. Hours spent in recreation were approved, he was told, only for “honest” pastimes taken in moderation. An analysis of these sixteenth-century conceptions begins with a review of the educational ideals portrayed in the courtesy literature.

Type
Articles
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 25 , Issue 1-2 , Spring-Summer 1985 , pp. 41 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 by History of Education Society 

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References

Notes

1. See, for example, Dulles, Foster Rhea, A History of Recreation: America Learns to Play, 2nd ed. (New York, 1965), pp. 3–21. In chapter one, titled “In Detestation of Idleness,” Dulles attributed the Puritan attitude to survival as well as “spiritual reform and economic envy.” The impression conveyed is that the Puritans were an intolerant people, perhaps unique in their opposition to idleness. Speaking to the confusion about Puritan attitudes and their origins, Perry Miller wrote: “… most accounts of Puritanism, emphasizing the controversial tenets, attribute everything that Puritans said or did to the fact that they were Puritans …” See Miller, Perry and Johnson, Thomas H., eds. The Puritians: A Sourcebook of Their Writings, rev. ed. (New York, 1963), V. 1,7. More recently, Sidney Ahlstrom could still write that, with respect to moral reform attitudes, Americans have tended to identify Puritanism with “blue-nosed Victorianism.” See Ahlstrom, Sidney, A Religious History of the American People (Garden City, NY, 1975), V. 1, 518.Google Scholar

2. Miller, , v. 1,7.Google Scholar

3. The term courtesy literature refers to that body of writing which set forth the proper qualities, education, training and conduct, to be acquired by the gentleman or gentlewoman. Primary sources used for this analysis come from the main bibliographies of this genre published to date. Heltzel's, Virgil B., A Check List of Courtesy Books in the Newberry Library (Chicago, 1942) includes 1539 entries. Kelso's, Ruth “The Doctrine of the English Gentleman in the Sixteenth Century,” University of Illinois Studies in Language and Literature, 14 (1929):1–288, numbers 1418 entries. Primary sources researched for this investigation include those books, written in or translated into English, which focused on religion, learning, moral philosophy, training, manners, recreation, music and dance.Google Scholar

4. Ziff's, Larzer more recent analysis, Puritanism in America (New York, 1973), noted that by mid-seventeenth century, Massachusetts had the “extraordinary ratio” of one in every two hundred inhabitants who were university-trained men (p. 50). The colony's stress on not just literacy, but learning, is evidenced by the early founding of Harvard in 1636. Since the colony's leadership consisted of educated men, it is highly improbable that they were unfamiliar with the English courtesy literature of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Both the purpose and prevalence of the courtesy treatises argue for this point. Almost all of those herein cited appeared in more than one edition during the era. For example, Elyot's, Thomas Sir Governour was issued in eight editions in the sixteenth century; and William Baldwyn's The tretise of Morali Phylosophy had come out in thirty editions by mid-seventeenth century.Google Scholar

5. Kelso, Ruth, “Sixteenth-Century Definitions of the Gentleman in England,” The Journal of English and German Philology, 24 (1925):370.Google Scholar

6. Kelso, , “Sixteenth-Century Definitions …,” 377.Google Scholar

7. Kelso, , “Doctrine of the English Gentlemen …,” 13 Google Scholar

8. Kelso, , “Sixteenth-Century Definitions …,” 380–381. Heltzel concurs that the emphasis had shifted from “an ideal of distinction through birth to that of fame through distinguished education” (pp. 1 and 8). Gee, John Archer in The Life and Works of Thomas Lupset (New Haven, 1928) also wrote that more than “ever before, talent came to be regarded as more important than birth” (Preface).Google Scholar

9. Kelso, , ‘Sixteenth-Century Definitions …,’ pp. 381–382. For a detailed study of the English middle class, its “voracious appetite” for learning and belief in the efficacy of education as a “social panacea,” see Wright, Louis B., Middle Class Culture in Elizabethan England (Chapel Hill, 1935).Google Scholar

10. Kelso, , “Doctrine of the English Gentleman …,” 111.Google Scholar

11. Ibid., 111–116. See also Hexter, J.H., “The Education of the Aristocracy in the Renaissance,” The Journal of Modern History, 22, No. 1 (March, 1950): 4 and 15 and 15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12. Erasmus, Desiderius, That children oughte to be taught and brought up getly in vertue and learnynge …, trans. Sherry, Rychard (n.p., 1550), sig. Liiii.Google Scholar

13. Ascham, Roger, The Scholemaster (London, 1570; rpt. in English Reprints, ed. Arber, Edward (London, 1869), V. 1, p. 151. Hexter substantiated the ascendancy of learning by the end of the century: “Whatever the validity of the indictment at the beginning of the sixteenth century, it was certainly not true at its end that English gentlemen as a group were indifferent to formal schooling. By that time men who received clerkly training no longer remained concentrated in the schools, nor did they make a beeline for the church or the offices of the central administration of the realm. Bookish learning had gone with them out into the shires and was widely scattered among the men who ruled the countryside” (p. 9).Google Scholar

