DONE INTO MODERN ENGLISH FROM
DR. FURNIVALL’S TEXTS BY
EDITH RICKERT
NEW YORK
PRIVATELY PRINTED
CHRISTMAS 1913
DEDICATED TO
E. T. F.
AND
E. T. F.
A Matter of Manners
IN this present day, when chivalry has achieved at last its perfect bloom, it is hard to realize that but a scant four centuries ago the children of even the very best families in England had to be taught their table manners.
Today the graces of deportment come by nature to our youth; and the generation that has produced the immortal Rollo can not comprehend the rude manners of the “bela babee,” or beautiful well-born boy of Queen Elizabeth’s time.
O, tempora! O, mores! How the times change and manners multiply! But throughout the centuries—on the lengthening road of which we shall plant another milestone presently with feasting and merry-making—good manners and bad have ever gone hand in hand. And ever has he of the mind conscious of virtue looked smugly down on the artless and indifferent vulgarian.