Peacham S Compleat Gentleman 1634

Excerpt from Peacham's Compleat Gentleman, 1634: With an Introduction Surrey and Wyatt would have found themselves as little at home as did Raleigh. The bitterness of political and religious strife shattered the unity of an ideal which had been the proudest ornament of the previous age; there were henceforth two standards by which the gentleman was measured, and Cavalier and Puritan divided the suffrages of society. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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Excerpt from Peacham's Compleat Gentleman, 1634: With an Introduction by G. S. Gordon Peacham's Compleat Gentleman is a record of the manners, education, and way of thinking of the better sort of Cavalier gentry before the Civil wars. It is also part of that great Literature of Courtesy which still awaits the discerning pen of some magnanimous and sympathetic historian. The attempt to define the gentleman is as old as the institution of nobility itself; and every age, since literature began, has claimed the right to make its own definition. For the gentleman is always the protege of the age whose incense he breathes; and he has his fashions and his periods like everything else which society creates. Achilles listening to the Centaur or Ulysses with Minerva at his elbow, the young Academicians of Athens, the orators of Cicero and Quintilian, are, if we look rightly, as much a part of the varied and fascinating history of the gentleman as the Courtier of Castiglione and the 'Compleat Gentleman' of Peacham, as Chesterfield's man of fashion and the beaus of the Georges. It is an apt device, approved by Peacham, which represents the prince with a book in one hand and a sword in the other. With the latter we are not concerned; but just what this book may be, whether Plato's Republic or the Bible, Cicero's Offices or Amadis de Gau, matters everything. The fact that we preferred the Offices to the Republic had a great deal to do with the character of the later Renaissance in England. The genius of Platonism, which had inspired the finest products of Elizabethan poetry, went, as it had come, by the poets. With it went also the hey-day of the Renaissance gentleman, the Courtier, who for the next half-century, as the Cavalier, had to struggle for his very existence, and perished in his triumph at the Restoration. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 edition. Excerpt: ...will compare with that of the New-bridge at Paris, or thofe others at Florence and Madrid, though made by Sueur his Mafter, Iohx de Bolonia that rare worke-man, who not long fince lived at Florence. At Yorke-houfe alfo, the Galleries and Roomes are ennobled with the pofleflion of thofe Romane Heads, and Statues, which lately belonged to Sir Peter Paul Rubons Knight, that exquifit Painter of Antwerp: and the Garden will bee renowned fo long as lohn de Bologna's Cain and Abel ftand erected there, a peece of wondrous Art and Workemanfhip. The King ofSpaine gave it his Majeftie at his being there, who beftowed it on the late Duke of Buckingham. And thus have we of late yeeres a good fample of this firft fort of Antiquities accom parried with fome novelties, which neverthelefle can not but fall fhort of thofe in other Countries, where the love and ftudy of them is farre ancienter, and the meanes to come by them eafier. It is not enough for an ingenuous Gentleman to behold thefe with a vulgar eye: but he muft be able to diftin-guifh them, and tell who and what they be. To doe this, there be foure parts: Firft, by generall learning in Hif-tory and Poetry. Whereby we are taught to know lupiter by his thunder-bolt, Mars by his armour, Neptune by his Trident, Apollo by his harpe, Mercury by his winges on his cap and feet, or by his Caduceus; Ceres by a handfull of corne, Flora by her flowers, Bacchus by his Vine-leaves, Pomona by her Apples, Hercules by his club or Lyons skin, Hercules infans by his grafping of Snakes. Comedy by a vizard in her hand, Diana by a crefcent, Pallas by her helmet and fpeare, and fo generally of moft of the Deities. Some mortals alfo are knowne by their cognifances, as Laocoon by his Snakes flinging him to death, ..