14. de la Primaudaye, Peter, The French Academie …, trans. Bowes, Thomas, (London, 1618), pp. 151–152; James, VI, Basilicon Down (Edinburgh, 1599; rpt. Edinburgh, 1944), p. 186; The Boke of Noblnes, trans. Larke, John (London, n.d.), sig. Fiiv ; Bacon, Nicholas Sir, The Recreations Of His Age (n.d.; rpt. Oxford, 1903 [issued 1919]), p. 4; Stubbes, Phillip, The Anatomie of Abuses (London, 1583; rpt. New York, 1972) 6th page after sig. Lv.Google Scholar William Ames (1576–1633), the famous Puritan theologian whose works had enormous influence in America, also labeled idleness “the mother and nurse of many vices.” See his casuistic treatise: Conscience With The Power And Cases Thereof (1639; rpt. Amsterdam, 1975), p. 249. For a summary of Ames' influence in New England, see Sprunger, Keith L., The Learned Doctor William Ames (Urbana, 1972), pp. 251–262.Google Scholar

15. Boorde, Andrew, Hereafter foloweth a compendyous Regyment or a dyetary of Helth … (1542; rpt. EETS Extra Series, No. 10, London, (1870), p. 243; Coplande, Robert, trans., The Manner to Dance Bace Dances (1521; rpt. Flansham, Bognor Regis Sussex, 1937), p. 13. The dance manual is based on a mid-15th-century Burgundian treatise. It is not known whether the passage on idleness appeared in the original or was added by the English printer, Coplande.Google Scholar

16. For example, see Elyot, Thomas, The Boke Named the Governour (1531; rpt. New York, n.d.). Elyot applied almost the same images to prudence and virture as those listed for idleness and vice. Of prudence, he wrote: “And it is named of Aristotle the mother of vertues; of other philosophers it is called the capitayne or maistres of vertues; of some the house wyfe….” Later, he also called it the “porche of the noble palaice of mannes reason.” (p. 96)Google Scholar

17. The Institucion of a Gentleman (London, 1568; rpt. London, 1839), 15th ch., n. pag; Northbrooke, John, A Treatise Against Dicing, Dancing, Plays, and Interludes … (c. 1577; rpt. London, 1843), p. 96.Google Scholar

18. Baldwyn, William, The tretise of Morali Phylosophy … (London, 1552), Third Boke, 1st ch., n. pag.; Elyot, Thomas Sir, The Bankette of Sapience, (n.p., 1534), p. 27; Guazzo, Steeven, The Civile Conversation …, trans. Pettie, George and Barth, . Young (1581 and 1586; rpt. in The Tudor Translations second series, London, 1925), v. 1, 244.Google Scholar

19. Chelidonius, Tigurnius, A Most excellent Hystorie, Of the Institution and firste beginning of Christian Princes …, trans. Chillester, James (London, 1571), p. 87.Google Scholar

20. Stubbes, 6th page after sig. Lv.; Coignet, Matthieu, Politique Discourses Upon Trueth and Lying, trans. Hoby, Edward Sir (London, 1586), p. 223.Google Scholar

21. Northbrooke, , p. 55.Google Scholar

22. Boaystuau, Peter, Theatrum Mundi …, trans. Alday, John (London, 1566?), 8th and 9th pages after sig. Ciiii; Elyot, , Bankette of Sapience, p. 27.Google Scholar

23. Lloyd, Lodowicke, The Pilgrimage of Princes … (London, n.d. [1573]), page before 168; and Boaystuau, 9th page after sig. Ciiii.Google Scholar

24. Erasmus, Desiderius, Institutio principis Christiani (1516; rpt. as The Education of A Christian Prince , trans. Lester, K. Born, New York, 1936), pp. 185 and 225.Google Scholar

25. For a detailed analysis of the importance of cosmic order to the average, educated sixteenth-century man, see Tillyard, E.M.W., The Elizabeth World Picture (New York, n.d.).Google Scholar

26. Elyot, , Governour, pp. 6 and 3. For a confirming analysis of the importance of order to a commonwealth as well as the evils of idleness which plagued Tudor England in the 1530s, see Starkey, Thomas, A Dialogue Between Reginald Pole & Thomas Lupset; rpt. ed. Burton, Kathleen M. and Preface by Tillyard, E.M.W. (London, 1948), pp. 59ff and 75ff.Google Scholar

27. Vives, Johannes Ludovicus, Introduction to wissedome, trans. Morisine, Richarde (n.p, 1563), sig. Dv.Google Scholar

28. Elyot, , Governour, p. 108.Google Scholar

29. Elyot, , Governour, p. 107; Boke of Noblnes, sig. Fii and page following; Lupset, Thomas, An Exhortation to Yonge men … (1529, rpt. in The Life and Works of Thomas Lupset, New Haven, 1928), p. 246; and Taffin, Jean, The Amendment of Life … (London, 1595), pp. 249–250.Google Scholar

