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It was determined to haue beene acted, By gentlemen and schollers too
It isn't clear to me that the gentlemen and schollers are necessarily the same people in this citation.
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It isn't clear to me that the gentlemen and schollers are necessarily the same people in this citation.Quite true, Faldage. But it is a worthy bit of research, nonetheless, wouldn't you agree, because it suggests that scholars were esteemed as highly as gentlemen in the 1590s, tho I grant it may have been a truly exceptional thing back then to find one and the other embodied in the same individual. Which raises another question, perhaps. Back then, in the 1590s, the only scholars may have been monks. If so, were scholars esteemed for their scholarship, or for their scholarly pursuits in the livery of the church? What we need to know is when it became honourable [or fashionable] for a gentleman to pursue studies in the manner of a scholar, rather than simply idle his time away with drinking, and wenching and running with the hounds, or hounding poachers. I hazard a guess that this day emerged during the reign of Elizabeth I [at least in England], and that, if any single date could be fixed for its inauguration, it would be the day when Lord Francis Bacon, "the father of modern science", published his pivotal work* displaying a ship seabound at the Pillars of Hercules** accompanied by the legend "Plus ultra"***. * "Novum Organum", 1620 [during the reign of James I] http://fly.hiwaay.net/%7Epaul/bacon/organum/preface.html** "Pillars of Hercules" is the ancient name given to the promontories that flank the entrance to the Straits of Gibraltar. [According to ancient tradition, these Pillars marked the end of the world.] *** The Masonic term "Plus Ultra" ("more beyond") appears on a banner between two pillars (representing Masonry) in an emblem from Whitney's Choice of Emblems (1586). (Bacon is said to have published this book.) http://www.sirbacon.org/links/whitneyemblem.htmlFor the frontispiece itself, see: http://www.crs4.it/Ars/arshtml/conclusion1.htmlThe Latin quotation at the foot of the waves, taken from the Book of Daniel, reads: "Many will pass through and knowledge will be increased."
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necessarily the same people
True, but the two terms' conjunction in the original saying under discusion preserves this separate identity as well... when you say to someone that they are a scholar and a gentleman, the layers of irony available surely stem from just this implication ~ that many are one but not the other! :)
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that many are one but not the other! :)
Many are culled before any are called, one or the other. :)
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that many are one but not the other! :)
True enough, Maverick, there are scoundrels among scholars just are in the general population. A gentleman, on the other hand, is understood to have some intellect, although not necessarily an abundance of it.
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that many are one but not the other! :)
True enough, Maverick. There are scoundrels among scholars just as there are in the general population. A gentleman, on the other hand, is understood to have some intellect, although not necessarily an abundance of it.
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quoting again from the same tome (blatant crossthread):
..Charles II had kicked out the Puritan scholars who had nested there [Trinity College] under Wilkens and replaced 'em with Cavaliers who could be best described as gentleman-scholars--in that order.
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A gentleman, on the other hand, is understood to have some intellect, although not necessarily an abundance of it.
e.g. Bertie Wooster?
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e.g. Bertie Wooster?
Yeah, like Bertie Wooster. :)
Extract from "Jeeves and Wooster" - Summary:
"Bertie Wooster (Hugh Laurie) is a 'young gentleman' of limited intellect who has a tendency to get into 'scrapes'.
His manservant, Jeeves (Stephen Fry), on the other hand, is a man of 'considerable brain' who can usually be relied on to come up with a way of getting Bertie out of trouble or rescuing him from the clutches of some 'unsuitable' female or other."
http://www.phill.co.uk/comedy/jeeves/
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I have the entire Fry and Laurie series of Jeeves and Wooster episodes on DVD and would often prefer to watch one of those than anything else on my one-hundred-channel broadcast television set.
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