30. Breton, Nicholas, The Scholler and The Souldier (n.d.; rpt. in A Mad World My Masters and Other Prose Works by Nicholas Breton , Pointe, Grosse, 1968), V. 2, 97.Google Scholar

31. Northbrooke, , p. 73.Google Scholar

32. Barclay, Alexander, trans., The Mirror of Good Maners … (1570; rpt. New York, 1967), p. 23.Google Scholar

33. Montaigne, Michel, “Of Idleness,” The Essays (1580, rpt. in Great Books of the Western World, trans. Charles Cotton, Chicago Inc., 1952), V. 25, pp. 14–15.Google Scholar

34. Bloomfield, Morton W., The Seven Deadly Sins (n.p., 1952), pp. 59, 96, 104, 193, 223, 242 and 415.Google Scholar

35. Pieper, Josef, Leisure The Basis of Culture, trans. Dru, Alexander (New York, 1952), p. 48. Sixteenth-century dictionaries also confirm that idleness and sloth were used interchangeably. See, for example, the “Desidia” and “Desidiosus” listings in: Elyot, Thomas, Dictionary (London, 1538; rpt. Menston, England, 1970); the Elyot-Cooper edition of 1548; Huloet, Richard, Abecedarium Anglico-Latinum (London, 1552; rpt. Menston England, 1970); and Estienne, Robert, Dictionariolum Puerorum Tribus Linguis Latina Anglica & Gallica (London, 1552; rpt. New York, 1971).Google Scholar

36. Northbrooke, , p. 59.Google Scholar

37. Boke of Noblnes, sig. Fiiiv and Fiiir; Northbrooke, p. 39.Google Scholar

38. Northbrooke, pp. 39 and 74.Google Scholar

39. Erasmus, , p. 226.Google Scholar

40. Northbrooke, , p. 76.Google Scholar

41. Primaudaye, , pp. 72–73. For similar views, see Bacon, , p. 14 and Livin Lemmens [Levinus Lemnius], The Touchstone of Complexions … (London, 1581), p. 3.Google Scholar

42. Vives, Juan Luis, De Tradendis Disciplinis (Antwerp, 1531; rpt. as Vives: On Education , trans. Watson, Foster, Totowa, N.J., 1971), p. 35.Google Scholar

43. Taffin, , pp. 249–250. The same point is made by William Perkins, the reknowned Elizabethan Puritan preacher and Cambridge theologian, in his casuistic work The Whole Treatise of Cases of Conscience (n.d.; rpt. William Perkins 1558–1602, English Puritanist, ed. Merrill, Thomas F., Nieuwkoop, 1966), p. 222.Google Scholar

44. Pace, Richard, De Fructu … (Basil, 1517; rpt. trans. Manley, Frank and Sylvester, Richard S., New York, (1967), p. 115; Coignet, p. 224.Google Scholar

45. Vives, , Introduction to wisseome, sig. Diii and page following.Google Scholar

46. Northbrooke, , p. 45. For the same or similar views, see also Elyot, , Bankette of Sapience, p. 27; Barclay, , p. 54; Guazzo, , v. 1, 245.Google Scholar

47. Vives, , De Tradendis, p. 28; Perkins, , p. 222; Boke of Noblnes, sig. FVv ; Mulcaster, Richard, Positions … (London, 1581; rpt. London, 1887), p. 127.Google Scholar

48. Ascham, Roger, Toxophilus (1545; rpt. in English Reprints , ed. Arber, Edward, London, 1869), pp. 45–46.Google Scholar

49. Vives, , De Tradendis, p. 121.Google Scholar

50. Aristotle, , Politics, Bk. 7, XV and Bk. 8, III.Google Scholar

51. Institucion of a Gentleman, 10th ch., n. pag. Google Scholar

52. Primaudaye, , p. 155; Twyne, Thomas, The Schoolemaster … (London, 1576), Fourth Book, n. pag.Google Scholar

53. Ascham, , Toxophilus, p. 52.Google Scholar

54. See, for example, Northbrooke, p. 52; Barclay, p. 54; and Crowley, Robert, The Voyce of the laste trumpet … (London, 1550; rpt. EETS Extra Series, No. 15, London, 1872), p. 73.Google Scholar

55. Guazzo, V. 1, 245; Fiston, William, The Schoole of good Manners (London, 1609), 8th ch., n. pag.Google Scholar

56. Taffin, P. 250; and Vives, Juan Luis, Tudor School-Boy Life … (1538; rpt. trans. Watson, Foster, London, 1970), p. 209. Similarly, Fiston advised: “… be careful to goe home, or about thy appointed busines in due season” (8th ch., n. pag.).Google Scholar

57. Crowley, , p. 73. Patrick Collinson in his analysis, The Elizabethan Puritan Movement (Berkeley, 1967) identified Crowley as a preacher-printer who emerged as one of the “militant” dissenters in the 1560s. Collinson labeled Crowley's Briefe discourse against the outwarde apparell as “the earliest puritan manifesto.” (pp. 74–77).Google Scholar